Virtual Insanity

I haven't been able to keep abreast of the latest trends and news in the video game world but this trailer for Lollipop Chainsaw did manage to get my attention with its sheer absurdity. Frankly it looks like they crossed House of the Dead Overkill with No More Heroes and the plot was some bastardization of a new age Twilight rip off movie / novel. It comes from the game studio of Suda51 which of course did other ridiculous tongue and cheek games like No More Heroes and Killer 7 so of course the campy quirks were always going to factor into it.

But other than its blatant attempt to appease the general market by crossing zombie horror with gushy teen romance this actually does look like fun. Plus its from Suda51 and thankfully unlike No more Heroes its going to released on the PS3 and XBOX 360 and not on the Wii. Don't get me wrong, No more Heroes is a fine game, it just would've been a lot better if it was on the PS3 or the XBOX because the Wii hardware really does limit what people can do gameplay wise.

Moving on, look what has come out recently on the virtual console stores.



My favourite Simpsons game ever has been released on the XBLA and the PSN, the Simpsons Arcade game. Now I remember playing this religiously whenever I went down to the Arcade. I only ever had a few dollars on hand but I would always spend it on this game, I never made it past the 2 level but I still enjoyed this old school beat 'em up. Funnily enough the last thing I bought off the PSN was the Scott Pilgrim Game which is also another old school style beat 'em up game.

And to round off this little post, probably the best news I've read all week.



Double Fine Adventure Game Kickstarter

This is just great, a small independent gaming studio making a completely fan funded game. Not just any studio too, a studio with talented developers like Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert behind the wheel. Both responsible for great games like Monkey Island and Grim fandango. I love Grim Fandango, it's a great game. Hell I just love the whole adventure game genre. The last good one I bought was the recent Sam and Max title. (Mainly for the silly TF2 gear) but it was a fun game regardless. (I only had to use a walkthrough twice)

The whole project was originally slated just to cost around $400,000 which seems like a pretty steep budget but due to the over whelming response of the global gaming community the kickstarter account has over 1.7 Million Dollars in pledges. $400,000 probably would've got the game a small release on Steam with some decent voice talent and soundtrack but with the enormous fan contribution that will probably reach over 2.5 Million dollars once the kickstarter account closes in a month the game will probably now be able to see a much wider platform release, a better voice cast (if they choose to) and more production value on the soundtrack and game in general.

This kind of support is amazing and I'm expecting great things from the team at Double Fine. A multi-million dollar indie point and click adventure game that was helped made by the fans who funded it. It's pretty amazing and I really hope this game does well.

Would be nice to see a old school adventure game be nominated for Game of the Year for change.