Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I have a Crush.
Bear with me, I'm excited.
For all of Sega's grievous crimes against mankind since their inception as a software-only company, they still manage to get lucky and publish the odd gem once in a while. Crush, announced today and developed by Kuju (Reign of Fire, Battalion Wars, Weird Gory Bobblehead Game) intrigues me in such a way usually reserved for Turduckens and the golden ratio. When it comes down to it my favorite genre is puzzle games, by a landslide - it's just not something I usually bore people with. Crush is a puzzle/platformer of sorts (think Intelligent Qube meets the aesthetic of Psychonauts), whose primary game mechanic involves transforming the world around you back and forth from 2D to 3D.
I'll let Scott Steinberg, Sega's head mouthpiece, describe it to you:
"The spatial concept of the crushing mechanic is something truly unique that encourages users to think back and forth between 3D and 2D objects and environments to engage different parts of their brain, and see beyond what is literally in front them."
Now have a look:
Pretty fantastic, right? Right now it's only for the PSP, so I won't be able to play it until I rob Brenda...I mean, not rob Brendan. Definitely not robbing Brendan. Now that we're done talking about robbing Brendan, I can tell you that this is exactly the type of thing I'm expecting from the Wii. Imagine the same game, where the Wiimote controls your character movements and the nunchuck shifts the world between dimensional planes as you tilt it in your hand. PSP to Wii ports aren't something I should be actively encouraging, I know, I'm just saying this is exactly the kind of out of the box thinking we need on a system that is built on that philosophy. Someone suggested on GAF long ago that Mario Galaxy should involve manipulating the world around Mario instead of the character himself; I thought that was a brilliant concept, and while I'm excited for the actual game I fear it will ultimately do no more than prove platformers can be done pitch perfect on the Wii.
I am indeed excited about Super Paper Mario now that we know it's coming to the system in April, but that still doesn't seem half as innovative as this - when you're attached firmly to an existing property, you can only stray so far from the initial concept. Crush is a bit more bland visually, but had my mind reeling with possibilities by the end of the trailer. Kuju aren't really known for any sort of consistency (outside of producing three equally horrendous PS2 games with the word "fire" in the title), but this immediately excites me about their future.
See how that works, everyone in the industry? Small team, small budget (I would sensibly imagine), one very big idea - and I'm looking forward to it more than toast tomorrow.
For all of Sega's grievous crimes against mankind since their inception as a software-only company, they still manage to get lucky and publish the odd gem once in a while. Crush, announced today and developed by Kuju (Reign of Fire, Battalion Wars, Weird Gory Bobblehead Game) intrigues me in such a way usually reserved for Turduckens and the golden ratio. When it comes down to it my favorite genre is puzzle games, by a landslide - it's just not something I usually bore people with. Crush is a puzzle/platformer of sorts (think Intelligent Qube meets the aesthetic of Psychonauts), whose primary game mechanic involves transforming the world around you back and forth from 2D to 3D.
I'll let Scott Steinberg, Sega's head mouthpiece, describe it to you:
"The spatial concept of the crushing mechanic is something truly unique that encourages users to think back and forth between 3D and 2D objects and environments to engage different parts of their brain, and see beyond what is literally in front them."
Now have a look:
Pretty fantastic, right? Right now it's only for the PSP, so I won't be able to play it until I rob Brenda...I mean, not rob Brendan. Definitely not robbing Brendan. Now that we're done talking about robbing Brendan, I can tell you that this is exactly the type of thing I'm expecting from the Wii. Imagine the same game, where the Wiimote controls your character movements and the nunchuck shifts the world between dimensional planes as you tilt it in your hand. PSP to Wii ports aren't something I should be actively encouraging, I know, I'm just saying this is exactly the kind of out of the box thinking we need on a system that is built on that philosophy. Someone suggested on GAF long ago that Mario Galaxy should involve manipulating the world around Mario instead of the character himself; I thought that was a brilliant concept, and while I'm excited for the actual game I fear it will ultimately do no more than prove platformers can be done pitch perfect on the Wii.
I am indeed excited about Super Paper Mario now that we know it's coming to the system in April, but that still doesn't seem half as innovative as this - when you're attached firmly to an existing property, you can only stray so far from the initial concept. Crush is a bit more bland visually, but had my mind reeling with possibilities by the end of the trailer. Kuju aren't really known for any sort of consistency (outside of producing three equally horrendous PS2 games with the word "fire" in the title), but this immediately excites me about their future.
See how that works, everyone in the industry? Small team, small budget (I would sensibly imagine), one very big idea - and I'm looking forward to it more than toast tomorrow.
// posted by Nick @ 11:44 PM 
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