About Todd Schlickbernd

Many young players will see Guardian Heroes and have no idea it’s actually a port from the Sega Saturn. This anime-styled brawler supports three 2D planes rather than a fully traversable 3D plane, tons of characters to play and unlock, a branching story arc with several different endings and encounters which, if opted out of to go down a different path, will never be experienced. This fast-paced HD-ified port brings some old mechanics into the present. The good news? It doesn’t feel a bit dated.

The controls are fairly intuitive, with X standing in for light attacks, Y for heavy, and A for a quick dodge back. B is reserved for special abilities—in the case of our Mage demo, that was magic. Those straightforward controls were balanced by a unique addition: the left bumper and left trigger, which jump planes toward and away from the player. Navigating planes takes a little getting used to, but it soon becomes second nature. (Though the adjustment period is a little more extensive when you’re trying to do this in the heat of combat.

In the interest of time, we skipped through the dialogue of the story—we were in a bit of a rush to see the meat of the gameplay. The story was told in pretty typical old-school fashion though: portraits of the characters would pop up on the screen and the camera would shift to them. It certainly feels very retro; it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but gamers that have gotten used to rich cinematics and other “modern” accoutrements may feel a bit estranged.

Read More

Long gone are the days of the original Dungeons & Dragons, long gone are the arcade antics of Gauntlet, but verily they are not forgotten! Crimson Alliance brings us back to the old days of having only a fighter, a wizard and a rogue (well, an assassin, but close enough!), an isometric camera, and four buddies ripping up baddies. However, Certain Affinity knows what assumptions come with that isometric camera and that fantasy theme and strives to take the gameplay above and beyond the genre’s conventions. In our interview with Mike McCarthy, game designer for Crimson Alliance, he called their game “The thinking man’s pick-up-and-play hack ‘n’ slash”—and we would most definitely agree.

Crimson Alliance is very heavy on the action and very focused on providing a balanced experience for all three characters. Better still, gameplay doesn’t require much setup time so players can get straight to the action. A wizard, fighter and assassin will be playable in the full game, but the Comic Con demo only had the wizard and fighter; we chose the wizard to test how well he would do solo. As it turned out, the wizard felt incredibly capable: very offensive and full of awesome multitasking greatness rather than simply a robed supporter.

Read More

Two friends are on an adventure, one finds a gem and one finds a hat. But Hatty wants the gem, so his unnamed friend gives it to him and Hatty starts to cry. Everyone wonders why. The confusion is interrupted by giant cat guards that arrive to send the unnamed friend to prison. Oh, and we’re in a theater. On an island. That’s the setup for Behemoth’s upcoming game, Battleblock Theater.

Battleblock Theater will be a 2D platform puzzle action game, otherwise known as a plactuzzleformer, featuring four player couch and online co-op as well as an online arena for adversarial play. Players can also play solo, but the game is definitely intended as a co-op experience. Levels scale to fit the amount of players to ensure that the difficulty is always appropriate as you advance the story. On the multiplayer side, there will be plenty of different gametypes, ranging from the casual to the hardcore (five have been announced and there are more to come).

Read More

Every promotion has an end, every Summer of Arcade a final game in the lineup, and this year’s anchor is Toy Soldiers: Cold War. Toy Soldiers: Cold War is a sequel to Toy soldiers, a real time strategy game where players place down a variety of towers to defend a base from waves of enemy soldiers and armor. However, as a tower defense game, Toy Soldiers goes above and beyond the call of duty allowing players not only to place towers, but to use them in first-person. They also jump into land and air vehicles to really get a feel for the battlefield.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War brings with it tons of gameplay changes, improvements and expansions. Of course, the game has the typical machine guns, mortars and anti-air, but new to the game are anti-tank and makeshift weapons.

Read More

One part Metroid, one part Limbo, one part 60 frames per second and everything dark and mysterious… that’s what makes Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (henceforth ITSP), fourth in the lineup for this year’s Summer of Arcade promotion. Until Comic Con it was assumed that ITSP was to be a single-player-only experience, one that earned “Best of Show” at E3 from us here at XBLAFans for its bold visuals, inquisitive gameplay and multiple approaches to progressing through levels. But the single-player-only assumption was just that: an assumption. ITSP will feature a four-player cooperative (couch, online and any combination of the two) game type called Lantern Run.

Read More

Update: The trading system does not actually involve ripping off faces of any sort. The Behemoth has clarified that rather there is a trading post in-game where players can view their other players’ inventories and select what they want and the other player can do the same.

The Behemoth, developers behind XBLA sensation Castle Crashers and upcoming title Battleblock Theater, were kind of enough to meet with me at San Diego Comic Con. During that fantastic interview with Dan Paladin he revealed and explained Battleblock Theater’s unlock and trading system. (Link to interview forthcoming)

Fans and players of Castle Crashers will recall the massive frogelope (antler laden frog, I don’t know) wherein all the weaponry was stored was sometimes more trophy case than armory as players without the unlocked weapons could not access them. To circumvent that players would take the weapons into levels, swap them for easy to find weapons and allow newer players to pickup the rarer weapons they didn’t have. Dan says Behemoth got get rid of all that convolution and put in a full-fledged trading system into Battleblock Theater. Read More

It’s been three weeks since Ronimo Games released details on their first Awesomenaut mercenary, Froggy G. Well the jig is up, because there’s a new sheriff in town: Sheriff …
Read More

Joe Danger: Special Edition has an awesome new mechanic in it called pro medals. Pro medals require players to acquire all the stars in a level in one run; …
Read More

Another triple release this week with another three  completely different games. On the retro-revamped side we’ve got Boulder Dash XL, XBLA revamp of the old Boulder Dash games featuring …
Read More

Awesomenauts, 2D MOBA-styled platformer from Ronimo Games, has finally announced the details on the first of their six character roster, Froggy G. Froggy G’s tale tells of a checkered past:

The amphibious B.I.G., also known as Nate Frogg or Froggy G, comes straight out of the marsh pond ghetto’s of planet Ribit IV. Growing up in the baddest part of town, struggle and incarceration surrounded Froggy from an early age. Taking part in his first swim-by shoot out as a tadpole, Froggy seemed destined for a life of crime and prison. After a bloody gang war with the neighboring Toad-unit posse ended in a 5 year jail sentence, Froggy G vowed to end his gangsta ways. Instead, Froggy G started earning his keep as a beatboxing streetdancer and rapper, hoping to be picked up by a major record label. Unfortunately, his tracks, titled “Pond Pimpin'”, “Froggin’ Dirty” and “Motherfrogger Bounce!” didn’t earn him much. In order to make some money, and then make some mo’, Froggy G became a hired gun. Combining his shoot-out experiences with lethal watery dance-moves and beatboxing techniques, Froggy G now spins and dashes across intergalactic battlefields.

Each character in Awesomenauts has four moves that make them unique, as well as various upgrades allowing players to customize their playstyle. Froggy G’s moveset suggests he might be a “Carry”, or a character whose abilities make him valuable at the end of the game. His basics consist of a fish that shoots water bullets and a jump-pack he can charge, allowing for varying jump heights to get out of or into battles. Froggy G is also equipped with a Whirlwind (you’d think it’d be a whirlpool) ability which when activated damages all enemies around him for as long as the ability lasts, and a Dash ability which is omni-directional, damaging and stunning enemies caught in its watery wake. Some upgrades included in the reveal suggest both statistical and functional improvements, for instance the Hammer Pants give the Dash a “ground pound” feature when aimed into the ground, whereas the Mutant Worm Cartridges simply increase the firing rate on Froggy G’s fish-gun.

Anxious to see Froggy G in action? Check out the Awesomenauts Froggy G Spotlight after the jump and stay tuned to see the upcoming character reveals. If the site ordering is any indicator, perhaps Lonestar, the dynamite-hurling sheriff, will be next. Not sure what Awesomenauts is still? Check out our interview with co-founder of Ronimo Games, Jasper Koning, on the details of Awesomenauts. Read More