PSN game Super Stardust HD’s developer Housemarque and renown videogame publisher Ubisoft recently unveiled next year’s XBLA game Outland at this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo [PAX].

For those who have not heard yet, this 2D action platformer is being described as

 a cross between retro platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of This World and the color-switching of shoot ’em up Ikaruga.

Outland will have players attempt to tilt the balanace of light and dark in a world that is facing its own demise. Basically, enemies will either be light-based or dark-based, and players must switch their hero’s polarity in order to “fight” his opponents. Light-based enemies cannot harm a light-based hero, and dark-based enemies cannot harm a dark-based hero. This problem goes for the hero as well. If the hero is light then he cannot damage light enemies, and if the hero is dark he cannot hurt dark enemies. Because of this condition, we can expect a ton of light/dark switching during battles.

There will be situations in which players must switch their hero’s polarity to survive enviromental conditions. For example, there might be an enviroment that is deadly to light, so the hero must be dark in order to pass the level. There will also be times where the player must rapidly switch polarities to avoid and move through a combination of dark and light bullets; the hero must switch to light-based to avoid light bullets and switch to dark to avoid dark bullets.

Polarity Switching

Housemarque and Ubisoft’s Outland will be a game like never before. With smooth animations and richly-detailed environments, this fast-pased polarity-based game is already capturing the attentions of gamers everywhere.

Outland will hit the Marketplace next year in 2011.