Grasshopper Manufacture

There’s plenty of new releases to get excited about today so let’s dive right in. First up is Sine Mora EX from Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality. Sine Mora EX brings the …
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Starting today Xbox Live Gold members can capitalize on an exclusive price cut for the twisted platforming adventure Black Knight Sword. The sale runs for one week on Xbox Live …
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The development studio helmed by Goichi “Suda51” Suda, Grasshopper Manufacture, has been acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment, a Japanese company primarily known for online game services and the Ragnarok series. Fans …
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Black Knight Sword was co-developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality and published by Reverb Publishing. It was released on December 12, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Moments before the curtain is pulled, it’s clear Black Knight Sword is something unique. Bright stage lights pour over rippled maroon as patrons titter in anticipation. Suddenly, an alarm bell rings out. Silhouettes quickly rise to shuffle away from the stage. The production’s now vacant audience is an appropriate analog for what’s to come; a unique experience targeted at no one in particular.

Black Knight Sword has been touted as many things: retro platforming homage, surreal fairy tale, dark twisted mystery. All this it achieves, helmed by Goichi “Suda 51” Suda, whose penchant for the bizarre oozes through the grim aesthetic. The black knight, assuming the role after coming into contact with the sword spirit, must battle through a punishing gauntlet of horrors, each chapter unfolding like a storybook parable — pushing along a loose narrative that resonates with deeper significance.

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Cherry Pop Games recently contacted us about our 12 Days of XBLA promotion and we were more than happy to add a few Pool Nation codes to our list …
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Two new titles land on Xbox Live Arcade today. Black Knight Sword marks a second dip into XBLA waters for co-developers Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality since their release of Sine …
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Opening night for Suda 51’s newest bloody adventure Black Knight Sword is next week, December 12 on Xbox Live Arcade. This theatrical hack-and-slasher comes from Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality, the same star-crossed teams from Japan and Hungary that brought us Sine Mora earlier this year. We saw the game earlier this year at PAX East, where we noticed a striking similarity to a certain other over-dramatized villain. The reverent nods continue in the press release they sent earlier today:

Bring out yer dead! Bring our yer dead! And, no, it won’t cost ninepence because The Black Knight from Black Knight Sword is here to rid the world of treacherous evil for the thrill of killing. The wicked, bad, naughty, villainous, duplicitous, and super evil Dark Princess must pay the penalty! So never fear, The Black Knight will make his grand debut in Black Knight Sword on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft Wednesday, December 12. Even without arms or legs, The Black Knight will partake in an adventure through a strange spin on a classic fairytale to defeat the wicked creatures of the night.
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Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture have already shown the world that a developer in Hungary can work together with a studio in Japan to deliver a fantastic shoot ’em up with Sine Mora. Now they’re fast on their way to proving it was no fluke as the duo enter what Digital Reality Director of Publishing Balázs Horváth says are the final few months of development work on Black Knight Sword before it launches this summer. It likely won’t be the last time they team up, either. When asked if the two would work together on a game again in the future, Horváth smiled and said only: “Yes.”

As for Black Knight Sword, it’s something very different from their last collaborative work. The studios have left the bright blue skies behind and turned their attention to a dark and dreary fantasy setting. It’s the result of Grasshopper’s unique approach to story conceptualization being funneled through the creative minds over at Digital Reality. What that amounts to is an opening sequence with a man — a man hanging by his neck. His suicide attempt doesn’t quite come to fruition, however. Instead he ends up grabbing the hilt of a mysterious sword that transforms this sad and mysterious soul into the equally mysterious Black Knight.

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Diabolical Pitch was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Microsoft. It was released on April 4, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

When the gaming world learned that Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture were developing a game that would utilize Kinect, taste buds quickly started to tingle. Grasshopper is known as one of the most creative and stylish developers out there, so the prospect of their minds working with the new technology had many buzzing with anticipation. The final product, Diabolical Pitch, is as wild and fantastic as everyone had hoped. In Diabolical Pitch, you take on the role of a professional baseball pitcher who is struck down with injury at the peak of his career. Shortly after this tragic turn of events, our protagonist decides to visit a theme park. It is here that our hero is greeted by a cow in a shirt and tie who enables our hero to throw again. This gift however, comes with a price. McMillan must make his way through this dark and twisted carnival, which is filled with horrors. Mostly just life sized dolls that resemble strange animal-human hybrids. Armed only with his pitching arm, McMillan must take it to this marionette army of zoo animals if he ever wants to return to Hall of Fame form. This is where our strange adventure begins.

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Do you have a favourite sport? If it’s baseball or if it’s pinball (it’s definitely a sport), then look no further than today’s XBLA Wednesday. First up, Diabolical Pitch …
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