Nuclear Crap Dump

I haven't really updated in a while... Anyway, I am here today to tell you more about Double Fine's brand new game, "Costume Quest."

Now Costume Quest is basically the game we all thought of on Halloween, but no one ever made it. You transform into your costumes! It's an RPG, with adventure elements. You go door to door collecting candy, which is like the currency. At the door, there will either be a  'Trick' or 'Treat,' where a goblin or other monster will show up at the door, and you will go into battle with him, or a normal dude, who will give you some candy.

Now you're probably thinking, "Hey, this game sounds childish and boring, why would I want to play it?" Well, thank you for asking. First of all, it's Double Fine. When have they let us down before? But the main reason, the RPG combat. When you run into a  monster, you will go into a battle with them. It is what you would expect in a battle, turn by turn, special moves, all that stuff. Your special attack (Missile Barrage, in this picture) will power up as you fight battles. so you have to decide whether you will wait for an emergency, a boss, or just use it right away. It is pretty much a classic-style RPG, like Final Fantasy VI. At the end of every battle, you get items for healing, and experience, and somehow beat some candy out of your enemies, like over-sized piñatas. And like the Mario RPG series, there is a timing kind of thing, where you have to press a button before an enemy hit connects with you, to defend, and take less damage.

This game comes from Tasha Harris, one of the main programmers of their latest metal RPS, Brütal Legend. (Fun fact: She used to be a senior animator at Pixar!) She says "I'm inspired by a lot of games like Wind Waker, Animal Crossing, Katamari Damacy, I just kinda like that simple style." Well that sounds like good news for me, I loved all those games. Seeing what Tasha did in Brütal Legend, I hope this game doesn't fall below standards.

Tim Schafer has made games like this in the past, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, but never an RPG. This game also won't be available for retail. It comes on on the Xbox Live Acrade, and PlayStation Network around Groundhogs Day. Or at least before Valentines Day. That means it would make a nice present for a certain someone's birthday. (hint hint)

If you haven't heard the news, Double Fine plans to release several of these kinds of games (four to be specific, 2 retail, 2 downloadable) this year. We don't know any of the others yet, but Schafer split his crew into four different groups, each working on a different game. The groups are like this:

Lee Petty, the art director on Brütal Legend is making a game that's "sort of retro but also really new."

Nathan Marts, senior programmer for Brütal Legend is working on a game described as "quite cutting edge."

Brad Muir, who did a lot of the combat stuff in Brütal Legend, is doing a game that "focuses on gameplay mechanics."

And Tasha, of course, is working on Costume Quest!

Now here comes a surprise to me. While listening to an interview of sort on Gametrailers, I heard Tim Schafer say this about his game: "Also, the gameplay speaks back to some games we really liked when we were younger, adds some nostalgia to it. That old-school gameplay style, games like Earthbound."

 *jawdrop*

E-E-E-Earthbound?! The Earthbound I've been hacking for several months? The Earthbound Nintendo still hasn't released on the Virtual Console? Yes. That Earthbound. This line makes me respect Tim Schafer just so much more. Anyway, back onto Double Fine.

Double Fine has always made great games. This might not continue forever, so I need to enjoy it before it turns into something like the others.  You know that Microsoft wants a piece of any profit, Bungie's, Lionhead's, etc. Luckily, (or maybe unluckily) Double Fine hasn't had much luck in the way of money. (see the bottom paragraph) But that doesn't mean they are giving up! Unlike Rare, Double Fine still makes it's great ol' games.

Rare. How full she far she has fallen. Now they are working on a Wii Sports clone, Kinect Sports. When Nuts and Bolts came out, A lot of people gave up on Rare. I didn't though. Until now. I finally see that my favorite game company is dead. Rest in Peace, Rareware.

I hope this has been helpful, and maybe swayed your opinion about getting a DF game. You can check out their site here for updates, and comics Scott C. writes every week. I hope to see you soon, as Nuke Crap's 1st year in service quickly approaches.

Forten042, signing out.