COMIC CON 09: Southpeak Games

Scribbled on February 12th, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
Filed in Action, Game Videos, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, Press Release, Previews, Puzzle, Release Date(s), Shooter, Sony PSP, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3

Last year, Southpeak Games had the surprise of the show, Roogoo. It was a delightful puzzle game based on the simple system of fitting blocks through shapes. What would Southpeak do this year? We look at Roogoo: Twisted Towers, Roogoo: Attack, X-Blades, Velvet Assassin, and Section 8.

They have built on the critical success of Roogoo and developed two new games for the burgeoning IP for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, Roogoo: Twisted Towers and Roogoo: Attack. Both take advantage of their respective platforms. Twisted Towers uses the functionality of the Wii remote in that now, you use it to capture blocks when the player fails to put blocks through a hole, as they bounce off. The Wiimote also is used to capture butterflies and bats, who steal blocks. You use it to recover the stolen blocks as well. The game features a co-op mode in which a second player may control the net, freeing the other player to concentrate on trying to get the falling blocks home. The game also features Boss Battles and minigame interludes – such as a Sonic tube-like sequence – to break up the monotony. In addition, the levels themselves feature wildly varying settings – some require the player to go backwards, while others have the blocks having to dodge new obstacles, such as giant stone mouths on the side of a cliff. Roogoo: Attack is the DS version, and it differs in that it expands on the basic gameplay in that you no longer only have falling blocks. You now have to, say, have a falling combo of nest-egg-chicken or build a hamburger, and the match must land on an appropriate textured setting. This removes the handicap of just worrying about color or shape – the player must use more focus and reflexes. Both games successfully expand on the original’s premise.

Southpeak also showed off a few more convention, action-oriented titles. X-Blades is a Devil May Cry-style actioner by Gaijin Entertainment; its twist on the genre is the heavy use of magic spells to attack the hordes of enemies on the screen. It will be released on a bevy of platforms, including the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Southpeak’s biggest risk is Velvet Assassin, a third person sneaker for PC and the Xbox 360, developed by Replay Studios, which is sort of like Thief: Deadly Shadows via Hitman: Codename 47, set in World War II. You play as Violette Summer, a British secret agent who is inspired by the real-life Brit spy Violette Szabo. The game begins with Summer on her deathbed, remembering her past; this lends the game a dreamlike quality that is reflected by the colors and textures which gives a sense of hyperreality; one level is set on an Autumn countryside, and the landscape is heavily filled with yellows and browns. When sneaking up on an enemy, the screen glows with a colored hue; when Violette is hidden in darkness, a purplish glow surrounds her (hence the title of the game). The game is a true sneaker in that Violette is not a superwoman. Characters can only take one or two gunshots or they die, for instance. Also like Thief, the game gives itself character by including letters to read and treasures to find. Hopefully, the game will sate the desires of Thief fans for a true sneaker in which the best course of action is hiding and assassination, not frontal assaults.

[Note: SouthPeak partnered with world-famous animation artist Peter Chung to create all-new, original work based on Velvet Assassin. Chung is best known as the creator and director of Aeon Flux, and has worked on a number of animation projects, including The Animatrix and The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. The 15+ page digital graphic novel will be available as an exclusive, limited-quantity bonus item to those who purchase the game at GameStop. The graphic novel focuses on Violette’s early years and tells the story of how she became an undercover part of the war effort.]

The one game that might interest gamers most was only a looping reel, but Timegate Studios’ Section 8 will make any PlanetSide and Battlefield fan fan drool – a futuristic sci-fi battlefield first-person shooter that was announced by Gamecock way back in 2005 and acquired by Southpeak in the purchase of the publisher. The long development cycle has bourne fruit in that the game is beautiful. The title has a few hooks to it: For one, the players can modify the battlefield on the fly. When killed, a player can airdrop to any safe place on the battlefield, similiar to the feature in the Pacific-based Medal of Honor title. Finally, the game will feature crossplatform play between the PC and 360; it’ll be interesting to see if it can succeed where Shadowrun failed in the box office.

All of the titles are due at some point in 2009 – let’s see if it’s a good one for Southpeak.

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