Mommy's Best responds to new Dash gripes with new shmup Game Type
When Serious Sam: Double D and Weapon of Choice developer Mommy's Best Games saw the latest Xbox 360 Dashboard, a few concerns came to mind. Rather than posting an analytical blog post, MBG spent seven days creating a playable commentary -- with parkour kick laser-beam attacks.
Its newest title, Game Type, pokes fun at the new Dashboard configuration by hiding the actual game in a mock Dashboard interface, which MBG founder Nathan Fouts told Joystiq was created to educate players on how to find the "Game Type" tile that served as inspiration for his game on the Xbox 360 Dashboard. It all started with some existing placeholder art under the Games Marketplace -- a tile that has an image of a girl in a green hoodie mid-jump, with some light graffiti in the background.
Next, MBG decided to incorporate its own mock Dashboard mechanic into Game Type as a commentary on the new Xbox 360 Dashboard's focus on streaming video. "In the new Xbox dashboard, the TV and Video tabs are now ahead of the Games tab. Not to mention Social is before Games as well. This also bothered me, the TV marketing being smooshed in between the Games and Home." Only after discovering the Game Type tile can players dive into the bulk of the game: a bullet hell shoot-em-up.
Players control Hoodie Girl as she shoots and parkour kicks giant enemy cats, crabs and SUVs for cash; the speed progressively picks up the longer she lives. Game Type is 80 MS Points ($1), supports local multiplayer for up to two players and features a mock-Dash tile advertising Fat Guy and Pretty Girl, a fake TV show that is quite the sick burn on Kevin James.
And even though Fouts isn't happy with some aspects of the new Dashboard, he notes that he's still a fan. "I think the search ability is great, and the Recommended tab for other games is a welcome addition. But the coming invasion of TV, the deluge of ads and general scattered layout of the dashboard, including the ill-named Game Type tile, angered me enough to make this game. We made it in about 7 days, trying to get it out as fast as possible in order to stay relevant in people's minds with the release of the dashboard."
Game Type is currently available for download on Xbox Live for 80 MS Points ($1).
