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XBLA in Brief: Fusion Genesis
There is but one release on Xbox Live Arcade this week, and that is Fusion Genesis, a surprisingly complex 2D space combat game. There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.
The 'Klobb' returns in ex-Rare staff's Fusion: Genesis
Among the throngs of New York Comic Con attendees swarming Microsoft's booth, I managed to snag a few moments with Starfire Studios' first title, an ambitious XBLA space shooter with the utterly forgettable title "Fusion: Genesis." As most of the world had just heard of Starfire via an utterly forgettable press release announcing its first game, I asked art director Philip Dunne a bit more about his small company's history. "Starfire is a brand new company, we're all ex-Rare guys," Dunne explained, piquing my interest. About two years ago, he and three others left Rare to form their own studio and work on an MMO. "This is our first game. As soon as we left Rare we knew we wanted to make some sort of MMO, and we're trying to kind of squeeze it all in here onto this," he added, referring to Fusion: Genesis. What his team has isn't quite an MMO, but it does feature some interesting concepts from that world. For instance, after "roughly 10 to 15 hours" of single-player content, Fusion opens up into a co-op focused 8-player raid, which Dunne repeatedly referred to as "endgame content." In so many words, that content can be played offline with NPCs, though it'll be significantly more difficult than with other high-level human players. The project has been a labor of love for a team of guys who worked on such storied titles as Nintendo 64's console FPS gems GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, not to mention hilarious cult classics like Killer Instinct. During my demo of Fusion: Genesis, I even spotted a clever nod to veteran game developer and weak weapon namesake Ken Lobb (or "Klobb"), as seen above. About that reference, Dunne said "Ken goes way back with us, so he'd probably be quite happy," and, with Lobb at Microsoft (as creative director of Microsoft Studios), he's been "our backer for this [project], really." Thankfully, unlike its N64 counterpart, Fusion's Klobb is actually useful, and even comes in several strength levels. Lobb will have a chance to try it for himself, as will the rest of us, rather soon, as Fusion's penciled in for a winter 2011 launch.
Fusion: Genesis is an XBLA twin-stick MMO from ex-Rare devs
Starfire Studios is a new outfit made up of four ex-Rare staffers, who will launch their first title, Fusion: Genesis, on XBLA this year. Gamasutra notes that the team had all previously worked at the Viva Pinata developer for over 10 years. The Fusion: Genesis website is actually quite robust, with lots of details on the twin-stick space shooter with MMORPG elements. The game features single-player, co-op missions and PVP. The title popped up in May as part of random trademark documents, which also included Fusion: Sentient, a Windows Phone 7 version of the game that will link with Genesis, but is being developed at a different studio.
Microsoft trademarks three 'Fusion' titles
"Fusion: Genesis" was among the mysterious Xbox games rated in Australia and Brazil, the latter country specifying it as an XBLA title. A series of US trademarks found by Zunited reveals that whatever Fusion: Genesis is, it's probably part of a series. In addition to trademarking "Fusion Genesis" (serial number 85277651, searchable here), Microsoft has filed trademarks for "Fusion Vault" (number 85277645) and "Fusion Sentient" (number 85277650), all specified as " Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game." The three trademarks point either to some new "Fusion" series of XBLA games, or a single "Fusion" game with three potential titles that Microsoft had yet to decide on.
'Kinect Me,' 'Crimson Alliance' among new Microsoft games rated
A trio of game ratings appeared on the Australian Classification website today, perhaps spoiling some of the titles Microsoft will announce just around the corner at E3. New entries for "Crimson Alliance," "Fusion: Genesis" and "Kinect Me" all list Microsoft as publisher and run the gamut from Mature-rated to PG to G. Only the Crimson Alliance page notes a developer, Certain Affinity, which is corroborated by the game's Brazilian classification. Likewise a rating for Fusion: Genesis has also shown up in Brazil, where both titles are listed for Xbox Live Arcade. Kinect Me remains the most mysterious of the mystery titles and could perhaps feature some connection to the kinect.me promotional site (pictured above) that's been live since last summer. A source tells Siliconera to expect an E3 announcement of "Kinect Fun Lab," which the site surmises could be a working title for Kinect Me -- both names are at least sufficiently generic-sounding to be one and the same game. Additionally, Brazil has classified two more Xbox Live Arcade titles, Fruit Ninja Kinect and Hole in the Wall (from Ludia), supporting previous ratings of the pair of pending releases.
