New Deadliest Warrior and Ugly Americans titles coming to XBLA and PSN under 345 Games
Emboldened by the success of last year's anachronistic fighter Deadliest Warrior: The Game (which has sold over 400,000 downloads to date across XBLA and PSN), MTV Networks Entertainment has announced the opening of a new development studio called 345 Games. We spoke with Dan Yang and Prithvi Virasinghe from the newly incorporated studio about its plans to create game adaptations of Spike TV and Comedy Central programming. They revealed that they're starting with one distinct project from each network: Deadliest Warrior: Legends and Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon.
The first, a follow-up to last year's Deadliest title, will feature all new fighters pulled from across the fullness of time, and more than twice as many arenas as the series' first installment. Each warrior type will be represented by titular legends such as William Wallace or Shaka Zulu, who can lead their armies in the new "Generals" campaign mode. Skirmishes between factions in this mode are carried out using the same battle simulator used in the show, and players can affect their troops with certain "X-Factors," such as training exercises, or unique General strategies.
Of course, the main focus of the game will remain expedient one-on-one battles -- which, fortunately, will feature a more precise projectile system, hopefully abating the dreaded one-hit Viking spear-to-face maneuver. The title will be developed by Pipeworks Software once again, with 345 Games providing creative leadership and performing publishing duties. It's due out for a July release on PSN and XBLA, and will cost $10.
The second, Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, is a Backbone-developed four-player twin-stick shooter based on the Comedy Central program of the same name. It will feature a script penned by the writers of the show, art by the illustrators of the show, vocal talents of the show's actors and one episode's worth of video content in the form of cutscenes. At the very least, we can assume this particular adaptation will be rich with authenticity.
The game will feature Castle Crashers-esque co-op gameplay, and allows players to customize characters from the show with various RPG elements, ranging from weapons to "demon babies," who serve as collectible familiars for the player. That's ... a lot to take in -- luckily, we've got a while to digest that information: Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon is due out for an August release on XBLA and PSN for $10.
