Cult classic 'Voodoo Vince' returns to Xbox next year

Voodoo Vince is coming back. The quirky platformer set in New Orleans and starring a voodoo doll who inflicts pain on himself to hurt enemies (because voodoo) started life on the first Xbox. But because it was an Xbox exclusive not many people played it despite how vocal its fans were. That was in 2003 when Microsoft was publishing just about anything in an effort to build a software library, regardless of how small the new console's install base was.

As it turns out, the game wouldn't work as a backwards compatible title on Xbox 360 due to "some convoluted custom code." So for the past few months, Kauzlaric has been tinkering away at Voodoo Vince: Remastered. As you might expect, when the game comes out in "early 2017" for Windows 10 and Xbox One, it'll run in 1080p at 60 FPS, support widescreen TVs and have overhauled graphics. But altering much else would be sacrilege, it sounds like.

While the Xbox team's publishing strategy has changed pretty dramatically since then (Gears of War! Forza! Halo!), lead developer, and current creative director of first party publishing at Microsoft, Clayton Kauzlaric hasn't forgotten about his team's first 3D platformer. Over on Xbox Wire, he recounts the development period and the 13 years that've passed since the game hit retail.

"The gameplay is mostly untouched though, that was important to me," Kauzlaric writes. "Vince moves, animates and controls exactly like he did in 2003. You can just see a lot more detail in his world when he moves through our twisted version of New Orleans ad the Bayou."

And the project already has a high profile fan: Xbox chief Phil Spencer. For years he's said that it's his favorite game because of who he was playing it with when it first came out.

"I have two daughters, they're 19 and 16 now, but there's a game called Voodoo Vince that was the first game I finished with my youngest daughter on my lap and my oldest daughter next to me," he told The Wall Street Journal in 2015. "We were all kind of solving the puzzles together. For me, games are about the memories as much as the accomplishments. So I'll always remember finishing [it] with my daughters."

So, Blinx: The Timesweeper fans, there's still hope that your favorite game starring a time-controlling feline could get another life.