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Failed 'Super Retro Squad' Kickstarter returns as 'Glitch Strikers'

One of gaming's earliest Kickstarter flops is back from the dead.

Failed 'Super Retro Squad' Kickstarter returns as 'Glitch Strikers'

When Jay Pavlina created Super Mario Bros. Crossover in 2010, he had a viral hit on his hand. The popular fan game tweaked Nintendo's classic platformer to allow characters from other retro games to take Mario's place. Two years later, Pavlina gambled big on the crossover gameplay mechanic and lost, successfully crowdfunding $53,000 for an original game called Super Retro Squad before announcing in 2014 that the game was on indefinite hiatus. The project was assumed dead, with backers facing endless silence in the face of refund requests. Today, however, the project returned as Glitch Strikers, a new title based on the original concept that actually looks like it might come out. It even has a trailer.

At a glance, the trailer looks a lot like Pavlina's original promise: a game with multiple worlds based on classic NES titles that can cross-over into each other. Specifically, the trailer shows a Mario-like character named Manni exploring game worlds inspired by The Legend of Zelda, Megaman, Metroid, Contra, Ninja Gaiden and more, stopping in each world to ask the characters for help beating his own game -- which has been overrun by impassable glitches.

Despite the similarity to the game's original vision, the game isn't quite everything the Super Retro Squad promised to be. Instead of offering both 16 and 8-bit graphics, Glitch Strikers music and visuals will be based specifically on the NES era of gaming -- and the original project's online multiplayer and stretch-goal bonus levels may not make the final cut, either. The game is also being released in stages, with the planned Steam release offering the portion of the game based on the original Super Mario Bros to start, and DLC packs with additional game experiences later down the line.

It's nice to see something come out of this old project, but Pavlina understands that not all backers will be satisfied with the late release. On Twitter, he says refunds for the original Kickstarter may continue if Glitch Strikers turns a profit.