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DS Fanboy Review: Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night
It takes a special kind of person to get into Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night. It's an action platformer parodying the original Castlevania and starring a cowboy pig. If you're one of those readers who comes here every day to read about eccentric titles that hardly anyone else cares about, this one's right up your alley! Even executive producer Yan Marchal wasn't initially fond of the game: "I was busy with other vital issues in the studio while this took place ... Our 3D artist likes designing pigs, while our 2D artists are fans of Castlevania and Ghosts'n Goblins. When I took the project back in hand, I thought it would be unmarketable as such, but the timeline was too tight to reshape it before San Francisco's [2007] GDC."A few of those "special kind of people" took to the concept, however, so Yan and Sanuk Software were able to sell Barnyard Blast to a publisher, and the rest is history. History being a cowboy pig fighting the undead.These are strange times we live in.%Gallery-5241%
Barnyard Blunder
Before we huff, puff, and blow our Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night review down, let's have a quick look at the Castlevania parody's cover design. Notice anything wonky? Look directly underneath the game logo and awesome subtitle!
Bring home the bacon this Friday
We were quite proud of ourselves for contributing the subtitle to Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night, but Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield was actually brought in to help rewrite the script! Why don't developers ever hire us to help plot out their projects? We have this wonderful idea for a game in which you play a cat who has to wake people up from their nightmares. Though Brandon doesn't exactly give the Castlevania parody his vote of confidence, citing its linearity and difficulty as rough points, he does promise a plethora of "retro game meme" references.Robert: Julia, I alone can save our son!Julia: Robert, my love! I just want to tell you ...Robert: No, no, don't try to stop me, Julia!Julia: Get some bread while you're out, okay?Robert: ...Robert: The time for bread has passed ... perhaps forever. I'm off!Julia: It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.Menu: Get equipped with: Slayer WhipJeuxvideo already has an unflattering review posted with new screenshots (viewable in the gallery below) and video from the first eleven-and-a-half minutes of the game's French release. Koji Igarashi apparently tried out the game and gave Brandon advice on possible improvements, so if enough copies sell, maybe we'll see a much-more-polished sequel? Barnyard Blast will be available for public purchase this Friday, but you likely won't find it anywhere outside of Amazon, where it's listed for a bargain $19.99. %Gallery-5241%See also: DS Fanboy interviews Barnyard Blast's Yan MarchalRead - Barnyard Blast out FridayRead - Jeuxvideo review
2007: A year in OMGWTF
2007 is almost over, and the end of the year brings joyous tidings of List Season. It's the time for taking stock of the last 12 months of gaming, and trying to make sense of it by putting things in numerical order. Join DS Fanboy for our best-ofs, worst-ofs, and other categories-ofs.Our favorite system has two screens, is controlled with a stick, and features extremely popular games about petting dogs and doing math. What we're saying is that it's not that surprising when something weird related to the DS comes along, because everything about the DS is weird. But the things on this list are above and beyond the baseline DS weirdness. Nothing has made us go "hmm" this much since the Phil LaMarr-ious C&C Music Factory: Make My Video. Turns out, it was a banner year for crazy junk happening. Join us after the break as we look at some of the most bizarre DS stories of 2007.
Oink oink, mama: Barnyard Blast trailer
Let's be real here, kids: No matter how much we sing its praises or try to draw you into our distorted interpretation of reality, Barnyard Blast isn't really going to be on anyone's 2008 Handheld Game of the Year list. Considering Advance Wars: Days of Ruin's release a week after Barnyard Blast's, it's doubtful we'll even see it grab the Handheld Game of the Month prize. We can safely pledge, however, that, despite the rough bits in the above trailer, Barnyard Blast will be the best Castlevania parody game to ever star a cowboy pig and appear in stores on January 15th, 2008. Yes, it's a hard gamble, and we're really putting our reputation on the line here, but we're going to hold our breath and roll the dice anyway. See also: DS Fanboy interviews Barnyard Blast's Yan Marchal[Via GoNintendo]
DS Daily: Jump on the hype train
It's no secret that certain games excite us (why hello there, Contra 4), and sometimes our tastes are a little off-the-wall. We can't help it; we're suckers for anything with an extra dash of humor, and that's why we're all over Barnyard Blast like flies on ... well ... let's say piles of manure. And you know what? If IGN's Matt Casamassina can conduct a hype train, so can we. This is it. We're kicking off the official Barnyard Blast hype train. Maybe it doesn't have pirates, but it does have monster-slaying pigs in a Castlevania send-up that sounds absolutely hilarious -- and really, what more do we need?Plus, y'know, our own Eric Caoili named it. That makes it extra awesome.
Barnyard Blast porks your DS January, 2008
Not wanting to steal Phantom Hourglass' title as the 2007 Game of the Year, DSI Games politely pushed the release of its Barnyard Blast to early 2008, January 15th to be specific. Yes, that's unfortunate for 2008's GOTY contenders, but there's a kitty with a thirst for its mother's milk whom you can refer your complaints to.Being avid readers of our site, you'll remember that Barnyard Blast is a 2D action platformer styled after the original Castlevania games on the NES. You play as Robert Belmart, a cowboy pig and monster slayer, blasting your way through a variety of parodied horror levels, such as "the old creepy wooden jail" and "the castle of intolerable pain."Developer Sanuk Software revealed more about the game in a recent interview with us just a couple of months ago. If you haven't read it yet, now's your chance to roll around in the mud with it!
DS Fanboy interviews Barnyard Blast's Yan Marchal
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Barnyard_Blast_Swine_of_the_Night_interview_details_comedy_gold'; Barnyard Blast, despite its title, continues to be one of the few games for the DS that we're genuinely anticipating. We were immediately taken with its concept long before Sanuk Software even found a publisher, surprised that the Bangkok-based studio had created something as original and madcap as a cowboy pig caught up in a classically-styled Castlevania adventure. We sat down with Sanuk Software founder Yan Marchal to find out more about the 2D action platformer and its porky protagonist, Robert Belmart. Will Barnyard Blast use any of the DS's unique features? What sort of creative bosses can we look forward to?Most importantly, how did a pistol-packing pig find himself shooting his way through spooky graveyards and foreboding castles? Yan answers all those questions and even reveals a new screenshot for us to fawn over past the post break!
Barnyard Blast: The greatest game of all time
While we reported on Barnyard Blast when Sanuk Software first shopped the game to potential publishers earlier this year at GDC, we refused to allow ourselves to believe that the game would ever manifest itself into a deliverable product, one which we could eventually hold with trembling, gracious hands. We've said and done far too many unkind things in our lifetime, and we accepted long ago that nice things would no longer be reserved for our wayward souls. But here it is, Barnyard Blast, set for release late 2007. DSI Games and Bigben Interactive will bring the 2D action platformer to both North America and Europe, praise be their names. You can check out the first officially published screenshots in our gallery below.Players take on the role of a six-shooter-toting cowboy pig, Robert Belmart, in this farm animal homage to old-school horror films and games. Robert's son, Cliffy B, has been kidnapped by "horrendous creatures" after tee-peeing an ancient castle. You'll have to fight your way through graveyards, a volcano BBQ, and the castle of intolerable pain to save your piglet!So what is it about this livestock adventure that has us baptizing it as "the greatest game of all time?" Sanuk Software credits us, DS Fanboy, and our previous headline as their inspiration for Barnyard Blast's tagline: Swine of the Night. The phrase parodies the classic PS1 title, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, much like the actual game.We've got more suggestions for any other developers looking for slogans to attach to their pig-themed Castlevania clones! Hog of Sorrow! Curly Tail of Darkness! Pork of Ruin! Have your people call our people!%Gallery-5241%
Barnyard Blast: Swine of the Night
Under any other circumstances, dismissing a game titled Barnyard Blast from an unproven developer would be easy. Given the dozens of games announced every week, it would be an effortless reflex. But upon hearing that Barnyard Blast brings together Castlevania themes with cowboy pigs, we would hold onto the game like it was our first-born. Insert Credit spent some time with an early demo at GDC and enjoyed what little there was to play. Early screenshots show the hog hero creeping through a cemetery with a six-shooter, shotgun, and "slayer" in his inventory. Whether or not the game will include vampire sheep, zombie cows, or other undead farm animals has yet to be revealed.Fans of the Castlevania series have been complaining about its stagnation for some time now. Has Sanuk Software discovered exactly what the languishing genre needs? More pork?
