While the rest of the world was getting a first glimpse at The Behemoth's next title through a first trailer, Japan was getting actual hands-on time with the game. The small studio had a booth at the Tokyo International Anime Festival event, which kicked off today in Tokyo's recreational Odaiba area. Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers were both playable in the booth, but more notable was the single kiosk containing an Xbox 360 build of the game. IGN Japan was on the case, camping out for hours to ensure a play chance (actually, we just showed up a bit after the show opened -- today was business-only day, so it wasn't too crowded).
We'll begin with a couple of pieces of bad news. First, although playable at the event, the game still doesn't have a final name. Art director Dan Paladin, who'd apparently translated the demo into Japanese for the local players, referred to the game during our demo session as "The Behemoth's Next Game After the Last Next Game."
The other bit of bad news is that the demo was extremely early. Paladin wouldn't commit to a date, although he did make note of the 2010 time frame given in the trailer. He wouldn't even tell us how long the title has been in development, nor would he commit to a platform, save for saying that the team's goal was to get the title in the hands of as many players as possible. He suggested we think of the demo as just a means of The Behemoth testing the project out to get player reactions.
All the bad news out of the way, here's the good news. We tried out pretty much all there was to try in the demo and had a total blast. The Behemoth's next game has the potential to be as fun as the first two.
The demo build consisted of a set of four selectable mini games, playable by up to four players. Players could customize their characters with special head parts and a single weapon of their choosing, split into up to four teams, and assign any number of CPU-controlled characters to join in. Upon selecting a mini game, we were taken to a hub offering portals to different stages of play for the game, along with a "store" area that was inactive in the current build.
We tried the following four games:
A block painting game where blocks turn into the color of the player who first touches them. At the end of the match, the player or team who touched the most blocks wins.
A soccer game where each team attempts to knock a ball into their goal. The goal is just a hole on the ground. and seeing as how there's no kick button, you move the ball about by simply bumping into it.
A game where you collect gold coins that are spit out by a goldfish which floats about the stage.
A game where killing an opponent releases its soul into the stage, and by collecting the soul, you earn points. Those who've lost their soul can also attempt to chase it down after respawning.
These were all enjoyable, especially once we got multiple players in on the fun. We had a particularly good time with the block painting game. Even though all you're basically doing is just racing to cover as much ground as possible, it turns out to be pretty intense, even when played entirely against CPU opponents.
Control over your little character (we have no idea just what those characters are supposed to be, although they do look like something you'd find in a Behemoth game) is limited to running around, jumping, punching, and firing your single weapon -- nice and simple, presumably on purpose. From what we could tell, punching merely dazes an opponent. Weapons have different effects. Some, like the ice blaster, daze your opponent. Others, like the grenade, kill your opponent. Weapons aside, we found that the sure-fire way to kill a foe was to jump on its head.
Once someone has died, he reappears somewhere in the stage. All the mini games we played zoomed in and out to accommodate all players. When played solo, though, the screen stays zoomed in on your character.
The stages themselves have a few gimmicks. Some blocks that comprise the stage's platforms support you by propelling you up to higher levels. Some kill you off with spikes and other contraptions.
It should be noted that, as Paladin said, everything in the demo was for testing purposes. In addition to the specifics of the mini games and character options presumably not being final, there could be more to the game than just a bunch of mini games. The trailer hinted at a lot of stuff that we weren't able to sample, including cooperative play and a story of some form.
With the game not due out until 2010, The Behemoth's will have plenty of time to fill us in on all the details, and maybe even give the project a name.
