Fans of weirdo-strangeo video games should get excited: today XSEED Games has released a whole bunch of new screenshots for Killer is Dead, the latest title from SUDA 51, Grasshopper Manufacture, and drugs. So many drugs. I mean, there’s got to be, right?

These screens show off the game’s hero, Mondo Zappa, duking it out with Victor, the bad guy of the whole enterprise. Not only that, but the screens also showcase “Gigolo Mode,” which is probably self-explanatory, but basically is when Mondo gets to meet up with ladies, and, you know, sex.

I’m always a fan of games going to interesting places, so I’m curious to see how it all turns out when Killer Dead is released in North America this summer. Of course, it also looks like an epileptic fit waiting to happen. Your thoughts?

Yesterday, weird-game-developing studio Grasshopper Manufacture was acquired by GungHo Online Entertainment, the makers of Ragnarok Online and Dragon Saga. Today, it’s been announced that Grasshopper’s forthcoming game, Killer is Dead, is scheduled for a Summer 2013 launch for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game will be published by XSEED in North America, while Deep Silver will bring it to European gamers.

This is a game that’s more or less been under my personal radar, but I know a lot of other dudes with IGD are pretty stoked about it. If you want to get a look at the weirdness yourself, take a look at the new batch of screens that was released to coincide with the summer launch announcement.

Via Joystiq

The GungHo Group, the publisher responsible for bringing you games like Ragnarok Online and Dragon Saga, has bought Killer is Dead and Lollipop Chainsaw developer, Grasshopper Manufacture. The full announcement can be seen in detail here.

GungHo Group, as it is a Japanese company, published a statement in all-Japanese this morning that detailed its plans to merge Grasshopper Manufacture with “the power of managing online games” to produce better games. That’s apparently it. As far as we know, there’s been no layoffs, no internal structural changes – nada.

What this means for future Grasshopper Manufacture titles like the recently unveiled Killer is Dead is yet to be known, but we’ll update this story when/if more details prance along.

But you should continue praying for a second Lollipop Chainsaw if that’s what you really, really want. Then again, you could really, really want another No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned or… dare I say it, Diabolical Pitch… if you’re like me.

If you’re more like Lawrence “The Man” Sonntag, a new Black Knight Sword might feel all sorts of good.

Source: GungHo via Gematsu]

A common issue I’ve had with Grasshopper’s games is that they frequently opt for style over substance. Games like Killer7 and No More Heroes are mostly memorable for their oddball stories and presentation rather than tight, rewarding gameplay.

Though Black Knight Sword is not wanting for oddball presentation, it’s the most gameplay-dense game from the developer to date. This is a no-frills 2D platformer, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the SNES. For me, Black Knight Sword is wonderfully retro, but I have decades of experience with Castlevania and Mega Man. I suspect gamers that didn’t cut their teeth on challenging 16-bit fare may react negatively to the game’s less forgiving aspects.

VISUALS AND SOUND

Though Black Knight’s gameplay is substantial enough to stand on its own, the game’s presentation is so bizarre that it warrants initial discussion. The whole game is designed to look like a kamishibai or paper drama (thank you Wikipedia). As you explore the stages, your character remains stationary in the middle of the screen while the stage elements move around you. Even the backgrounds fold up and down as though moved by invisible stagehands, while large hazards are suspended by visible sticks and strings. This hand-crafted look has been used in a few recent games like LittleBigPlanet and Nintendo Land, but Black Knight manages an extremely unique take on what’s becoming a common visual style.

The content of Black Knight’s visuals is downright bizarre as well. There’s almost no unifying theme to the enemies and environments aside from the visual style. Enemies include shriveled heads with wings, gargantuan gas mask-wearing spiders, and two-headed farmers that appear to toss eggs. As you progress, you travel through British pubs, the American Midwest, and fairytale-style forests filled with oversized slices of toast. This is pure, unrestrained creativity in both style and content. I guarantee that you’ve never seen any game like it.

The game’s sound is equally bizarre, filled with random effects like pizzicato violin plucking and chicken cuckoos. Enemies emit a range of grunts and death throes that are otherworldly and disturbing. Akira Yamaoka’s score is equally oddball, featuring minimal electronic tracks and bizarre, off-rhythm percussion. This is a far cry from his more palatable Lollipop Chainsaw score and may even top his iFuturelist album in downright oddity.

In animation and sound, Black Knight Sword is very reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s animation, though not so direct a parallel as ACE Team’s Rock of Ages. Passing qualitative judgment on it is difficult since it’s so out in left field. As typical with games from Grasshopper, it’s worth playing simply because there’s no game like it.

GAMEPLAY

The classic 2D platformer formula is present in Black Knight with little change. You take control of the Black Knight and must run through five stages, each stocked with waves of enemies, floating platforms, and punctuated by a large boss. Enemies drop hearts when defeated that can be spent on token upgrades like a longer health bar, more lives, or a boost in attack power. There are a few modern sprinkles of game design–collectibles sprinkled throughout the stages encourage exploration and a challenge mode offers short, difficult levels with leaderboard integration. Even still, the heart of the experience is in pure platforming.

If it sounds minimal, that’s because it is, but that doesn’t make the game uninteresting. Just as in the early 90s, the real reward is in mastering the levels and bosses so thoroughly that you can run the game without losing a single life (there’s even an achievement for doing so). Even though there are only five stages, they’re long and challenging enough to justify the game’s price.

This game is no slouch in the challenge department either. The first few stages lulled me into thinking that Black Knight was developed with modern concepts of challenge in mind, but some of the later bosses sent me to the game over screen more than once. There’s even a Mega Man style boss rush in the final stage that forces total mastery over the game’s enemies. If that weren’t enough, an Arcade Mode ramps up the difficulty to absurd levels. Not only are there several times more enemies in every stage, but they move faster, attack faster, and do more damage to boot. In Arcade Mode, Black Knight easily meets the difficulty of Super Ghouls n Ghosts, if not surpassing it.

CONTROL

The controls in Black Knight are more than capable of recreating the 90s platforming experience, though there are some issues that feel idiosyncratic to the genre. The Black Knight attacks with a sword meaning that, at melee distance, you’re vulnerable to unannounced sways and movements of your enemies. More than once I took surprise damage from a boss because it decided to lurch into my space without much warning. Additionally, while you can attack in eight directions with the sword, flying enemies occasionally approach you at a perfect angle to slip between your attacks and pop you.

Of course, one could reasonably argue that those are not problems, just unavoidable aspects of the 2D platformer experience. Actually, my greatest gripe with Black Knight’s controls has nothing to do with the software. The 360 D-pad has never been exceptional, and a game requiring precision controls only highlights how fuzzy and annoying the damned pad can be. Several of my lives have been taken by a D-pad that occasionally registers the wrong inputs. Make sure you have a recent 360 controller and you should avoid those headaches.

BOTTOM LINE

Black Knight Sword is the sort of game that, had it come out fifteen years ago, would have a huge cult following by now. Any gamer that cries for a new, classic Castlevania should put their money where their mouth is and buy this game immediately. Beyond that recommendations are harder to make. Black Knight Sword embraces trial-and-error difficulty that modern design claims to have graduated from. Whether or not you agree with the movement will largely determine your appreciation of the game.

+ Wonderfully unique presentation
+ Modes and content offer plenty of gameplay
- Occasionally frustrating challenge

8.5 / 10

Did you buy a copy of Lollipop Chainsaw? Not a huge amount of people did—but according to a post on Andriasang yesterday, the game’s developer, Grasshopper Manufacture, revealed that the title managed to sell over 700,000 units.

Speaking at Saturday’s “Lollipop Chainsaw Summer Appreciation Festival” (the first of its kind), Yoshimi Yasuda—CEO of publisher Kadokawa Games—made the announcement of the game’s sales figures. Grasshopper’s own CEO, Goichi “Suda 51” Suda, added that these sales represented the highest figures for any of the developer’s games.

The event also unveiled the debut trailer for Grasshopper’s newest game, Killer is Dead. The post cites Famitsu and Impress Watch in describing the new trailer:

“…the trailer showed a man with a cyborg left arm and a katana in his right hand engaged in combat. While the game appeared to have cell shading akin to No More Heroes, the stylish, colorful effects during combat gave the impression of something that attempted a new style following Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop.”

Suda also added that the game—set for release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next year—will feature a brand new hero, as well as “lots of hot girls.” As if there was any doubt.

Andriasang via Joystiq

Despite being a well-made game, I wouldn’t recommend Lollipop Chainsaw to just anyone. While the pulpy presentation and bizarre humor stands on its own well enough, the game’s real meat is in a score-based ranking mode. There aren’t a lot of gamers out there that love competing for higher scores, but if you’ve ever replayed a level five times just to squeeze out that higher rank, Lollipop is your kind of jam.

PRESENTATION

As indicated by the smirking, chainsaw-toting cheerleader on the game’s cover, Lollipop Chainsaw is not a subtle game. You play as Juliet Starling, middle sister in a family of zombie hunters who must subvert a plot by an angry goth kid to destroy the world. You can’t say anything about the game’s story or setting without it sounding absurd — for instance, shortly after being bitten, Juliet must behead her boyfriend Nick to prevent him from zombifying. Naturally, she loves him too much to let him die, so she casts a spell allowing his disembodied head to survive… which she then wears as a charm from her waist.

Lollipop’s presentation is all about the aggressive, pulpy punk of the 80s. The entire game is styled like a comic book, complete with paneled pause menu and a visual filter that gives the whole game that dot-matrix shadowed look. The game (like many of Suda’s works) is also steeped in music culture. Each of the game’s zombie villain bosses represent music genres, like the hippie zombie that waits at the end of a farm filled with psychedelic mushrooms. It’s sort of like Mega Man… but with zombies and chainsaws.

And while this will surprise no one, Lollipop is a sexual game, though not how you’d expect. The game’s pre-release trailers may imply pantyshots a’plenty, but the game’s sexuality differs from the typical jigglefest you’d find in, say, a Team Ninja game. For instance, Juliet introduces her dad as a DILF and credits her mom as the woman that taught her and her sisters to “wear our vaginas proudly.” Sure, this is a game about a scantily-clad cheerleader killing zombies, but the game frequently avoids the low-hanging fruit and opts for more universal sexual references. As someone that is rather burned out on hyper-sexualized female video game characters, I appreciated it.

GAMEPLAY

All of the expected beat-’em-up mainstays are present in Lollipop Chainsaw. You can gradually unlock stat upgrades and new combos with the gold medals that erupt from dead zombies, and a variety of enemies force you to adapt your attacks to successfully clear out combos of enemy types. Those mechanics hang together well enough to carry the game through seven stages and around six hours of play time, but the real depth hits in the game’s ranking mode.

If you kill three or more zombies in a single chainsaw swipe, you’ll get a “Sparkle Hunt” bonus of medals (don’t ask me why they call it that). If you have more zombies or harder zombies in the Sparkle Hunt, you’ll get a larger bonus. When you angle for these bonuses, the game is no longer about repeating the most powerful combo you have, but employing each of your combos surgically to corral zombies into one area and whittle their health down before laying the killing blow. It works extremely well too — every time you play a level, you’ll get better ideas of when to activate Juliet’s hyper mode (which causes “Mickey” by Toni Basil to play, ‘natch) or use particular combos instead of others. It reminds me a lot of playing Child of Eden or other shoot-‘em-ups where repetition and perfection become extremely gratifying.

That repetition is encouraged by adding new enemies and collectibles on harder difficulties. I laughed when I first saw an old lady zombie with a stroller hobbling up to me in the first stage, then freaked out when she ran me over with it and it took about half my health. The game holds tons of little secrets that you can still discover on your second or third play through, provided you’re interested in investing the time.

CONTROL

Executing combos in Lollipop is easy and straightforward, but there are some annoying problems surrounding the basics. Camera control is unwieldy, as it will sometimes swivel around to avoid popping through a wall and turn away from an incoming horde of zombies. You can lock the camera on to an enemy, but when you’re fighting groups of 10 or more, that’s not especially useful. The camera is super touchy too, which compounds the problem. I’d often try to pull the camera back around but end up over-adjusting.

The other big problem is with Juliet’s chainsaw blaster — a gun that pulls the camera to the over-the-shoulder view. The target locks on to enemies so stringently that it’s extremely difficult to aim at anything else, and I experienced a few situations when the lock-on point wasn’t actually on the zombie, making all of the shots whiff.

VISUALS AND SOUND

Generally you have to trade lacking production values for charm when it comes to a Suda 51 joint, but Lollipop Chainsaw looks and sounds amazing. Since the game embodies 80s pop music, it’s only fitting that the game is astoundingly colorful. Like, in a vomiting rainbows sort of way. Activating a Sparkle Hunt temporarily warps Juliet and her zombie victims into a trans-dimensional area of space filled with stars and rainbows… it’s just visually amazing. The boss designs are astounding as well; I can’t wait to see a crew of cosplayers recreating Juliet and her oddball family.

Lollipop’s soundtrack manages to outdo its visuals by combining licensed tracks from bands like Dragonforce and MSTRKRFT with an original score from Akira Yamaoka. While a majority of the soundtrack is thrashing metal — which makes for amazing zombie-killing jams — each stage also incorporates musical influences from its dominating theme. The aforementioned psychedelic rock works in lilting guitar riffs while the funk stage adds in tons of jazzy electronic synth. This is easily my favorite soundtrack from Yamaoka, and I loved the shit out of Shadows of the Damned’s score.

BOTTOM LINE

If you want to crank through a game once, enjoy the trip, and then leave it behind, Lollipop Chainsaw won’t give you much bang for your buck. The game is crafted like a shoot-‘em-up, meaning you really need to dig in and master it to understand where its value lies. If you have the temperance for that type of play, Lollipop Chainsaw is one of the best brawlers in the last few years. Combine that with an effortless sense of humor and Suda 51’s one-of-a-kind style, and you have gaming perfection for the right kind of gamer.

8.5 / 10

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today all the bonuses and extras that come packaged with pre-orders of their latest title, Lollipop Chainsaw.

Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, Lollipop Chainsaw is about cheerleader Juliet Starling and her quest to reverse a hectic zombie outbreak. As the name hints, she’ll use the chainsaw at her exposal to take down the undead bums.

Those who pre-order the game from participating retailers will receive some extra pieces of content, particularly outfits. Sorted by retailer, they are as follows:

Amazon

- Add Juliet to your pinup collection and pop cherries with Rockabilly! *

*Hee hee hee.

Best Buy

- Head bang with the Goth Girl outfit!

- Step into the Funk with Juliet’s golden Foxy Funk outfit.!

GameStop

- Become the original chainsaw master with the legendary Ash from Evil Dead.

- If you’re a PowerUp Rewards member at Gamestop, this order will also net you to the Jimmy Urine character from Mindless Self Indulgence.

Lollipop Chainsaw will be available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.

Next March, you’ll have the chance to know what it feels like to be a chainsaw-wielding cheerleader who acrobaticizes over zombies while killing them. And this is something you didn’t know you wanted to experience, until you heard about Grasshopper Manufacture’s Lollipop Chainsaw. The game’s set to hit PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 when it’s released next year.

To get you ready for all the cheering-zombie-killing-goodness, here are some screenshots (and what appears to be a teeny bit of concept art, too)! You’re welcome. Click to embiggen:

Just in case your weird Monty Python-esque marionette animation quota wasn’t filled by Rock of Ages, Grasshopper Manufacture and Digital Reality have partnered to work on Black Knight Sword. The game looks every bit as bizarre as you’d expect from the pair of developers.

No real info like release window or platforms yet, but XBLA / PSN is a good bet.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise is like a Quentin Tarantino movie: gratuitous violence, scantily clad babes, and a plot focused around killing. And that’s not a bad thing. Heroes’ Paradise is an enhanced port of the original Wii game, and it comes with a flashy new HD visual update, as well as a few extra goodies to keep the assassination fest going.

Story

Travis Touchdown doesn’t have much to his name spare a few collectibles and an armchair, but all that changes when he comes into possession of a beam katana he won in an internet auction. He soon meets the mysterious Sylvia who sets up Travis with a desperately needed job: killing a renowned assassin. Realizing that he is actually skilled at this whole assassination thing, Travis decides to attain the United Assassins Association’s (UAA) number one ranking. Each of the eccentric UAA assassins are engaging characters and make the story more enjoyable. While the main story is entertaining and exciting, the time between ranking fights spent grinding for cash can drag by slowly. Overall however, the story is violent, grungy, and enjoyable.

Gameplay

No More Heroes is an action game through and through with the lightsaber-like beam katana the main method of attack. Chaining combos and attacks together to slice up your enemies is seamless. When your enemies run low on life you can execute a gruesome death move, separating victims from their limbs amid a fountain of crimson blood. Travis is a fan of professional wrestling as well, and is capable of grappling foes and putting them in brutal pile drives and DDTs. After each enemy is killed, a slot machine reel spins at the bottom of the screen. A winning combination allows Travis to enter the powerful Dark Side mode that grants him a short boost in strength and attack combination.

Despite the focus on combat there’s plenty to do when not cleaving enemies. A hefty entry fee is required to enter each UAA ranking fight, and Travis picks up odd jobs and smaller assassination missions to make ends meet. Mowing the grass, making deliveries, and guiding boats on the water are a few options to make quick cash. Earned cash can also be spent on upgrades to the beam katana, new clothes, and stat-improving gym workouts. Between the main story fights the game becomes a free roaming sandbox experience, allowing you to do jobs and shop at your leisure. It’s not to the level of Grand Theft Auto IV, but the freedom is a nice touch.

A handful of new additions are available in the PS3 version of the game. You can now stock up to three Dark Side uses instead of them being activated automatically. New side missions and assassinations are available, as well as the ability to fight some of the assassins from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. A score attack mode entices you to fight all of the games’ bosses in succession for a high score. These additions are good but certainly not enough to make someone who has already played the game on the Wii warrant another play through, but they do make Heroes’ Paradise the definitive version of the game.

Graphics

One of the big draws to Heroes’ Paradise is the updated HD visuals. The colorful, vivid art style benefits greatly from the graphical facelift. The game looks like a comic book, and the HD graphics make an already stylized game look better. Characters on the Wii looked a bit rough around the edges with some blurry visuals, but the PS3 game’s characters are crisp and clean. I did encounter a few graphical hiccups though. The frame rate dropped drastically when I crashed my motorcycle on a particularly busy intersection. The game holds up well during the intense combat, but slowdowns can be common while driving through the city.

Control

Heroes’ Paradise has two control styles: one with the Playstation Move and the other with the standard controller. The Move control scheme mimics the Wii: movement with the navigation controller and beam katana actions with the Move controller. If you’ve played the Wii version and played the Move controlled PS3 version you’ll feel right at home with the similar controls. It feels different on the regular controller, but it still work well. Beam katana attacks are mapped to the triangle and square buttons and punches to the circle and X buttons. A tap of the R3 button triggers the death strikes to finish off enemies, and throws are executed by pushing the left and right control sticks in the correct direction. It may sound complicated but the standard controller works well, albeit less involved than waving around the Wii remote or Move controller and seeing Travis decapitate a foe on-screen.

Bottom Line

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise for the PS3 is a good enhanced port to a great game. It does a lot of things right like tweaking and improving gameplay, adding additional content, and giving the graphics a welcome HD makeover. These improvements however aren’t enough to entice gamers to play the game a second time though. That being said, No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise is the definitive version of the game and is a bloody good time.

Suda51′s Grasshopper Manufacture announced their new downloadable title at GamesCom 2011 and it’s called Black Knight Sword (no relation to the awful Martin Lawrence flick). Grasshopper stated that they wanted a “picture book” look to the game with the familiar gameplay of a 2D side scroller.

“Black Knight Sword is a fully Grasshopper-developed title. It’s a blend of old meets new, classic meets fresh,” the studio said. “This is a side-scrolling action title inspired by Japanese theatre drama. It’s also a modern interpretation of a picture book-type game, with old-school action gameplay.”

The group also discussed the influence it took from its European publisher, Digital Reality:

“Even through the development is being handled by Grasshopper, the partnership with Digital Reality on the European continent has influenced the setting, tone and background,” said Grasshopper. There’s a lot of European soul injection in there.”

The game is scheduled for a digital-only release in January or February 2012.

via NeoGAF

Say someone asked you to guess what SUDA 51′a next game would be. This is the mind behind Killer 7, No More Heroes, and Shadows of the Damned. If you had to guess, what would his next game be about?

You’re right! Lollipop Chainsaw is totally about a cheerleader that must defend her high school from a zombie invasion using a chainsaw and a variety of cheerleading maneuvers! How did you get that? Crazy.

SiliconEra ferreted out a few details about the game, such as the main character descending from a long line of zombie hunters, and the game sporting a poppy feel with pink blood and hearts everywhere.

Japanese outlet Famitsu has the first screens and media from the game, so hit up their posting to see what you can. I’m OK with this. I’m very OK with this.

[via SiliconEra, Famitsu]

Don’t be scared, y’all! Just more head to shot. The latest round of screenshots for Shadows of the Damned are predictably crazy, and while none of them top a football punt to demon junk that we saw before, they’re still pretty kick ass. I guess Garcia is delivering a pecker-on crotchshot in one of those screens, so that’ll have to fulfill the penile mutilation quota for this batch.

Shadows of the Damned is releasing on June 21 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and it looks like a tequila-drinking, stripper-ass-slapping good time (if you’re over 21, natch).

Electronic Arts decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending along some screens from Shadows of the Damned, which is about the most romantic thing they could’ve done.

Awww EA, you remembered!

There are boobs in one of these screens though so I guess it passes muster. SotD is gunning for a 2011 release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

That doesn’t mean the talent used to be awesome but they aren’t anymore. Yasuhiro Wada, creator of Harvest Moon, and Yoshiro Kimura, director of Little King’s Story, have left Marvelous Interactive and are now working with Suda Goichi (Suda 51) at Grasshopper Manufacture. Wada will become Grasshopper’s Chief Operating Officer, while Kimura will become the Chief Creative Officer.

“This move will help us produce games in a more stable manner,” Suda said to Famitsu Magazine, as translated by 1up. “We haven’t released a single [original] title in the past year, which is something that caused a lot of regret in my mind. Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organized company, and it’ll improve our development, technical, and release skills.”

Wada also weighed in on his reasons for switching development houses.

“Grasshopper’s games are enjoyed by people around the world, but they aren’t necessarily geared toward the overseas market. They just happen to resonate with oveaseas audiences as well,” Wada said. “I think that’s because this company plays home to a great deal of different cultures that all come together to discover types of fun that everyone can share. It’s not a matter of marketing toward individual countries; it’s about finding the inner antenna that tells you what’s fun and what isn’t.”

According to Suda, picking up these developers should diversify the company’s offerings. Grasshopper is currently known for mature action titles like Killer7, No More Heroes, and the upcoming Shadows of the Damned.

“We’ve been known for specializing in action games, but I’m positive this will help drive us to explore other genres as well. One of my goals is to make a game for all ages, and I think we’ve got the foundation for that now,” Suda said.

[via 1up]

Speaking to Edge, Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda described how the studio’s relationship with EA helped them develop a game that will appeal to Western audiences.

“We’re aiming at a large western market with this game and we need a clear understanding of it. We learned a lot listening from EA’s experience. It’s hard to put it in words, but there are various feelings and styles they helped us with so that what we mean by ‘cool’ would also mean something to western users,” Goichi said. “It taught us the difference between our creative work and theirs. We were able to fill any gaps we had in our knowledge, any misconceptions we may have had. I believe this is going to be big for our future.”

While some may consider Goichi’s games already distinctly Western (Killer7, No More Heroes), he realized he’d need even more appeal for Shadows of the Damned as its entering a crowded genre.

“Yeah, there are tons of them already on the market. The challenge was to create an experience that’s refreshing, original enough to stand out in a very crowded genre. We knew it had to be some kind of punk style, as that’s become the signature of our studio, and EA provided lots of advice to help us shape our project. Their input was invaluable,” Goichi said.

Of course, the similarities to other third person action games only exist on the surface. Goichi means business when he describes it as a psychological action thriller.

“When we talk about it as a Psychological Action Thriller we really mean it. We are designing the action and the world all around that idea. I believe players will really experience something they have rarely if ever experienced in games. David Fincher’s [Se7en and Fight Club director] darkness, Bioshock’s ‘alternate reality’, Robert Rodriguez’s world and exciting action – think of these and you’ll understand something of the essence of our experience,” Goichi said.

Unfortunately Goichi was extremely tight lipped regarding specific details of the gameplay or story, eventually only offering to trade details for a cover on Edge Magazine. For some reason, the interviewer didn’t bite.

[via Edge Online]

The crazy collaboration between Suda 51′s Grasshopper Manufacture (No More Heroes, Killer7), Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4), and Electronic Arts has finally seen the light of day – and it’s a very dark, demon-filled day. In Shadows of the Damned, you take control of Garcia Hotspur, attempting to rescue his girlfriend from legions of demons in the City of the Damned.

He’ll be accompanied by a former demon with the ability to transform into all manner of demon-busting weapons and a rad leather jacket. The game will feature combat, puzzles, and a soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka. It’s basically an awesome mishmash of Silent Hill, Painkiller, and From Dusk ‘Till Dawn. Awesome. Shadows of the Damned is coming to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2011.

While it’s always great to hear that another game from Grasshopper (No More Heroes, Contact) is on the way, we know nothing about it aside from the platforms (XBLA and PSN) and the title, which is apparently Norwegian for “his mother” according to Google Translate. The game is a product of a publishing agreement with Digital Reality, which should result in more game announcements in the coming months.

Like Double Fine, this marks yet another developer that has made the jump from developing large AAA titles. Just as many predicted, games are becoming so expensive to develop that less established studios are forced to reduce their project scope. Nothing to fear though – good devs can make a great game whether it takes 4 gigs or 40 megs.

[via Shacknews]