An independent studio has appeared! But we dare not attack them for 10HP, rather, we'd prefer to promote their debut action adventure RPG Magicka, planned for Xbox LIVE Arcade and quite possibly PC.
Arrowhead Studios is the entity at hand, and this first title is very impressive to us. As you can tell from the headline, the developer has a bit of a twisted sense of humour with their game, shown off in full with the debut trailer:
Magicka appears to not be trying for an original story (quoth the official site: "...wizards of a sacred order with the ultimate goal of stopping the evil dark sorcerer that has thrown the world into turmoil as his evil creations besiege the forces of good"), but rather focuses its efforts on gameplay, of which there is much to love. Fans of co-op will be happy to know up to four players can join in for all modes; the two confirmed so far are 'Campaign' (with 15 levels) and 'Challenge'. There's also an "innovative" spellcasting system which sees you combining elements. Judging from the screenshots, it's not exactly innovative -- Arx Fatalis utilized the same system in 2002 wherein you used gestures together to cast spells. But this isn't officially announced, so we'll just have to see.
In either case, the gameplay and art style look fantastic, reminding us of a multitude of titles, ranging from Super Mario RPG to Ogre Battle 64 to Sacred. It also makes us think if developer Frozenbyte had made their platform-puzzle-RPG TRINE isometric, it'd play a lot like this. Like TRINE and Shadow Complex, it appears this one will be continuing the push from the developer end to bring a worthy name to independent digital titles.
Interestingly, Magicka was originally developed in 2D, but has been brought up to speed with new technology since. Arrowhead says the change was necessary for a smoother development and for the game to realize its full potential.
No platforms are currently nailed down, but Xbox LIVE Arcade is currently their main goal. The PC is an obvious choice, too, particularly with the team's fondness for digital distribution. The studio's Robin Cederholm left this comment in the forums: "At this time a PC release is not confirmed, neither a Linux supported version. Stay tuned for more information about platforms and distribution in the future."
Magicka will be released in 2010; we should have a review all set for you when the time comes.
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