The Behemoth's Next Game After the Last Next Game

[Patticus]

The Behemoth, developer of the XBLA hit Castle Crashers, today released the first image related to its upcoming third game.

The art was posted on Behemoth's official developer blog, where the company also noted that a trailer for the game will debut on March 18.

Castle Crashers, a 2D multiplayer beat-em-up, was released last August to critical acclaim. However, bugs plagued the initial release, and the game went without a patch until Christmas Eve.

No details of Behemoth's untitled third game are known, though it does seem to continue the cartoony art style established in the team's first title, Alien Hominid.

http://devblog.thebehemoth.com/?p=1155

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57578

As a big fan of The Behemoth (no no, thank you Chris), I'm incredibly excited as to what this game is going to be... Roll on March 18th!

[Yong]

On a unrelated note the Behemoth finally sent me my trophies a few weeks ago for the Alien Hominid leaderboard competition, which was over a year ago. Well it was during the last 2 weeks when no one else was actually trying, and I've actually gotten a much higher score(not winning cause they had checked the boards before mine went up), but when they said they were going to send me stuff I would've expected a bit sooner. You can check the AH website and you'll see my gamertag's up there.

Great company, but just don't enter their contests. Hopefully we won't have to wait another lifetime for this next game.

[Patticus]

Trailer is out now.

http://vimeo.com/3606103?pg=embed&sec=&hd=1

Looks like a team-based online multiplayer 2D platform/objective based game, all one game rather than several mini-games, or perhaps different modes of one game.

Looks interesting anyway.

[Chris]

As a big fan of The Behemoth (no no, thank you Chris)

<3

I'll definitely give this new game a try provided I'm still interested by the time it releases in 2010 (or 2011 as far as delays go).

[Strong Bad]

the Behemoth rule. I've loved them since Alien Hominid in 2004. Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid are both amazingly fun games, and I definitely plan on buying this. It looks really fun, too. The art style is still <3 and the humor is still great

[LATER BUDDY]

Awesome, =D. I have yet to try the wonders of Alien Hominid, but Castle Crashers is too many fun, . Me and my friend have racked up ridiculous hours in that game trying to unlock everything, XD. I'm really hoping this next game can keep my interest as long as Castle Crashers did. I'm sure they'll do it though, Behemoth seems to know what their doing with video games, <3.

-Blur

[Patticus]

IGN Hands On

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.

http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/963/963711p1.html

[M.C. Bat Commander]

I think its pretty funny how the game has customizable characters because I was thinking to myself (before I found out what Behemoth's project was) "what if they made it so that you could change the way your character looks in their next game?" Apparently, they took my unspoken advice.

[Yong]

I think its pretty funny how the game has customizable characters because I was thinking to myself (before I found out what Behemoth's project was) "what if they made it so that you could change the way your character looks in their next game?" Apparently, they took my unspoken advice.

Well technically you could change the way you look in Alien Hominid with hats.