Red Fly Studios, who most recently brought us Ghostbusters and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 for Wii, drops the might of Mjolnir on the unsuspecting public today, and we were there to cover their launch party at Austin Books and Comics here in Austin, TX.
So I showed up, took some amatuerish video, played the game, talked to some folks, and here you go:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miCXb1G4sqk
So let me say a bunch of stuff about Red Fly and Austin Books and Comics. I first met the developers for Red Fly at SXSW, and they pulled me over and forced me to play the Thor game. It was awesome, and I gushed about it a little in my mini-review. There are a lot of “developers” who just port over next gen console games for Wii, DS, etc and…. they. just. suck. Red Fly is not that. They take an incredible amount of care into adding value into the games they work on, and the incredible fun factor in the games they’ve done (Ghostbusters and SW: FU 2 especially) shines through. They’ve really pulled out the stops for Thor, and beyond that they are a bunch of great human beings. After SXSW they reached back out to us and we’ve been talking about Thor ever since.
Next, Austin Books and Comics. This is my favorite comics store. I drive past two others to get there, and it’s worth it. Knowledgeable (and nice!) staff, it’s amazing just how much they want to talk about comics with people. My first experience with them was walking in and saying “I haven’t kept up on (insert titles) for several years- what do I need to get caught up so I can understand the new crossover event? I dropped almost $100 that day, but it was sooooo worth it. Also, they are incredibly kid-friendly and love it when I bring in my kids. In short, they can keep up with you at the highest and nerdiest level, but also aren’t “that” type of comic book guy who barely tolerates children. As an example, in the video below you’ll see I talk to one of the employees who is dressed up as Syf. Not only did she play with my kids, who were dressed as Thor as Wonder Woman, she actually went and found a back issue of Thor where he was turned into a woman, as that related to a conversation we had in the video above. Awesome, awesome people.
So this was just a match made in heaven to have Austin Books and Comics play host to the launch party.
I also spoke with Chris Frechette, the AI/Combat designer for Thor about some of the overall concepts of the game:
Me: I once heard from some of the developers on the first Force Unleashed that their underlying concept for the game was “Kicking someone’s ass with The Force.” Especially when thinking about making this game playable for Wii, was there a similar underlying concept for you?
CF – While making Thor, our focus was to make the player feel like the Wii remote was Mjolnir! This meant making gesture attacks have strong impact and really be the exclamation mark as combo finishers! At the same time, with a character like the God of Thunder, it was extremely important that we empower the player use his Storm Powers frequently and not horde them for a boss. When combat gets hot and heavy there should be lightning and cyclones and Mjolnir swinging all over the place!
Me: The Wii brings a whole different style of gameplay to this game compared to other consoles, as well as others RedFly has worked on. When designing for Wii and motion gaming, what do you aim for, what do you try to keep in mind?
CF – With an action basher like Thor, it could have been easy to go overboard with motion controls. We tried multiple control schemes in an attempt to keep it impactful and really correspond to what the character is doing. Combo Finishers, Storm Powers and QTEs are the real focus of the motion controls. Thor also has a couple point and shoot style Storm Powers (Lightning Bolt and Wind Cage). The Wii also has exclusive flight levels that show Thor off in a complete different way and utilize the same point and shoot style of gameplay… he flies through the trenches of Nifelheim and Muspelheim casting down lightning and destroying everything in sight.
Me:What’s your favorite combo/power that you have in this game?
CF – Thor has several combos… my favorite is the Thunder Quake (A, A, gesture, gesture), which is a group juggle attack. It is not his most powerful combo finisher, but it can launch multiple enemies into the air! Its really gratifying to follow it up with a Storm Burst and send them all flying! There is a clip in the Wii trailer that shows this off… right about 42 seconds in.
#t=42s” target=”_blank”>httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCw4ovL0P0s&feature=player_detailpage#t=42s
Me: Any reason you chose to give it that particular motion/button combo?
CF – We did a lot of playing around with combos branching based on remote gesture directions… it was originally A, A, Right, Down. After a bit of focus testing, it was obvious that players would commit to gestures at various levels of intensity and were getting misreads. We went to a system that only cared about generic gestures for combos. So in the instructions it will say do A, A, Down, Down… but truthfully it is A, A, any gesture, any gesture.
Me: Thor’s a god. How do you balance giving someone god-type abilities without either making him too invincible or too weak? How do you make the gameplay graceful while also exuding all that power?
CF – Designing a game around a god was tough. How do you platforming if he can just fly? The door is locked, why doesn’t he just bust it open? We didn’t want to go the traditional route of humbling him and stripping his powers and having him start really weak and grow stronger. We did it from the direction of Thor is continuously presented w/ situations that requires him to use powers that he hasn’t had to use before. In the end, it is a game and you do earn XP to unlock combos and powerful storm powers. Thankfully Thor has a rich history of fighting some of the biggest baddies in the Marvel Universe. So we can go from throwing hordes of fodder enemies at the player to then putting them toe to toe against Surtur who is the size of a building!
Me: Have you had a chance to play this on another console and if I’ve got an XBox 360 (let’s not include PS3 in this discussion for various, obvious reasons) and a Wii at home, why do I want to play Thor on Wii?
CF – The Wii version of Thor is a unique title… it is not a port of the 360 game. The fast paced fluid combat and responsive motion controls really make this a fun game to play! It is an action basher the likes of which the Wii hasn’t seen. Plus, the Wii version has exclusive Flight levels, Midgard levels, Vanir Spirit enemies in the final chapter, Motion Comics, Combat Challenge levels (the player can create custom battles), and the entire Thor episode of the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heros cartoon!
Me: With the advent of Kinect and PS Move, do you think the future of arcade smash em up games like this/Force Unleashed 2 is going to be using motion-gaming, or are we going to stick to the buttoned controllers?
CF – It will be interesting to see what the future of motion controls in this genre are. I’m afraid hard core gamers will prefer sticking to their familar stick and buttons. But with what we’ve done with the combat and controls in this game, it is not only fun for young gamers but will give those hard core gamers a really unique basher experience. I bet we’ll likely see developers supporting traditional controllers and Move in the future.
Me: In my previous mini-review of the game from SXSW, I compared this game favorably with Force Unleashed 2, which you also worked on. How did working on Force Unleashed inform what you were going to do with Thor or were they very separate development projects?
CF – Part of the development process was done in parallel. I don’t know that FU2 informed us much on the design side, but there were technical advancements made on our engine that ultimately got incorporated into Thor as well.
Me: What’s next? Redfly, in my mind, is batting 1.000 with thee games in a row you hit out of the park (Ghostbusters, SW: FU2, and Thor). I expect more great things from you- what’s on the horizon?
CF – We can’t say much about our currently project except that it is a PS3/360 game. You can trust that in the same way we pushed the envelope on the Wii, we will strive to create another beautiful exciting game!
Me:. Speaking of what’s next, we’ve heard a lot the past few weeks about the follow up console to the Wii. Do you have any more information than the rest of us about what to expect? As a developer, what do you hope we see? What would you like to add to the mix that you think Nintendo can capitalize on?
CF – I don’t know anything other than they plan to show something at E3 and it could be pretty powerful. Obviously graphics is where the Wii is lacking. I think Nintendo would be smart to package a traditional controller if they really want to get hard core gamers. Also I hope that Nintendo does a better job of supporting 3rd party developers early on so that better quality product can be created.
Me: And finally, there’s always a lot of skepticism from gamers about both movie tie-in titles and superhero titles. Why is Thor worth picking up?
CF – Thor: God of Thunder is not your typical movie tie-in game. The game shares vary little with the movie. Our characters share the likenesses of the actors and some of the VO is done by the actors themselves. Other than that, the story is different. We worked in conjunction with Matt Fraction and Liquid (Thor PS3/360) to create an epic tale fit for a game. Comic fans will especially love it and really enjoy throwing on some of the classic Thor costumes, like the original Jack Kirby… bright blue, yellow and red!
So there you have it, folks. The only reason, and i do mean the ONLY reason I’m not picking this game up today on Wii is because my job is killing me until the Texas Legislature gets out at the end of the month. At that point, I am going to take an entire week off, and probably spend a great deal of it getting my Thor on.
Pick this up, and pick it up on Wii.