Looks Like I Might Need to Actually Turn My 360 On

Earlier today I posted quick blurb about Ancient’s new game and bemoaned the injustice, the inhumanity the…usual from MS, at how it had been relegated to the Indie game ghetto for its eventual release.

Well, now I’m even twice as annoyed since, as it turns out, it’s freaking awesome:

You can check it out, too, on this PC demo (which has been there all day but, in my haste for the exits this AM, I completely missed).

It’s basically 4-player Robotron (not twin stick, but over-arching gameplay) married to limited tower defense and the only downside (and this is a minor quibble), is that it’s stylized 8 instead of 16-bit.¹

All in all, based on this short demo (only one (of four) characters available, etc.) I’ll actually have to, *sigh*, turn on my 360 at some point in the not-too-distant future, and put myself within range of the clutching, crushing, claws of the Red Ring’s² wrath.

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1 I loved my NES/C64/etc. but I really, really loved my Genesis/TG16/etc.
2 One of the few, the proud, the still on their launch-day 360.

Geek Demigod, Presumed Dead, Shows Up On XBL Indies

That voodoo that Yuzo

Remember Yuzo Koshiro? The composer wunderkind behind such memorable soundtracks as Streets of Rage 2 and 3, Actraiser, the original Ys (pre-Redbook), and the man that runs the game studio Ancient (Beyond Oasis, et al)?

Well, he’s back:

Just in case you thought Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Indie Games program was just for amateur developers, legendary game music composer Yuzo Koshiro has something to show you:

That’s a screen shot from Mamotte Knight (“Protect Me Kngiht”), the first Xbox LIVE Indie Games title from Koshiro’s development studio Ancient. Announced today, the game will be available for download this Spring.

Mamotte Knight is a 2D action RPG with Famicom-style 8-bit visuals. You select a knight from one of four jobs and make use of barricades to protect the princess from monsters. As you defeat the attacking beasts, you earn love points from the princess which can be used to upgrade your barricades and increase your character’s skills. The game supports four player simultaneous play.

Indie games? Um…have we actually reached a point where an outfit like Ancient can’t get paying work? I mean, they can’t even get on XBLA but have to slum it in the Indies section? (No offense to the handful of great games on XBL Indies but, c’mon, Yuzo Koshiro and Ancient?!)

Grim tidings, indeed. (There’s an English option at link that is not quite, um, live yet.)