News: Sandlot not developing next Earth Defense Force game
Posted on : 05-10-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : News, Videos
Hardware: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
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The next Earth Defense Force, or Chikyuu Boueigun, game “Insect Armageddon” is no longer being helmed by Japanese developer Sandlot. Instead, D3 have given the franchise to Vicious Cycle. Whilst this may not initially appear as being very much to do with mecha, then please allow us to elaborate.
Sandlot were formed from the ashes of a team at Human Entertainment who had made the rather brilliant Remote Control Dandy. This was a unique mecha game as it had the player control a giant mecha limb by limb from ground level. The subsequent effect of this was one of epic scale. Sandlot pretty much made this their functional calling card from that point on.
Their first “game” was on the PS2 and it was pretty much a glorified tech demo for their engine, tying in with the recently released Tekkouki Mikazuki the “trial edition” game was packaged with the series’ soundtrack. Again this had the player control a mecha from ground level, emphasizing its scale.
This then allowed Sandlot to get investment to make Gigantic Drive with the original Enix (before the merger with Squaresoft). Whilst it was received well in Japan the Western version, entitled Robotic Alchemic Drive, garnered a vocal cult following.
So where do the Chikyuu Boueigun games come into all of this then? Well, the tech that had been built up over two games was now sitting around and it was ripe for a B-movie interpretation (with giant alien ants obviously). Packaged as part of D3’s “SIMPLE 2000” budget line, the first and second games sold very well allowing Sandlot to invest in other games along the way (such as this little beauty).
In short, the mecha functional core based around the emphasis of scale in a destructible environment that birthed these games is integral to what made them work in the first place. Even the first 360 game was developed by Sandlot, so to see them absent on the new game is very sad indeed. In any case, the trailer for the new game is shown below and don’t forget to read our feature on Sandlot too.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtPJJg86to4]
Vicious Cycle was the studio that worked on the console Robotech games… I’m kinda interested to see what they’ll do. I enjoyed Battlecry,even if it felt more Star Fox than Macross.
Invasion was a little more… iffy. It was good to get a Mospeada game… but the real functionality of the Cyclone/Mospeada was really lost in the game’s manner of FORCING your into Armor Form when you were in buildings. (Not to mention entirely too many levels and sequencies that felt like a poor man’s Halo.) Not to mention the Invid’s AWFUL AI.
That’s what this game kinda reminds me of. I can’t decide if that’s good or not. I guess as an arcadish like title, it might work better than Invasion. did. I dunno.
I actually feel a lot better knowing that Vicious Cycle is behind this. Thanks for reminding me that they’re the ones who did the Robotech games, I had completely forgotten the name of the team that did them.
I’d prefer if it was Sandlot at the helm, of course, but Vicious Cycle’s Robotech games did what they did with a lot of love–the games failed in a lot of aspects, but they were at least made in an attempt to capture what made the anime they were based on unique. Battlecry led to a lot of swearing due to bugs and unexpected behaviors, and Invasion could have used a hell of a lot more polish–but considering that they’re not a major company and probably didn’t have a large budget, they did a lot with what they were given. They might have been overambitious, but I prefer overambitious failures over shovelware anyday.
So the new Earth Defense Force, while not in “good” hands per se, is at least in the hands of a company that I feel is going to look at the original games and try to find out what made those games special, rather than attempting to force EDF into whatever squad-based third person cover shooter is popular at the moment.
Yes, the bugs are indeed back… 3 small spiders, and 1 big one. Oh boy… its an invasion. *rolls eyes*
Vicious Cycle will get too cought up in trying to pad out “missions” with objectives, and other superfluious unecessary gameplay mechanics that only appeal to 13 year old adolescants renting the game from GameFly.
The Chikyuu Boueigun series was all a huge tech demo, and that is what made it so great. It flew under the banner of D3’s budget based Simple 2000 series lineup, so it never had to take itself too seriously. Sandlot dropped you into a city, threw in 8,000 spiders, and said “Good Luck”. It was all about excess, and how far they could cram the screen with complete and utter chaos.
This new game seems docile by comparison.
Sandlot’s development process probably went something like this:
Developer: “Um sir, with all of these objects, the screen has frametearing side effects and…”
Game Designer: “Then add more bugs.”
Developer: “But…”
Project Manager: “As long as it doesn’t throw off the release date, I don’t care.”
Game Designer: “Ok great add 10x as many bugs.”
Developer: “We could have that done by next Fri…”
Game Designer: “Ok, then add 100x more bugs, a giant UFO with thousands of laser cannons that comes through a black hole in the sky, godzilla, MECHA godzilla, toss in some tanks, a helicopter… oh and a female character with laser weapons that can fly.”
Vicious Cycle’s development process probably is going like this:
Developer 1: “Dude check out these shader effects I am using on this spider’s leg hair.”
Developer 2: “Wow, they almost look real. Can you make them even realer?”
Developer 1: “I sure am sure as hell gonna try.”
Game Designer: “Hey guys I have a new idea to add a stats leveling feature as you play, especially in the online component, where players can actually play as spiders. I am thinking of even allowing the spiders to teabag, its gonna be so awesome.”
Developer 3: “Wow those shader effects!”
It looks good. It’s too bad Sandlot isn’t making a return, the more games they make the better, but the trailer isn’t bad.
And, hey, jets packs – always wanted that since the first game.
Jet packs were in the second PS2 game, specifically the female protagonist had one.
Ah, didn’t know that. I forgot about that PS2 game. Actually, I’ve heard of it, but never seen it…