PAX Hands-On: Destineer

Destineer is a name that you might not have heard. Despite being around since 2000, the company has only published a handful of original titles (they are more well known for their Mac ports of well-known titles like Halo). I barely knew anything about the studio before stopping by their booth, but I left somewhat impressed with the range of titles that they are bringing out this year.

Head past the cut to read all about Destineer’s fall lineup, including Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ (seriously), Iron Chef: America, Stoked, and others.

Animal Boxing

Destineer’s Animal Boxing is a first-person boxing title for the DS. Perhaps its most notable feature (besides giving you the chance to punch a polar bear in the face) is that it is the first DS game played by holding the handheld upside down. After all, your stylus is essentially your fist, and it wouldn’t make much sense to punch someone’s feet.

For a game starring a bunch of fuzzy animals, Animal Boxing is surprisingly complex. Tapping the screen lets you take a jab at that spot. If you swipe the stylus, you’ll toss a hook. Swiping up lets you uppercut. You can hold the stylus to the screen to charge up a punch. It leaves you open to attack, but leads to a pretty powerful blow if you can pull it off. To defend yourself, you have to hold X at the right moment. As you fight, an anger meter fills up. When you see flames appear,you’ll temporarily receive a huge power boost. Be careful, though, because your enemies also have anger meters. At times, objects will float on screen. Tapping them will either heal you (chocolate) or make you angrier (peppers).

There are fifty animals included that you can play as or fight, as well as eight arenas for you to fight in. There is also a character creator if you get bored with the pre-existing choices. If you win one of the tournaments, you can even wear your championship belts in-game. Two players can compete against each other in local multiplayer. Animal Boxing ships for the DS in October.

Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine (Wii)

How do you take on the casual gaming giant Cooking Mama? The answer seems to be to base your version off the popular cooking show. In the quick play mode, you pick a character and a selection of dishes, and you proceed to prepare them for judging. The career mode is structured similarly, but you progress through a fighter-esque ladder of contestants. As you progress, you’ll unlock more of the actual characters and judges from the last season of the television show.

According to the developers, none of the food “is a lie.” All of the dishes are real-world dishes, although they are simplified for the game. You, sadly, won’t actually learn how to prepare veal marsala. The disembodied (and terrifying) head of Alton Brown talks to you as you play and will offer feedback on your performance. When you prepare a meal, you’ll have to perform several quick motion-based minigames. Some of these include flattening dough, dipping, slicing, boiling (you have to control the temperature), mixing/grinding, chopping, grating, and applying sauce. You have some leeway to fail minigames, as you will probably perform about forty of them per round.

I’m a huge Iron Chef fan, and the motions worked pretty well. However, I don’t know how long the game will keep me interested. It is definitely for a more casual audience, and it kind of felt like I had experienced everything by the end of the demo. We’ll find out if there’s any more depth to the title when it releases later this year.

Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ

The award for best video game title ever goes to LRRHZBBQ (at this point, I’m not sure why I’m abbreviating it). Zombies have invaded the land of Fairytales, and Little Red Riding Hood is the last line of defense. Fortunately, her past experience with wolves has taught her a few combat tricks. She grabs her machine gun and flamethrower and sets out to kick some undead ass. She’ll be joined at the BBQ by Japanese co-star Momotaro, who slices off heads with his ninja stars. Alright, scratch my first though. Best name and best premise ever.

LRRHZBBQ takes the form of a top-down shooter, just imagine a fable-themed Space Invaders. You move from left to right with the d-pad and point at the enemy you want to shoot with your stylus. Just lift the stylus from the screen to reload. To switch weapons, you just have to click on the right icon. Some weapons, like the standard gun, have unlimited ammo; others, like the flamethrower, have a limited energy supply. If you double-tap on the enemy, you’ll throw a bomb in their direction.

I’m a huge shmup fan, and LRRHZBBQ didn’t disappoint. I had a lot of fun during my demo. The game is not easy, I had a few close encounters with zombies that got too close. My only complaint is that movement felt a little sluggish, which added to the difficulty. For truly hardcore shooter fans, Destineer has added hard and “extreme” modes, as well as a timed survival mode and a boss rush. You’ll be able to pick this DS exclusive up in October.

Stoked

Destineer hopes to change the snowboarding genre with its upcoming 360-exclusive. Stoked is not about button-mashing, but instead about style. The gameplay itself will change around your playing style, and you will unlock new tricks based on how you approach the slopes. You control your character with the two thumb sticks, the left moving you and the right controlling jumps.

The developers hope to set their game apart from the pack with the depth and realism that they have included. Each of the five mountains has dynamic weather. Storms will pelt the slopes with snow and open up new paths. Eventually, the sun will melt away snow and re-open old trails. Before choosing which mountain to race on, you’ll be able to check a five-day forecast and decide when they want to tackle each hill. The time of day even changes in real-time. Racing at night feels much different than racing during the day. When you choose a mountain, you’ll be able to fly your helicopter around until you find a jump-point that you’re happy with. There are different types of challenges all over the mountain, indicated by floating icon points. Some of these include races, trick challenges, and photo ops. Transitioning to multiplayer is a seamless process, you can just select the option in the in-game menu.

Fans of snowboarding games and other extreme-sports titles like Skate may want to keep their eyes on Stoked. The title hits store shelves this November.

Wordjong Party

The upcoming Wii release of Wordjong Party is actually a sequel to a DS game by the same name. Think of it as a cross between Scrabble and Mahjong. Players compete to earn a higher score by spelling longer words, but must also uncover more tiles by using the ones on top. For single players, there are daily challenges – nearly three years worth. However, the real meat of Wordjong is obviously in the multiplayer. In the multiplayer Party Mode, two to four players compete to be the first to hit a certain high score; sadly, no online play is planned at this time.

The controls are simple, just aim at the piece you want and press the A button. To add more tiles to the board, you shake the Wiimote. At time, you’ll get special power-ups, like the ability to summon a sandstorm to blind other players. The game is easy to pick up and play. Scrabble fans in particular may want to look into this party title when it hits in November.