“An unfairly addictive action-puzzle title which is both cross-platform and multi-platform; furious online four-player action.” When we asked Nokia’s Scott Foe, Executive Producer and Concept Author, to describe Reset Generation, this is what he said. The game, scheduled for release in Summer 2008 for the PC and N-Gage platform, had been known until now by the codename “Project White Rock.” Nokia, and Finnish developers RedLynx, have spent the last two and a half years on Reset Generation, and the result is a mash-up of puzzle gaming, turn-based strategy, and tongue-firmly-out-of-cheek fanservice.
Reset Generation is so named for the audience at which it is aimed: The children who grew up in front of the NES and Genesis, who knew that when things started to go bad, a fresh start was just a reset away. The game is intended for those who haved lived and loved gaming and all its genres, references, cliches and foibles, for the last twenty years; those who would gladly steep themselves in every facet of gamer culture. From its concept, to its gameplay, to its art and music, Reset Generation is a postmodern love letter to the industry–as Nokia puts it, “The first video game about video games.”
To that end, Nokia has included work from some of the most notable artists in the industry who celebrate gaming with their work. Reset Generations centers around ten archetypal characters which players can choose from — immediately recognizable caricatures including Hedgehog, Monster Trainer, Plumber, and Level 50 Elf. Some of the characters fall farther into parody, while some are fairly on the nose, but each character has been designed by a different artist, each with an impressive pedigree. Names include Joy Ang, Dan Paladin, Feng Zhu and Scott Kurtz, each of which has created an original take on cyborg super-soldiers, adorable bomb-wielding midgets, and low-resolution alien invaders. Each character possesses a unique in-game ability, but the major appeal of the characters is their animation and dialogue — each thoroughly designed to make you smirk at their familiar-yet-amusing behaviors. Hedgehog is overflowing with in-your-face attitude (Oh no you di’int! Word!), the alien Aggressor screams familiar anti-human sentiments (I HUNGER!), and someone on the writing staff clearly infected Ninja with their personal love of Engrish subtitles (Rescues? Forget it! Try my fist!). The music is also a retro fan’s siren song — an original soundtrack has been commissioned from 8 Bit Weapon, a chiptunes ensemble whose C64 and NES-quality tracks were in full force at the unveiling.
“We wanted to finally explore the stories behind these characters,” said Scott Howard, Producer on Reset Generation. “We’ve seen them going through these actions for years — we wanted to really see what motivates them.” Howard laughed as he described the Monster Hunter, collecting her elaborate arsenal of fighting beasties due to a neurotic obsession and addiction, pointing to the girl’s backpack which resembled the pelt of an electric rodent of some kind. Beyond the game’s 4-player matches, Reset Generation also contains a mission-based single-player mode, complete with animated, fully-voiced cutscenes, allowing for further humorous moments between the bizarre cast. Without explaining too much, there was a moment where Plumber and Hedgehog walked off into the sunset holding hands, to spend a long life together rescuing princesses.
The gameplay, as befits the title, is chock full of many familiar game elements, combined for a rather unique experience. I was able to get my hands on the game, and I found that as a diehard puzzler, Reset Generation was right up my alley. The game plays like a mix of Rampart, Worms, Ataxx, and Bang! Howdy. The object of the game, naturally, is the oldest game object in history: rescue the princess. Each player on the board has a fortress, which their own personal princess inhabits. To win a match, players must squabble their way to their opponents’ bases, “rescue” the princess inside, and bring her back to their home. A player whose princess is rescued by someone else is eliminated from play.
Each round of play has three phases: placing blocks, firing cannons, and moving/fighting characters. Placing blocks takes the form of laying down some very familiar tetrominoes, which can only be laid on the game board in empty spaces — making it tough to place blocks once things start to fill up. When a player has claimed spaces on the board in this fashion, they gain considerable advantages; a character will move faster over his own color, and has higher attack/defense while standing on his own squares. The trick, however, is that placing blocks is not done in turn, but all at once — players select their intended squares on their own screens, and then all blocks are placed simultaneously. If more than one player tries to occupy a square, then nobody gets it, allowing block-placement to take a defensive role. In addition, crafty block-laying opens up a cliche of the puzzle genre: Combos. Any player who manages to line up five or more squares in a row creates a combo, which works like a more powerful version of regular squares, and is far harder to take away.
This brings us to firing cannons, which is also done in the aforementioned simultaneous fashion. Players select two squares they would like to pepper with cannonballs, which will restore a square from claimed to empty, and/or destroy any items there. But, again, the move can be used defensively — two players who fire at the same square will cause each other’s cannonballs to bounce away, landing randomly elsewhere on the board. A shot at an item you intend to pick up can save it from an opponent attempting to destroy it, unless, of course, they don’t shoot at it, in which case you blow it up yourself.
Finally, the movement phase begins, which happens in sequence of turns rather than all at once. Players navigate over the board, attacking players who they run into, and acquiring an arsenal of single-use weapons and power-ups. These range from the helpful, such as combo-destroying grenades and board-traversing teleporters, to familiar and powerful staples like a giant plumber’s tube or the BFGP (Biggest Frickin’ Gun Possible). Knocking out another player doesn’t remove them from play, but it does deliver their princess directly into your arms, making it a fairly powerful move. In addition, each character has a unique ability that can be exploited during this phase. Sci-Fi Knight can perform an enemy-controlling “mind trick,” Cyborg can rocket-jump, Hedgehog can speed across the map, and so on.
The items can act as a significant x-factor during matches, and are likely to be an early complaint among players. A cleverly crafted princess-grab can be instantly foiled when powerful items just happen to spawn around one’s opponent on several consecutive rounds, elevating luck over skill. I asked RedLynx if players would be able to customize their rulesets or remove certain items, and I was told no — the design is intentional, based on long and careful balance testing. “Every game will play the same — which is to say, no two games will be the same,” said Antti Ilvessuo, lead developer from RedLynx. He likened the game to a round of poker — on occasion, yes, pure luck will win a hand or two, but over time, the skilled player will trend more often towards victory. The offense/defense elements of placing blocks and shooting cannons allows for strategy fans to plot their way to the top, and other balance factors are in place as well — laying down a combo will actually build your opponents’ power gauge (allowing them to execute their character ability) faster than your own.
Reset Generation, on Nokia’s recently re-imagined N-Gage mobile game software, is expected to retail for $10-14 for the full game, with limited-time licenses available at lower prices. Between the single-player and online modes, the game has an impressive amount of content for a mobile title, seeming almost more suited to the PC, for which it is also being released. Which makes the following all the more surprising: The PC version will cost nothing.
Nokia intends to release Reset Generation online, in browser-based form — as a widget anyone may place on their own website at no cost. In addition, Nokia confirmed that PC and N-Gage players will be able to compete with eachother in the online mode, presumably allowing players to maintain their online ranking whether on the go or at their desks. Reset Generation has a full array of online statistics, rankings, leaderboards, and N-Gage Point Pickups (read: achievements). Players will also be able to design their own profile pages on the Reset Generation website, and browse replays of top players’ victories (or worst players’ losses, if they are so inclined). Online matches will even have championship “belts,” achievements for top players in 16 or so different statistics, and only one player in the world will possess each one.
Nokia’s efforts toward a Reset Generation social network won’t stop there. Though the game itself will not contain any user-submitted content (as had been rumored), upon the game’s release, Nokia will make available every asset from within the game to the player community. Every piece of art, every frame of animation, every sound and voice file; all will be released for free. Nokia will be encouraging players to create their own content with the Reset Generation world, allowing users to submit flash games, cartoons, comics, fanart, and otherwise to the “Reset Arcade,” where the best submissions will be showcased to the world.
“This is the first,” Scott Foe told me after the presentation. “Not a first — the first. It’s a lot of firsts. We’re promoting artists, we’re online multi-platform/cross-platform, it’s the first video game about video games, the first game where we’re giving away the assets.” Foe told me that the project had been born out of a simple desire to make a game about heroes and princesses — the basis for any great game — and had grown from there, purely for the love of gaming.
Reset Generations is due out in Summer 2008.
Tags: Hands-On, mobile, N-Gage, Nokia, Online, Preview, Puzzle, RedLynx, Reset Generation, retro
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