Local Raskulls Poised To Impress

Brisbane-based Halfbrick Studios have released a new trailer for their upcoming XBLA title Raskulls, a polished looking puzzle-platformer with a sense of humour. Some months away from release, Raskulls was well-received at the Mana Bar launch, where it’s debug 360’s four controllers rarely knew a moment of peace. Click through for impressions.

The multiplayer on show was an ever-falling, downward scrolling race to the bottom of a large assortment of tiles. A game about falling depends heavily on level design, and Halfbrick have been creative with the types of tiles on offer: such as water tiles that let you jump over and over, Tetris tiles that take similarly-coloured adjacent tiles with them when knocked, and rock tiles that collapse after a few seconds of no support (creating several “Indiana Jones” moments).

Bashing through these obstacles as the lead player interrupts your smooth surfing of the gravity wave. It naturally allows players behind you, unhindered, to catch up – usually creating last-minute finishes like you’d usually see in Mario Kart. Special moves and power-ups can also be used to snooker your friends.

From the look of the trailer, Raskulls’ story mode has a few tricks up its sleeve to make things even more tense and humorous, such as timed races and boss chases. It also looks like levels will move sideways and upwards, in addition to downwards.

Reception at the mana bar was universally positive, with most people commenting on how polished it already looks. Hit us with your Raskulls stick, Halfbrick.

[Raskulls]