RSS Feeds
pc
GameTap Launches American McGee's Grimm
Posted by Mike Fahey at 1:20 AM on August 1, 2008
GameTap has just launched the first chapter of the first volume of American McGee's Grimm, the twisted fairy tale adventure series from America's most similarly-named developer. The first episode is called "A Boy Learns What Fear Is", which in the context of twisted fairy tales gives me chills just thinking about it.
"The opportunity to work with GameTap to develop truly unique content in this new episodic format has been a dream come true," said American McGee, creative director and founder of Spicy Horse Games. "Grimm is a fairy tale adventure that incorporates innovative, mainstream play mechanics with classic elements such as platforming, power-ups, easter-eggs, and more. Grimm offers something for the cranky dwarf in all of us."
The first installment is available to play now for free via GameTap, while the remaining episodes will be free for the first 24 hours as well as available for purchase at $US 3.99 a piece. Remember, if it says American McGee in the title, you know it's...most likely a video game of some sort.
GameTap Launches American McGee's Grimm
Premiere Episode "A Boy Learns What Fear Is" Free to Play OnlineATLANTA—(BUSINESS WIRE)—GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., announced today the much-anticipated launch of American McGee's Grimm. The newest GameTap Original title, American McGee's Grimm, consists of 24 individual standalone game episodes, each of which is based on a classic fairy tale such as Little Red Riding Hood or Beauty and the Beast.
"We are excited to announce the launch of American McGee's Grimm, our newest episodic title," said Ricardo Sanchez, vice president of content and creative director for GameTap. "Working with American and the Spicy Horse team to bring this game to fans has been a great experience and we know this twisted adventure through classic fairy tales will appeal to a wide audience of game enthusiasts."
The game's main character, Grimm, is a crude dwarf who believes that the lessons offered in the original tellings of famous fairy tales have been lost over time, as the stories have been watered down with talking woodland creatures and Happily Ever After endings for all of the characters - whether they deserve it or not. As Grimm, players transform these toothless interpretations of the tales into dark and twisted versions of the story.
"The opportunity to work with GameTap to develop truly unique content in this new episodic format has been a dream come true," said American McGee, creative director and founder of Spicy Horse Games. "Grimm is a fairy tale adventure that incorporates innovative, mainstream play mechanics with classic elements such as platforming, power-ups, easter-eggs, and more. Grimm offers something for the cranky dwarf in all of us."
The new series debuts today on GameTap with the first episode "A Boy Learns What Fear Is," which is free to play on the game service. The remaining episodes will be free to play for the first 24 hours exclusively on GameTap, and will also available for digital purchase in GameTap.com's online store for $3.99 an episode.
The first Volume of American McGee's Grimm will consist of eight standalone episodes, which will be released weekly as follows:
July 31 A Boy Learns What Fear Is
August 7 Little Red Riding Hood
August 14 The Fisherman and His Wife
August 21 Puss In Boots
August 28 The Girl Without Hands
September 4 Godfather Death
September 11 The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs
September 18 Beauty and the BeastTo get more information about episodes, view trailers, download avatars and wallpapers, please visit the official site: www.gametap.com/grimm.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
SegevRaz
Posted 2:02 AM 1/8/08
@penty85: Scrapland was Great but underrated because of some glitches.
it could have been amazing if the fighting mechanics would actually be FUN, but the whole open-world in robotic-space thing was cool, and besides, the game was pretty funny.
SegevRaz
KaneRobot
Posted 1:56 AM 1/8/08
I feel like this guy just makes games to show off his ridiculous name. Cut it out, McGee!
KaneRobot
HaydenTenno
Posted 1:54 AM 1/8/08
Bad Day LA was sooo damn bad!
HaydenTenno
liquid_kore
Posted 1:51 AM 1/8/08
@SegevRaz: @whitepawn: Aha found this on the wikipedia link. The story was interesting overall, but the ending sucked.
[www.pitt.edu]
liquid_kore
whitepawn
Posted 1:48 AM 1/8/08
@liquid_kore:
Just kidding:
[en.wikipedia.org]
whitepawn
The Rage
Posted 1:45 AM 1/8/08
@SegevRaz: Sounds great. I'm downloading it now.
The Rage
SegevRaz
Posted 1:43 AM 1/8/08
@liquid_kore: It's about a boy who doesn't know what fear is, I think it is a fairy tale.
Anyway, I played through the first episode and it was fun! well, for what it lasted, like, an hour? The jokes are sometimes funny but the gameplay of turning good, happy things into dark, nasty things is really cool and pretty smooth. Reminds me a bit of Katamari actually.
SegevRaz
Gravnar
Posted 1:43 AM 1/8/08
I never like American McGee... In fact I down right hate all of his games...
Gravnar
whitepawn
Posted 1:34 AM 1/8/08
@liquid_kore:
I think this first one is just to give you a feel for what the basic gameplay is, taking a happy tale and making it horrible.
whitepawn
penty85
Posted 1:32 AM 1/8/08
Joy! I've liked all his games so far. Even scrapland. I'm a minority, but that makes me cool..... right? Unlike all you conformys with 'taste'.
penty85
liquid_kore
Posted 1:30 AM 1/8/08
Does anyone know if this episode is based on a specific fairy tale like the future episodes? I couldn't find anything by that name, but I would like to read it before I play the game.
liquid_kore
strobefx
Posted 1:29 AM 1/8/08
I thought this looked really damn bad from the trailer. The graphics looked awful in motion.
Although, I guess at least McGee is back to the last thing that made him notable. Who knows?
strobefx
Juthan
Posted 1:28 AM 1/8/08
"Remember, if it says American McGee in the title, you know it's...most likely a video game of some sort.
That made me LOL for real. I always wondered why some devs felt the need to put their name on the product.
Juthan
Methusalah
Posted 1:26 AM 1/8/08
@SpiralJacobs: Agreed, I really enjoyed Alice.
Methusalah
SpiralJacobs
Posted 1:24 AM 1/8/08
That was kind of harsh...maybe this will be good, like Alice was.
SpiralJacobs
SpiralJacobs
Posted 1:23 AM 1/8/08
American McGee - overrated since 1998.
SpiralJacobs
Tenth
Posted 2:23 AM 1/8/08
@Juthan: Well, at least he had something to do with the game. Take Tom Clancy, for instance... I don't think he's written any of the games his name appears on.
American putting his name on his games is arrogant, yes. At least we know who to blame if it sucks. :)
Tenth
eakolb
Posted 2:22 AM 1/8/08
I played this briefly this morning. It's entertaining. Somewhat Katamari-esque in its execution. The game is basically about corrupting fairy tales and this is done with your mere presence. You run around, polluting the sappy fairy tale land with your increasingly potent stench.
The ironic thing in this post, however, is the statement: "Remember, if it says American McGee in the title, you know it's...most likely a video game of some sort."
It's not a game, really. You can't lose, you can't fail. It's more of an interactive story book that you're turning on its ear. Is it fun? Sure. Would I buy it? Well, they're free for a day so I'll experience the chapters that way where available.
I'm left in the dark as to who the target audience is. It's gameplay that would suit a youngster but the whole point is that it's taking tales made for youngsters and giving them a dark twist. It's a bit muddied who McGee was making these for...
eakolb
Logician
Posted 2:51 AM 1/8/08
normally...
the hatred is so corruptive that i can't even spell right anymore.
Logician
Logician
Posted 2:49 AM 1/8/08
I'm very skeptical nowadays with game titles bearing the name "American McGee" on the box.
I just installed Bad Day LA yesterday after spending about €7 on it on sale. "Fun concept" i thought. "Could be good" i thought...
Read some reviews on the net. "Can't be that bad" i thought. "They must be overreacting" i thought...
Played it for one or two hours.
Mind you, i don't notmally curse much (on-line), but that was the Worse piece of SHIT i have ever played! EVER!
Alice was great, but Bad Day LA? Eradicated every ounce of hope and respect i had for that name.
Logician
The Rage
Posted 3:16 AM 1/8/08
@eakolb: Assuming all the chapters are the same length you can beat the game in the first hour.
The Rage
moofrank
Posted 2:58 AM 1/8/08
Liquid_Kore:
The fairy tale has a wacky title, all of which are kind of clumsy translations from the original German
The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was
or
The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers.
moofrank
Chaoticevl
Posted 3:37 AM 1/8/08
Just got done playing the free episode, while the graphics aren't the best, It was a blast to play. It was a lot like Katamari in that it ramped up in ease as the game progressed. The story was quite funny. I'd like to see the rest if they keep the humor at this level or above it should make for a great series.
Chaoticevl
sir_carrot
Posted 3:36 AM 1/8/08
Alice was great. Wouldn't mind a sequel of sorts.
Or a film that doesn't star Buffy.
sir_carrot
HaydenTenno
Posted 3:34 AM 1/8/08
*first
*awful
Damn, I can't type today...
HaydenTenno
HaydenTenno
Posted 3:33 AM 1/8/08
Alice and Scrapland were both pretty good games, but everything else by American McGee has been downright awful. After playing the firat episode of GRIMM, I can safely say it belongs in the aful category. Sad.
HaydenTenno
MelodyKitn
Posted 3:57 AM 1/8/08
I tried to download it and play it, but Gametap would have none of it and the window kept trying, like the engine that could, but failed. Ah well... guess I'll have to look elsewhere for my amusement.
MelodyKitn
Ghede
Posted 3:54 AM 1/8/08
I can't play it. Gametap is fucking buggy. I try to run any game, I get Error 3011. They gave me a blanket answer "It's ur virus protection interfering with our stuff" but even disabling my virus protection leads to redownloading the games, trying to play them, getting error 3011, swearing, re-enabling virus protection, and going online to bitch about it.
Can't wait for my subscription to expire in December.
Ghede
geekgrrl
Posted 3:52 AM 1/8/08
@eakolb: "It's a bit muddied who McGee was making these for..."
that's easy: American McGee.
btw: Spicy Horse? wtf?
geekgrrl
ShaggE
Posted 4:39 AM 1/8/08
It was.... okay, I think. Fun? Yes. Funny? Not really. More obnoxious than humorous.
Ad like eakolb said, I'm not sure who this is geared towards. It's too violent for kids, yet too childish for adults.
ShaggE
Rohsiph
Posted 5:45 AM 1/8/08
I tried playing it, and it chugged along at about 15FPS. Gave up immediately when a platform section popped up . . .
My computer has fallen behind the times, but it's one that has always been able to run UT2k4, among other graphic-intense titles from 3-4 years ago, at 60FPS. Given the style, I have trouble understanding why this ran so poorly on my machine.
I was looking forward to this, and thought the cinematics were entertaining . . . but it's definitely not a title I'm going to use to justify building a new computer (that'll be either Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3, depending on how SC2 runs without an upgrade).
Rohsiph
Ajh
Posted 5:32 AM 1/8/08
@liquid_kore: The last time I saw this particular fairytale in media was in the 80's. It's just NOT popular.
[en.wikipedia.org]
Ajh
Ajh
Posted 5:28 AM 1/8/08
Interesting that they're picking fairytales that aren't standard choices these days. I won't be playing it, but I approve of the choice of the fairytale.
Ajh
ShineyBlueShoes
Posted 6:31 AM 1/8/08
I'll play em all for free and enjoy the 45 minutes of play time. It's like a dark Katamari clone with childish humor.
ShineyBlueShoes
Jayge
Posted 7:06 AM 1/8/08
Ran find on my machine. I loved it. I don't really know why, either. It feels like a really easy fusion of Katamari and Super Mario Sunshine. The story corruption is funny, the stench levels are fun to increase. The game has a good art style, but it seems like they downgraded the graphics as part of the "design" >.< Portable games have better visual fidelity then this.
That being said, I'll probably end up completing all the episodes, just to see what he does and what happens. Corrupting shit is fun as hell. Everyone should give it a try.
Definitely not "awful", or anywhere near it. People seem to be confusing "different" with "awful" a lot lately.
Jayge
misterdna
Posted 6:59 AM 1/8/08
Reading American McGee use the words "truly unique content" is cause for hemorrhaging belly-laughs.
misterdna
HaydenTenno
Posted 8:09 AM 1/8/08
Oh, I can safely say it's awful. Maybe it's different, too... but it's still awful. ;)
HaydenTenno
Ping5000
Posted 8:34 AM 1/8/08
After Bad Day L.A. made me vomit zebra feces for a month, I'm not too keen on trying Grimm.
Ping5000
Jayge
Posted 8:27 AM 1/8/08
Nothing to back up the opinion, or are we just out for a leisurely troll today?
Jayge
Icyme
Posted 9:09 AM 1/8/08
yeah mcgee rocks
it was about time !
Icyme
dunnace
Posted 9:08 AM 1/8/08
I enjoyed it. Simple, but amusing and entertaining.
dunnace
coalhalo
Posted 9:20 AM 1/8/08
It seems that everything US McGee has done post-Alice has been either crap or ignored or both. Whatever the reason, having US McGee attached to a game is not perceived as something positive.
Maybe he is too insulated from the realities of the current game market. All his recent efforts have failed to garner much notice beyond yawns and derision.
coalhalo
SegevRaz
Posted 2:47 AM 2/8/08
@Rohsiph: I think I saw somewhere that this game is built on the UE3 engine.
SegevRaz
bitwize
Posted 7:58 AM 7/8/08
@Tenth: One of the things to remember about American McGee is that he is not to blame if it sucks. He kind of wants all of the credit and none of the blame. In the case of Bad Day LA, for instance, the official explanation is it sucked because of concessions he was forced to make to his publisher, and so the end result is a small fraction of American's original vision of singular genius: razor-sharp action gameplay crossed with biting social commentary.
@ShaggE: That's kind of the point. American McGee is the self-declared next Walt Disney, "only a bit more wicked". The whole point is subversion and twisting and corruption: taking kids' entertainment and adding more corpses and gray and spooky Tim Burton trees. That's why he's a creative genius and he gets to put his name in big letters on the fucking box. Er, title screen. Whatever.
That said, the trailers made this game look like a fun little nugget, and I'd probably pick it up if I could get all the episodes for thirty bucks on WiiWare. Since it's kind of doubtful that that will happen (I asked my contacts about a Wii version), I think I'll give this one a pass too.
bitwize