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She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant GameStop is being overrun by multi-coloured Overlord minions, so the retailer is giving them away to folks who pre-order any of the three Overlord titles due out next month.
Last Thursday’s Codemasters event had some major pluses and minuses. I’m counting Overlord II as a plus – and all three times the speakers blew out as minuses.
Overlord: Minions for the DS reminds me of a certain game where you have four different-coloured playable characters that you guide with a stylus to work together to solve puzzles.
Codemasters loved the work of Writers’ Guild Award nominee Rhianna Pratchett so much they bought the company! Well, they didn’t actually buy her, but they have brought her back to pen the stories for the next three Overlord titles, Overlord II, Overlord Dark Legend for the Wii, and Overlord Minions for the DS. “Writing for games is part alchemy, part narrative woodwork and part swimming in shark infested waters wearing ham pants, so it’s a real honour to be nominated for Overlord. The Overlord titles are fantastic creative projects and Triumph and Codemasters make a talented and supportive team who keep some of those sharks at bay,” said Rhianna Pratchett. “It’s a real pleasure to be back in the evil writing seat and taking the Overlord and the Minions to new lands and new adventures for the 2009 titles.”
Fans of the console Evil ‘em-up Overlord have already been primed for the upcoming Overlord II. Suppose they find themselves in the Outside World, though — is the DS game Overlord: Minions going to scratch the itch for a bit of handheld Overlordin’?
If the early demo on show at the Games Convention is anything to go by, the answer is ‘sorta’. Codemasters are first and foremost concentrating on making a solid DS game and then trying to cram as much Overlord into the thing as possible.
As such, the game is now entirely stylus-based with your supply of willing minions whittled down to just four – each of which has a special area of expertise. With a greater emphasis on puzzle solving the game looks to be veering towards Lemmings territory.
Not that there is anything wrong with Lemmings (we’ll ignore the various shonky attempts at 3Ding that classic puzzler) but let’s hope Codemasters don’t lose that tasty Overlord flavour. Good for them for not just settling on a nice safe conversion, though.
