I got a quick chance to check out Collosatron: Massive World Threat, the newly announced Halfbrick game, at PAX Aus, and it looks like it has the makings of another hit. It’s very easy to jump into, but a little more complex than Fruit Ninja – so the developers have shared some more details about exactly how it works.
In Collosatron, players are a massive robotic snake, wrecking entire cities and the armies rushing to defend them as the action is shown from a slightly shaky helicopter news camera. Dragging different coloured blocks towards your snake will add them in, increasing your length, and turning them into auto-firing cannons. Different colours have different weapons, and that’s where the strategy comes in – you can mix the basic colours of blue, red, and yellow, for purple blocks and the like. Or, you can combine three blues for a stronger blue.
Balancing your behemoth with intelligent combinations is the key. But James “Peanuts” Schultz of Halfbrick says there’s no one correct way to win.
“Strategies can vary greatly from one person to another and we can’t wait for the community to discover new play styles once the game is released.
“Only base colours can be combined, although it is possible to upgrade all weapons including those which have already been mixed. This is done by placing the same weapon in a row of three.
“Enemy waves become increasingly chaotic as a game progresses. Boom trucks, aerial bombers and even boss fights will become more intense as General Moustache pulls out all the stops to destroy Colossatron.”
True to Halfbrick’s super-addictive form, when Collosatron finally dies, your score screen displays a big “Launch Attack” button, prompting you to get right back into the action. And Peanuts expects the usual slew of social and competitive features to increase replayability further:
“We’re now focusing on progression, customisation, unlockables, competitive features and also social interaction to really flesh out the experience and create an awesome, feature-packed game for launch.”
Collosatron is being developed by the same Brisbane-based core team of 8 behind Fruit Ninja Kinect, Raskulls and Fruit Ninja: Puss In Boots. It’s definitely going to be at home on touch devices, but expect more details in the coming weeks regarding platforms and a release date.
Comments
13 responses to “Halfbrick’s New Game Looks Mighty Addictive”
looks really cool. most halfbrick games are. Saying that it is a reworked version of snake? Saything that saying that I love SNAKE!
It’s not really like Snake. You have no direct control over which direction your giant mecha snake goes in. You’re focused on popping in combinations of segments – different colours or sets of 3 will give you different/more powerful weapons, as well as administering healing items and sometimes taking over firing for a brief, concentrated attack with a cool down.
I thought it sounded a bit odd that when it was described to me at PAX, but once I got into playing it, it became evident that its far too hectic to really feasibly take control of the snake too.
Ah I see! Thanks for the clarification
Massive Worth Threat eh? I suppose it is in a way…
Massive Worth Threat? But this looks cool, glad to see more interesting games developed in aus.
Had a play in PAX, really look to be a wonderfully addictive game. There are also green blocks that heal other parts of your snake, looks like those green blocks will becoming important in later strategies if you want high score. But the game doesn’t really tell you about that. Another thing is that the action can get very hectic pretty quickly.
Man, that PAX demo was awesome, right? I was chatting to a couple of the attendants about it, asking when it was going to be out and stuff, and they said that the PAX demo was really just a demonstration of the core concepts, and there was probably going to be a bit more to it. Given that what I played on its own was awesome, I can’t wait for it to come out.
Also, how cool was their booth? A LOT of effort for something which could’ve just been a scattering of ipads.
Wow, what a total change from Half Brick! I’m used to semi-casual games, this looks like it’s targeted more towards the hardcore mobile gamer.
On first impression it looks and sounds as deep as existing HB games such as Fish Out Of Water.
Just because it features an animated clip with guns, war and dragons though doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for hardcore gamers, and knowing HB, they’ll have multiple layers hidden within the game – meaning it can be played by anyone with any level of gaming experience.
On another note, surely the team drew inspiration from the one and only Snake mobile game.
I had great fun with this at their PAX booth. It gets surprisingly tense, and if you don’t manage your colours well you can very quickly end up with a whole bundle of support modules and no actual guns to defend yourself. Very much looking forward to this when it comes out.
Colostomy: Massive Pants Threat
Can’t wait for this! Halfbrick are the best. Out of all the AAA titles on the Sony Vita, Jetpack Joyride is my most played game.
Well that was an epic trailer