Spyborgs

At the end of April IGN reported that new developer Bionic Games is working on a third-person action game for the Wii based on new intellectual property (IP). The developer has teamed up with Capcom and the two companies recently revealed the project: Spyborgs. The designers are aiming for the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon, in both look and pacing.

The Spyborgs are a team of super heroes, each with their own unique abilities. The game is designed for local co-op play, so two heroes will be engaged in action at all times. Each scenario requires the specific talents of two 'borgs, so over the course of the game we'll get to play the whole team. If you don't have any friends, the AI will handle your team mate for you and you can switch between the two at will. The game is controlled with the Remote and Nunchuk.

Bionic wasn't ready to reveal the entire cast of characters, but a trailer showed a fellow with a gun for an arm, a DJ kid who uses some sort of hologram turntables, a ninja lady, and a brutish robot named Bouncer. A gameplay presentation was given highlighting Bouncer and a teleporting character named Kinetic. It took place in a sewer, populated by bionic piranha, alligators sporting jet packs, fish in robot suits, and rotting teddy bears. Kinetic was able to "jump" short distances, like the X-men's Nightcrawler. Bouncer could pound the ground, leaving large cracks that appeared to be permanent.

We saw some typical examples of co-op gameplay: Kinetic would teleport across a gap and step on a switch, lowering a bridge that allowed Bouncer to cross. Gameplay also consists of a lot of running around, beating up enemies and objects a la Ratchet and Clank (members of the Bionic team worked on Ratchet and Clank). But since this is all presented like a TV show, the action is frequently interrupted by commercial breaks. These are humorous little vignettes parodying toy commercials or plumbing services. But since this is a game, the commercials are playable. A spot for Nuke 'Em Now Robots turned into a rock 'em sock 'em mini-game that played much like Wii Sports Boxing.

There are also rail shooter sections where players aim with the Remote to blast enemies. The level we were shown culminated in a boss fight against an airship, played as a rail shooter. Our heroes were in a mine cart circling the ship, blasting away at its defenses.

Bionic Games said it chose Capcom as its publisher because it knows how to extend its properties beyond games into other realms of entertainment like TV, movies, and comic
books. That's exactly what the creators of Spyborgs aim to do with their property. It's already designed like a cartoon, and Bionic says it is currently in talks with several companies to branch out.

Spyborgs has a very kid-friendly look, but the writing is a little more mature than the visuals. We noticed several instances where swear words had been bleeped out. Of course, a lot of the gags are of the childish, toilet humor variety, as well. One commercial features two banjo-playing fish singing about poo.

Spyborgs is still pretty early in development and is set for release next year.

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