Warthog Texas Announce Innovative Shake-Up News
Chris Leyton
21/07/2004
In an attempt to shake up the industry, Warthog Texas announces the development of Johnny Whatever and Stick Balls for the PSP…
Warthog today announced bold plans to shake up the industry in response to the lack of creativity and originality that is currently stifling the market, or as Warthog suggest âa fear of testing new IPs when we start to go down the route of âNow thatâs what I call game number 42 in the series of bland sales bets.â
As such the team at Warthog Texas have been busily working on a range of new game concepts, and have recently revealed two titles that are currently in development.
Johnny Whatever is a title scheduled for release in September 2006 for unspecified formats.
In what appears to be a satirical view of the future, the game is set within England and sees the people of New London enslaved by the Iron Royals. Rock ânâ Roll has been outlawed and the Queen has been imprisoned in a vat of mustard, whilst squads of Robo-Bobbies terrorise the populace.
Johnny Whatever, the unlikeliest of heroes, finds himself ripped from the underground music scene and thrust into the conflict with his band mates; however itâs not long before The Hooligans are apprehended by a roving gang of the Iron Ladyâs goons. With the help of an inventor named Roland Clockworks, itâs up to Johnny to save his friends, free the people and restore the true Queen to power.
Weâre told to expect a distinctly different gaming experience, combining ârock music with pulse-pounding actionâ where music is your weapon. The game is currently leading on the Xbox and makes use of the untapped potential of the DirectMusic API to create a unique gaming experience, as players take to the streets, stringing together power-chords and creating combo-riffs to blast enemies with âdecibels of destructionâ.
In addition the developer revealed its first title in development for the Sony PSP. Aiming to emulate the critical success of the likes of Super Monkey Ball, Sticky Balls is a totally original concept that is easy to play yet fiendishly difficult to master.
Described as âan exercise in pure gameplayâ and already becoming the case study of a University course in Game Design; Sticky Balls is played on tables of various shapes and sizes, with a number of coloured or patterned balls. Players can shoot the balls, much like a game of snooker or pool, causing it to roll across the surface, rebounding off the edges; but as âopposedâ to pool, the balls stick to other balls when they touch. As players progress through the game theyâll discover the balls all have different attributes, whilst players must âclusterâ seven balls of the same type to remove them from the table.
Utilising a simplistic control system that makes use of only one button tap, the press release also makes note of a âstylusâ â“ suggesting that a Nintendo DS version may be on the cards.
Weâll have more details on these two titles and others currently in development at Warthog Texas soon.
