Kick Ass, the Game, developed by Frozen Codebase and published by WHA Entertainment, will be released April 15th on PSN and the iPhone App Store, to coincide with the release of the similarly named movie, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. Confused, yet?
Here’s how it breaks down in the game – you can play as Kick-Ass, the young man who vows to put an end to crime in his native New York, or as Hit-Girl or Big-Daddy, both equally awesome characters. In my time with the game, executive producer Ben Geisler walked Hit Girl through her paces. Moves include wall runs, special spin attacks, and a sweet jump in the air, spin and shoot the bad guys below. No, those aren’t the official names of the moves, but you can see my point. Running through each wave and environment during our preview was fun-looking and promised enough variety to justify the under $20 price tag Geisler promised. No word on a specific price, nor on the cost (or gameplay differences) of the iPhone version.
The game is still in alpha, but the animations are smooth and the character models colorful and interesting. The game is basically a hack n slash button masher with some RPG elements like “Hero Abilities,” special moves that you unlock as you gather golden rings from beating down the baddies. Each room we went into wiht the leveled-to-about-20 Hit Girl character had it’s own mini-boss that made the fights more interesting and strategic. There’s some light puzzle solving and platforming tossed in as well, with some cool environmental damage effects like exploding barrels that cause damage and can set other things nearby on fire (pallets, stacks of wood, etc.)
Missions are sent to your character, as in the comic and movie, through Facespace. Funnily, the game touts some Facebook integration in the real world, allowing players to brag on Facebook about the trophies and levels they’ve completed. With 50 levels to level up through per character, and 8 missions to solve, this game is shaping up to actually be a good game, rather than a quick cash in on a movie and comic book property. There are movie assets in the game, as cutscenes to set the scene for missions, but not all missions are directly tied to the movie, says Geisler. The comic book art also moves the story along, adding some new twists to the comic book story itself. Artwork has been done byJohn Traveno and Mark
Millar, which just rocks all kind of ways. Stay tuned right here for a review as soon as possible, and more artwork and video trailers as the developers send them to us.
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