D3 Press Day NYC: Dead Head Fred
I've just walked in from the D3Publisher press event in New York's swanky Hudson Hotel - I'm still wearing my double-breasted 1980s Paula Poundstone-style power suit and a confection of bangs and Aquanet that my former mid-morning stylist calls "Bea Arthur chic." But if I were the John C. McGinley-voiced protagonist of Dead Head Fred, I'd have other options: nine different heads to collect during 12 levels of darkly humorous, grown-up PSP fun.
I sat down with Vicious Cycle president Eric Peterson, who walked me through the basics and showed off some of Dead Head Fred's ample gameplay. First and foremost, I was struck by how much the game looked like it was running on a PS2 - the graphics, graphical optimization and sound were all top-notch. Peterson said he'd actually been pressed on that point: some had asked, if the game looks so good, why not run it on the PS2 instead of the PSP? But that's what Fred is here to do - bring a flagship original IP to the PSP that isn't a port or a franchise loaner.
More on game features in a moment, first there are two aspects of Dead Head Fred that immediately scored the game big points, especially running on the PSP: the first is the utterly intuitive native camera, which follows the player exceptionally well even during traditionally tricky moments like platform jumping around 90-degree corners, as well as offering easily accessible 1st-person free look and a quick camera reset button. The second is negligible, even forgettably short load times. On a PSP. Zelda-style area transitions allow loading times to occur almost in the background without stalling the game flow. I asked Peterson if that had been tricky to accomplish with the PSP hardware, and while he admitted that other games he'd worked on (such as the Marvel Trading Card game) had presented load time challenges, making Fred brisk hadn't been too difficult.
Make the jump to read about brains floating in jars, mutant cocks, and to see a gallery of new screens!
John C. McGinley's voicework is very much evident, especially in the game's opening scene, in which Fred awakens to his unfortunate skull-less reanimation. Fans of the Scrubs actor's caustic humor will find it here in no short supply.
Fred begins the game with his original brain (and eyes) floating in a jar of fluid that is the game's default cabeza: with the jarhead you begin and to the jarhead you return when Fred's health drops low, for while there are plenty of ways to regain health, the regenerative properties of the jarhead seems the fastest way to heal yourself. As you progress through the game's 12 levels (each of which is a mix of bonus side areas with their own missions and mini-games), you'll gain heads with new powers that make revisiting previous areas a profitable idea. The corpse head, for instance, can inflate with air (to float through the air) or gasoline (to become an unliving flamethrower) or water (to put out the flames you started, you pyro). The tiki idol head poisons enemies; the dummy head makes you resemble a living being and is needed to speak with NPCs; there's even a shrunken head that shrinks Fred, opening up access to secret areas a-la Minish Cap.
Fred has a number of special moves that use rage points, and a limited number of rage points he can store, although that number increases as Fred battles bosses and finishes tough missions - golden worms allow an upgrade to the rage meter, and upgrades are available for the heads themselves at the aptly-named "Head Shop." To gain a rage point all Fred needs to do is pull off his signature move - decapitating an enemy in a spray of blood and juices. Mmm, juices.
I was looking forward to Dead Head Fred before, but now I'm positively stoked. A great-looking mature game for the PSP, designed as a first-class citizen of the oft-maligned PSP world, great voice talent and a concept that practically sells itself - and what other handheld game offers you mutant cockfighting as a minigame? With upgradeable cocks, no less. Sometimes the headless corpses have all the luck...
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 23 May 2007
Other stuff like this: d3, dead head fred, john c mcginley, psp, vicious cycle
