What To Make of Spyborgs?

Filed in archive News on June 4, 2008

Capcom has been hinting for some time about some sort of third person, action adventure game. Now, let's quickly recap what this generally means to most people:


Image of Lost Planet from Digital Trends.

Lost Planet. A true next gen third person action extravaganza.

Or how about a classic, from the previous era of gaming?


Image of devil may cry from Absolute-Playstation.com.

Yep- this sort of thing is what we expected when Capcom talked about a "Sci-Fi Third Person Action Game."

So here's what we're getting:


Image of Spyborgs from IGN.com.

So, um, yeah, the internets exploded, with Capcom even stepping in to calm the masses with a "the game will be great, trust us!" sermonette on the Capcom message boards.

So what is this thing anyway? Spyborgs is indeed a third person action game, but it seems to want to channel a good deal of Pixar influenced comedy in the process. The developers have talked about wanting to make it seem like a "Saturday Morning Cartoon," and the game even looks to have little commerical breaks- aka minigames in between levels- to drive this point home.

The crux of the gameplay seems to be swapping between the various characters, who have different abilities. This seems to be an influence from the Lego games, as all of those use character swapping to solve different scenarios as well as to drive home another important part of Spyborg's stew: co-op play. This game really wants you to play it with other people (though it looks as though you could enjoy it just fine single-handed).

What's my take? I think this could be an excellent game, but Capcom should have expected the backlash from their fans, who at this point are sort of used to a certain style from them. This "Teen" focused title, with its colorful, cartoony graphics just doesn't compare to the intense images that games like Lost Planet and Devil May Cry display.

I think Christian Svensson (Capcom USA's VP) has it right though, when he reminds fans on the message boards about Zak and Wiki- derided at first, and now seen as a penultimate Wii experience.

There is nothing about Spyborgs that says to me "crap." I hope Capcom fans can turn off the part of the hardcore gamers mind that things that things have to look a certain way to contain great gameplay.

More Spyborgs info here.