Microsoft's E3 press conference this year may have had some high and low moments, but aside from the ever boring Kinect segments the attention of gamers was grabbed when MS showed off their exclusives. Besides heavyweights such as Gears and Forza, Microsoft made a splash with their upcoming XBLA exclusives. One XBLA teaser trailer that was a high point, almost in a "lol, wut?" sort of way, was TwistedPixel's Lococycle.
Since being announced at E3 this year TwistedPixel hasn’t said a single word about Lococycle which in turn either made people forget about the game or continuously wonder what the hell we would actually receive. Well today the folks at TwistedPixel have released not just one but two new videos for the game, one of which I’m still trying to comprehend what my eyes were showing me.
As the E3 trailer hinted at, the main character of Lococycle is a sentient high-tech motorcycle whose origins probably lay in some sort of top-secret government agency mumbo jumbo which involves killers wearing black suits and sunglasses. The complete story of Lococycle still hasn’t been revealed as of now, but the gameplay mechanics have been revealed and can be summed up as Spy Hunter with a dash of Road Rash.
Iris, the lightcycle-esque motorcycle, will have standard abilities on the battlefield such as firing machine guns and all that goodness but there are other, dare I say surprising, elements present in Lococycle. Besides blowing stuff up Iris can seemingly do mid-air combos, which I’m dubbing bike-fu, which may seem dumbfounding at first but just remember that this is a TwistedPixel game we’re talking about.
One element about Lococycle which eludes us right now is why Iris drags human characters behind her. It may look silly at first, but I’m sure there’s a legit gameplay mechanic as to why it looks like people are being dragged by a high-tech motorcycle and aren’t suddenly turning into a bloody pulp.
Lococycle may be a tough sell, even to those who regularly purchase games on XBLA, but it looks like silly arcade inspired fun that ought to be decent. I’m still trying to figure out the finer points of the mechanics along with whether or not the game could be too one-note, but TwistedPixel has always delivered fun games so I’m sure Lococycle will follow in those steps. Also, it certainly doesn’t hurt that none other than Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The Unit) is voicing an old-school motorcycle antagonist. That alone will be worth the price of admission for me.
