Tantalus E3 Interview and Trickstar Preview
During E3 we had a chance to catch up with the Tom Crago CEO of Australian developer Tantalus. If you are wondering who they are, theyve been making games since 1994 and they are the brains behind titles like Top Gear Rally for GBA and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger for Nintendo DS.
Our Preview of Trickstar, chat with Tantalus and more about Top Gear Downforce is inside!
We have uploaded over 40 Screenshots of the game, to take a look at them all simply click this text
During our interview the first game Tantalus showcased us was Trick Star for Game Boy Advance, a extreme futuristic racer that combines elements from F-Zero and SSX. The player has the chance to choose from a variety of one wheeled stunt bikes on which they race and perform tricks. There are at least 40 different tricks in the game, all of which can be linked together for combos. The game features a fast paced racing game that feature very detailed Mode7 graphics to draw the racing action, the game runs a perfect speed, and is one of few Gameboy Advance games I have played that dont have any slow down.
The game features an in-depth league mode where you can take your racer from zero to hero, there are different characters both male and female which all have a different style of racing and stats. Also included is a VS mode so you can battle it out with your friends.
This title is an original IP from Tantalus that has been a couple of years in the making. After the success of Top Gear Rally we thought that it was going to be easy to find a publisher for Trick Star, commented Tom. Luckily for Tantalus, Liquid Games acquired the rights and will be publishing this game during the North American summer. The game should also hopefully be getting a release in Australia later in the year.
The second game for a Nintendo system Tantalus is developing was Top Gear: Downforce a new racing game for the Nintendo DS. Apart from Mario Kart DS racers have been a mixed bag on the Nintendo DS and when Kemco approached Tantalus to make the game hey wanted us to create a 3D racer based on the Top Gear franchise for the Nintendo DS, but the as weve seen with other DS racing games the DS just isnt suited for that type of game. So we went back to them and suggested to turn it into a top-down view racer.
While the race itself happens on the top screen, the touch screen will be use to layout a wide arrange of hazards on the map. When questioned about the possibility of a WiFi Connection option Tom told us: This game is scheduled to be released by holiday season 2006 and to meet those deadlines we have to make compromises. Wed love to include an online racing option but theres just no time.
We’d like to thank Tantalus and Tom Crago to take time out to talk with us at the E3!
We have uploaded over 40 Screenshots of the game, to take a look at them all simply click this text
