Destructoid has been an excellent place to get the news about games you’re interested in, and has opened my eyes to several great titles I would not have known about had I ignored this place. But nothing’s perfect, and that means not even Destructoid can cover every upcoming promising game. Recently one series that seems to have slipped through the cracks has come to my attention. No one is talking about the gaming legend Matt Hazard! Never heard of him? That’s funny, he’s done a plethora of games, spanning back to the arcades in 1983 in The Adventure of Matt In Hazard Land, A Fistful of Hazard in the year of my birth 1987, and even the Japanese game Goonzilla versus Mega-Matt in 1993. Unfortunately, as the years have gone on, he’s dropped off the radar of most gamers and has sunk to the level of many unfortunate mascots of yesteryear and is only seen in party games and the typical kart racer these days. Is none of this ringing a bell for you? Were you too young to have experienced the savagery of a Hazard game? Could it possibly be that your retro knowledge of old games is *dun-dun-dun* incomplete?!? Find out on the next installment of Destructoid Blog-C!


Seriously though, calm down, read on.

All of this and more information about Matt Hazard can be found out at this awesome site, a viral marketing ploy to create a sense of history for the new game Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, the true topic of this Blog. I’m really surprised that the first place I heard about this game was not destructoid, but my newest GameInformer. Surely someone should have found it interesting and latched on to this project, but mysteriously, I did some searching on the site and found almost nothing but the typical news blurb about it. Well, it’s time to drop some knowledge on you folks, so here’s some info on this upcoming title.

The real hook of the game is that it’s a hilarious parody of your typical action hero archetype in videogames, and of games in general. The story starts when Matt Hazard is contacted by his old publisher, Marathon Megasoft about reviving his career as a figurehead of videogame carnage, finding out only too late that it’s a giant trap. As he makes his way through the typical meatpacking plant level, killing goons with his arsenal of guns and bad one liners, the fallen enemies are mysteriously re-coded into zombies from a previous game he’s starred in. You see, the game he’s supposed to be playing in now is being hacked by someone out to kill Matt using his old enemies. This leads to some really unique moments that I hope will be used fully to great extent.



The premise and script for this game were concocted by Dave Ellis, an award winning games writer previously known for writing the script for Dead Head Fred. Further giving the production of this game credit is the fact that the great Will Arnett from Arrested Development is doing the voice of Matt Hazard, giving him a gruff yet comedic over-serious tone. Also lined up to voice of Megasoft executive, Wally Wellesley, is Neil Patrick Harris, AKA Doogie Houser. Hearing Arnett’s voice for Matt is great, and his delivery of some of the goofed up one-liners like the title of this blog are priceless. Check out some of the videos for your own appraisal of his work.



Ultimately though, this is a videogame we’re talking about here, so for all this hilarity and parody, gameplay has to work well for the game to be any good. There is very little known about Vicious Cycle Software, the developer of Matt Hazard, which is based in Chapel Hill NC, besides the fact that they did the previously mentioned Dead Head Fred. Up until now they’ve mostly done children’s games, but nothing quite as ambitious as this current project. Videos for the game look like there’s an adequate cover system in place, and it uses the now commonplace third person perspective.



It’s hard to tell just how good or bad this game could end up being, but nonetheless, I think that this is a gamers’ game, and people should be aware of it. So, what do you guys think?