I'm really glad that ultra-niche gaming blogs like Offworld and SiliconEra exist -- without the Spencer Yips and Brandon Boyers of the world, I would never know that Tecmo acquired the rights to bring Pieces Interactive's Fret Nice to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network next year. My indie sensibilites, you see, are about as refined as Cheez-wiz. And that's too bad, because Fret Nice looks to be the kind of quirky, carefree, and innovative platforming fun we need right now. Check out its plot synopsis:
Everybody loves the Vibrant Chordblasters, the whole world's new darling hitband. Everybody except for the Hair Bängers, inhabitants of the Heavy Metal Kingdom. Upon hearing the news of the Vibrant Chordblasters' spreading all over the world, the Hair Bängers take action and go on a destructive rampage!
Brütal Legend doesn't stand a chance.
So what's so special about some Swedish indie platformer with great art and music being released on XBLA and PSN? Well, Fret Nice, as its name implies, is controlled via one of the dozens of plastic guitars currently collecting dust under your bed. Sick.
As far as how the game actually works, I have no idea. The trailers (below the jump) suggest that the strum bar will act like an action button.
Tecmo announced the game to very little fanfare, apparently, during E3. We missed it because, well, frankly, there was a lot of other sh*t going on at the time. More recently, Tecmo also announced that it had acquired the intellectual propetry as well. If you're not convinced that the game, on the strength of its concept alone, could be awesome, check out Fret Nice's pedigree: it was a 2008 IGF finalist, and Pieces Interactive are also the guys that brought us Puzzlegeddon.
Hit the jump to see some trailers: the first one is relatively new, and the other, just for giggles, is from IGF.
Joseph Leray is a founding Destructoid editor and has better hair than you. He speaks French and needs to send us his updated bio in English, preferably.
Likes
Confuse Ray, Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into my life
Meet the rest of the team
Wow this actually looks pretty good. It kind of looks like a mix between 3 games, Loco Roco and two others I can't think of at the moment. One is similar to another games art style and that was Flash based I believe.
I wouldn't mind picking up one of those guitars just for this game, looks fun :) Good music too :]
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12:00 PM on 06.19.2009
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I wouldn't mind picking up one of those guitars just for this game, looks fun :) Good music too :]
I really like the old art style more *sadness*