Adventure Time may be a great animated series, but it's kind of hit-or-miss when it comes to video games. While that sort of thing is to be expected of games based on licensed properties, Adventure Time is such a spirited show that it's kind of a bummer that there isn't an actual awesome game based on the cartoon. That's why I sincerely hope that Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will be the game that fans have been itching for, but I won't get my hopes up too high.
While checking out the Little Orbit meeting room at E3, I was shown an early build of the game in action. I would've loved to have played it for myself, but such an option wasn't offered to me, which I understand considering WayForward is still ironing out the kinks.
Like Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!, Secret of the Nameless Kingdom is influenced by Nintendo's treasured Zelda franchise. More specifically, the game is inspired by A Link to the Past, arguably the most popular game in the series for many indiviuals. The upcoming title features light RPG elements, allowing you to make Finn stronger as you go along and defeat bosses, as well as a variety of weapons, and an isometric perspective.
Jake once again joins you on your adventure, though this time around, he takes on the role of an inventory bag of sorts instead of being a regular old partner, choosing to hang out in your pocket in order to simultaneously help you out and hide from his angry wife. What that entails is that you now rely on Jake's shape-shifting abilities in order to summon different types of items.
Jake can turn into a shield, which is useful for more than just blocking projectiles. Certain spiked enemies can't be defeated through regular means, so you'll need to summon your shield and bump into them to flip them over and expose their tender, delicate bellies (yay for weak spots!). That's when you get stabby and destroy those fools. Jake can also turn into Grabby Hands, a weapon that can slap baddies around and spin Finn around in order to take on multiple enemies at once.
The Little Orbit rep who spoke to me about Secret of the Nameless Kingdom showed me one of the earlier boss battles. In this encounter, a group of large enemies were spitting projectiles at Finn. By using the Grabby Hands, he was able to spin around and reflect the shots right back at the enemies. After getting hit, the stunned boss characters were susceptible to attacks, allowing Finn to pick them off one by one.
Secret of the Nameless Kingdom sports a nice, clean look to it that blends a bit of old school RPG style with the series' signature cartoon style. The environments did a look a bit barren, so hopefully some more trees, buildings, and landmarks are added to give the game a more diverse look.
Again, it's hard to tell if Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will be a great game. From what I saw, it could be good, but I wouldn't exactly know not having played it myself. At the very least, here's hoping Adventure Time fans get a game that's more than just serviceable. Secret of the Nameless Kingdom will launch this November on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and 3DS.
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