By Quintin Smith on June 16th, 2011 at 10:45 am.
How would you like a game that’s a crunchy blend of Super Meat Boy and 1999 physics pioneer Rollcage, developed by a team of indie devs operating out of Strasbourg, France? How would you like it to have single-screen multiplayer, so you can trash-talk your friends while they’re sitting right there? How would you like it if it was called QuadSmash, and there was a demo, and there was a trailer after the jump? Happy Thursday, noble reader.
Here’s the gist of it-
QuadSmash is a frantic arcade game with a strong multiplayer orientation.
Players control crazy-fast vehicles battling against each other in epic matchups. Your vehicle can ride upside down and emit shockwaves, it has an energy grapple and a powerful dash to smash the ground. The main game mode, and the most enjoyable, is called “Smashball”. It’s a ball game in which each team must score in the opponent’s goal. There is also a Deathmatch mode (actually a “last one standing”) for more destruction-oriented games.
QuadSmash also features a full single-player campaign.
That wasn’t, however, something I’d read before watching the footage below, making it my absolute favourite kind of trailer- the kind that shows off something so new and inventive that it takes me ages to figure out what the game is. 30 seconds, in this case. And what a great 30 seconds they were. I’ll be taking a closer look at this later in the month, but you guys should definitely take a look and tell me just how highly I should prioritise it.
16/06/2011 at 10:51 Rii says:
I have no idea what is going on here.
16/06/2011 at 10:57 Raniz says:
I think team 2 won
16/06/2011 at 11:09 McDan says:
So did I at first, but then you realise they’re basically just puttiing a ball in a hole, but in a really cool, lit-up awesome way.
16/06/2011 at 10:53 Dozer says:
DAMMIT QUINTIN STOP SHOWING ME THINGS I REALLY WANT TO SPEND MONEY ON
I need to save money :-(
16/06/2011 at 10:54 Dana says:
Ah Rollcage and Wipeout had one of the best ‘racing-soundtracks’ ever.
And Quadmash looks fun !
16/06/2011 at 15:10 Raiyan 1.0 says:
I miss Psygnosis… :,(
16/06/2011 at 10:56 Raniz says:
That looked crazy – and awesome.
Also, I absolutely loved Rollcage.
16/06/2011 at 10:59 Teddy Leach says:
QUADSMASH.
Say it with me, friends. QUADSMASH.
16/06/2011 at 11:39 westyfield says:
QUADS MASH.
Remember the krogans from Mass Effect?
You’re welcome.
16/06/2011 at 11:04 Meeego says:
Can’t wait to humiliate my friends with this game!
16/06/2011 at 11:09 Joe Duck says:
Looks great! And incredibly difficult!
16/06/2011 at 11:09 redeyedsamurai says:
The first paragraph of this article is exactly why I come to this place everyday. Happy Thursday to you too!
16/06/2011 at 11:21 MuscleHorse says:
Took me about 50 seconds to understand it, dummy.
Looks like fun, I’ll at least give the demo a go.
16/06/2011 at 11:27 Vexing Vision says:
This… this looks amazing.
I can’t wait to be humiliated in amazing, unexpected ways. I love the fact that you can grapple the other cars, apparently.
16/06/2011 at 11:53 Petethegoat says:
“developed by a team of indie devs operating out of Strasbourg, France?”
Sold!
But it does look almost the same as one of the modes in Hammerfight. Still.
16/06/2011 at 12:06 Gabe McGrath says:
Request to trailer makers.
*Please don’t* do split-screen views (for more than a few secs) for singleplayer levels.
It makes it impossible to notice ‘cool things’ – which surely is the purpose of a trailer.
(And no, I don’t think many people would rewind and rewatch the trailer 4 times
so they can watch each of the 4 tiny screens individually.)
16/06/2011 at 14:43 elisee says:
(I work on QuadSmash!)
You’re totally right, but split screens make things look sooo cool, we couldn’t resist! Good news is: I recorded a little bit of singleplayer gameplay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUaP0Gihjl4
Hope you like it!
16/06/2011 at 16:00 SnakeNuts says:
I like the look of that. Definitely on my ‘get-demo-and-then-look-at-wallet’ list.
16/06/2011 at 12:11 Gnoupi says:
The game looks, and feels really good, from the little I tried the demo. Going to try more, but it looks like a great little game, so far.
[edit] The single player is more a tutorial to get used to the car handling, but it’s quite nice. The multiplayer feels like something fun and hectic, in fact it has everything to be… at least from what it looks like, as the lonely player that I was. There are no bots, and the multiplayer is only on same machine.
While this is good for an xbox game, it is quite annoying on PC. It’s frustrating to see a game with that potential, and not being able to use it.
In my opinion, this game would be a great multiplayer indie game like Altitude, if it had bigger maps, a gameplay for more cars at same time, and online gaming. It really feels good, there are great mechanics in it… But I can’t really exploit them on my PC.
That’s frustrating.
16/06/2011 at 16:53 elisee says:
(I work on QuadSmash)
Glad to hear you like the game!
Just thought I’d let you know we’re planning to implement networked play in a future update. I can’t guarantee it’ll work well enough for online play since the game is very latency sensitive but it’ll most likely at least be good enough for some LAN play. If this doesn’t work out, we’ll fall back to implementing some AI.
16/06/2011 at 21:12 Gnoupi says:
Very good news!
Any estimate on how long around, it will take? Just to have an idea, no hurry.
16/06/2011 at 21:32 elisee says:
I don’t want to set false expectations, but let’s say I plan to have it done this summer. It will depend on other projects and contracts we might have.
Thanks for your reports & ideas on GetSatisfaction, I’ll check them out!
16/06/2011 at 12:12 johnpeat says:
Tried the demo for this on 360 yesterday – the single player gets dull pretty quickly but the multi seems to have some legs…
16/06/2011 at 15:12 KaL_YoshiKa says:
I do love same console multiplayer – this will make a good complement to Death Tanks. Now if Powerstone 2 manages to find it’s way onto the Arcade.
16/06/2011 at 22:53 rayne117 says:
Is it just me or was that Youtube video’s sound quality down right terrible?