A Visit From The Goonie Squad: Crossing Souls
Hotline Dungeons & Dragons
Did you know? In the past, things were not quite the same as the present. The music was different! The clothes were different! Tellies were a different shape! Children were only ever to be found either on bicycles or at the local arcade! Cartoons were good-natured romps full of ultimately harmless monsters and unabashed toy promotion, in which no-one ever got hurt and everyone had a nice laugh at the end! Everything was better in the past, even though we didn't have MP3s or the ability to inject microchips into our pets.
Crossing Souls wants to be one of those cheerful, colourful cartoons, in which kids from an everyday American town are transported away to fantastic adventures, presented as a Zeldalike, as is now Indie Law.
It's nothing like so straightforward as Hyrule reskinned with Goonie-town, however. It features a switching perspective between its cast of five teen protagonists, and thematically appropriate setpiece minigames, such as the bicycle chase featured in every kids' movie from the 80s.
It's a fine balance between evoking a certain aesthetic and a nostalgia overload which denies a game its own personality, but the trailer suggests Crossing Souls has the former more in mind, at least (and with a Drive-inspired soundtrack too). Definitely appealing to an 80s kid such as I, who still tends towards reading Wikipedia pages about Visionairies or Boglins come a sleepless night.
It's a pretty wee thing too, though I'm faintly distraught that the game proper doesn't look like the Saturday morning cartoon-aping cutscenes.
Crossing Souls is on Kickstarter, of course, currently at $7000/$45,000, with just under a month to go. Dev Fourattic also has an arrangement with Hotline Miami publisher Devolver Digital, who seem to remain very much fans an 80s aesthetic.