Hitchiker's Ride Through The Galaxy: Grow Up
Fly me to the moon
Grow Home was one of last year's best surprises. In tottering hero B.U.D., a robot who behaves like a drunk toddler, Ubisoft found a protagonist more engaging and iconic than any number of baseball caps or historical murderers. The sequel, Grow Up [official site], is out next month, having been announced at E3 just a month ago. I don't have a great deal of news to report but I am very happy about that new picture of B.U.D. hanging on to the back of a flying space-fish like a mechanical Marty McFly.
Grow Up expands on the original by providing B.U.D. with a Floradex, which allow the little bot to clone the 24 plant species found across the game's new planet (and its moon). Aerial abilities have also been beefed up, as can be seen in the presentation below.
But look at that fish-thing at the top of the page. Look at how its expression is both curious (“WTF IS THIS THING HANGING ON TO MY ASS”) and a bit cheesed off (“PLEASE LEAVE MY ASS ALONE”). There are a couple more new screenshot2 right here.
If you haven't played the first game, you won't know how incredible the actual growth mechanic is. It lets you essentially construct levels within levels, riding enormous stems into the sky and controlling their growth. You can make structures, stairways to heaven, Lovecraftian effigies, or space-labyrinths. It's extraordinary.
Grow Up could be my favourite 3d platformer since Super Mario Galaxy.