We’ve nailed our collective pants to our chairs, but they keep flying off when we look at the first image from Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas. Finnish developer Cornfox & Bros describes it as a Zelda-‘inspired’ action adventure game that seeks to put the focus on puzzles and exploration instead of RPG sub-systems and menus. It’s also gorgeous — like, your-pants-will-pop-off kind of gorgeous.
The name of the game is derived from the fiction’s ancient sea monster who “terrorizes" the World of Uncharted Seas. You’ll play as a “nameless hero" tasked with killing this monster and saving his sister. In order to accomplish these things, you’ll need to explore the world in boat and on foot, and undoubtedly plunge into some puzzle-y areas filled with treasure.
We don’t know about you, but we can’t help thinking about Wind Waker whenever we look at the art and consider Cornfox & Bros’s pitch for Oceanhorn. Bring it on, we say, because the world needs more of these games.
UI and effects not final or missing, FYI.
Cornfox & Bros, one of the gaggle of developers responsible for Death Rally if you didn’t know, is expecting Oceanhorn to hit at some point in 2012. This reveal first appeared to our forums and the studio says it’ll continue updating its thread as it reveals new information. There’s also a blog, too, which is revealing some other cool mechanics. For example, apparently Oceanhorn can attack “at any time" while you’re sailing the high seas in your upgradeable boat. So excited!
Nice review; thumbs up to the game.
back2this
I'd really like to get this game now but I feel like I should see if they follow many other developer's leads and put this on sale like 3 days from now. I hate it when developers do that but it makes me not want to buy anything at launch. This looks a little too awesome to resist though so we'll see.
This game is looking good!
In the review, you mention it's "just shy of an hour." By this, what do you mean? Solely the initial campaign? I know you referenced the encouragement for players to return to levels, and to essentially re-do all the things you have accomplished throughout the game, but is it as charming and provocative as Infinity Blade? Afterall, Infinity Blade's "campaign" is maybe an hour-and-a-half to two hours (to beat the God King, at least), so the small campaign shouldn't be an issue if the additional content/incentive is worthy.
And like Griffey, I, also, am stuck in limbo at all new IOS content. We've all adapted our pricing models enough to know $6 is a pretty expensive game (in the touch-world), and so I am pretty skeptical that this game won't have a 50% off bonus like Dark Meadows had, which was only a month or so after it released, right? Plus, x-mas is around the corner, and it's safe to bet a bajillion devs/publishers are going to place their games on sale, so this is definitely a tough call. Again, it's the price of a pack of cigarettes, but, in the IOS world, I feel like it's a carton of them.
I grabbed this game and I really enjoy it. The touch controls are really well done. I am going to say that this is my favorite game to date. So fun, running great on my iPhone 4.