Interplay returns with publishing program for small developers
Interplay, best known for publishing 80's and 90's-era hits like The Bard's Tale, Earthworm Jim, Descent, and Fallout, plans to return to the gaming industry long after it was left for dead. According to The Escapist Interplay's hopeful ticket back into business is the Interplay Discovery program, purportedly designed to assist smaller developers with publishing. Two titles are already scheduled for release this year: Tommy Tronic is a 2D, PC-based platformer by Ukranian developer Oasis Games, and Pinball Yeah is a pinball game for iPhones and from Portugese code house Coderunners. Yeah, it's called Pinball Yeah. It doesn't really seem like a particularly auspicious return from the company that published Fallout.
Interplay had a rough downward spiral after several titles underperformed commercially, eventually leading to a buyout by Titus Interactive - developer of the legendary failure Superman 64. Titus itself closed shop in 2004 and Interplay was left with debt and legal investigations for worker non-payment. They managed to scrape by on the sale of the Fallout license to Bethesda in 2007, which would later release the critically-acclaimed, top-selling Fallout 3. Before the recent announcement of the Interplay Discovery program, the only signs of life from Interplay were vague teases of Fallout Online development. Maybe this marks the start of a comeback trail.
Friday Flashback: Jazz Jackrabbit 2
In the 90's, all the game companies wanted to make their own Mario or Sonic. Usually this manifested in a handful of crappy cash-in side-scrollers featuring some generic fuzzy animal with attitude. That flood of forgettable critters, combined with the waning PC gaming market near the end of the last millennium, is probably why Epic Megagames' Jazz Jackrabbit 2 fell through the cracks and never got the attention it deserved. Which is a shame, because Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is awesome.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a surprisingly entertaining shooter/platformer that combines both high-speed adventuring and tons of gunslinging into one of the best side-scrolling experiences on the PC. The game plays like a cross between Sonic the Hedgehog and Earthworm Jim. You play the titular green alien hare, whose purpose in life is to fight the oppressive hordes of the space tortoises. To do this, you get to use tons of different guns like flamethrowers, freeze guns, and laser beams to blast enemies, all while running at near-hedgehog level speeds through conveniently curving and sloping levels.
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