The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge
We go hands-on with Capcom's action treatment of Tim Burton's classic.
Published: July 27, 2005
E3 may sound like a bunch fun and games and... well, it's exactly that, usually in mass quantities, but there are downsides: too many games to cover, too little time to cover them in, and too much nerdy man-sweat to fight past to get a decent demo. And then of course there's the fact that you're fighting videos playing at decibels that would pop a normal man's head.
But we, you see, are supergeeks, able to bounce from meeting to meeting, catching fleeting glances of games that "might be pretty cool" if we could stop for a second to play them. Of course, those that we do are never as good as when we can play them in the peace and quiet of our office, where the only sounds interrupting the games are the soft sobs of Chris weeping in the corner.
Perhaps now you understand the excitement that skipped across our faces when we found a preview build of Capcom's upcoming TNBC-based action game Oogie's Revenge waiting for us in the morning. Excitement turned to mild enthusiasm when we found out it was just the same three level build shown off at E3, but it's better than nothing, we suppose.
Before we dig into each of the levels, we'll go over the basics. Taking place shortly after the events of the film, the game puts you in the shoes of Jack Skellington as he strives to build Halloween into an even bigger and more extravagant holiday for the denizens of Halloween Town.
Jack's not the only one keeping busy, though. Dr. Finkelstein has been busy crafting new inventions, not the least of which is the Soul Robber, an ethereal gauntlet that works something like those little sticky hands you could get out of grocery store vending machines that would get all gooped up with hair and crumbs after about 5 minutes of trying to stick it to everything in sight.
Jack can use the Soul Robber to reach out and grab enemies from afar (by pressing the Triangle), or wield it almost like a whip (Square). All attacks can be tapped rapidly to sting together a couple of basic combos, or the buttons can be held for bigger, more powerful attacks (the Square attack gives you a bigger spiked tip to the whip, and Triangle lets you grab and enemy and swing them around to boost your combo). Scattered throughout the levels are hooks that will sparkle when Jack gets near, allowing him to swing from them Bionic Commando-style.
Jack also has the ability to transform at any time into the Pumpkin King (by tapping L1) or Santa Jack (by hitting R1), each with their own powers. The Pumpkin King can breathe fire or drop a huge fiery proximity bomb attack, but both deplete Jack's Red Soul meter. Santa Jack's job is simply to deliver presents, be they jack-in-the-boxes that return enemies to their normal state (more on that in a second) or snowmen that can damage enemies with ice.
The various enemy states are called into play with a tap of the d-pad. This taunts them, forcing them into more powerful and significantly more pissed off versions that will give you better rewards when you kill them off. This also powers up your Soul Robber, so it's nice alternative to hold-charging it all the time. It should also be noted that angering enemies also means you'd better make use of Jack's ability to cartwheel around (this too can be comboed into a triple-tap pirouette move).
We didn't get a chance to use the system, but apparently gold icons can be used for... well buying something, we're guessing. Green icons refill Jack's life and Red ones give him more Pumpkin King firepower. Collecting four silver skulls will apparently fill up a vial in the items menu, which can then be used as a full-life refill in dire situations.
If a lot of this stuff sounds like Devil May Cry, there's a good reason for that; Oogie's Revenge makes liberal use of the DMC engine (which, in turn was a heavily modified version of the CODE: Veronica engine, and it shows. The game plays about as quickly as DMC, and nearly as fluidly.
But we, you see, are supergeeks, able to bounce from meeting to meeting, catching fleeting glances of games that "might be pretty cool" if we could stop for a second to play them. Of course, those that we do are never as good as when we can play them in the peace and quiet of our office, where the only sounds interrupting the games are the soft sobs of Chris weeping in the corner.
Perhaps now you understand the excitement that skipped across our faces when we found a preview build of Capcom's upcoming TNBC-based action game Oogie's Revenge waiting for us in the morning. Excitement turned to mild enthusiasm when we found out it was just the same three level build shown off at E3, but it's better than nothing, we suppose.
Before we dig into each of the levels, we'll go over the basics. Taking place shortly after the events of the film, the game puts you in the shoes of Jack Skellington as he strives to build Halloween into an even bigger and more extravagant holiday for the denizens of Halloween Town.
Jack's not the only one keeping busy, though. Dr. Finkelstein has been busy crafting new inventions, not the least of which is the Soul Robber, an ethereal gauntlet that works something like those little sticky hands you could get out of grocery store vending machines that would get all gooped up with hair and crumbs after about 5 minutes of trying to stick it to everything in sight.
Jack can use the Soul Robber to reach out and grab enemies from afar (by pressing the Triangle), or wield it almost like a whip (Square). All attacks can be tapped rapidly to sting together a couple of basic combos, or the buttons can be held for bigger, more powerful attacks (the Square attack gives you a bigger spiked tip to the whip, and Triangle lets you grab and enemy and swing them around to boost your combo). Scattered throughout the levels are hooks that will sparkle when Jack gets near, allowing him to swing from them Bionic Commando-style.
Jack also has the ability to transform at any time into the Pumpkin King (by tapping L1) or Santa Jack (by hitting R1), each with their own powers. The Pumpkin King can breathe fire or drop a huge fiery proximity bomb attack, but both deplete Jack's Red Soul meter. Santa Jack's job is simply to deliver presents, be they jack-in-the-boxes that return enemies to their normal state (more on that in a second) or snowmen that can damage enemies with ice.
The various enemy states are called into play with a tap of the d-pad. This taunts them, forcing them into more powerful and significantly more pissed off versions that will give you better rewards when you kill them off. This also powers up your Soul Robber, so it's nice alternative to hold-charging it all the time. It should also be noted that angering enemies also means you'd better make use of Jack's ability to cartwheel around (this too can be comboed into a triple-tap pirouette move).
We didn't get a chance to use the system, but apparently gold icons can be used for... well buying something, we're guessing. Green icons refill Jack's life and Red ones give him more Pumpkin King firepower. Collecting four silver skulls will apparently fill up a vial in the items menu, which can then be used as a full-life refill in dire situations.
If a lot of this stuff sounds like Devil May Cry, there's a good reason for that; Oogie's Revenge makes liberal use of the DMC engine (which, in turn was a heavily modified version of the CODE: Veronica engine, and it shows. The game plays about as quickly as DMC, and nearly as fluidly.
