[E3 2008] Rag Doll Kung-Fu: Fists of Plastic
Media Molecule's indie project gets a sequel courtesy of Tarsier Studios. We go hands on to see how it's shaping up.
Published: July 26, 2008
It's actually a little hard to believe, that the very same people behind LittleBigPlanet could have gone from a single indie project with just a handful of members to being the darlings of the industry, but such is the meteoric rise of Media Molecule. With the entire team busy on putting the last bits of polish on LBP, though, it falls to Swedish developer Tarsier Studios (who first broke into the the limelight with the wildly original but criminally unpublished City of Metronome).
After just a little hands-on time with the game at Sony's E3 booth this year, we're more than happy to say that Rag Doll Kung-Fu: Fists of Plastic looks like it'll preserve the quirky visual nature of the original project, but crank it up a few more notches with controls that feel more at home on a console. Most of this comes down to the fact that just about everything in the game is entirely physics-driven, yet feels centered around the same basic controls as LittleBigPlanet, meaning holding the L2 and R2 triggers and then using the analog sticks to move around gives you limited control over each of the characters' limbs independently.
From there, it's simply a matter of jumping around, tapping a few face buttons to issue forth kicks and punches, and maybe throwing the odd SIXAXIS-powered controller jolt to send characters literally flying across the level to hone in on the other player. In the first mode we played, a take on King of the Hill, this was especially useful for crossing large distances, and though the mode was fun -- especially when we picked up a bo staff and started using the analog sticks to whip it around. Because everything is physics-based, it wasn't so much that we were actually swinging the staff in pre-set moves at it was just the combination of wild flailing on the analog stick and some timing that meant we were generally able to repel any incoming attacks from the other person playing. Interestingly enough, though, because it wasn't a pre-canned move, there were times when that person was able to sneak in a shot.
Far more fun, however, was the mode where we tried to fling a fish into a basket on the deck of a smallish ship. The same basic controls were there, but the added tension of being able to beat up the person carrying the fish to make them drop it or even intercept it and grab it out of the air if it was thrown made for a far more frantic match-up. Once we got used to the basic controls and the slightly floaty, bouncy feel to the gravity, it made doing insane tricks like launching the fish from its spawn point on the right side of the screen all the way over to the left side, caroming it off a mast there and then watching it skid slowly into the basket just a bit to the right. We also managed to get pretty good at just leaping over the basket and chucking the fish straight down.
Surprisingly, this mode really showed off how precise the physics modeling was in the game. The fish actually felt like a slightly springy, mostly lifeless hunk of, well, fish. It would bounce and flop around after being thrown, and there were times where the rim of the basket and the floppiness of the fish actually made it bounce out, creating a mad scramble to get it back in. We only got the chance to play those two modes, but we were quite surprised at how fun it all was -- particularly because (and we're sorry Media Molecule folks) we didn't find the original Rag Doll Kung-Fu all that interesting. But hey, the original was done by an indie developer and the update not only looks impressively gorgeous (no surprise there, if you haven't seen City of Metronome, you need to check out the game page by clicking on that name there).
So long as the other modes are as fun as the fish-flinging one, there should be ample reason for people to take the plunge when Fists of Plastic hits the PSN "soon."
After just a little hands-on time with the game at Sony's E3 booth this year, we're more than happy to say that Rag Doll Kung-Fu: Fists of Plastic looks like it'll preserve the quirky visual nature of the original project, but crank it up a few more notches with controls that feel more at home on a console. Most of this comes down to the fact that just about everything in the game is entirely physics-driven, yet feels centered around the same basic controls as LittleBigPlanet, meaning holding the L2 and R2 triggers and then using the analog sticks to move around gives you limited control over each of the characters' limbs independently.
From there, it's simply a matter of jumping around, tapping a few face buttons to issue forth kicks and punches, and maybe throwing the odd SIXAXIS-powered controller jolt to send characters literally flying across the level to hone in on the other player. In the first mode we played, a take on King of the Hill, this was especially useful for crossing large distances, and though the mode was fun -- especially when we picked up a bo staff and started using the analog sticks to whip it around. Because everything is physics-based, it wasn't so much that we were actually swinging the staff in pre-set moves at it was just the combination of wild flailing on the analog stick and some timing that meant we were generally able to repel any incoming attacks from the other person playing. Interestingly enough, though, because it wasn't a pre-canned move, there were times when that person was able to sneak in a shot.
Far more fun, however, was the mode where we tried to fling a fish into a basket on the deck of a smallish ship. The same basic controls were there, but the added tension of being able to beat up the person carrying the fish to make them drop it or even intercept it and grab it out of the air if it was thrown made for a far more frantic match-up. Once we got used to the basic controls and the slightly floaty, bouncy feel to the gravity, it made doing insane tricks like launching the fish from its spawn point on the right side of the screen all the way over to the left side, caroming it off a mast there and then watching it skid slowly into the basket just a bit to the right. We also managed to get pretty good at just leaping over the basket and chucking the fish straight down.
Surprisingly, this mode really showed off how precise the physics modeling was in the game. The fish actually felt like a slightly springy, mostly lifeless hunk of, well, fish. It would bounce and flop around after being thrown, and there were times where the rim of the basket and the floppiness of the fish actually made it bounce out, creating a mad scramble to get it back in. We only got the chance to play those two modes, but we were quite surprised at how fun it all was -- particularly because (and we're sorry Media Molecule folks) we didn't find the original Rag Doll Kung-Fu all that interesting. But hey, the original was done by an indie developer and the update not only looks impressively gorgeous (no surprise there, if you haven't seen City of Metronome, you need to check out the game page by clicking on that name there).
So long as the other modes are as fun as the fish-flinging one, there should be ample reason for people to take the plunge when Fists of Plastic hits the PSN "soon."
