Holy Inexplicably Lengthy Title!
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? has a title as lengthy as the game is promising.
Published: May 8, 2009
The folks at NIS America hold a special place in our hearts here at TotalPlayStation. Though there are other publishers like Atlus and XSEED and here in the States that lovingly support and import games from Japan, none of 'em throw a party like NISA. As we sit here nursing a hangover, reeling from the combination of great booze, adorably lovable industry friends and incredibly off-beat, undoubtedly niche titles, one in particular stands out.
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? sports two very important things: an awesome name and a premise that just makes us grin. You're a bad guy -- the God of Destruction, actually -- sworn enemy of all things good, and all you want to do is go about your evil ways without pesky do-gooders trying to crash the party. Luckily, if there's one thing goodie-two-shoes can't resist, it's a perilous dungeon riddled with traps and monsters, its own ecosystem and a devious maze of labyrinthine tunnels.
This cavernous ecosystem is all-important here, as you (or rather we, literally digging our way through a downloadable demo) get to build the dungeon as we see fit. The idea is to break blocks that make up the core part of your dungeon, thus releasing resources that are gobbled up by simple-minded Slimemosses that munch on the food and carry it around the layers of your dungeon, bumping into walls and reversing direction.
These resources stack and eventually the blocks they reside on can be broken down to reveal Omnoms (yes, as in om nom nom nom, one of the game's many internet catchphrases and gamer lingo thrown around happily in the game). Omnoms in turn chow down on Slimemosses and eventually birth Files that lead to more complex critters. Monsters are the key to deflecting invading heroes, since you’re a rather inept (or at least physically defenseless) God of Destruction, and in an extremely hardcore twist, they'll drag you back up to the bucolic kingdom residing above to completely end the game.
Get captured, that's it. Start from scratch, kid. Game Over, man, Game Over.
Thankfully, the game at least gives you a fighting (or, uh, building) chance through a series of tutorials that slowly explain the basics of building a dungeon. What's interesting is that the game's ecosystem depends as much on how you construct your levels as it does actually nurturing the denizens. Making things complex enough to slow and blockade heroes matters, but so do does constructing things so as to foster the growth of your semi-sentient defenses.
Created by Acquire, the folks behind the original Tenchu games with help from Sony's Japanese studios, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? is insanely different from anything else on the PSP. In fact, Sony's involvement in things is a little surprising given the game's obvious retro feel. The pixel art visuals and old-school tunes give the game the feeling of a truly hardcore classic despite being (near as we can tell) a wholly original concept.
We're seriously psyched about getting the chance to play more of Badman, and as soon as we can clear our plates enough to drop a few more hours into things, we'll report back on the whole experience. Keep checking back, but don't forget to check out the game's visuals and trailer at the top of the screen.
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? sports two very important things: an awesome name and a premise that just makes us grin. You're a bad guy -- the God of Destruction, actually -- sworn enemy of all things good, and all you want to do is go about your evil ways without pesky do-gooders trying to crash the party. Luckily, if there's one thing goodie-two-shoes can't resist, it's a perilous dungeon riddled with traps and monsters, its own ecosystem and a devious maze of labyrinthine tunnels.
This cavernous ecosystem is all-important here, as you (or rather we, literally digging our way through a downloadable demo) get to build the dungeon as we see fit. The idea is to break blocks that make up the core part of your dungeon, thus releasing resources that are gobbled up by simple-minded Slimemosses that munch on the food and carry it around the layers of your dungeon, bumping into walls and reversing direction.
These resources stack and eventually the blocks they reside on can be broken down to reveal Omnoms (yes, as in om nom nom nom, one of the game's many internet catchphrases and gamer lingo thrown around happily in the game). Omnoms in turn chow down on Slimemosses and eventually birth Files that lead to more complex critters. Monsters are the key to deflecting invading heroes, since you’re a rather inept (or at least physically defenseless) God of Destruction, and in an extremely hardcore twist, they'll drag you back up to the bucolic kingdom residing above to completely end the game.
Get captured, that's it. Start from scratch, kid. Game Over, man, Game Over.
Thankfully, the game at least gives you a fighting (or, uh, building) chance through a series of tutorials that slowly explain the basics of building a dungeon. What's interesting is that the game's ecosystem depends as much on how you construct your levels as it does actually nurturing the denizens. Making things complex enough to slow and blockade heroes matters, but so do does constructing things so as to foster the growth of your semi-sentient defenses.
Created by Acquire, the folks behind the original Tenchu games with help from Sony's Japanese studios, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? is insanely different from anything else on the PSP. In fact, Sony's involvement in things is a little surprising given the game's obvious retro feel. The pixel art visuals and old-school tunes give the game the feeling of a truly hardcore classic despite being (near as we can tell) a wholly original concept.
We're seriously psyched about getting the chance to play more of Badman, and as soon as we can clear our plates enough to drop a few more hours into things, we'll report back on the whole experience. Keep checking back, but don't forget to check out the game's visuals and trailer at the top of the screen.
