Fund Unbelievably Cool Kickstarters 001

Since it seems I'm writing about a new batch of Kickstarter games every month I figured I might as well brand the column- so welcome to Fund Unbelievably Cool Kickstarters, or for short just call it F.U.C..... uhhhhh nevermind. This month we have 2 amazing Kickstarters that have already smashed through their goals, 1 that doesn't stand a chance in hell, and a failed experiment by a AAA developer that didn't want to spend their own money funding a game.

Superhot



The title very much accurately describes the game and the impact of their Kickstarter campaign. This unique FPS has already passed 150% of their goal in under a week. One look at the game and it is easy to see why, we've had time mechanics utilized in FPS games for a while now, but never quite like this. In Superhot the world around you is frozen and things only go into motion when you move, so a level is almost like navigating a maze of bullets. Combine that with a great soundtrack and awesome graphics and you have a pretty hot game. I highly suggest trying out the browser demo version of the game on their Kickstarter page.

Omori



It can be hard for a game to have a unique voice, especially when trying to imitate the well known 16-bit SNES look. A glance at Omori and you might think it is Earthbound or Pokemon, and while it does bare a resemblance at times- this game has one of the most unique art styles I've seen. Trippy and surreal are perhaps the best ways to describe Omori. They are already well into their stretch goals and past triple of what their original goal was. This Kickstarter is definitely worth the look, even if just to listen to a bit of the excellent soundtrack they have in place.

The Chainsaw Incident



This Kickstarter was unfortunately doomed from the start, with their goal set at a very ambitious $275,000... which is more that what both Superhot and Omori have raised combined.  Also considering that the 2D fighting game genre is a bit of an endangered species, I think they overestimated the market for this game. The sad thing is that The Chainsaw Incident is a gorgeous looking game with some of the best 2D animation I've seen in a fighter since Street Fighter III: Third Strike or Garou: Mark of the Wolves. The over-emphasis on the visuals was also where they shot themselves in the foot, their video and campaign doesn't do a very good job on explaining the gameplay, despite having Masahiro Onoguchi on the team- who has worked on the Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Virtua Fighter series. The little gameplay that is shown looks very clunkly and lacks depth. At only 1/10 of their goal with about only a week left... there is no way they will reach funding. I hope the next time we see this game they focus more on the mechanics and try to get their budget down by perhaps shrinking down the initial roster of characters and adding the rest as stretch goals.

Amplitude



I debated whether or not to include this Kickstarter, and I've only done so because it is sure to fail now. If you are not familiar with Harmonix... the are the creators of the hugely successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, although they are now independent and not owned by either Activision or Viacom. As an indie studio they did release the Dance Central series, the highest selling games on Kinect that have made them an estimated $100 million profit. They've also been hired by Disney to make a Kinect Fantasia game and are working on their own FPS called Chroma. So why do they need to ask for $775,000 to make a game that is a brand owned by Sony? For those of you who don't remember, Amplitude was a PS2 title back in 2003 and Sony owns the series. This is a misuse of Kickstarter and I'm actually quite upset that they got this close to their goal.