Dungeon Maker Takes Me Back
PSPFanboy has mentioned a couple of new RPGs coming soon to the PSP, the first of which has piqued my curiosity. The short description they give for Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground mentions that you must create a dungeon floor by floor to trap a wandering creature known as the legendary Wandering Demon. You’ll even be able to trade dungeons with a friend, which I’m guessing means just ad-hoc wireless dungeon trading.
This is a pretty unique game for the PSP, and it reminds me of some older games that I’ve enjoyed. The most recent game in this genre is probably Evil Genius, which I didn’t get a chance to play, but they follow in the footsteps of a great pair of games, namely Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2 by Bullfrog, led by Peter Molyneux, now a Microsoft gaming luminary.
Some of the old Bullfrog people went on to form Mucky Foot whose first and last product was Startopia, a clone of Dungeon Keeper 2 set in a space station, sci-fi setting. I really liked it, despite being not as good as Dungeon Keeper 2 due to the very open floorplans and the presence of a variety of areas that never clearly helped or hindered your game. There’s definitely an extra pull to being an evil lifeforce at the center of a dungeon, luring evil minions to come take up residence and defend it from encroaching goody-goody heroes. The ability to possess your creatures and use their special abilities on your foes was icing on the cake.
The narrator was excellent in DK2, and a similar Hitchhikers-Guide like narrator in Startopia kept the mood pitch-perfect. One of my favorite moments in DK2 came one of the many nights I was up far too late playing. The game tossed a message icon in the queue that would run down the side of the screen and when I clicked it, it said “Your hours of play have uncovered a hidden game tip. Go to bed!”
There are screens for Dungeon Maker over at PSPFanboy, and I think we have the PSP’s Memory Stick Pro Duo storage to thank for making it possible. That, and a very nice screen to work on your dungeons with. The tools will be the key to whether the franchise survives or not, and here’s hoping it comes to the US after its JP release in July.
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James
