I don’t own a tablet or a smartphone, so until this week I’d never heard of a game called Badland. But I’m certainly taking notice now that the game is coming to multiple platforms, if only for its striking art and atmosphere.
Badland, a side-scrolling action game about controlling a weird flying puffball creature as it flees pursuing death from what I can tell, has been handsomely decorated with awards for its original mobile release, which is why the new version, launching this spring across PC/Mac/Linux (via Steam and other digital stores), PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One, has been given the title Badland: Game of the Year Edition. (At least this game actually won Game of the Year awards to justify the name.)
For the big screens (and the smallish screen of the Vita), developer Frogmind has redesigned the game to feature true HD graphics, expanded controls with retuned levels to adjust for the changes, and a ton of extra content. Four times more content than the mobile game in fact, for a grand total of 100 single-player story levels, 100 co-op levels, and 27 stages in a 4-player deathmatch local multiplayer mode.
Revamping the game for so many additional platforms is such an ambitious undertaking that Frogmind has had to seek aid from a couple other studios, including Blitworks to help on console development, as well as Frozenbyte to handle things like marketing, publishing, and quality assurance. This little indie super team looks like it’s on to something special here, folks.
I’ve had co-workers tell me not to play the iOS version because of how addicted they were to the game. Definitely looking forward to seeing this on a big screen.