What Is It?
Shank taps the talent of Atomic Betty director Jeffrey Agala to create its striking graphic novel look and feel, but it takes more than a fresh coat of paint to freshen up the side-scrolling beat-em up. At its heart, that's what Shank is. Think Double Dragon. Think Fatal Fury. Then get your hands on the demo and think again.

What We Saw
We played through a demo level of the game, taking control of the gritty hero Shank as he tears through a dusty desert town, taking down enemies with guns, knives, a shotgun, and a chainsaw until finally facing off against a massive boss. Though platforms have not been announced yet, we played on...well we played on a box with a Xbox 360 wired controller, a Dreamcast controller, and an Atari 2600 controller wired into it. We actually used the 360 controller to play, so the game would be right at home on Xbox Live Arcade.

How Far Along Is It?
So far the game seems to be just the demo. Klei had no ETA on the Shank's release date, and wouldn't even commit to a target date. Another case of when it's finished.

What Needs Improvement?
More More More: The only problem I had with the Shank demo was that it ended. Once it ended I poked around with some of the other options available to me, including a mode where you simply attacked three enemies over and over again in order to practice combos. I could have played that mode alone for an hour.

What Should Stay The Same?
Combo System: This is where Shank towers above other games in the genre. The combo system allows players to switch smoothly between weapons in the middle of a fight in such a way that even the button masher can look like they are a professional player. Leap at your opponent, pinning him to the ground with your knives, firing off a few rounds from your pistols in order to keep approaching enemies at bay, and then bring your chainsaw down for the kill. You can even juggle opponents, smacking them away with the chainsaw and then rushing forward to catch them before they recover, keeping the combo going. It's so very fluid and satisfying, and that's just brushing the very tip of the combo iceberg.

Striking Art Style: It's like stepping into the pages of a graphic novel. Shank looks like a comic book, with cut scenes that help carry the illusion, seamlessly integrating into gameplay. The massive level boss jumps off the roof to confront you in the final cut scene, and then hits the ground in gameplay mode, ready for you to puzzle out how to take him down without becoming one of the blood smears left behind on the ground when you take out enemies. At one point - which Klei CEO Jamie Cheng admitted was his favorite moment in the demo - Shank comes across a bridge with setting sun behind it, he and his enemies becoming black silhouettes. It was a very Spaghetti Western sort of moment, and Cheng promises more of that time come.

Final Thoughts
Playing Shank was one of the most entertaining moments I had at PAX 09, taking the simple, mindless fun of the beat-em up and polishing it to a stylish sheen that leaves me eager to see more as development progresses.

So what do spooky dolls and an even spookier CEO have to do with a cartoonish beat-em up that could wind up being my game of the show (more on that later)? In order to understand, you have to see the invite that eventually led us to this fateful meeting.

This is how Klei Entertainment lured unwary journalists to PAX 09. The originally sent a copy of this letter to Crecente, but it seemed to have gotten lost somewhere in the shuffle, so they sent one to me.

The important thing to note here is the stratefically placed business card. Flipping it up reveals...
So, putting two and two together, along with the fact that Crecente is out of town this weekend, and we have...OMG! Klei Entertainment is run by a guy who likes dolls who kidnapped Crecente and cut off his glorious hair!

At least that's my conclusion. Yours may vary. Either way its lovely PR, even if they might have killed my boss.

It's a pretty detailed look at what goes into deciding to implement a FTP model in a game, how specific models are devised, and some of the overall benefits and problems FTPs face in the Western market. On why the FTP may be a really viable option for (good) indie games, Cheng had this to say:

Luckily Nexon has the standpoint that we're not going to release the game until it's a quality game. And in fact, if you get into this business you realize that you can't make money if you don't have a quality game. It's not like retail business where you have to ship at a certain date or you're going to lose money. It's not like that at all. You want this game to keep going and going and going. And also you're not investing huge amounts of money, you don't a 100 person team working on this project. We have eleven people working on this project. And so it's tiny and we're going to keep at it until we have a really good product. And in terms of the fun value, the fun versus the business, I think the key thing to remember is that in this business you have to make the game fun first before you can make any money. And if you take it the other direction you're just going to fail. That's the only conclusion.

It's a meaty interview, especially if you're interested in the FTP model and how it's getting implemented in a wider variety of games than just the stereotypical 'crappy Asian MMO.' We'll have to wait a while to see if it turns out to be a good bet for Sugar Rush, but Cheng seems pretty enthusiastic.

Interview: Klei's Jamie Cheng On Indie Free-To-Play With Sugar Rush [Worlds in Motion]

Honestly I have no earthly clue what is going on here, but it is nice to see a title coming from Nexon that didn't originate somewhere on the other side of the planet.

Closed Beta Registration NOW OPEN!! [Nexon Forums]

Nexon has revealed its very first North American-developed game (for the North American market), Sugar Rush Arena, which is now in closed beta. The game is a casual MMOG like other Nexon titles, but was developed in Vancouver as opposed to South Korea. Like Nexon's other titles, the game is free to play, but will offer virtual items and upgrades for purchase:

The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins ....

The development team working on Sugar Rush Arena is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment.

Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

I presume if this is a successful move, we can expect to see more games targeted at the Western market being developed in the West; perhaps this is heralding a new trend?

Nexon Reveals First Western-Developed Title [Worlds In Motion]

Jamie Cheng (Klei Entertainment)
In the 80s, games were very cheap to produce, but then things got crazy expensive. Now games have come "full circle."

Noel Llopis (Powerof2Games)
"Indie is style and attitude," just like Indiana Jones' hat.

Ryan Clark (Grubby Games)
"[Indie development] is not for the faint of heart...it takes more than great hair to be the next Jon Mak."

Jacob Van Wingen (Gastronaut Studios)
"The first game I ever showed anyone was the first game I had published," but he'd made games for 10 years prior.

Jon Mak (Queasy Games)
Current programming technologies "welcome a new group" of gamemakers who aren't as technically minded, so it should bring games that are not as rule heavy. He also added that people think too hard about categories. "Indie music is you go to the store, you buy a guitar, and you just fucking rock out. That's it."