Six months ago, we learned that Acclaim was making a comeback. It was reported that a group of investors purchased the Acclaim trademark with the intention of snapping up older IPs. This had my alarm bells ringing. Similar has happened to Atari and SNK, two companies that are shells of their former selves, propped up by investors willing to lend the brand’s name to any product.
With Acclaims’ first showcase since the acquisition, we now see exactly what the company’s leadership has planned, and a standout in the newly announced catalog is easily HYPERYuki: Snowboard Syndicate, a snowboarding game that looks like the lovechild of SSX and Cool Boarders. My body is ready.
HYPERYuki: Snowboard Syndicate looks the part, so here’s hoping it plays like it too
Source: Acclaim
HYPERYuki: Snowboard Syndicate is being developed by Wabisabi Games, and of course, Acclaim will publish the title (via Gematsu). The above trailer made its debut at Play Acclaim Showcase, and as a longtime fan of games like SSX and Cool Boarders, I’m thrilled to see a studio taking a crack at over-the-top arcade snowboarding. It’s a genre I miss dearly, and whatever the heck Ubisoft is doing with Steep and Riders Republic hasn’t been cutting it.
It would also appear that Wabisabi Games is no stranger to mining nostalgia, having published RKGK / Rakugaki last year, a title that was clearly inspired by Jet Set Radio. While it’s very encouraging to see a studio that has a clear vision, reviews for RKGK / Rakugaki mention that the gameplay falls a little flat despite looking the part. So here’s hoping the studio learned some lessons from that release so that it can better capture the elements fans will be looking for in its upcoming snowboarding game.
I’m ready for an Acclaim comeback
It’s said that Acclaim was recently purchased by veterans in the industry, and the nine games revealed at its first showcase certainly have me hopeful we have a studio on our hands that actually understands what gamers want. After reading Gematsu’s interview with the CEO Alex Josef, it’s all but confirmed. Acclaim is looking to empower indie creators, and in a world where AAA’s are floundering wildly with horrible performance and ridiculously high prices. We could all use a few more inventive indies in our lives.
Source: Wabisabi Games
Case in point, I think HYPERYuki: Snowboard Syndicate looks incredibly inviting because it’s not trying to be some huge open world experience that’s as wide as the ocean but deep as a puddle. I miss smaller experiences, I miss games that had a singular purpose, like learning how to pull off endless badass tricks while flying down a hand-designed mountain on a snowboard. Simply put, we need to get back to games designed with love and purpose, and so far, it’s looking like Acclaim is tuned in and ready to rock and roll.
