Regardless of being a beloved recreation studio with greater than 25 years of historical past, scrappy Japanese recreation developer Grasshopper Manufacture has by no means made mega sellers. Founder Suda51 has a knack for area of interest between the likes of The Silver Case and Killer7, and nearly each recreation launched by the studio has reviewed pretty properly and loved cult following. However gross sales have been, properly… from what we will inform, Killer is Useless is one of the best acting on Steam with an all-time peak of simply 4,255 gamers according to SteamDB. Over a decade in the past now, Grasshopper’s at-the-time CEO Yoshimi Yasuda claimed that Lollipop Chainsaw was the studio’s best-selling recreation ever at 700K items.
However possibly this time can be totally different. Since Grasshopper’s shooter Shadows of the Damned got here out in 2011 and was a notorious flop, video games for us sickos have change into extra profitable—or not less than have a significantly better likelihood of discovering their folks. That is what Suda51 hopes for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, out this week.
“For one factor, I feel that there are much more indie video games popping out now than there have been again then,” Suda stated in an interview with PC Gamer. “Additionally, to make use of a time period that’s used rather a lot not too long ago, there are much more various video games popping out now, too.”
You want solely take a look at the sheer variety of indie references within the final two No Extra Heroes titles to see how the scene has grown. A recreation about an untitled goose in all probability wouldn’t have been a recreation of the 12 months nominee again when Shadows of the Damned first got here out, but it surely’s clear participant tastes have change into a bit broader, even when the AAA area feels safer than ever.
“I really feel that weirder, extra non-standard video games really feel rather more pure to gamers these days, permitting for extra various titles to be launched,” Suda stated. “I additionally really feel that Shadows of the Damned has a greater likelihood of being accepted and loved by extra gamers than when it initially got here out.”
I performed Shadows of the Damned at launch, and it is caught with me ever since. Positive, it is a recreation the place there’s about 50 puns about your skeleton gun utilizing the phrase ‘boner’, but it surely’s a trendy motion recreation with cool weapons and some clever levels nonetheless properly value enjoying greater than a decade later. Let’s hope Suda’s expectations bear out and extra folks uncover this hidden gem.