A few weeks back, Jim showed you a fuzzy, “decoded” piece of production art for an as-of-then unannounced Wii game. Well, the game is unannounced no more. It’s called Gladiator A.D., and it looks so normal (by videogame standards), that it’s actually weird.
At this point, the Wii has plenty of bloody, violent games, but most of them involve parody of the action/horror genre, or chainsaw hands, or lightsabers bought on Ebay, or other such unrealistic nonsense. Basically, the rule thus far has been that if you want to make an all new, violent Wii game, you had better make it an on-rails shooter, a weird-ass action/comedy, or both.
It looks like Gladiator A.D. will be bucking that trend. From the interview over at IGN, we now know that the game will play like a cross between Bushido Blade and Fight Night, and will work hard to replicate the the experience that real gladiators had back in the days when people did that sort of thing. Though the game will feature ultra-violent “finishers”, the guys at High Voltage make it a point to mention that they wont be “over the top” like those found in Mortal Kombat. There will also be the option for motion plus controls, presumably to make the cleaving of heads from necks feel more natural.
At this point, anything could happen with this game. It could kick-ass, it could totally suck, the ESRB may give it an AO rating and require it to be censored beyond recognition, and/or it could become the best selling videogame of all time.
Place you bets, folks! Wager on the fate of Gladiator A.D.!
[via Gonintendo]