It’s been over 10 years since Bit Kid successfully crowdfunded Chasm and nearly six since it fully launched. Now the developer is ready to return to the Metroidvania genre, this time ditching procedural generation in favor of the gnarly, intricately-designed world of WOLFHOUND.
There’s no release date in place yet, but WOLFHOUND is in the works for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam). You can see what Bit Kid is going for with this one in the announcement trailer below.
Set in 1944, WOLFHOUND sees the appropriately grizzled Capt. Chuck “WOLFHOUND” Rossetti attempting to infiltrate a Nazi base hidden in the Bermuda Triangle. Naturally, that means he’ll run into a number of monstrous creatures during his mission as he scavenges for weapons and ammo and ventures deeper into the heart of a greater mystery.
Back to basics
The visuals immediately stand out, and not just because of some great character animation. Check out that tile arrangement, which manages to look mismatched and hectic in a way that works and feels authentic. That authenticity is one of the key aspects driving the aesthetic. Bit Kid founder and lead developer James Petruzzi said he wanted to “dive deep into the style of NES and 8-bit gaming” with this one. While this isn’t exactly something you could ever get running on an original console, WOLFHOUND adheres to an 8-bit color palette and 320×180 pixel resolution.
Some of the artistic talent reeling in all those pixel art explosions and viscera have previously worked on games like Freedom Planet 2, Sparklite, and the Shantae series. In a similarly legitimate vein, the soundtrack was composed in Famitracker, featuring the chiptune earworms of RushJet1 (Alwa’s Legacy, Cave Story+). It all swirls together for a run-and-gun concoction I very much want to play right now, so hopefully, we won’t be waiting too long.
