The Grinder

[Dante]

 

Yesterday IGN exclusively unveiled High Voltage Software's new Wii title, Gladiator A.D., a very promising 3D fighter that pushes Nintendo's hardware where graphics are concerned. Today, though, we've got a special treat that we think fans of the Left 4 Dead series are simply going to love. It's called The Grinder and it's a blood-drenched first-person shooter designed to accommodate four-player online cooperative action. This title looks absolutely phenomenal, as you're going to see below. Rather than spoil any more details, we've let the developer do the talking. Below, HVS CEO and founder Kerry Ganofsky, chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger and lead art director Matt Corso tell all about The Grinder. We think you're going to want to move this extraordinary Wii-exclusive to the tops of your must-have lists.

 

- 4 player online co op

- motion plus support

- swords and guns

- wii speak support

 

 

The Grinder looks amazing. It reminds us a little bit of one of your earlier games, Hunter: The Reckoning. Is there any relation or are there any influences here?

 

Kerry J. Ganofsky: Thanks! We are extremely proud of how the game is coming together. We have worked on a number of games throughout our 16-year history and we do draw from them in different ways. A major vision point of this project was to present traditional monsters in new and interesting ways.

 

Matt Corso: Yes actually. Now that you mention it The Grinder does resemble Hunter just a bit. [smiles] I happened to be the lead artist on the Hunter Xbox games many full moons ago, and Eric was my Art Director at the time. There are also a few other team members from the Art, Design, and Programming departments that also worked on the original Hunter games. The Grinder is our chance to improve upon the work that we did back in the old days. There are a lot of influences throughout The Grinder's design from the original Hunter games, but there are also many combined years worth of game development experience, and a fully matured technology foundation, to take this game well beyond anything that we ever could have accomplished back in those days.

 

Eric Nofsinger: I can't tell you how excited we are to be sharing The Grinder with you! We've been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead and there really isn't that kind of frantic cooperative experience on the Wii right now. There's certainly nothing that takes advantage of the Wii hardware the way we are able to with our engine. One thing that we learned from working on the Hunter series is that we'd prefer to feel like badasses who are suiting up to go out and slay monsters. This opens up all sorts of possibilities for enemies, weapons, characters and story.

 

Tell us about the storyline. Is it intentionally over-the-top?

 

Eric: I don't want to give too much away right now, but the game takes place in a world we've imagined where monsters are real. Vampires, werewolves, and undead are all a part of everyday life and this world has adapted to their presence. Our group of heroes is a sort of the cryptobiological A-Team of going into areas with infestations and killing everything that moves. We've definitely been influenced by lots of great horror movies and the grindhouse style is something we've tried to incorporate into our characters and storyline.

 

Kerry: Each of our monster exterminators has been called into action by a secretive contact known only as Book. Your job is to exterminate the monster threat and to discover the reason for the recent monster outbreak. As to whether it is over-the-top, I will let the gamers answer that, I like to think of it as just plain fun.

 

Matt: There's no point in trying to be subtle when telling a story about a team of freelance hunters that ruthlessly exterminate savage armies of bloodthirsty monsters. We want our characters and storyline to be memorable, so you can expect to witness events and creatures that you never thought a developer could be twisted enough to intentionally create.

 

IGN: You can play as four selectable characters. Who are they? Do they have different attributes?

 

Eric: Hector, Doc, AJ, and Miko all have different backgrounds that provide them with special skill sets. Hector is a bounty hunter who has tracked targets on both sides of the border. Doc wants to figure out what makes the monsters tick. AJ is an urban explorer who had a very bad experience and is looking for revenge. Miko is an assassin looking for a new challenge. They all bring something special to the table in terms of gameplay.

 

Kerry: Each character has different strengths and weaknesses, but none are useless. They each also feature their own signature weapons which define who they are.

 

Hector is boastful, arrogant and greedy. He used to be a professional hunter, but has pissed so many people off over the years that he can't land a job with any of the professional companies any more.

 

AJ is the sole survivor of a Slasher attack. She knows that it's only a matter of time before the unkillable monster that slaughtered her sorority sisters on a weekend camping trip catches up with her to finish the job.

 

Doc was a hunter for years but he left the life behind years ago when a mission went very badly. Since then, he's been working as an underground doctor.

 

Miko is a Japanese assassin. She was getting bored with her job, until the night one of her targets turned out to be a Werewolf. Despite nearly getting killed, she found the battle exhilarating and immediately set out to take down more monsters.

 

Matt: We've lovingly crafted four new characters to throw into the meat grinder. It's all very dramatic stuff, and fortunately, the player gets to benefit from the entertainment value of their personal tragedies. We've worked elements of each hunter's past, into their in-game story and individual skill set. Every character in The Grinder is worth playing through the game with, just to take advantage of their unique abilities.

 

More infromation can be found here.

 

Edited May 27, 2009 by Retro_Link
Added Title screen

[Shino]

Looks amazing! And 4 player co-op? On my Wii? I'm impressed.

[Nolan]

I'm liking the idead of this. Did you check out the music samples? Just great. Finished reading all the of the interview. Fuck The Conduit I want The Grinder.

 

The conduit looks decent, but this just sounds freaking awesome.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Nolan

[Pit-Jr]

Wow these guys are really stepping up to the plate in a way that not even Nintendo themselves seem willing to do. 3 inspired new IP's from a smaller developer with (as far as i know) no dedicated publisher. Impressive!

[david.dakota]

Excellent work. I wasn't too taken by Gladiator, but this is right up my street.

 

High Voltage... You're fucking great.

[Kav]

This is freakin' awesome! HVS really are setting out to do what I've wanted from my Wii since day one!

 

The thing that has really impressed me about them is that they really do listen to gamers feedback and impressions, then look how to impliment the feedback into the games... this is what I want to see from developers!

 

This has hit my radar big-time!

Edited May 27, 2009 by Kav

[Ganepark32]

Hell yeh! I think like many, Gladiator AD doesn't appeal to me at the moment, I'd still really like to see more of it and see how it plays, but this is totally up my street. I love Left 4 Dead and if this can go some way to recreating that on the Wii, then it's already on its way to win. And with 4 player online co-op..... yeh this is going to be awesome.

[Goron_3]

Right have to admit I'm really impressed with this

 

Not sure how much their titles are gonna sell but here's to em doing well!

[Fierce_LiNk]

27th May 2009. Not only is today the day of the Champions League Final, but it is also the day that I finally sat up and took notice of what High Voltage were aiming to do.

 

It seems they are already cult heroes. In time, they could be as important to us as RARE once were. It's important to have third parties out there doing games that Nintendo themselves wouldn't. What would be the point in buying third party games, otherwise? It's only a tiny bit of a shame that we didn't have this sort of mindset from other third parties right at the start.

[Zechs Merquise]

This is amazing. I wish Nintendo would just buy those guys and make them a second party. They deserve it. I can't wait for the Conduit and this has just jumped right up there in my most wanted. I wonder if it'll make it out for Christmas.

[david.dakota]

This is amazing. I wish Nintendo would just buy those guys and make them a second party. They deserve it.

 

 

That assumes they actually wish to loose their independence.

[Portlett]

finally some decent third party games coming to the wii, this and the conduit are gonna be awesome.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Well, they seem very focused on creating games for the Wii, so I just hope that continues. It would be a nice little boost for High Voltage if Nintendo did take them onboard. But, at the same time, I think they want to do things their own particular way, and not have Nintendo breathing down their necks, maybe?

 

Edit: Read's Portlett's post...ducks for cover.

[Hero-of-Time]

Im not too hyped about The Conduit, Gladiator left me feeling meh but this is more like it. Its about time someone embraced the Wiis online functions and gave us a high end co-op game and this could be it. Im keeping a close eye on this one.

[DuD]

"cryptobiological A-Team"........... sold

 

This sounds like it could be brilliant. It's also nice to see developers treading unfamiliar ground for the Wii. Long may High Voltage continue to impress.

 

 

High five HVS. [/borat Voice]

[ShadowV7]

This sounds amazing. These guys are going all out here. Awesome graphics, online co-op, Wii-Speak, Motion Plus, loads to kill at once. Oh hells yeah! Go HVS!

[Retro_Link]

OMG this sounds and looks awesome!!

 

Conduit: maybe

Gladiator: meh!

The Grinder: FUCK YEAH!!

 

Way da go High Voltage!!

 

 

'Flicker' line down the screen like HotD: Overkill? Hope they go all out on prodcution and style, as I'm sure they will.

[Zechs Merquise]

That assumes they actually wish to loose their independence.

 

With their support for Nintendo it's just waiting to happen.

[tapedeck]

OoooOOOoo this looks fun. Online COOP is what entices me. Shooting bitchin' werewolves looks like a good idea too. Kinda scary too

2nd party though? Hmmm. That means that any developer pushing titles onto Wii (making a real effort) MUST be bought out by Nintendo.

 

Oh, Rare, Factor 5... I'm not so sure if that's how things work.

[Emasher]

So its basically Left 4 Dead meets castlevania? Sounds awesome. HVS pwns.

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

Looking at those vampires in the screenshots I am very much reminded by The Darkness.

 

Which is a sexy thing.

[Shino]

Its just amazing their efficiency, for a small studio to put out so many games so quickly.

[Cube]

A Left 4 Dead-like game on Wii? Awesome!

 

Still...three games and the art style and stuff for all of them manage to look completely generic...

[mcj metroid]

does.. it have split-screen?.. I fucking hate asses like ign leaving this bit of information out!

 

 

split-screen what's happened to you.. I wouln't be far off in saying that the best split screen experience we are probably going to get for the wii is metroid prime trilogy and that's sad.

[Dazkarieh]

does.. it have split-screen?.. I fucking hate asses like ign leaving this bit of information out!

 

 

split-screen what's happened to you.. I wouln't be far off in saying that the best split screen experience we are probably going to get for the wii is metroid prime trilogy and that's sad.

 

Did you read the interview???

 

"Oh and there's also split screen coop mode currently running in the demo, which is also pretty awesome for those who may not have access to play together using a Wi-Fi connection."