Month: February 2018

Is an “Imagination Bomb” about to be dropped on the fighting game market?

Indie developer Zero Dimension seeks to take players back to the good ol’ days of hand-drawn sprites and 2D fighting action with their in-development project Cerebrawl. Inspired by classic Street Fighter and the Marvel Vs. games, it’s a potentially fresh look at what was great about old school fighting games. It’s currently in a crowdfunding stage, with the target being Steam Early Access.

From Cerebrawl‘s Kickstarter campaign page:

Cerebrawl is a fully hand-animated, 2v2 4-player tag-team fighting game. As a team, you and your partner can use several assist options available to maximize your damage. Cerebrawl is inspired by games such as the Marvel vs. Capcom series and their robust tag-team systems, but focuses on breaking each character out to a respective player. While it takes many notes from the VS series of games, it has become a beast of its own during its time in development. Cerebrawl is built on the idea that players not only need to know their character and the depth of their moveset, but also how players can best work together as a team to defeat their opponents. 

The game’s core features revolve around competitive play with future features including 1v1 and 1v2 modes, a full button check system built into the character select, and tournament mode with a fully automated bracket system… we are also excited to add stage breaks into the game, a system where players can break down parts of the stage to either extend or narrow the size of the play space and change the meta on the fly.

On the story and setting:

Harmon City was a typical modern metropolis. But when an Imagination Bomb is detonated at the center of the city, Harmon City and its inhabitants are changed forever. 

As the blast engulfs the region, the minds of the people start spilling into the reality. Reality can’t hold all the different thoughts and possibilities, and when the content of everyone’s psyche start to collide, each individual is thrusted into their own dimension. In these pocket dimensions, each citizen of Harmon City grow new worlds based on their ideals and desires.

As fast as these worlds start to form, the pocket dimensions begin to re-collapse into reality. The many dimension-worlds start spiraling back into the place from which they came, but Harmon City has only limited space. The people who were merely residents of the city now have a chance to form their environment, but to do so they need to fight for real estate, as their dimension-worlds will need space to take root in the newly forming Harmon City.

Aside from it’s classic 2D aesthetic, one of the biggest draws to the game is the hip-hop inspired soundtrack — very reminiscent of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike — to be provided by 2 Mello, featuring Mega Ran, K Murdock, Open Mike Eagle, and Time Machine.

The future of Cerebrawl may be a bit uncertain, however, as it only has a few days left in its “all-or-nothing” crowdfunding campaign, and has reached less than 10% of its funding goal. You can check out design concepts, character descriptions, preview videos, and download a demo on Cerebrawl‘s Kickstarter page.

Source: Cerebrawl (Kickstarter)