Happion Laboratories founder Jamie Fristrom has lived a pretty adventurous life in the world of gaming. He was one of the lead developers on Activision’s acclaimed Spider-Man 2 and he witnessed the life and death of his own independent studio. Using the power of Kickstarter though, he has decided to return to his old career. Bringing together all of the knowledge he has accumulated over the years, Fristrom will be launching Energy Hook for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2014.
Sounding like the love child of Spider-Man and SSX, Energy Hook is described as the extreme sport of the future. Using the swinging mechanic that helped make Peter Parker’s adventure such a thrill, players will “swing from rooftop to rooftop, pull off mid-air tricks, run along walls, and rack up points and energy for doing it.” In addition to your swinging apparatus, gamers will also be able to use jetpacks and gravity boots in order to boost their score.
I’m always excited about new independent titles and Energy Hook is no different. I was a huge fan of the original SSX series of games and I was always disappointed that further Spider-Man adventures shied away from using the excellent swing mechanic that we saw in Spider-Man 2, so the combination of the two intrigues me. In addition, I like the visual style they are going for here. I have been a fan of cel-shaded titles ever since they started showing up in titles such as Jet Set Radio and Auto Modellista.
We hope to bring you additional coverage of Energy Hook in the lead-up to its 2014 release date. Are any of our dear readers excited about this mish-mash of genres? Let us know in the comments section below.
