Double Fine, the studio behind revered adventure titles such as Brutal Legend and, more recently, Broken Age has released a new teaser trailer for its latest project, Hack N’ Slash.
In opening with a close-up of a certain game cartridge, the subversive trailer pokes fun at the rather infamous Zelda rap commercial from the 1980s all the while hinting at the game’s unique selling point. You see, for Hack N’ Slash, players will have the ability of hacking the game’s computer code to aid in their quest — whether it’s manipulating enemy movement or item behaviour.
Speaking with Eurogamer, the title’s project lead Brandon Dillion expanded upon Hack N’ Slash’s premise:
“[the game’s] puzzle dungeons will be designed to teach you progressively more sophisticated hacking, cheating and reverse-engineering tools. And they won’t be toys. They’ll actually be used to hack the running game.”
From the latest footage, it seems the game blends the age-old aesthetic of 2D Zelda titles with some of the familiar adventure tropes associated with other Double Fine productions — all with a technical twist, of course. Hack N’ Slash has been in development since last year’s Amnesia Fortnight, the studio’s annual and appropriately named in-house game jam.
According to the studio itself, the game is but a “few weeks away” from launching across Steam Early Access where it will be priced at $14.99 (£9). It is understood that Hack N’ Slash will be available on PC, Mac and Linux.