After a series of less than stellar outings over the past few years, Cartoon Network Interactive has decided to go in a new direction for the next gaming adaptation of Adventure Time. Moving away from the dungeon crawler like gameplay of previous entries, new developer Vicious Cycle (Robotech: Battlecry) will bring Pendleton Ward’s popular series to the third dimension with Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations.
A 3D twist on the classic adventure game formula, Finn and Jake Investigations will see our heroes follow in the footsteps of Finn’s foster parents and become Professional Investigators. With mysterious happenings occurring all across the Land of Ooo, the two will have to interrogate citizens, beat down enemies, solve some serious brain teasers, and fully explore each location in order to get to the bottom of things.
Matt Scott, CEO of publisher Little Orbit, spoke a little about why the studio chose to go in a different direction for the series:
We received a lot of fan feedback asking us to bring our next Adventure Time game to next generation consoles in 3D, and we’re thrilled to be delivering that and a lot more. This new game is a complete departure from previous Adventure Time games. We have created an intriguing classic adventure game set in a richly-detailed 3D Land of Ooo where players can check out Land of Ooo locales, talk to characters, sharpen their creative puzzle-solving skills, defeat bad guys and just have fun.
Despite being one of my favorite shows on television, I was never a fan of the various attempts at replicating Adventure Time in gaming form. Previous developer WayForward Technologies’ heart was in the right place, but none of their titles were ever engaging enough to be worth playing. While Vicious Cycle has a somewhat spotty track record, I’m at least interested in the fact that they are trying something different for the series.
Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is scheduled to launch this November on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, and Windows PC.
