NYCC: Unbound Saga Revealed

Most of the games on display at New York Comic Con had already been announced months (or years) ago but there was at least one new title on display: Unbound Saga, a PSP brawler from Vogster Entertainment.

Unbound Saga is an arcade-style, side-scrolling beat 'em up along the lines of Streets of Rage. The game stars Rick Ajax, a comic book hero who is aware he's in a comic book. After fighting supervillains and thugs for years and years, he's finally had enough - he's going to find and kill The Maker, the creator of the comic book. Much like Comix Zone, Unbound Saga attempts to emulate of comic books. Character's dialogue appears in large text bubbles and when you walk from one scene to the next, there's a sort of "page flip" animation. Instead of enemies merely spawning from the edges of the screen, a large hand - the Maker's - swoops in and draws them with a pencil. Though the game's a side-scroller, the characters are 3D models and utilize rag-doll physics - which makes tossing around your foes especially satisfying.

Accompanying Ajax on his journey is Lori Machete. Your companion will help you out in fights and you can switch between them throughout the game, though sometimes you'll be restricted to one character or another. At one point in our play-through, for example, Rick was captured by a gang of thugs. Both characters have a distinct fighting style. Rick is the brute strength type who relies on pro wrestler type moves while Lori uses her agility and martial arts to get by. It's kind of the standard choice offered for brawlers but the fact that you can quickly switch between the two allows you some variety while playing through.

As you defeat enemies, you'll earn experience points to upgrade your abilities and unlock new ones. Your characters' skill progression, by the way, carries over when you start a new game. If you decide to start a new game, you'll still have all the upgrades you picked up along the way in your previous play-through(s). In addition, the game will recognize your advanced skills and bump up the A.I. of the enemies accordingly so a highly upgraded character isn't just skating the early levels.

Unbound Saga will be sold digitally through the Playstation Network, a move which allows Vogster to self-publish. It will be released alongside a comic book from Dark Horse Comics in June.