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The awesome Co-Optimus covered our first release back in November, and we even made their “Co-Opticast Episode 11” podcast when they were noting the games they were looking forward to in 2009.

In the podcast, Nick brings up our game and thinks it looks pretty cool (smart guy, that Nick), and though I wouldn’t have thought it possible before this podcast, you can actually hear the blank looks on the faces of the other guys who clearly hadn’t seen anything at all about the game.

But where’s their Messiah now, what with all the info and multimedia goodness and whatnot that’s getting out there?

Exactly. Well, they’ve picked up on the latest release (it wasn’t even Nick this time) and here’s your money quote from Jim McLaughlin: “The press release is so cheesy, you’d have thought our own Nick Puleo wrote it, but alas, there is another campy writer out there with the nerve to add undue flair to an otherwise already-too-awesome game concept…”

Thanks, Professional Marketing Team. You are clearly doing God’s work.

(Though to be fair, if we wrote the release ourselvesn we’d probably pull a complete and total Chris Farley “Hey, gaming world…Yeah…Awesome game coming out. It’s awesome”.)

You can either read an interview with two boobs at TeamXbox talking about a really awesome game.

Or you can watch the first-ever footage of Avatar Attack mode in the aforementioned really awesome game.

Yeah, no worries. I watched the video, too.

…pack up and move to the US or Canada now.

Because if you don’t, you’re going to miss out– Madballs in…Babo:Invasion will be rated 12+ in Korea (we’re

Of course, the press pickups were not all 100% positive today (*reacts in mock surprise and alarm*). We know going in to this whole thing that the game won’t appeal to everyone (I know, I know– it’s hard to believe…But hey, I’m still amazed that some people don’t dig on swine). In any event, it’s going to be interesting to see why some folks seem to take to the title and others don’t.

First case in the “don’t” camp is Ryan from GiantBomb, who isn’t exactly looking forward to the game: “Just as bizarre as this forced Madballs revival is the nature of the game itself, which is being touted as an ‘arena based 3D shooter’ and looks more than a little bit like the kind of dual-joystick shooter of which there is no shortage on XBLA“.

Oh, but isn’t there a shortage of really good dual-joystick shooters on XBLA? A shortage of games that have so many ways to play? That have team-based map-making and compelling single- and co-op campaigns? That support 16 player multiplayer?

And if folks really don’t want to play the Madballs characters, they can play one of the other 10 guys. Or really go out on a limb and play Avatar Attack and spend an evening melting their friend’s faces off instead with no Madballs in sight.

And also (sadly…very sadly), we don’t appeal to Jim at Destructoid, which makes me cry inside since they’re a regular read. His biggest concern seems to be simply in bringing back the Madballs license (”it just goes to show that anything will be recycled in a desperate attempt for easy money“). Ouch. In related news, yeah, does anyone know who owns the “Hello, Larry” TV license? We have ideas.

So just to clarify, this isn’t a desperate attempt for easy money (surely, there has to be far easier and more desperate ways to make some cash, like selling a whole lot of blood or inventing a sports drink for cats (to name two obvious examples)).

We’ll surely be talking about the history of the game a lot in the coming weeks, but the story goes like this. We originally set out to make a fun little game with rolling balls and heavy weaponry as a sequel to the awesometational Babo Violent 2. During development of the new game, we started to expand the scope of what we wanted to do and we found ourselves having the opportunity of a console release. So we got hooked up with the Madballs folks and we saw an opportunity to put a little more personality into the game by bringing a couple of their characters into it– they were a very natural fit. It also gave us some familiar faces to build on and allowed us to expand some story elements, so bingo, bango, bongo: Oculus Orbus and Horn Head joined the crew and “Babo:Invasion” became “Madballs in…Babo:Invasion”.

As we get more information about the game out there in the coming weeks, and more folks get to see it, hopefully people will see that what we’ve created is a really deep and fun downloadable game. Yes, it will have a connection for some people who want to play characters they already know, but lots of folks won’t even know which of the characters is a Madball and which aren’t, but they’ll have fun playing, regardless– it’s a great game.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to crawl under a blanket with a bottle of Amaretto.

First up, yeah, no pressure, Blast Magazine: “Described only as casually-hardcore, this unique shooter could be the next Castle Crashers“. While we really appreciate the comparison and confidence from you, I am inherently a pessimistic person. So in the way that we’re a super fun game that’s going to be on XBLA that supports 4-player online co-op (even though our game goes much deeper than that)? Why yes. Yes, we could be the next “Castle Crashers“. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that was a lead-pipe lock.

But in that we’re going to be one of the best-selling XBLA titles of all-time? Well, anything’s possible, especially if we launch a “Buy a game, get a sports car” promotion someday. So sure, write it down in pen: MiBI is the next “Castle Crashers“. Rawk.

Jokery aside, our 4-player co-op campaign is something we did spend a lot of time and effort on, so I hope there is at least something to that comparison (in fact, there better be). Glad somebody picked up on that.

Then Jeff McAllister from GameShark says that we make him “feel really old” by putting out this game. Well let me tell you something, Jeff McAllister from GameShark…you are really old…maybe. I actually have no idea how old you are, but you seem like a trustworthy fellow (you’re looking forward to our game, so you must be smart and talented, too), so I’m willing to take your word for it.

On the bright side, maybe it’s one of those Benjamin Button deals and you’ll end up looking like Brad Pitt one day. So you got that going for you, which is nice.

…with our first article at IGN– “Pre-E3 2009: Madballs Return on XBLA: The ’80s toys are back“, complete with some schweet screenshots here.

I think this means, we’re, like, legit now or something.

And as if that’s not enough, there will be a Q&A with us and Andy Eddy tomorrow…on a very special Team XBox (I open up about the time Gordon Jump pretended to be a lion and long story short, I had to point out on my Xbox Avatar where he tried to touch me).

Although looking back, yeah, I may once again be confusing my life with memorable episodes of DIff’rent Strokes.

Yessir, we’re totally a legit studio now…

Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the party re-starts right around now, as we’re kicking off the official, super-duper launch of Madballs in…Babo:Invasion, confirmed for release this summer on XBLA and Steam.

Yep, after a couple of years, we’re done development on our first game and the engine it runs on, and after just a liiiiitle more testing and certification, we will be out on both platforms in a couple of months. Huzzah.

And if you’re coming out in a couple of months, there’s only one logical thing you can do: start whoring this beast.

That means more blog posts, more pictures, more press, more video, more info, more stuff…even more movie parody posters that we hope we don’t get sued over.

Grokiator: Anti-hero, or Antiest-hero?

So, the whole whoring thing begins in earnest after the jump with the new n’ oh-so-timely official press release. So if you’re the kind of person who gets chills reading information intended to pique the curiosity of industry folks (and come on, who doesn’t?), please give it a boo and then ask yourself…are you not entertained?

(continue reading…)