One of the more classic forms of co-op games is the brawler/beat-em-up genre. From Streets of Rage to the up-and-coming Dragon's Crown, we all enjoy a solid co-op brawler from time to time. The developers at newly formed Dinosaur share that sentiment are currently developing their first game, MechKnight Chronicles. We only have a little information at this time about the game, but so far, it's looking very promising. Inspirations for the title read like a greatest hits of the brawler and they're currently working to ensure the game has 4-player online, local, and, ideally, LAN, co-op.
So, with that said, here's what we know so far from Dinosaur:
MechKnight Chronicles is our love letter to the brawler genre. Our inspirations are:
- Guardian Heroes
- King of the Dragons
- Knights of the Round
- Tower of Doom
- Shadow of Mystara
- Castle Crashers
- Scott Pilgrim
We're huge fans of the genre and we're pulling together our favorite parts from our favorite games as well as introducing some new ones in our attempt at the genre. We're trying to build a modular game that will allow us to deliver a ton of content to the user, as well as bring down the production costs for MechKnight's future sequels.
That's quite an impressive list of games from which to pull and a lot of elements to combine into just one title. Dinosaur provided us with a pre-alpha build of the game to check out to see if their claims hold true. It's still early but we definitely see a lot of those elements in play. The pre-alpha also left us with some questions about what co-op features we could expect, so we asked creative director and owner Jesse Sosa about it.
Co-Optimus: Will your 4 player co-op include local, online, LAN?
Jesse Sosa: We're looking at providing 4 player co-op locally, online, and LAN. The first two are the priority though.
Co-Optimus: Will there be combo co-op - two players local and a third or fourth online?
Jesse: This is something we're pushing hard for. I love how you can do that on Left 4 Dead, so as far as I'm concerned, this has to be a feature for us too.
Co-Optimus: Will there be drop-in/drop-out co-op?
Jesse: This is something we're going to have to test out. Story mode will have some scripted events that pull characters that the Players didn't select, so there might be some issues there, but in Story Mode Plus, it might not be that big of a deal since that's your more straight up, arcade mode.
There are a lot of good things to look forward to with MechKnight, and here's hoping Dinosaur is able to pull it off. They currently have a Steam Greenlight page going where you can support them and help them get a Steam release. Release plans for PC and Mac, and a strong possibility for console ports as well.
We'll close with this action teaser to show off a little of where they're at with the game so far.