Gravity Crash Ultra –On Its Way To PS Vita
In the very competitive market of the videogame industry, it’s always nice when a game seemingly comes out of nowhere and catches you by surprise. Back in 2009 Gravity Crash was released on the PS3 (also 2010 for the PSP), but now it’s getting a new and improved re-release for the PS Vita.
With improved visuals and a smooth framerate of 60fps, Gravity Crash Ultra is an old school influenced twin stick shooter that PS Vita owners should checkout when it releases next month. Gravity Crash Ultra is from the development team at Just Add Water, who just so happen to be behind the remake of the PS1 classic title Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, now called Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty.
Gravity Crash Ultra will release during July next month, the same month as Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty (July 23rd). To help give you an inkling to what this game is all about, checkout the gameplay trailer below and some words from the team behind the game direct from the Playstation Blog.
The landscape for indie developers has changed massively since then, but the values of creativity and gameplay remain. This is what Gravity Crash stood for then, and it’s still as relevant today.
Yes, the team at JAW has been very busy with another game from a rather well-loved PlayStation franchise, Oddworld, but we found the time and talent to give Gravity Crash the update we really felt it deserved.
Nearly five years on, our work porting Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath to the PS Vita gave us all here a glimpse of just how amazing the hardware is and what PlayStation’s tools enable us to do with it. At the time, I thought: “This is where Gravity Crash belongs…” We pushed the PS Vita to its limits with the game and we wanted a name that screamed it: Gravity Crash Ultra.
What can you expect that’s new to the game? A quick glance will show that a lot has changed visually. We’ve got it running at the Vita’s native resolution at a smooth-as-butter 60 frames per second. The lighting and visual effects have been given a makeover, turning the particles up to eleven. Explosions, weapon effects, a refined graphics renderer, better lighting… the list goes on. And that’s just the visuals!
That’s not all, though… much of the gameplay has been revisited. By adding a third player ship we managed to create three difficulty levels, including the anti-gravity ship for the easy difficulty. Reviewers of the original game commented on the difficulty; another throw-back to old school gaming we were keen to capture that might be too hardcore.
The interface has been tweaked to better make use of space and declutter various menus. We’ve improved the radar to make it more useful, and made the mission notification system much easier to keep track of. There’s the new logo to go with the new name, and the GUI has been redrawn to make it as crisp and touch friendly as it can be.
The excellent soundtrack created by legendary video game music producer CoLD SToRAGE also gets a remix, giving the electronic “demo scene” sound a fresh, new-car smell. You can even get the fully remixed soundtrack album along with the original. There are also new voice-over sounds along with other audio improvements.
Of course, the mission editing and sharing features are still there, but you’ll also be able to share across to PS3, giving you nearly five years’ worth of extra levels to play through!
You should expect to see Gravity Crash Ultra for PS Vita on PlayStation Store this July. Follow JAW on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news about the game!