Video Game Spotlight: Costume Quest – From Double Fine

This weekend I noticed that there was a demo for Costume Quest on XBLA, and I honestly didn’t know much about it. When I mentioned the game to a gamer buddy of mine, he hadn’t heard much about it either.

It’s a game from Tim Schafer’s company Double Fine who if you don’t know, employs some of the minds behind awesome games like Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Psychonauts and Brutal Legend.

After trying the demo, my wife bought the game and spent the better part of the weekend playing it non-stop and after watching a good portion of the game in action, I realised that if people didn’t know much about it by now, they really should take a look.

More info and a trailer, after the jump.

The game takes place on Halloween and is played from an isometric view, as you control young kids trick or treating around a neighbourhood. Everything starts going pear-shaped when they realise that they are dealing with a devious Witch who is using Halloween as a cover to perform some evil candy-stealing deeds.

On top of the game having a really great look and humorous vibe going for it, what I really liked about it was the way they play into the imagination of children with regards to their costumes. When a battle occurs, the children transform into great big warriors according to their costume. For example, if your costume is a crappy cardboard attempt at a robot outfit, your player transformers into a giant battle-mech similar to something out of Transformers or Gundam.

Combat takes place in a simplified turn-based Final Fantasy kind of style, with the player having to select an attack and then perform something like a timed button press to be successful or quickly hit a face button to dodge one from the enemy.

What I really do like about Costume Quest is that it seems like the kind of game that can really be enjoyed by younger and older gamers, and it reminds me of the reasons why video games were so fun to begin with.

I have added the trailer for the game below, so check it out and if possible, hit the demo up when you get home. I think you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

Costume Quest goes for 1200 MS points on XBLA and the equivalent of $15.00 on PSN.

Last Updated: October 25, 2010