Skulls of the Shogun - TBS genre

Haven't heard any talk of Skulls of the Shogun (TBS genre) being released this week on Xbox LIVE Arcade, Surface, Windows 8, and Windows Phone. The latest coverage on Giant Bomb is from June 2010! What's the deal with this title?

I'm picking up 2 copies the minute it hits Steam.

Oh, I might have something decent to play on my Surface?

Does anyone know if it's going to require Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer on all/any of the platforms? I'm guessing it's assured on XBLA which doesn't make me too optimistic about the other platforms.

Lots of people were excited for it, but then they announced it was Windows 8 only (on PC) and that dampened some of the enthusiasm. Its Windows 8 because they want cross platform play with the Xbox and Surface.

The game itself looks great. They look like they are going for a Final Fantasy Tactics style game, except faster paced. Check out this page describing the mechanics of the game, and you'll see how they've put alot of thought into how to display stuff like hit points and movement points in subtle, onscreen ways. It looks like its going to be very pleasing to look at and control, the only remaining question is will they the core tactical gameplay be compelling? Some of those game mechanics suggest the design is well thought out and elegantly simple. Fingers crossed.

I'll be playing on Xbox just because I don't have Windows 8 on my PC. Thanks for the reminder, time to dust off and update my Xbox.

$15 XBLA strategy game, which will keep some people away. And it won't sell at all any of those Windows 8 platforms.

I wasn't defending the decision. I agree they would be better off making it for Windows 7 + iOS. They'ed get more sales and a bigger pool of players for multiplayer, even though it would be split.

I'm just keen to play because of the genre, game design, and art style. I'm just treating it as a Xbox exclusive.

Usually when someone does an exclusive, it's because they were offered some monies. Who knows if it was worth it in the loss of sales though.

Dammit. This means I need to haul my router back over next to the 360 again. Might even make me fork out for one of those new fangled 360 wifi thangs.

Or powerline networking adapters.

Consider powerline networking. It's cheap, and it gives you far more if it works in your house. The 360 wifi adapters work fine as well, of course.

Yeah, I've considered those too, but so far have held off. The wiring in our house (most of it) is old enough I've been reluctant to test the outlets, especially as the Computer Room (where the modem + router sit) and Big TV Room are on different circuits (despite being physicaly close). I figure if any house has problems it's likely to be this house... though admitedly I have no practical experience with this approach.

Plus we're planning on moving sometime in the next year or so.

Tried the demo on my surface. The movement felt a little awkward, as did the control scheme in general for touch, a lot of touches have to be done across the entire surface of the tablet, which is just annoying. Penny Arcade was espousing the amazing writing in the demo:

But, uh, I guess he should be incredibly surprised, as I did not, in fact, get caught by one of it's 'hilarious' talons...

Well it's Penny Arcade, it's not like they know what funny is.

Downloaded the demo, but it's pretty tedious and I quit before finishing. Might be something to pick up on a sale somewhere down the road, because $15 is not happening right now. The battles are almost fun, but really reliant on positioning despite not offering you much precision. Tactics consist of "stand in this bush" and "push enemies off cliff."

The gameplay may fit better on mobile devices where your expectations for depth are lower, though. Looks nice and the stylized graphics are well done, though the goofy art and hokey humor feels a lot forced.

Game sounds sweet but I don't want to play an asynchronous TBS on my xbox and I don't have or plan to get W8 on a computer or mobile device, so that's a shame.

So did anyone else try the demo or buy the full version? I'm wondering if there was a decent game lurking beneath the fairly boring demo.

It's worth something. I'm guessing the game probably works better as a mobile game on a touch interface than on a PC or console. I went into it expecting more than it had to offer, but if I had a tablet or played games on my phone, I think the experience would have been more positive.

Well, this is finally hitting Steam next month and available for pre-order (which gives you access to a multiplayer beta version).

Aside from the multitude of extra features the other versions might not be getting, I found this quite funny: