[PAX] Hands On With Adventure Time 3DS

How is it that when I started playing Adventure Time for the 3DS it felt as if I was playing an episode of the show? I mean granted one is derived from the other, but so often than not there is the feeling that a game based off of a television series is just that; a game based off of a television series. Not so much Adventure Time however. Perhaps because the show is so much like a video game to begin with, but when I write that playing Adventure Time on the 3DS is like playing an episode of Adventure Time, I mean it in a very different and literal sense.

First and foremost the game looks gorgeous. Hiring WayForward to helm the production of the game was possibly the best choice for such a project. The 2D sprites are wonderfully rendered and the world is just as it should be: deliriously creative. The game is separated into two different aspects (of what was revealed so far), a 2D side-scrolling portion for combat and exploration, and a top-down open world to journey. Combat is simple in the beginning with your basic attacks, slides, jumps, and allows for both Finn and Jake to take part in the action. I’m told however that as you progress, you unlock more and more abilities and weapons so we’re only at the tip of the iceberg.

I can say this because I’m going to now explain the item system. When you need to replenish health you can eat the various foodstuff you pick up such as hamburgers, cheese, cupcakes, ketchup, etc. Eating a hamburger or a cupcake on its own will replenish a little bit of your health, but when you combine a hamburger and ketchup, you replenish even more health. Alternately if you put ketchup on a cupcake it will decrease your health. This sort of creativity is just what one would expect from an Adventure Time game and with Pendleton Ward aiding development, it’s easy to imagine all sorts of possibilities in the game.

Expect the game to drop sometime this fall for the DS and 3DS (no difference between versions except one is in 3D) and a special edition to be detailed later.