One thing that unites gamers is their love of cartoon mascots. Sure, your game preferences may change as you grow older, but you still have a soft spot in your heart for the game heroes of your youth. Unless of course, your tastes are a bit more, villainous? In that case you’ve probably heard of StarBlade Games’ princess kidnapping, hero thwarting, side-scroller, Nefarious.
Nefarious released earlier this year after successfully being funded on Kickstarter. The game follows the adventures of villain protagonist, Crow as he snatches up princesses and reverse boss fights heroes. Sure, the premise is fun, but the game’s success has a lot more to do with its classically animated characters. The characters and their comic book-esque interactions are what really make the game stand out. It’s no wonder developer, Josh Hano has decided to keep Crow’s antics going in a new Nefarious graphic novel.
The story picks up right after the game’s true ending. Now a world renowned princess kidnapper, Crow offers his services as a villain-for-hire to the highest bidder in order to finance the rebuilding of his once mighty empire. Technically, you don’t need to have played the game to jump into the story, but it’s worth it. The game’s story was actually very clever about subverting typical villain-hero-damsel dynamics into something snarky and fun.
There’s Even A Musical Number
The $18,000 Kickstarter campaign would fund the creation of a 150+ page book (four chapters at 25 pages each with extras) of full color illustrations and villainous hi-jinks. Digital copies are available starting at the $11 reward tier.
While Nefarious has mostly positive reviews on Steam, some users were less than impressed with the game’s controls. Having tried it out prior to PAX South, I can definitely see where they are coming from with this complaint. Hopefully, the new graphic novel will allow everyone to get more familiar with the outrageous Nefarious cast, without all the floaty twin-stick grenade tossing.
