PAX Prime 2011: Archibald & Remus Demo

The very last demo I had a chance to sit down and play while at PAX was an interesting little tower defense title by SRRN Games called Archibald & Remus: Minor Lords. I'm not usually a fan of tower defense games (with the one major exception being the Pokemon Tower Defense game), but the aspect that caught my attention from Archibald & Remus happened to be a more minor portion of the game: It's a buddy comedy. More on that after the jump.

Seeing as how Kyle and I epitomize the buddy comedy on a weekly basis (and more if we can get our act together and actually record episodes of the podcast), hearing that a simple tower defense game would have a full series of audio tracks devoted to two unseen characters bickering caught my eyebrow in just the right spot to raise it above my head in the inquisitive spot reserved for things of interest.

The main concept follows the titular characters of Archibald and Remus as they go from castle to castle squatting while the actual owners are out. That's right, you're playing a game where the goal is to defend the castle you're squatting in from other squatters who'd gladly be there in your place. As enemies come knocking, you set up towers to stop them from advancing. It's all very basic, but the humor aspect is what saves things more than anything.

I had to stop and just listen to the in-development scratch track for the characters as they sat off screen arguing about the smallest details. One character says that the castle is "nice" while the other gets annoyed and says that "nice" is what you'd call a puppy, not a castle. The back-and-forth will absolutely be the selling point seeing as how there's certainly a market for people who want some comedy in their iPhone and iPad games.

Going along with that are the type of towers you can actually build. Instead of simple catapult towers, they can be upgraded them to hurl cows. Slingshot towers can be modified to fling chickens instead. You can shoot bees at people or create noxious gas, and when you combine certain towers together for an attack you can gain special medals that open up new tower and upgrades.

And that's pretty much all there is to say on Archibald & Remus, purely because it's still in development. I'm looking forward to it as it's a simple concept and I like the idea of a fun little game with a strong emphasis on two friends talking over everything you do. And hey, if they ever wanted Kyle and I to provide voices, we'd be totally up for it. ;)