Outed by a trademark filed last month, Nintendo has today announced Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. (Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace) during a developer roundtable.
A cel-shaded, steampunk turn-based strategy game from the masterfully creative minds of Intelligent Systems, players will command a strike team formed by Abraham Lincoln to defend against an intergalactic invasion.
It blends a mixture of styles, and is an entirely new IP from Nintendo that is being led by Nintendo Software Group No. 1 manager Hitoshi Yamagami, creative director Paul Patrashcu and art director Takako Sakai.
Yamagami explained that they were looking to “find a way to introduce more people to strategy games and have them fall in love with them the way I have.” To do so, they looked to blend action elements from shooters to enhance movement and attacking, while using the 3DS touch screen to create an intuitive control system.
You control a fire team that comprises of four different characters, with players looking to explore the environment around them as they look to move toward their objective. Telephonoscopes hover around the battlefield offering hints as to how players should approach each map, while tackling any aliens that cross your path.
Your team wear boilers on their back, a gauge indicating how much steam they have left which refers to how many more actions they can make that turn. Game progression will broaden the boilers, weapons and characters that are available to you, with the campaign divided into separate missions that themselves are split between several maps.
Character design takes inspiration from American comic books, namely artists like Jack Kirby and Bruce Timm who used positive imagery and bold colour. Each character has a main weapon, but players can choose to equip a second sub-weapon as well.
The aliens are inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, with a large variety of them in the game that each share the element of ice and have their own tactical characteristics. Examples include the brutal Devastator, Prowlers who work together to hunt the player’s team, and the Ripper.
Players can choose to place their characters in overwatch mode by saving steam at the end of their turn, then being able to respond to enemy movement by stunning and interrupting them.
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. will release exclusively for 3DS in 2015.
