Jump to content

X-Com-ify...


NKF

Recommended Posts

Rather than agonize over how the XCOM (sans hyphen) game is going to be and getting upset about it before it's released, it's clear that the current developers want to take it in a different direction. But that's been happening to the series since after Apocalypse, so it's the natural course of things continuing to progress.

 

In the meantime, a mental exercise for you to take your mind off things.

 

Take a game. Any game. Tetris, Super Mario, Katamari, Pac Man, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Nethack, Scrabble, Chess, Space Invaders, etc. Then try to X-Com-ify it. First slap the X-Com title onto it and think about what elements in your mind would need to be added in order to make it an X-Com game.

 

I'm not intending this to go any further than this, but if if you get any brilliant (or funny) ideas that would work, feel free to discuss it. It's mainly for a few laughs. ;)

 

- NKF

 

P. S: Sticking this in general game discussions because it's not directly about the existing X-COM games as such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You mean like "X-COM: Invaders" where one lone remote-piloted Tank Cannon is Earth's last hope against a slowly descending and seemingly unstoppable foe hell-bent on... err... landing?

 

It's got the snappy X-COM title, there's a tank in it from the original game, but it's like the X-COM agents had a day off to play in the park or something and just left the tank to take on the entire alien armada.

 

I think with the buildings, nay bases the tank is trying to protect it's pretty much X-COM right there. Couldn't really slap R&D or base building into it, but would you want to improve upon such a perfect game anyway?

 

I never was sure what the Space Invaders were actually after. The game ends when they blow the tank up. Maybe they were just after a cup of sugar ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

X-Man.

 

It's like Pacman, only the ghosts are Chryssalids, and the Power pellet is a flying suit. Everything else is the same

 

Never released due to simultaneous lawsuits from Marvel and Namco, the whole concept of Chryssalids was shelved for years. Fortunately, an intern stole several art assets for use in a Halloween party, where he met the Gallop brothers. The rest is history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dungeon X-COM.

 

Take Dungeon Keeper, replace the heroes with aliens and the monsters with soldiers, and you're done.

 

 

THANK YOU, BB. Now I'm going to spend the entire rest of my weekend figuring out a way to make this happen. As if I didn't have enough shiny things to distract myself with. @.@

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been thinking about this, and have tried a few ideas (which didn't exactly work), but here are a few that have come to mind. Not particularly funny ones, but did leave me thinking about them for few minutes:

 

Syndicate. Play the MIBs and MUFONs that make up X-COM's mighty but otherwise mostly hidden stagehands, and or alien aligned agents that want to thwart them. Plus big exsplosions. Lots of em. Already has the weapon research (made faster by pumping more money into it) side, agent improvement and equipment selection side. Just needs vehicles, bases and random missions.

 

Contra (For the original NES) - aka X-COM Enforcer Done Right. More exciting platforming, bigger bosses, same type of weapons and general carnage. Only changes would be to make all the weapon drops random rather than fixed, more respawning enemies with some research ala Enforcer in between levels as a thin guise of character improvement and research.

 

Battlezone (I or II) - while mainly vehicle oriented, it could be remodeled to improve the pilot combat side of thing and tone down the vehicles so that they had more impact but were less of a focal point. The fact you could control squads and whatnot from a first person view was fun. First games I'd experienced that made me feel like playing a RTS or strategy game ala X-COM via first person view rather viable with a few tweaks.

 

Raptor Call of the Shadows (or any other game in a similar genre) - set underwater, with a the main ship being a Leviathan. Just imagine repeating Gas cannon rounds, high powered torpedos for colony destruction, multiple PWT launches with auto-homing for the first couple of seconds, big sonic beams, etc. I actually did a mockup of this many years ago while testing out Allegro, had a working Leviathan with gas cannon rounds and PWTs, and a scrolling seabed. If I had only kept the images and the source code...

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Humm..

 

MtG: X-Com

 

One player is the X-Com Commander and the other the Aliens Commander, your life points represent the damage to your main base.

 

Creatures become Troops, Terror Units and HWP's. Enchantments and Artifacts are like Base facilities and research. Mana and lands is like funding from countries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally remembered a couple of games I wanted to mention:

 

Worms, any of the games back when they were still 2D. Replace the worms with X-Com troopers or aliens, throw in a few sci-fi terrains and reskin some of the more outlandish weapons like the concrete donkey with some X-COM appropriate replacements, and there you have it. Still has the much loved turn based action (albeit sequential), destructible terrain (with floating ceilings) and potential for amazingly silly or exciting mayhem.

 

I've not had much luck in trying to X-Comify Magic Carpet beyond using hovertanks or cyberdiscs to fill in for the magic carpets, and replace the mana with 'elerium' laced gas clouds.

 

- NKF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've not had much luck in trying to X-Comify Magic Carpet beyond using hovertanks or cyberdiscs to fill in for the magic carpets, and replace the mana with 'elerium' laced gas clouds.

Flying armor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
  • Create New...