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Have You Played… Bookbound Brigade?It’s clobberin' time!
It’s clobberin' time!
Bookbound Brigadeis a fun little game that came out in January, about a super-team of literary characters hopping through various books together to save their collective world. It borrows a lot from the near-ubiquitous Metroid formula, including non-linear levels, upgrades that need to be found, and tons of backtracking. I particularly like the mechanic wherein different group formations give the brigade alternative fighting techniques, movement speeds and the like.
Bookbound Brigadehas a similar MO. But, for me at least, it lost some shine for the way it portrayed the literary and historical characters encountered along the way. It’s the dialogue, for the most part. In the Thursday Next books, when the Cheshire Cat speaks (or rather, the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat, thanks to some alternate history shenanigans), it’s as if Lewis Carroll wrote his dialogue.
But when the Bookbound Brigade meet Joan of Arc, they keep making jokes about her being burned to death. And then there was the discussion with Queen Victoria, when she joins the party.
If the game had been about original characters, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more - as I say, it’s a grand little formation brawler. And the dialogue’s not even bad - it just undermines the theme somewhat. Definitely worth a play, but be prepared to be let down if you’re a King Arthur superfan.
