BLASTER MASTER MEETS BIONIC COMMANDO IN NATHAN FOUTS’ GRAPPLE BUGGY

In the many months that’ve passed, I still haven’t managed to dig up many gems in Xbox 360’s Community Games section that have instantly hooked me quite as much as Mommy’s Best’s previously previewed Weapon of Choice, and I’ve just become as quickly intrigued by one-man-team Nathan Fouts’ Grapple Buggy, his next game due on the console by the end of the year.

As the name implies, Buggy promises to take all of the fantastically grotesque alien landscapes of Weapon and combine it with both physics enhanced vehicular platforming ala underdog NES game Blaster Master and a Bionic Commando-esque dual-grappling hook, in some dual-punch combo of under-utilized mechanical excellence.

Here’s Fouts’ again-perfectly ludicrous sci-fi pitch:

Take control of the prototype Grapple Buggy piloted by Nova Commander Javeya, and her alien co-pilot Drozo to explore the newly discovered VALD-END 317.

The distant planet seems to house massive amounts of Tetravaldisae, known to its harvesters as ‘Vald’. Used to create fuel for faster-than-light travel, Vald is the single most valuable commodity in the known universe. The New Homeworld Armada and the Drozo Empire have formed a strained alliance to confirm these portentous readings sending the Grapple Buggy and its team into action for the first time.

Can the Drozo Empire be trusted? Has Javeya’s government thrust her into a compromised situation? Will VALD-END thwart both species schemes? Swing into action with Grapple Buggy!

Fouts has set up a site for the game here, and you can follow his progress via the Mommy’s Best devblog here.

Grapple Buggy [Mommy’s Best, devblog, via XNAplay]