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[Gowans]

Double Fine Happy Action Theater

Platforms: XBLA KINECT
Price: $10, 800 points
Release Date: 1st Feb 2012
Developer: Double Fine
Game Info:

Are you annoyed at how little magic you are able to shoot from your fingers? Have you ever tried to get grandma to do the worm, but all she would do is just stand there? Have you ever noticed how your living room doesn’t have any hot lava in it? And who designed this living room anyway?! It doesn’t even have any buildings to smash! Well, Double Fine Happy Action Theater can solve all of these problems and more! You will also be able to clone yourself or hang out in a plate of jelly if you want. And when you’re done with that, maybe you will want to feed some pigeons or have a snowball fight. There are 18 amazing ways that Double Fine Action Theater will enhance your life! And up to 5 of your friends’ lives too! (ages 2 to 102)

Video: Giant Bomb Quick Look

Screens:

Add to your Download Queue:Marketplace Link

Fantastic Gamasutra interview with Tim Schafer about Happy Action Theatre (and other Double Fine games) here.

 

[jgminto]

Best use of Kinect yet? Will definitely try this out.

Someone needs to get some Giant Bomb gifs up in here.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

http://i.minus.com/iby2NKvlYpyS2F.gif

Day one.

 

[walking fiend]

isn't Kinect limited to two people?

 

[bigtroyjon]

isn't Kinect limited to two people?

It's limited to two for skeletal tracking. Can have 6 people for all the stuff done in this game.

unrelated edit-If anyone has a Kinect and hasn't watched the quick look, I dare you to watch and not think this game is worth $10. Not possible.

 

[Dabanton]

Lol this looks like fun.

Will download later

 

[Resilient]

OMG HAHAHAHAHAHA I'M DEAD

 

[Gowans]

Had a quick go on my break, it's great!

Had a huge smile on my face on some of the trippy modes. Can't wait to see what my 2 year old thinks shame I'm away with work for the next couple of days.

 

[jediyoshi]

Oh dear, kinect bullshots, is that a first?

 

[ShdwDrake]

HAHAH OH WOW!

 

[deleted]

I like what Double Fine is doing - this seems like a good game to waste some time with alcohol and friends.

Between this, Once upon a Monster, Stacking, Iron Brigade, Costume Quest, Psychonauts and Brütal Legend they are really making games for everyone that are different.

This is the direction I wanted Rare to go, when MS bought them. Quirky, inventive games with strange humor.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Real-time pigeon kicking? DAY ONE!

 

[Chairhome]

Can't wait to go home and play this with my kids. This is great because my youngest is always "getting in the way" for kinect games, now he won't! Those are super bullshots in the OP though, the Kinect images aren't that high res!

 

[Peff]

Run, you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!

 

[acm2000]

so any of us ugly gaming forum nerds tried this yet? my gf has kinect, will try it tonight

 

[bradigor]

Grabbed this today and have spent time playing on it with my five year old.

It is so much fun, a proper casual game, where there is no end game, no score attack, no boss to beat. Just pure fun.

I have left the boy playing the balloons game at the moment. but look forward to trying out more.

 

[Yoritomo]

Just bought it.

Can't wait to try it with my kids tonight.

Oh dear, kinect bullshots, is that a first?

You could get the same effect if you have some color corrected studio lighting in your living room.

 

[SafeinSound]

http://i.minus.com/iby2NKvlYpyS2F.gif[IMG][/QUOTE]

Ahahahaha. I haven't watched the QL, but I am now because of this gif.

 

[LiK]

Ahahahaha. I haven't watched the QL, but I am now because of this gif.

that QL is great. nice surprise at the end.

 

[SafeinSound]

Wow, this game actually looks pretty awesome.

 

[Flavius]

Downloaded this morning, and played with my 4 year old before I took her to pre-school.

It's a hell of a lot of fun. Love how it just goes right into the mini-games. Youngest really got a kick out of it, so much so that we were actually a couple of minutes late getting to school.

Won't lie, though, I was sold based on the GB QL alone...didn't even bother to demo it. Plunked down my spacepoints right then and there and d/l it. But if you're at all curious, I definitely recommend that you check it out.

 

[Gowans]

Yeah I get home tonight. Can't wait to play it with my 2 year old tomorrow morning.

 

[Azure Dream]

That's one disturbing shot.

I'm sure it'll see some recycling here too.

 

[barugon]

Will I buy a Kinect for this?

Absolutely

 

[Noogy]

I'm surprised there isn't more action in this thread.

My Xbox will be running this more than anything else this year, guaranteed. Yes, I'm a parent of two, but I dare anyone walking by it without getting sucked in.

 

[eXistor]

Probably gonna buy it just to support DF. As far as Kinect games go, this does look like a lot of fun.

 

[jump_button]

Wtf going on with Double Fine if they keep this up they end up like Rare

 

[RedStep]

Wtf going on with Double Fine if they keep this up they end up like Rare

Just keep fuckin' that chicken...

Double Fine makes fun games. This is a fun game. People have fun when they play it. I'm glad they make these games. It's all pretty simple.

 

[FateBreaker]

Wow...this looks incredible. Giant Bomb totally sold me on this. I will be getting this soon.

 

[jump_button]

Just keep fuckin' that chicken...

Double Fine makes fun games. This is a fun game. People have fun when they play it. I'm glad they make these games. It's all pretty simple.

He say he wouldn't call it a game so why are they selling it as a game, As for being a Fun game maybe if you three but then so is a box at that age. As much as I love Double Fine this look more like demos a team would make when trying to make a game and then toss away or keep to themselfs

 

[jgminto]

He say he wouldn't call it a game so why are they selling it as a game, As for being a Fun game maybe if you three but then so is a box at that age. As much as I love Double Fine this look more like demos a team would make when trying to make a game and then toss away or keep to themselfs

How are you not going to sell it as a game? It uses a 360 and related hardware, of course it's a game. And it is fun. It's a great thing to play when you don't want competition and of course it will be fun for 3 year olds, but it is also fun for adults who want to mess around with their kids or their drunk friends and they can still have an entertaining time. They've created the ultimate technological toybox and I think it's fantastic.

 

[Dabanton]

He say he wouldn't call it a game so why are they selling it as a game, As for being a Fun game maybe if you three but then so is a box at that age. As much as I love Double Fine this look more like demos a team would make when trying to make a game and then toss away or keep to themselfs

Sooo pay it no attention and go and play a DF game like Trenched or something. Tim Schafer perfectly explains in that Giant Bomb QL why they wanted to make this.

 

[FateBreaker]

How are you not going to sell it as a game?

Tim pretty clearly (and consistently) says it's not really a game; it's an activity. Of course it is still a video game, but it seems like in order to enjoy this the most, you should erase the expectations of what a video game is (scores, competitiveness, etc).

 

[jgminto]

Tim pretty clearly (and consistently) says it's not really a game; it's an activity.

I know. I was saying you can only sell it as you would a game. How else can you sell such an item?

 

[FateBreaker]

I know. I was saying you can only sell it as you would a game. How else can you sell such an item?

Yeah, true. Advertising this, in general, would seem to be tough...unless you just watch the Giant Bomb lava segment, haha.

 

[Haunted]

He say he wouldn't call it a game so why are they selling it as a game, As for being a Fun game maybe if you three but then so is a box at that age. As much as I love Double Fine this look more like demos a team would make when trying to make a game and then toss away or keep to themselves

Hey man, boxes are pretty cool, ok?

And while I can understand the disappointment that they're using their talent to create something that's not for your demographic - they can create whatever types of games they want. These reflect on the life situation of many of the people at Double Fine (they have quite a few young parents working there), so their recent forays into this area come pretty naturally.

 

[jump_button]

I know. I was saying you can only sell it as you would a game. How else can you sell such an item?

That my point he shouldn't try and sell it I would try and take it to MS to buy and give away or something or try and turn it into more of a game

 

[Gowans]

Just played this with my 2 year old, he loves the snow one. Kept asking to make a snow man.

He's a little too young for most of it but it didn't stop him just standing in awe of everything that was going on. On the Garden one he was concerned about all the mess the flowers were making the living room.

 

[Duxxy3]

R.I.P. Double Fine

 

[Haunted]

Fantastic Gamasutra interview with Tim Schafer about Happy Action Theatre (and other Double Fine games) here.

Would definitely add that to the OP Gowans, it's a really good read.

 

[jgminto]

That my point he shouldn't try and sell it I would try and take it to MS to buy and give away or something or try and turn it into more of a game

While I'd love to get the game for free, this is impossible. MS is losing money in this situation and no company likes to lose money. I do think it would be a great app to be included with Kinect at retail, I had more fun with this than with Sports.

R.I.P. Double Fine

Oh quit being so melodramatic. DF is still making great games. They are also now making great kid-friendly games as well.

 

[Dabanton]

That's a great interview loved reading about how DF approach these games.

 

[OccamsBlender]

Dang if only I had enough space in my tiny Japanse apartment to really make use of a Kinect!

 

[eso76]

had to buy this.
oddly enough, the first thing i did was taking pictures of me doing dirty things to myself.

 

[Dabanton]

In the lava i hope

 

[deleted]

R.I.P. Double Fine

These guys have had a pretty steady output this gen and manage to make the games they want. Some are for you, some aren't.
For every Action Theater and Sesame Street you'll get another Iron Brigade and Costume Quest.

Just ignore the games you don't like and support them for their quirky and unconventional ideas/humor in games you like.

Edit: Great Interview btw. I wish he would have mentioned something about weather Iron Brigade can make it to steam or not.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

This... toy is so much fun. Kinect is pretty much a party device, but sometimes parties are too disorganised to have people part the room for a game of Dance Central or Kinect Sports. This is perfect to just have on and let people casually interact. Yesterday two of my friends popped by the pick me up to go get some food, and I had Happy Action Theater on the TV. I said "Wait two minutes, I just need to do the dishes" and without even telling them a single thing about the game I went back into the room to find one of them lying down under lava, and the other climbing my sofa. Such is the power of Happy Action Theater

These are the kinds of fun chunks of gaming that we've seen the PC community making and that I expected from XBLA and Kinect Fun Labs but it just hasn't been delivered yet as well as this. The idea of looping the game infinitely is great, it's a shame this isn't a platform for more ideas like a better Fun Labs. Hopefully Double Fine will have some DLC at some point. I can imagine them just getting a quick idea for Kinect, messing around and thinking "Yeah, why not just put it in the game". They must have way more than 18 little prototypes.

 

[subversus]

Edit: Great Interview btw. I wish he would have mentioned something about weather Iron Brigade can make it to steam or not.

it's in the registry.

 

[Seraphinianus]

i want shrim DLC