The War of the Worlds, a new side-scrolling platformer for Xbox 360, has launched today on Xbox Live Arcade. As you might expect, the game is inspired by the classic H.G. Wells novel, but retold as a single-player 2D action-adventure narrated by Patrick Stewart.
Set in London, the gameplay narrative in The War of the Worlds parallels the timeline and events from the 1953 movie adaptation. However, the game introduces a new story arc, characters, locations and sub-plots. The game follows the exploits of an unknown everyman struggling to escape the Martian invasion of London and rescue his family. Forced to think through insurmountable odds, players will outsmart an army of alien tripods, spiders and drones as they make their way through a landscape of total devastation.
We had a chance to see The War of the Worlds at E3 this year, and its gameplay is reminiscent of classic platformers such as Out of This World and Prince of Persia. If you’re feeling a need to wax poetic on retro-style (and arguably slow) gameplay, this one may be worth checking out.