To answer the first question that everyone probably thought the moment that they read the headline – no, this is not an early April Fools joke or some other prank. It’s real and quite a surprise at that. I didn’t even hear an inkling of this among my usual reliable rumor mills. I should also note that this will likely please my three kids, each of which spends an inordinate amount of time playing both Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons.
Minecraft itself doesn’t really need any introduction – as one of the best-selling (if not the best-selling) games of all time, millions of people have played it, and Microsoft spent a pretty penny in purchasing the company behind it, Mojang. Long we’ve heard people joke about how a Minecraft arcade might work, but it came down to the arcade wizards at Play Mechanix to make it happen.
The news was revealed on the official Minecraft website this morning where you can find plenty of details, but I’ll summarize here. Based upon the Minecraft Dungeons game, which is admittedly a different beast than the core Minecraft game (it’s top-down with adventure/RPG elements instead of a first-person sandbox game), players will experience nine levels of hack-n-slash action, with some strategy thrown in there per Will Carlin, head designer. This also means that it’s another game in the Gauntlet vein, the only other one out there right now being Lightning Knights.
Players control their characters using a joystick and three buttons, which are assigned: Melee (your slash attack I’d assume), Dodge, and Range(bow & arrow, spells). Players defeat enemies to earn points as well as gems, which build your card meter. Yes, this will be using a card vending system that has proven popular with Injustice and Marvel (and one other yet-as-unannounced game RT is working on), which is an element that will certainly help drive Minecraft fans to play this one even more as they go about collecting the 60 different cards.
Cards are used to further enhance your gameplay experience, allowing you to change your gear. Per this image above, there are cards for these categories: Melee; Range; Armor; Pet & Skin. Scan the cards you have when this screen pops-up; Play to earn & collect more cards. I’ll quote from the article from Will Carlin:
When you play the game, you collect gems and [defeat enemies], which fills your card meter,” Will explains. “Once card meters are full, they activate, and you can use them to defeat enemies all around you. Every time you play the game, a card will be given that is yours to keep.”
I’ve reached out to Raw Thrills for more details and will update when prudent, but as the article mentions, this game is out on test in the wild – I wouldn’t be surprised if tests begin this weekend – so some users interested in this might get lucky and come across it. As for when it will launch, the article only says “later this year,” which can all depend on how things continue to go with the country re-opening. Summer would be a guess of mine; It would also be interesting to see how much these will sell for.
What do you think about this, particularly if you’re a fan of Minecraft?
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