Introduction

Home game consoles brought about an era where friends would run over to each other’s houses, pick up a controller, and indulge in a night-time marathon of aggressive competitiveness, endless shouting, and riotous celebration. Unfortunately, it’s an era that feels as if it’s dying. Supersonic Software, the indie studio responsible for the 2004 niche hit Mashed, are seeking to galvanize the local multiplayer market as well as lure a few online gamers away from the big releases this winter with Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. I caught up with the developers in their UK-based studio and, after playing a couple of rounds of their new title, got to chatting.

Part 1 - Beginnings, release date, new weapons

FiringSquad: Wrecked sees you guys returning to the Mashed formula; how did that all come about?

Supersonic Software: Mashed was a funny one, as it seemed to grow year-by-year from its release, whether it was through word-of-mouth or other means. We still receive fan mail about the game and we still spend hours playing ourselves, so it seemed logical to look into [creating] Wrecked. We took a few years looking for funds before setting off on a 15-month project to build the game.


FS: How many of you worked on the project?

SS: About ten. It’s frustrating, actually, as Wrecked has been ready for approximately four months now and we’ve been eager to get it released.

FS: Why the wait since then?

SS: There’s a multitude of things, from fixing a few bugs to liaising with Microsoft and Sony. We have to make sure our product fulfills the requirements on the TRC, or technical requirement checklist, before we can go anywhere. However, we’re moving forward now, though we feel guilty as at the moment we can never truly tell our fans the exact release date.


FS: Care to hazard a guess?

SS: Obviously we would love to see the game out there by the end of October or early November, but we couldn’t say for sure.




FS: So what can you tell us about the changes we’ll see in this compared to Mashed?

SS: We’ve got the introduction of new air strikes, weapons, tracks, car customization, online modes, and controls. For instance, you can now aggressively swing your car at an opponent as well as manually activate boosts and charge brakes.


FS: How do the new weapons differ from the old?

SS: The ball and chain is quite a unique weapon, which dangles from the back of your car. If anyone strikes it, they’re likely to take on some serious damage, so the idea is to get ahead of the pack and swerve your rear at them. We’ve got a few others such as the rail-gun and the drone. Then with the air strikes, there’s a great selection on offer, such as the sky beam which fires down on the track and causes a ripple effect.