Publisher - Ice
Developer - Ice
Platform - N64
Release Date - December 1998
Type - Adventure/Platform

If you’re between the ages of 0 and 8, then don’t read on. British developer ICE (International Computer Entertainment) declares war on the cutesy genre and is busily working on Spooky, one of the few N64 titles geared towards older players. And with a pedigree of games like Akira and Total Carnage, ICE seems like just the right company to make this happen.

In the role of a metamorphic hero, players fight and shapeshift through a dark, post-apocalyptic 3D world, filled with nasties, traps and puzzles.

The game is set on a faraway planet, once inhabited by an advanced alien society made up of super-beings called Arch-Morphs. As will be evident from Spooky’s real-time rendered intro sequences, a mysterious catastrophe wiped out the whole population, sucking everything into a parallel universe. Only two aliens survived, one good, but weakened by injuries, and one bitter and insane from the terrors of the holocaust. And as Good vs. Evil stories go, the nasty villain placed the good guy in chains and set himself up as ruler over a desolate world, only populated by synthetic slaves.

Thank God for super-powers. The good Arch-Morph manages to focus all his shaman energy and summons help from another world. Yes, You. In the role of a modern day youth who gets sucked into the parallel universe, players must travel through 10 long levels, each divided into several distinct sub-sections.

The ultimate objective is to find 30 mirror pieces, which are scattered about the game’s levels in order to destroy the evil Arch Morph and free the good Arch-Morph shaman. To get to the pieces, the player has to use his newly discovered metamorphic powers. You can shapeshift into several super-skilled creatures with differing abilities. Depending on what form you take on, you can reach new areas in the levels to find more mirror pieces and secret power-ups. Once you find all the pieces, you need to assemble a kinetic mirror that lets you change into the spitting image of the evil Arch-Morph and finally face him on equal grounds.

Spooky has been in development for over a year already and as you can see from the screenshots, it seems to be coming along quite well. With its unique comic book look and a full midi soundtrack, this title will be a nice change from the five million N64 racers slated to come out. Although ICE has not decided on a publisher for the game yet, you can bet to see Spooky in the U.S. and perhaps even Japan before the end of next year.