Indie studio Humble Hearts is hard at work finishing Dust: An Elysian Tale, which stands among the most visually breathtaking 2-D games on any modern platform – despite being developed entirely by one man.
Dust is certainly a button-masher, even given that it is a side-scrolling brawler. There are high flying aerial juggles and screen-filling charged up special attacks, to the point that the game feels like Marvel vs. Capcom combat design applied to a Metroidvania-style adventure game.
Throw in a talking sword, a chirpy fairy companion and a main character with an almost uncomfortably detailed and animated crotch, and you've got a game that's too weird to show up on any platform other than Xbox Live Arcade.
I only got a chance to play with a few unlockable combos during my time with Dust, but it seems to have a good finger on when to dole out new abilities so as to keep combat interesting. As in any good side-scrolling exploration game, there are fun things to find in the environment that improve your skills, but Dust also has some built-in RPG mechanics that allow you to customize your leveling up.
I don't mean to point out the obvious, but this game is so pretty. Dust might look great in those screenshots up above, but wait until you see it in motion. Creator Dean Dodrill is making the multi-man art teams at big-name production houses look bad.
The game won Microsoft's Dream.Build.Play challenge way back in 2009, but Dodrill has been keeping mostly quiet since then. Apparently things are almost ready, as the game will be launching this summer.
All images courtesy Humble Hearts
