Still at the Skybound café, we got to sample the madcap craziness of Glitchbusters (Stuck on You) as well. For this one, a game designed from the ground-up to be a multiplayer game for as many as four players, we sat next to and played with the game’s creator Ochiai Yusuke. Yusuke hails from Tokyo Japan and not speaking English, communicated entirely through a translator who also as the chief explainer of what was going on with the game. Glitchbusters takes place inside a mythical world meant to symbolize the inner workings of computers and the Internet. The Glitchbusters themselves are little circular denizens with waving arms that can expand or contract their bodies. Think something along the lines of Wreck-It Ralph and you’ll be on the right rack.
The Glitchbusters’ main aim is to fight viruses and the “bugs” caused by them throughout their world. The four of them can attach to each other, creating a totem pole of sorts and then can each expand and contract as necessary to solve puzzles and fight enemies. They can also magnetically attract to one other and slalom around the game screen. In our demo, a puking emoji gone wrong sails over the world at large spewing virus causing more and more bugs. We worked together to solve challenges, place smiley faces in circles and defeat these bugs all the while learning how to use these “sticky” mechanics. Yusuke was explained to be a big fan of classic four-player simultaneous party games and Glitchbusters burst at the seams with colorful chaos that fans of those title will love.
Our one boss battle with the puking emoji was crazy and filled dozens of smaller foes being created all through the battle. This particular world fighting this Godzilla-sized emoji was explained to be one of six worlds players will experience. Others include the Social Media Forest and Review Mountain (which will be a volcano). While there is not set release date for Glitchbusters (Stuck on You) just yet, through his interpreter Yusuke explained to us that he’s greater than 50% of the way through creation, but less than 100% complete, so it will be a little while yet before you can dive into the multiplayer fun too.