Voodoo Vince is a 2003 Xbox platformer that is going to be getting a remaster for both the Xbox One and PC. The platformer was originally unavailable for the Xbox 360 because it was not a Backward Compatible disc. Clayton Kauzlaric, Founder and Creative Director at Beep Games Inc. says, in an Xbox Wire post, that this was due to the fact that Voodoo Vince’s engine, “used some convoluted custom code that made Vince ineligible for Backward Compatibility during the Xbox 360 era.” This remaster will be the first time the game will be appearing on a modern console in 13 years. The remastered version of Voodoo Vince will be released sometime in early 2017. A teaser trailer for Voodoo Vince’s remaster can be seen below.
Voodoo Vince revolves around the titular character, a living voodoo doll, and his various platforming adventures. Like most platformers Voodoo Vince travels to a variety of locations, such as: swamps infested with crawfish, haunted graveyards, and New Orleans’s French Quarter. Vince’s ultimate goal in the game is to reunite with his keeper, Madame Charmain. The player can use a variety of attacks like falling safes, pin cushions, and bolts of lightning. The total number of attacks, according to Voodoo Vince’s Steam Greenlight page, is 30+. The game also has a certain snarky and sarcastic sense of humor throughout, which is definitely not uncommon for platformers of that era.
There is not much change to the original Voodoo Vince. The majority of the changes appear to be cosmetic, namely that the game is now in 1080p, a 16:9 ratio, and 60 fps. The gameplay itself is according to that same Xbox Wire post, “Mostly untouched.” The way Vince moves around in the levels remains the same as it was when the game was originally released 13 years ago, with only more added depth and detail to the worlds the player maneuvers through. There will also be some updates to the soundtrack and remixes of old tracks done by Voodoo Vince’s original composer, Steve Kirk. The return of this game and the way that it is apparently being preserved for its remaster definitely harkens back to a very different era in gaming. The triple A platformer is now a rarity and the genre has become, for the most part, the domain of indie devs and their penchant for nostalgia. What a difference 13 years can make.