Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness

Cliché or not, the videogame based on thrice-weekly webcomic Penny Arcade should offer something for everyone. Fans of Gabe and Tycho, the alter-egos of strip co-creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, respectively, will get to
play in a 3D version of the world the hardcore gaming duo inhabit. (More specifically, a pulpy 1920s version of it.) Xbox Live Arcade lovers sick of the seemingly weekly retro rehashes on Arcade Wednesdays will have an original title to look forward to. And supporters of adventure games — rarely seen anywhere these days but particularly scarce on Xbox (2005’s Indigo Prophecy is the most recent example) — can regard it as a ray of hope for the genre.

Dubbed On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, the first episode of the series is being written by Holkins with character art inked by Krahulik, although Canadian developer Hothead will do the heavy C++ lifting. In the game, you’ll play a self-created character who joins with the aggressive-yet-dimwitted Gabe and the cynically brilliant Tycho to discover what’s gone wrong in your quiet suburban town of New Arcadia. Hint: it involves the machinations of a giant juicer robot who takes his job a little too seriously. (If you don’t know what we’re talking about, read the comic and look for the “Fruit F---er.”)

As you’d probably expect, the visuals will be cel-shaded to match the look of the comic strip. Gabe and Tycho are going old-school in that Rain-Slick will have no spoken dialogue, to avoid ruining readers’ ideas of the characters’ voices. And in another blast from the past, legendary adventure-game designer Ron Gilbert — of Monkey Island fame — is onboard as a project consultant to guide this product in the right direction. Nice! We’d bet a cardboard-tube beatdown that, if nothing else, Adventures will at least be hilarious.