Interview: Down on the Super Farm

Cast your eye over the fine titles for sale in your local videogames emporium, and chances are you'll be struck by the sheer lack of farm-themed action.

It's an unforgiveable omission, and one that new publisher Ignition is attempting to single-handedly reverse with the imminent release (later this month) of Super Farm on PS2. Programmer and director of Asobo Studios Sebastian Wloch was on hand to tell us what to expect from the title...

Can you explain the idea behind Super Farm?

Wloch: With Super Farm, we really wanted to create the ultimate multiplayer experience. People in our team were desperate for a really funny and addictive action game to share with friends. So we put everything we ever dreamt of in this game: many different game modes, objectives, items, tricks, counters, tactics and loads of jokes to make the game fun, rich and varied.

But we also wanted to offer a great experience to the single player, and Super Farm features a complete story mode with hilarious CGI, a very advanced AI as well as many sub games and challenges.

It sounds a little like the classic Spy Vs Spy game - or are we wide of the mark?

Wloch: In a way it's like that; there are numerous ways to trap your enemy. You can grill him on an electrified roof, burn his feet off with a radioactive pond, or make it rain anvils over his head. But the player can also counter most attacks.

He can hide under a roof to avoid getting hit by an anvil, behind a wall to avoid the cow dung, carry an umbrella to send bombs back to their sender and drop mines all around the place. We mainly drew our inspiration from combat games, first-person shooters and party games creating an original combination of the three.

Give us an example of some of the mission objectives.

Wloch: Four different main objectives are available. In Collect mode, the players must find objects and bring them back to Pamela. The first one, or the first team, to gather the required number wins. In Baja mode, players must run as fast as possible through several checkpoints.

In Keep It mode, they've to catch Pamela's handkerchief and keep it as long as possible and, finally, in Frag mode they've to hit opponents and pick up the teeth they loose. Many weapons and power-ups are available to slow down your opponents or steal their items.

So how would you describe the multiplayer element?

Wloch: The multiplayer mode has many options. Two to four players can either play on their own or in teams with the co-operative mode, play single rounds or championships and this in all 16 available arenas featuring four different mission objectives.

In multiplayer, the screen is split into several widows and organized depending on the aspect ration of your TV.

It seems like you're going for an anarchic, humourous approach - can you comment on that?

Wloch: Yes, you're right. Everything about the game was designed to be hilarious. It is so funny to see your friend playing with the pig and combining the use of the bean tin and the unlimited weapon power-up and farting all around the place making it harder to breathe than on the stinkiest farm on earth...

This can only give birth to beastly intentions like grilling him with a deadly thunder or flattening him with your bouncing chick.

Can you give us an example of the kind of mini-games hidden in the game?

Wloch: Super Farm features 16 different 'chrono' - time-based - challenges and 16 different puzzles. In each Chrono Challenge, the player will have to follow a path made of clock items.

Time counts down, but each clock item picked up gives the player back precious seconds. Puzzle challenges are a bit trickier. Here, the player has to find a specific ways to hit his opponents and make them loose clocks.

He might have to fart all over his opponents, to throw them one on each other, to send back loads of cow dung they send at him or try to explode them using bombs and good timing. These mini-games contribute with the story mode in creating a cool single-player experience.

What is it about Super Farm that gamers should be really excited about, farting aside?

Wloch: Multiplayer games on consoles are rare, and if you want to find one that's really worth it and so addictive that it'll keep you playing for months, you really need to get Super Farm.

Anything else we should know?

Wloch: While we believe Super Farm to be the best multiplayer choice out there, it is also a great game to play alone. The game features a very effective AI that masters loads of advanced strategies, moves perfectly around the stage and takes advantage of all possible shelters in the various locations.

The AI characters also adapt their abilities to the player's skill by automatically modifying more than 50 internal parameters. And with the game's four different difficulty levels, no type of player was forgotten. Finally, all multiplayer modes can be played alone with one-to-three AI controlled players - championship, cooperative and single round.