The Behemoth’s latest XBLA title is currently going by the name ‘Game 3’. A simple, accessible, platformer it offers players the possibility to take part in either a single player campaign or a number of team based multiplayer party games. The game also offer players the chance to customize their characters (all in artist Dan Paladin’s distinctive style).

The single player is currently under wraps. So far all that has been revealed is that the theatrical theme that runs through multiplayer plays a huge part in the story and that the white square-headed character, from the promotional images, is to be your emotionally unbalanced adversary.

Currently the multiplayer pits two sides against each other (maximum numbers for each team are as yet undecided) within three different game modes. ‘Soul attack’ mode has you attacking an opposing team’s player to steal their soul. Once you have the soul it turns in to a game of cat and mouse as the person holding the soul accumulates points until the other team can claim it back. Another method requires you to chase a golden eagle around the map. The eagle drops gold that each team has to collect and return to a (floating) safe. Finally, there is a mode where the aim is to change as many tiles as possible on the map to your teams color by touching them. It is chaotic fun.

It will be interesting to see how they balance maps, the levels I played felt a little too large for the two and three people playing, but if the player capacity ends up being sixteen then a similar map could fast become too cramped.

I will confess I wonder how the single player game will work, being so tuned for party play, but the studio has always managed to convey narrative effectively in their games through animation and environment so I suspect there will always be something to tempt the player forward.