Lugaru

Jackie Chan Meets... Watership Down?

Here's what's cool about Lugaru:

It features a hand-to-hand combat system controlled by a variety of mouse movements, that feels vastly more like kung-fu combat than any game that requires you to memorize huge lists of "combo" moves.

It's a fully 3D, action-adventure title, developed (originally for the Mac, forsooth) by a two-brother team with basically no funding--and still looks as good as, well, say, a high-end Playstation 1 title, which is a remarkable achievement under the circumstances.

It has a tense and rather amusing story involving corruption in your own character's government and evil outside enemies....

Which sounds run-of-the-mill, except you're a rebel bunny, and the evil enemies are wolves...

But it sure doesn't go into the direction of cutsey, as that description might make you think.

It's... pretty odd. And also pretty good. Indeed, about the only reason we can think of for you not to like it is if you're a hard-core strategy gamer and look down on anything "twitch"-y.

A Note for Mac Users

If you look at the demo and purchase links, you'll see that we're only offering the PC and Linux version... But this was developed for the Mac. What gives?

Well, the developers have had their greatest success with Mac users (which probably says more about the dearth of games for Macs than anything else), and were willing to license the game to us for greater exposure to PC and Linux users--but (we assume) were concerned that we'd cannibalize their Mac sales.

So, you know, if we were evil capitalists (instead of the unworldly hippie idiots a number of VCs have told us we are) we wouldn't even mention that there's a Mac version, because we make no money from it.

You can get the Mac demo here, and buy the Mac version here.

And if you buy it and like it, contact the Wolfire guys, and tell them they should let us sell the Mac version, too.

The Developer Says

Lugaru (pronounced Loo-GAH-roo) is a third-person action title. The main character, Turner, is an anthropomorphic rebel bunny rabbit with impressive combat skills. In his quest to find those responsible for slaughtering his village, he uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy involving the corrupt leaders of the rabbit republic and the starving wolves from a nearby den. Turner takes it upon himself to fight against their plot and save his fellow rabbits from slavery.

Lugaru’s primary feature is its unique combat system. Instead of relying on confusing button combinations to perform moves, Lugaru’s moves are all logical and context sensitive. For example, if an opponent aims a roundhouse kick at Turner’s head, you can crouch and then stand up under the attack to grab your assailant’s leg and kick him away. If you try and punch an opponent and he tries to throw you over his shoulder, you can crouch to roll painlessly out of the throw. This new combat system makes fights look and feel much more intense and believable than in any other game. You can see it in action with the gameplay movies above.

However, if straight close-range combat with hands, knives, swords and staves is not your style, you can also use stealth, but you have to be smart about it. If you cut a wolf’s throat, be sure to wipe the blood off your knife or another wolf might smell it. Enemy rabbits have very keen hearing, so be sure to walk quietly, and kill enemies before they make too much noise or run to alert their friends. Also, if they do bring their friends, don’t expect them to stupidly take turns fighting you. It is not unusual for one enemy to sweep your feet out from under you and another to smash you while you fall.

Because of the emphasis on gameplay, the graphics are designed to let the game run as smoothly as possible. It should run at full speed at full detail on any system with a 700 mhz processor and Geforce 3 or better graphics card. It should run acceptably on any system with a 300 mhz processor and Rage 128 or better graphics card. While models do not have as many polygons as in some new commercial games, there is an unprecedented amount of detail where it actually matters. If an enemy shatters his staff on your skull then your vision will unfocus slightly for a few seconds. Jumping through trees creates a shower of leaves (and snow if it is in a cold area). Landing an especially solid blow to the head can spatter blood on the wall and knock out a couple teeth. If you throw a knife into a wolf, blood will drip down his fur as he yanks out the knife and uses it against you. It is even possible to smash enemies so hard into walls that the surface cracks. Motion blur makes fast movement easier to track.

Technical Features:

- Fast terrain engine with texture blending, footprints, and transparent fog
- Unique fast-paced combat system with weapons, attack reversals, and counter-reversals.
- Skeletal animation with rag-doll physics and hand and face expressions
- Motion blur and many other effects.

Reviews:

"Sometimes it seems as if less and less games are being made that I’d consider truly original, so it’s always a pleasure to see one of those prestigious few coming from a relatively unknown shareware developer." 4/5, MacTeens

"If you like fighting or action games, you owe it to yourself to try Lugaru." 8.25/10, InsideMacGames