Dustforce Message Board

The clean-'em-up platformer, originally released on PC, is out today for PS3, PS Vita, and Xbox 360.

In any other context outside of games, “S” rank being the pinnacle of grades wouldn’t make sense. But since we’re talking games here, we all know that the “S” rank is where it’s at.

I have a theory that it originated in Japanese games (where many of the great gaming traditions started) and their disregard for A being the first letter of the alphabet. Whether or not that’s true, the tradition of Capcom platforming lives on in Dustforce, which launches today on PS3 and PS Vita. Originally made by Hitbox Team and released for PC, Dustforce caught our eye because it shares a few elements of the best platformers we’ve made: challenge, design, and soundtrack.

Dustforce seems very simple at first glance, and it really is. The idea is to move your acrobatic janitor through the level as fast as you can, while cleaning all the dirt, dust, and grime. You’re given a few abilities to do this: double jumps, wall runs, dashes, etc. There are also some tricks that you need to learn, like down dashing onto a slope for max speed, or learning to dash as soon as you land to maintain dash speed. Using these tools, it’s up to you to find the optimum path that leads to all of the dust to clean, and also one that keeps your momentum and speed up.

For many platformers, the point of the game is to simply finish, or get to the end of the level. Sure, there’s coins or other currency to rate you, but that’s not always what drives the player. In Dustforce, getting that SS rank IS the point of the game, and a level just isn’t complete until it’s achieved. That means you kept up your combo by continually cleaning up dirt and you also got all of it.

If you’re like me, it’s the same thing I get when I’m playing Gran Turismo license tests. I have to get gold. Just passing isn’t good enough. If you know what Tony Hawk syndrome is, Dustforce is infected with it. So much so, that Dustforce has a Quick Restart option allowing you to restart a level in one button touch, which comes in handy when you’re gunning for an SS. Like any platformer worth its salt, it’ll take more than one try to finish any given level, and many more after to master it.

When Dustforce was released on PC, it became a beloved indie darling. A focused, tightly designed game, made by a very small team of gamers like you and me. In our transition to console, we wanted to make sure that we retained all of the hard work and creativity that Hitbox Team put into their game. That means there’s no additional balancing or “remastering.” Sure, we added a few features like online multiplayer, cross save, and cross play, but other than that, we’re making sure that the game is true to the original vision.

Dustforce is a simple and pure game whose game design lends itself to constant improvement with its addictive gameplay. We hope you enjoy it!

Word on the (dark, abandoned) street is that Outlast frightens people. Intensely. PlayStation gamers can experience that for themselves when the hit survival horror game comes to PS4 this week, bringing with it a torrent of nightmares and cold sweats.

Set in the abandoned Mount Massive Asylum, Outlast depicts the chilling and dangerous investigation of freelance journalist Miles Upshur. Miles enters Mount Massive following an anonymous tip, and soon finds himself engulfed in unimaginable horrors. This first-person survival game showcases immense scares and a focus on atmosphere. Night lights may be required.

For those gamers averse to horror games, the fast-paced platformer Dustforce also launches on PS3 and PS Vita this week. Traverse 2D environments and sweep up dust while racing the clock. Perfect every jump, nail every attack, and clear increasingly complex stages — all while freeing adorable animals from the clutches of dirt and grime. Really!

There’s lots more coming to the world of PlayStation, so read on for a complete list of new releases. And enjoy the Drop!

New PlayStation Releases This Week Adam’s Venture Chronicles PS3 — Digital Join Adam Venture and Evelyn on their quest to find ancient artifacts and thwart the Clairvoix Corporation. More than 10 hours of classic adventure play with 60+ puzzles throughout Europe and the Middle East. Dustforce PS3, PS Vita — Digital Grab your broom. Leap into this 2D platformer that requires great skill and good timing to succeed. Select an acrobatic janitor and clean up the world by dashing off walls and ceilings in a race against the clock. Gex: Enter the Gecko PSone Classic — Digital The classic platformer returns, starring the titular green-skinned Gex. Following years of solitude, Gex is drawn back into the action when his nemesis, Rez, returns. Help Gex stop Rez from taking over the world. King Oddball PS Vita — Digital Destroy the world with a trio of boulders. Throw them towards targets with the King’s outrageously long tongue. Packed with more than 120 levels and secrets. The LEGO Movie Videogame PS4, PS3, PS Vita — Digital, Retail (Available Friday) Join Emmet, a perfectly average person, on his extraordinary adventure. Please note: he’s totally unprepared for it. Guide Emmet to victory with an eclectic mix of more than 90 characters including Batman, Superman, and Gandalf. Outlast PS4 — Digital The walls of Mount Massive Asylum conceal a wealth of horrors. Freelance journalist Miles Upshur discovers this terror for himself following an anonymous tip that the asylum was secretly reopened. Keep Miles alive as he struggles against the monsters within Mount Massive. Surge Deluxe PS Vita — Digital A block matching game of electric proportions. A new energy source bestows humanity with tremendous electrical power, but the by-product builds up fast. Help clear it out, or the pressure levels will blow sky high. Trapt PS2 Classic — Digital Princess Allura must save her kingdom. How? By laying traps for her enemies and snaring them with perfect chains. Truck Racer PS3 — Digital Drive fully destructible trucks towards the finish line. Compete on 48 different tracks across four game modes. Race friends online or via split-screen multiplayer. Demos and Betas Ace Combat Infinity — PS3 Beta
Dustforce — PS3, PS Vita Demo
Ethan: Meteor Hunter — PS3 Demo
King Oddball — PS Vita Demo

The information above is subject to change without notice.

Sprint, leap, and clean towards victory. Dustforce celebrates precision platforming, and embraces its 2D roots by spritzing the whole experience with colorful characters and a grooving anime twist. In Dustforce, players gun for the best time and most complete run through more than 50 stages.

Originally developed by a small indie team for the PC crowd, Capcom is bringing Dustforce to PS3 and PS Vita. All the charm and addictive play of the PC version returns, along with online multiplayer (ranked and private), shiny Trophies, and cross save support. Now the PlayStation community can train to become the greatest of ninja janitors the world has ever known.

The Capcom crew brought Dustforce by for Justin and me to play. Listen to our interview with them below, then read on for our full impressions.

Ryan Clements

Dustforce gives players room to breathe. At the start, stages are short, simple, and teach newcomers how to successfully navigate obstacles and clean up the most dust to achieve high scores. Jumps are cozy, and the levels themselves are designed to pull the player into a flow.

One run through a stage reveals the layout and enemy placement, as well as where players need to sweep up dust. Sometimes, one run is all it takes to complete the level. But in subsequent runs, experimentation and happy accidents coalesce into tangible knowledge of how to shave seconds off your completion time, and maximize dust cleaned up. This ups end-level ranks, and opens even harder stages to tackle.

There are four characters to chose from at the onset of a stage. Though each character shares a basic set of controls, the four differ in their jump and dash distance, as well as their attack range. This allows players to find the perfect fit for each level, as well as select a style that works best for them. The differences of the four are subtle, but those subtleties have tremendous impact as players advance deeper and deeper into the thick challenge of later courses.

Fortunately, death and failure don’t sting in Dustforce like they do in other games. Stages are short enough to work through in less than a minute, which means pushing faster times and improving player ability is a more natural, well-paced commitment. And you look cool when you play well! One of the best rewards in gaming comes from that sense of style and skill rooted in a mastery of play.

Dustforce enables this with painless lessons and clear goals. It’s the kind of game to get lost in, even if it means messing up a few times just to get the feel of it. Sooner than later, you’ll be climbing the leaderboards like the best of them.

Justin Massongill

This is a game that speaks to the perfectionist in me. The more you play Dustforce, the less tolerance you’ll have for even the smallest mistake; you can always shave another half-second off that run.

Your repertoire in Dustforce is not a big one, but every move counts: Jump, dash, wall-run, and attacks of varying power. I say “attacks” because “sweeping” doesn’t convey the energy implied by your characters’ animations — you are not a simple janitor; you are a highly trained dust-elimination machine.

It’s the wall-runs in particular that set Dustforce apart from other similarly-minded action platformers. Long jumps will seem impossible, and they would be if not for your ability to cling to a wall and run along it. You can dash or double-jump (triple-jump if you’re playing at Dustkid) once in the air, but landing on the ground or clinging to a wall resets this, allowing for some truly intense runs.

Dustforce rewards momentum in a major way. As you flawlessly execute a run, your combo multiplier builds, eventually culminating in a super move (super sweep?) you can unleash on unsuspecting detritus. Miss that pixel-precise jump or whiff a dust cloud though, and kiss that multiplier goodbye. Remember that lack of tolerance for mistakes I mentioned above? This is where it hits the hardest.

By the way, this game gets hard. I got to try my hand at one of Dustforce’s sadistic secret levels, and it took me 20 minutes to get halfway through and finally give up. I foresee very few players conquering Dustforce’s more taxing stages. Of course, skipping straight to one of the hardest levels in a game isn’t the best way to play, but it’s encouraging to see that there’s something to work toward.

I’d be remiss not to mention Dustforce’s stellar soundtrack. Mixing chiptune beats with expertly crafted melodies, it provides a perfectly contrasted backdrop to the games frenetic, yet blissful action.

Dustforce is set to clean up on PS3 and PS Vita early next year — and I can’t wait.

Want a 2D platformer with cleaning, double jumps, and shades of Super Meat Boy? Of course you do!

Check out this brand new trailer for Dustforce. It just might sweep you off your feet.

I like it when developers take a bit of a leap. So Dustforce developer Hitbox Team’s announcement that their next game won’t be a 2D platformer made me tingle. Instead it’ll be a first-person platform game called Spire. Spire is a good name. The real-world has buildings or towers. It’s only a spire if it’s in a fantasy world. And you know if you hear such a name then it means you’re going to be ascending. Spire is Esperanto for “climb the bloody thing”, after all.(more…)

Somehow bearing the numeral ’6′ after it, despite there having been at least 40,000 Humble Bundles by this point, the latest in the wildly successful series of pay-what-you-want indie grab-bags is go right now. Torchlight is the headliner, which is some funny timin’ what with the sequel being pretty darn close now, and it has sterling support from Rochard, Space Pirates And Zombies (aka SPAZ), Vessel and Shatter. Pay more than the average – which currently sits at $5.18 and you’ll get Dustforce too.(more…)

Patch notes are:
-Fixed rendering issue (black or flashing screen) on Mac OS 10.6.8.
-Fixed crash at launch on Mac, caused by certain gamepads being plugged in.
-Fixed issue with new key system.

Enticingly attractive sweep ‘em up Dustforce will receive a spit, a polish and a level editor tomorrow. It’s all free of charge to existing owners, although that does mean you’ll be spat on and rubbed with a dishcloth whether you like it or not. Their rules, not mine. I used to enjoy making levels for games but at some point it stopped being fun and started feeling like a chore. Imagine my wide-eyed glee when I saw the video below, showing off the simplicity of Dustforce’s construction equipment.

(more…)

Change log:
-Fixed game freezing at launch on Windows XP.
-Fixed crash at launch on 32 bit OS's.
-Significantly improved performance of intro video, and other performance improvements.
-Fixed inputs being registered twice when navigating the menu with a gamepad.
-Fixed some levels giving an SS rank even if filth blocks were not cleaned.

An update to Dustforce has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Dustforce. The major changes include:

• Added Steam Cloud support.
  
• Performance improvements on multi-core CPUs.
  
• Fixed crash when finishing a level in offline mode.
  
• Fixed bug that could cause performance to degrade over time.
  
• Other bug fixes and performance improvements.
  

Patrick and Jeff imagine what it'd be like if Super Meat Boy and the N+ ninja were germaphobes.

This multiplayer video for Dustforce showcases the game's local King of the Hill mode, in which a janitor battles a leaf man for control of platforms. How anyone ever managed to make a game about sweeping seem so interesting is beyond us, but there you go.

No game I've played since 'Splosion Man has infuriated me like Dustforce. But along with that wave of rage I feel when I fail comes the eventual elation of finally getting a perfect rating on a level. I hold my head a bit higher, feeling like my gaming prowess won the day and proved to the world that I am a bit more awesome than those below me on the leaderboards...