The Most Beautiful Community Game Yet? Hands on with Paws.

A week or so back we mentioned that internet celebrities* Lemmy and Binky had announced their upcoming game for the community games service, and lo, that game was to be called Paws. We were so intrigued that we went and physically camped outside of their houses and punched them in the guts repeatedly begged until they coughed up a preview for us.

There’s one thing we really need to get out of the way before we get into the real meat of this preview. What we’ve played is what they politely term in the industry as “an early build” so things may not be entirely set in stone and certainly subject to change as time goes by. Of course readers, we know you’re not daft and fully understand that but for some reason we felt compelled to point it out all the same. Anyone would think we had a word count to stick to.

It’s difficult to know where to start when describing Paws. At its heart it’s a multiplayer deathmatch game yet somehow the term feels most ill fitting. I think it’s likely a great disservice to Paws to describe it as such. Sure, there’s a mode labelled “Deathmatch” but given that the term conjures up all manner of thoughts about brutal violence, heavy weaponry and gut spillage and that’s really so far from what Paws is all about. So, if you’d be so kind as to indulge me, I think we should invent a new term especially. I’m thinking “Cuddlematch” or perhaps “Snugatron 2000″. Yes, I like that. Paws is a Snugatron 2000 game.

What I’m trying to get at, really, is that Paws is not only one of (if not the most) luscious looking titles we’ve played for the Community Games service to date but it’s also one of the cutest games that we’ve played in the history of all our game playing. It’s quite simply adorable.

Starting off, you get to choose from one of six different characters all with suitably “awwww” names and their own special moves. A raccoon (wonderfully named “Mr Spiffo”) who can steal items from other players, a mole who can dig underground, a Squirrel with uber special wall climbing abilities, a rabbit with a big bunnyhop and a hedgehog who rolls himself up in a ball to take out opponents. Each character is accompanied by their own portrait, and if you don’t want to just tickle each one of them under the chin at least once then there’s something seriously wrong with your soul.

There’s a number of different game types already present in the build we received – all multiplayer as you’d expect. Sadly as yet, there’s no option to play over Live although you can see the thing taunting you on the menu screen with its promises of over the intertron action.

For all our drooling over the pretties, it’s the game itself that really shines. As we’ve discovered time and time again with the CC, there’s an abundance of good looking games out there but very few indeed that have the gameplay to match. No such problems with Paws, it’s intuitive and an absolute riot of fun. Whilst playing (and laughing) against my 4 year old kid, I was trying to wrack my brains as to what the game reminded me of and it eventually dawned on me that it doesn’t really remind me of another computer game, it reminds me of the sheer unabashed fun that you used to find from the simplest things in the playground. I’m not entirely sure that this isn’t a deliberate decision either, given the choices of game modes you’re presented with.

You’ve got Tag, or “tick” to the more cultured amongst us – in which you have to chase your opponent to make him “it”, after which the tables turn and you run for your life around the arena to escape the same fate – stay “it” too long and it’s game over for you. King Of The Hill sees you trying to retain a position atop a hillside, gaining points the longer you can stay in position (and opponents beware, you can arm yourself with acorns from trees at the top of the hill…), Deathmatch sees you stomping on your opponents heads to gain the upper hand (it’s a very cute stomp though…), there’s also a round which sees you trying to steal apples away back to your home before your opponents do and my personal favourite mode featured, a rather cruel game of pushing the hedgehog into a pit of spikes. There’s a promise of more to come. Each game type is just massive, massive fun to play. Special moves are easy to pull off and in general, the controls are so wonderfully responsive and just feel right that within moments the game becomes the epitomy of pick up and play. All this in a half finished game? It’s sort of boggling.

We’re excited to see Paws coming to the service – for the work of only a couple of folk it’s already got production values that would shame a massive number of hugely expensive to make XBLA and PC titles, it’s got laugh out loud fun in droves, it may look casual but beneath the surface bubbles one of the most well considered series of game match modes we’ve encountered and goes above and beyond the call of duty in hooking you in and making you smile.

The kicker? As we mentioned in our first preview of the game, at the time of writing the plan is (vehemently) to release the game for 200 Points. At 800, it’d be making our absolute must buy list, if it does get released at 200 points it’d be complete and utter insanity to ignore it.

In its half finished state, Paws has already shown us just what potential the CC has in the right hands. Bright, accessible and a bucketful of fun. What more could one possibly ask for? The campaign for more Snugatron 2000 games starts here.

*may not be true

Other posts you might find interesting:

1. Paws Paws is an upcoming Xbox 360 Community Game from Lemmy...