14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has announced a new turn-based strategy game headed for its handheld gaming console, the Nintendo 3DS, due out in 2015 and named Code Name: STEAM.
STEAM is an acronym for Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace, and not an indication that you should shout the game's name at the top of your lungs.
Code Name: Steam places gamers in charge of a fireteam put together by none other than Abraham Lincoln himself, in order to stop an invading alien menace. The game is set in a steampunk universe, with a lot of classic American comic book elements thrown into the mix.
The game is said to feature gameplay that is somewhere between Firaxis's reboot of the XCOM games and Sega's Valkyria Chronicles, with players assuming direct control of characters who have a number of action points (in this setting an amount of steam in their boiler) to spend, in turn-based encounters.
There is no overhead map, and everything is seen from the perspective of the units in the elite strike force. The main characters feature animal motifs that influence the design of their weapons and their effects.
The upcoming 3DS strategy title is being created by Advance Wars developer Intelligent Systems, the team being led by Wario Ware: Smooth Moves' Paul Patrashcu, featuring art from Takaki Sakai, who previously worked on the Fire Emblem series.
Code Name: STEAM is due out sometime next year, exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming device.