There have been lots of fan-made video games that try to capture the frantic and authentic sensation of playing as their favorite horror icons. There have been multiple games about Michael Myers (“Halloween“), Chucky (“Child’s Play“) and even Ghost Face (“Scream“). Horror fans really want to play as their favorite on-screen killers! Which has led to many lesser known studios deciding to create video games out of them. Which brings us to cult classic “Killer Klowns From Outer Space,” and the full-fledged title from an actual video game studio.
In the very few scenes of game play we got it appears that part of what made the Klowns so creepy in the movie was that they were here to harvest humans in cotton candy sacks to consume later on their trips through space. We can see some of the enemy Klowns carrying those sacks throughout the game play which could possibly be how the enemy players in a match would have to dispose of the human characters. This is all done via their special 1980’s glittery space guns. Some of the other tropes of the Klowns was creating monsters out of popcorn and killing humans in dark comedy gags. A prime example is when a Klown parks its cycle next to a gang of bikers motorcycles outside of a club and knocks them over. One of the gang members chooses to pick a fight with the Klown and it puts on comedic boxing gloves before knocking the bikers block off! These other instruments of death on how the Killer Klowns will deal with intolerable humans were not shown in the short teaser trailer, but one can hope.
“In the battle between Killer Klowns and citizens of Crescent Cove, team up and use your wits to harvest humans or save them from the alien invasion!” While details are scarce at this point in time, it does appear to be a multiplayer themed game. It wouldn’t be surprising if the creators embraced some of what the Evil Dead franchise did in its game by adopting the cinematic thrills that fans have come to love about each respective movie franchise. Some of this can be seen in the opening cinematic where a young man answers the door and the Klowns pull a famous gag from the movie of one of them popping out of a stack of pizza boxes that couldn’t have possibly of contained it. It is a retooled gag on the clown car trope that circus clowns have become synonymous with.”
It does seem like developers realized how important the carnival tunes were, as the music from movie can be heard in the trailer. It is even more apparent when they use the fantastic title song done by The Dickies. Here’s hoping they use as many assets as they can then translate to the video game experience.
While I appreciate the work it takes to capture the feel of a horror movie from the 80’s, one can also hope it does more to set itself apart from a quick, empty multiplayer game that won’t keep players locked in. So far, it appears the studio has done well to get the bright colors. Maybe you’ll even get the ability to use human melting pies to the face?
“Killer Klowns from Outer Space” is due out in 2023. Keep an eye out for the open beta soon.
