Dustforce hits PS3 and PS Vita tomorrow – bring your ‘S’ game!

In any other context outside of games, “S” rank being the pinnacle of grades wouldn’t make sense. But since we are 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. Originally made by Hitbox Team and released for PC, Dustforce caught our eye because it shares a few elements of the best platformers we’ve made: challenge, design and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 on first glance, and 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 of the gameplay that you need to learn, like down dashing on to 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 platform games, the point of the game is to simply finish the game or get to the end of the level. Sure there are 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 is not good enough. If you know what Tony Hawk syndrome is, Dustforce is infected with it. So much 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 will take more than one try to finish any given level and many more after to that to master it.

When Dustforce was released on PC, it became one of those loved indie darlings. A focused, tightly designed game, made by a very small team of gamers like you and me. In our transition to console, we really wanted to make sure that we retained all of the hardwork 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. I think the Ars Technica review of the PC release really said it best: “It’s a game that’s not content to let you be content with yourself, and for that it’s definitely worth playing”. We hope you enjoy it as much as we’re proud to make it available on PS Vita and PS3 from tomorrow!