Shadows of the Damned to Release This Summer, Still Lovingly Ridiculous

Suda 51 recently announced that Shadows of the Damned will be releasing on June 21st 2011, giving the gaming community just enough time to recover from E3 before playing Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest WTF-fest. Known for their strange, quirky, over-the-top No More Heroes, the studio is tackling a very different genre – survival horror. Fortunately for them (and us), they have some huge names to back them up – Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame, and Akira Yamaoka, composer for the Silent Hill series.

In case you don’t know what to make of Shadows of the Damned, allow me to point out just a handful of things that show just how weird and awesome the game is.

In Shadows of the Damned, you delve into the bowels of hell to save your girlfriend. Sound familiar? However, this is no subtle (or serious) affair. For one thing, the entrance to hell in Shadows is lit up by a large neon sign that says “Welcome to Hell”. While in hell, you’ll fight demons with a handful of weapons, including a gun that shoots light (which is central to the gameplay, Alan Wake style), and another gun that shoots bones and is literally called “the boner”. Words cannot express how happy I am that I am not making this up. Most importantly, the game looks really good and is polished to a shine, which is somewhat of a relief given some of the flaws of No More Heroes.

So, should you be putting Shadows of the Damned on your radar and marking your calendar for June 21st? That depends. Do you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360? Yes? Okay. Do you want to shoot a gun called the boner in a hell envisioned by Suda 51, Shinji Mikami and Akira Yamaoka? Yes? Then the answer to your question is yes.