This Little Kinect-Controlled Marionette Is Packing Heat

The next game from the makers of ‘Splosion Man and Comic Jumper puts you in control of a virtual, Kinect-enabled puppet armed with two six-shooters and a thirst for revenge.

Gunstringer appears to be a cross between a platformer and a shooter, but the twist is that you will be controlling the undead cowboy with your hands, like you’d control a puppet.

Lead designer Dan Teasdale says that while the game takes cues from classic Westerns from the likes of Sergio Leone, the game isn’t a “straight” western revenge story.

Being able to perform this story with puppets and stage props lets us get away with some pretty far out characters, settings, and plot twists that would just seem insane in a straight western story.

Here’s an excerpt from The Gunstringer Rides Again, as seen on the official website:

“Where he came from no one knew…though I once heard tell he was kicked out of Castolon, Texas, for teaching a mule to play poker, breaking one of the few laws in that frontier town at the time.

His goal was to get revenge on his old posse who had packed him with lead and left him with a permanent address under three feet of Texas clay…then get dangerously drunk on apple jack whiskey.

He was a one-man judge, jury and executioner on the bloody vengeance trail”.

He was…the Gunstringer.”

“The Gunstringer marries all of this with really fresh and fun gameplay mechanics,” Teasdale writes on the game’s blog. “From the start of this project, we’ve focused on getting across the feel of marionetting a puppet’s movement through a 3D world, then mixing that with the fun and mayhem of targeting-focused shooters like Rez. One minute you’ll be navigating the Gunstringer over tricky ravines or towards secret paths, the next you’ll be ducking behind cover to take out a half-dozen clockwork alligators with your six shooter.”

He also promises no minigames, forced gestures, or “end of level photos of you in your underwear.”

“You can play it sitting down, which is great if you just want to play and relax rather than burn crazy calories,” he writes. “Most importantly, you can aim and move with precision not seen in any of the Kinect launch titles, and with a speed and feel that’s just not possible with a traditional controller.”

No date, price or other details were released.

The Gunstringer [Official game site]