40 Winks Preview

GT Interactive's 40 Winks will be a Mario-esque 3D adventure game from developer Eurocom (maker of the home ports of Mortal Kombat 4 and the upcoming Duke Nukem: Zero Hour) for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy.

The game will have you play as one of two mischievous twin children, Ruff and Tumble, whose goal is to eliminate nightmares for all time by stealing back 40 "winks" from the nefarious NiteKap and Thread-Bear. Since the game is set in dreams, you can use outfits within the surrealistic environments to transform yourself into different creatures with various abilities. For example: Dressing up as a monster will make you faster and stronger; robots can move heavy objects and shoot missiles; ninjas have mind-control powers and weapon attacks, and so on. Perhaps the most noteworthy feature of the game, though, is that it promises to have a two-player cooperative mode, where Ruff and Tumble can run amok at the same time. The game's six levels will be made up of an underwater Atlantis stage, a castle, a haunted house, a pirate ship, a planet in deep space, and a prehistoric world with dinosaurs, each with its own sublevel game (dragon racing in the castle and so on). Those worlds will be inhabited by a host of enemies, such as zombies, Dracula, Frankenstein, tyrannosaurs, baby dinos, giant wasps, triceratops, spiders, dragons, henchmen, ghosts, giant moon mice, pirates, parrots, crabs, jack-in-the-boxes, mutant toys, skeletons, knights, aliens, robots, fish, sharks, octopus tentacles, and RC cars.

40 Winks may sound cute and colorful, and it is--intentionally. The game is geared toward younger gamers, and will be available shortly before the holidays.