Rush'N Attack Ex-Patriot: First Look

At Konami's press event, the company unveiled Rush'N Attack Ex-Patriot, a new XBLA and PSN game inspired by the arcade and NES game Rush'N Attack. The game is set against the backdrop of a post-Cold War world. As Sergeant Sid Morrow, you're sent into Russia to locate one of the lost members of Harvest--a secret group of soldiers sent into the Soviet Union to spy on the Russians and their nuclear weapons program.

Like in the previous game, much of the action in Ex-Patriot takes place on a 2D plane with multitiered levels (in other words, you'll be doing a lot of platforming), but one thing that makes it significantly different from the original is that it's now in full 3D. This means you can now hide in doorways, jump out at unsuspecting enemies, and take them down with a vicious melee attack. In fact, stealth plays a surprisingly important role in Ex-Patriot. You can slowly make your way through a level and take enemies by surprise, or you can try to run through and hope for the best. In either case, a map in the upper-right portion of the screen reveals the location of enemy soldiers in the immediate area and their field of view, making it a bit easier to determine if you can make a stealth kill or not.

Your default weapon in Ex-Patriot is just a simple knife, which perhaps makes it more important to take the stealth approach while fighting through the game's three large levels (there are multiple sections within each one). But Sid can use a variety of other weapons that he takes from enemy soldiers. We saw him use everything from a rifle to a rocket launcher (which has a limited number of rounds), as well as grenades, which are useful for taking out unsuspecting enemies from a distance. Still, Sid can perform some pretty brutal melee attacks with his knife, including one that shows him shanking some downed enemies.

Not everything in this new Rush'N Attack is about stabbing. At various points, you'll have to accomplish other tasks, like flicking various switches to deactivate electrically charged barriers that are blocking your path. Rush'N Attack Ex Patriot is currently scheduled for release this Fall on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.