PSP World

Ubisoft Announces Broken Sword DS

Adventure game fans rejoice! Today Ubisoft announced a publishing agreement to release a special edition port of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars on the Wii and Nintendo DS systems. The game will be an enhanced port of the original, and it is due out in North America in March 2009.

The original Broken Sword was a 2D point-and-click adventure for the PC created in 1996 by Charels Cecil. The story of the first game reads like somethng directly out of The Davinci Code, which might explain why a feature film is also currently in development. George Stobbart is an American tourist on holiday in Paris. The story opens with George's quiet coffee at a café rudely interrupted by the explosion of a bomb planted by a man dressed up as a clown. Like any good American tourist, he sets off to investigate the explosion and he and photo-journalist Nico Collard are drawn into a globe-trotting adventure involving conspiracies, cults and murder, all revolving around the Knights Templar.

The Ubisoft port of Broken Sword is being called The Director’s Cut, because it builds on the original, boasting a new narrative that is only loosely based on the first story. New puzzles have been added for Nintendo DS and Wii that specifically utilize Nintendo's unique control methods on each platform. The game also features stunning animated facial expressions drawn by Dave Gibbons, the artistic genius behind the comic book and upcoming movie, Watchmen.

“These new platforms and their innovative controls enabled us to translate and enrich the point-and-click gaming experience in a way that no other console allowed before,” said Charles Cecil, founder of Revolution Software and designer of the Broken Sword series. “Through Dave’s animated faces, the game’s characters are portrayed as empathetic and emotional – driving the narrative in a way that has never been done before in an adventure game. The Director’s Cut has allowed me to deliver my true vision for the series."

A scene from the classic Broken Sword on the PC.

[Source: Press Release]