Surprise-releasing a Shakespeare game on the Nintendo Switch? Though this be madness, yet there is method in ’t. You see, something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and you have to fix it in Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be, a video game adaptation of his wildly popular graphic novel, developed by Tin Man Games.
"Wait," you say. "Where doth I know that name, Ryan North?" You doth know it, perchance, from Dinosaur Comics, or because he is a successful and award-winning comic book writer with work on Adventure Time and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, or maybe because To Be Or Not To Be was a hugely popular Kickstarter project with illustrations by other cool comic artists like Kate Beaton and KC Green and David Hellmann of Second Quest and Braid fame? Is it one of those?
To Be Or Not To Be the video game is out right now, and you can choose between Hamlet, Ophelia, and the Ghost Of Hamlet's Dad, either deciding to follow the plot or going wildly off the rails with pirates and time travel and all the other things that Shakespeare was too BORING to include.
TBONTB costs $6.99/£6.99/€7,99 on the eShop and includes narration and achievements and such, according to North himself. Now, the only question is: to buy or not to buy?
[source twitter.com]
Comments 14
Yep, this looks great. Big fan of his work although I haven’t checked out this particular graphic novel yet!
Sureth, whyeth noteth?
Have it for PC and I can vouch for it. If you're a fan of Ryan's particular style of humor, it's a laugh riot.
Ryan North completely reinvented Squirrel Girl for the better, and he also wrote for the game Flipping Death which was very good!
Very interested to see this new game, as North's track record of quality work is rock solid ❤
This is the team up I didn’t know I needed, and yet here we are! I will absolutely be buying this, so sad I don’t get to play yorik though…
I've got his Romeo and Juliet choose-your-own adventure book, and loved his work on Dinosaur Comics and Squirrel Girl, so might check this out.
Wait, Ryan North made a game?! This I gotta buy. I love his comics, and my wife and I loved Romeo and/or Juliet quite a bit (we read it out loud together, laughing hysterically at every surprise).
We didn’t read the one this is based on, so this will be completely new to us both. Sweet.
@imgrowinglegs Switch has two other games Ryan North wrote! Stick It To The Man and Flipping Death, the latter of which also has a physical edition.
@nessisonett It's not a graphic novel exactly, it's am image-heavy choose your own adventure.
I highly recommend it - even if you're not into Shakespeare. It's so funny!
@CairiB In the Kickstarter for the book, he got a bonus prequel
I have this on Steam; it’s very funny and charming! The different routes you can take are all very fun and different, which I always appreciate with a CYOA game.
I am way too hyped for this.
@CharlieGirl I had no idea! Thanks for the heads up!
@Minfinity that’s very cool!
I have the Kindle Book version, which is great as it allows you to jump straight to the right page by tapping your choice. Not sure if I need a version on my Switch, but I’m tempted.
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