SQUIDS Wild West Preview

Move over, Spaghetti Westerns – Calamari Westerns are the next big thing

In the world of sequel tropes, the wild west is an oft-ignored setting. More often than not we see a leap to space, or a trip to Manhattan – neither of which possess the same level of romance as the gun-totin’ west. Does this mean SQUIDS Wild West, the upcoming sequel to the highly popular SQUIDS, will be the most romantic squid-based game of all time? One can only hope.

The original SQUIDS saw a team of (this may surprise you) squids fighting to stave off a dangerous black ooze that was taking over the seas. SQUIDS Wild West finds the team fighting against the same problem, all the while trying to rescue a fallen comrade. It’s a tale of intrigue, friendship and animated cephalopods.

Despite the shift in scenery, SQUIDS Wild West isn’t aiming to reinvent the wheel mechanically. The game will maintain the same marriage of tactical RPG elements and Angry Birds-esque combat style introduced in the original. The real changes will come in the form of new enemies, new playable characters, and a bump in level quantity that nearly doubles the amount of the original. And I’d be foolish to forget the addition of seahorses to ride. How often do you see sequels that bring seahorses into the mix? Not often enough, that’s for sure.

When the original SQUIDS hit virtual shelves in October of last year, it quickly wrapped its suction cup-covered appendages around quite a few people. One could argue that its success was derived from the innate love of humans to see squids in adorable hats, but it had far more to do with it being a great game.

If you’re feeling a little impatient about the sequel’s nebulous release window of “this summer,” a recent update of the original SQUIDS contains three levels from a SQUIDS Wild West map. The update also contains a new hero (Cleef), a new GameCenter achievement, a heightened level cap, and additional social media elements.

One could even say that all these new additions are calamarvelous. But can they say it without getting fired for writing such a horrible pun? Let’s find out together.

Dant Rambo