The Grinder: Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies Due on Halloween!

There's a new shooter in town... well... it's actually about a year and a half outside of town... really slow horse, I guess... -ahem- and it's called THE GRINDER.

It looks fantastic and a must-buy for those who love to fight off waves of evil and the creepy.  But don't hold your breath... unless you're a really good breath-holder.  Read on for the details on why any Halloween Addict would love this game...

There's a new article over on IGN.com on the fate of this shooter originally due for consoles this year.  Intended as a Wii exclusive, the game THE GRINDER is now going across all platforms so Xbox 360 owners (such as myself) really DON'T have a reason to buy a Wii now.  Hoo-ray!


Looking at the character choices, you've got a lovely mashup of action-horror archetypes:

• The dark, mysterious Dog-The-Bounty-Hunter-like, cowboy complete with Magnum P.I. mustache.
• The buxom blonde Linda-Hamilton-like woman who wears camouflage pants and doesn't tie her combat boots.  Why?  Because she might not get outta this alive and she doesn't care!  No time to tie your boots!  (Side note:  If I'm going to be battling waves of the undead, I'm making sure my shoes are tied.  I got other things to worry about like "where can I get more ammo?" than tripping over my own feet.  Just sayin'...)
• The petite, goth, Gogo Yubari-like girl in a torn up school-girl outfit of unknown Asian heritage.  She's got purple hair and a machine gun.  Don't mess with her.  (And AGAIN WITH THE SHOES!  Cripes!  You're gonna trip and fall and be eaten!)
• And lastly the old Native American Billy-from-Predator-like shaman, shrouded in mystery but imbued with knowledge beyond his years... and a big frickin' knife.  

Ok so those are my character choices... but what am I going to be fighting?
Looking at IGN's sketch scan HERE it looks like we've got more archetype horror mashups:

• A zombie-Frankenstein-like hulk of a thing.  Imagine if Jason from Friday the 13th Part VIII came out of the lake, laden with chains and no hockey mask.  You're gonna fight THAT.  Fun eh?

• A winged, doll-faced creature thing with one o' dem dreamcatchers hanging from its arms.  Oh and long arms with sharp fingernails.  These are going to be things I hate.  I can tell.  They're gonna screech or something and fly at me and sap all my health.  I can tell.

• 
• Freaking WEREWOLVES.  I love werewolves.  I wonder if they'll start as people and then turn and THEN I have to kill them.

• Flying, sharp-winged demon imps... or something.  I will hate these things too.

• Re-animated zombie skeletons that have green-glowey stuff in 'em.  I LOVE fighting skeletons.  Ever since I watched the 7th Voyage of Sinbad on TV as a kid, oh so many years ago.

• Scary, hair-hanging-in-front-of-his-face axe-wielding dude.  If Rob Zombie's Tyler Mane-incarnation of Michael Myers carried an axe... well... yeah you'd be fighting that.

• Lastly:  Take Hannibal Lecter, plus the black stuff from the end of the remake of House of 1000 Corpses House on Haunted Hill, plus that dude from The Hidden, plus something outta The Real Ghostbusters, plus Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat and you'll get whatever this guy is.  This guy is going to hard.  He'll have some low guttural sound he'll make and you'll know you'll have to scramble or get pummeled.

How does this all relate to Halloween?
Well if you watch the adrenaline-inducing trailer HERE you'll see that the end title features the release date:  HALLOWEEN 2011!

Yay!  I love it when publishers embrace my favorite holiday!
Why release The Grinder on Halloween?

The IGN interview with the developer's CEO, Kerry Ganofsky, says it best:

IGN: Halloween 2011 is a long time to wait! Why so long?  

Kerry: Halloween is the perfect time for a creepy dark game to release and we want to ensure this game has the love and attention it deserves. With the move to all of the current-generation systems, higher resolution art content needs to be created which takes a bit longer than our previous games. 

I can't agree more Mr. Ganofsky.  I can't agree more.

Look like I know what I'LL be playing, er, 2 years from now.
Read the whole article HERE and then "hurry up and wait" for your chance to take on the onslaught of monsters.  
Halloween 2011... geez... that's like... over a year away.
Or in Halloween Addict measurements of time:  Halloween 2011... geez... that's a lot of candy to squirrel away and a whole decomposing jack o' lantern between now and then.