Croteam making Serious Sam for XBLA

By Robert Purchese Published 25 June, 2009

HD revamp this summer for 10 quid.

Majesco has told Eurogamer that Serious Sam will return this summer on Xbox Live Arcade.

Late summer, specifically, for 1200 Microsoft Points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 14.40).

Dubbed Serious Sam HD, the game will re-imagine The First Encounter, and be created by original developer Croteam.

The chaotic first-person shooter, where enemies spawn and overwhelm from every angle, will return with online co-op for four friends. The surreal Egyptian setting will be spread across 12 levels, and we're promised dazzling, revamped visuals.

The charm of Serious Sam, which first appeared on PC in 2001, forms around controlling the swarms of baddies that are triggered when collecting ammo or reaching a new areas. There are bulls that charge, headless baddies that blow-up, ranged attackers, skeletal horse monsters and enormous bosses.

Sam's arsenal is as over-the-top as the situation, but deciding what to use and what to kill while dodging and scrapping is another matter. It's brilliant.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (50) 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Monkey_Puncher #1 3 years ago

    Sweet!

    Another game to add to my insanely long list of games I want on XBLA.

    I seem to be buying more XBLA games these days than I am full price games these days...

  • woodnotes #2 3 years ago

    Non-stop games for XBLA these days, all good.

  • penhalion #3 3 years ago

    Not sure this is a good idea. I still have serious sam and from what I remember, it was a rediculously hard game using a mouse and keyboard. It's going to be impossible with a joypad!

  • smirny #4 3 years ago

    yes, yes and YES!! :D
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 10:30

  • Darren #5 3 years ago

    Serious Sam was great on the original Xbox (except for the screen tearing as this was the first game I ever noticed in it in, fact fans) so I'd definitely pick up the Xbox 360 version again. I still play the sequel on the PC every now and then. It's good old-fashioned dumb fun.

  • Wastelander #6 3 years ago

    Nice!
    So much fun in co-op.

  • systems #7 3 years ago

    Should be a laugh if they do it well and can keep masses on enemies on screen with a long view distance. It's an old game so I reckon it'll be spot on. There's a lot of good co-op fun to be had with Serious Sam.

  • Shrike #8 3 years ago

    Yes.

  • Azazel #9 3 years ago

    Oh yes.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #10 3 years ago

    Hehe, was only thinking about this a few days ago! Brilliant :oD

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #11 3 years ago

    Please, please, please let them put in split screen coop. Especially if they can make it four player split-screen coop.

  • octavedoctor #12 3 years ago

    "Arrrrrgghhhhhhhh!!! Yourself!"

    Fantastic.... I remember many a lunchtime LAN co-op game on this back in the day... Enjoyed the Xbox vers the other year - one I'll definately be getting for me 360 xbla library

  • Xerx3s #13 3 years ago

    "Not sure this is a good idea. I still have serious sam and from what I remember, it was a rediculously hard game using a mouse and keyboard. It's going to be impossible with a joypad!"

    Not really. I played the xbox version as well and it held up pretty well.

  • Dizzy #14 3 years ago

    Great! I loved Serious Sam.... with co-op and some new visuals it could be just what I need ;)

  • retr0gamer #15 3 years ago

    Serious Sam HD? I was playing this game in better than HD resoluitons on my PC in 2002.

  • Optimaximal #16 3 years ago

    Wasn't there a time when Croteam said that Serious Sam was just to get the engine out there and recognised, leading to several new IPs & multiple licensing deals?

  • DrDamn #17 3 years ago

    For me the original managed to capture much more of the essence of Doom than Doom 3 ever did. Good ballsy fun.

  • miiiguel #18 3 years ago

    2009, XBLA evolved.

  • jim1975 #19 3 years ago

    @retr0gamer

    Well done

  • jonsaan #20 3 years ago

    Serious Sam comes highly recommended to all those who morn the passing of DukeNukem.

  • gourry #21 3 years ago

    Will definately be keeping an eye on this. Can't remember if it was SS1 or SS2 but there was some class scripting in it.

    Running over a sandy hill, one lone skeleton creature comes a long which you take out and continue up the hill and think 'This is too easy". Two seconds later, an entire army of the buggers comes charging at you! Run!!!

    Good stuff.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 11:21

  • DDevil #22 3 years ago

    I wish they would stop putting out such good games while I'm unemployed and don't have the money! ;_;

  • Syrette #23 3 years ago

    Definite purchase methinks.

  • riz23 #24 3 years ago

    Sorry to rain on the parade but Serious Sam was a great game on the PC oh.. seven years ago, you can probably pick it up on some budget PC label for three quid now. Or even the sequel. Not sure why I would want to pay 10 pounds for this in 2009..

  • wellzy4eva #25 3 years ago

    This is the perfect co-op game for XBL, now all I need is Quake 3 Arena and I'm set!

  • alasdairm #26 3 years ago

    The original Xbox game works on the 360 - altough it still has the dreadful screen-tear that was present on the old xbox

    Have had system link games with a combination of original xboxes and 360s

    Will still get the HD revamp thought !!

  • miiiguel #27 3 years ago

    "Not sure why I would want to pay 10 pounds for this in 2009.. "

    XBLA:
    1. Sit on couch in front of big telly.
    1. Click Download.
    2. Send game invite to buddy.
    3. Play/enjoy/loose badly.

    PC:
    0. Sit on a corner of a room in an office desk.
    1. Look for the game *somewhere*
    2. Install.
    3. Do the patching *thing*
    4. Do some more patching.
    5. Check the foruns for *that* problem that your particular GPU has with the game.
    6. Phone a friend and beg to play with you.
    7. Play alone for 10 minute.
    8. Give up, go play 360/PS3.
    Edited by 1 at 25/06/09 @ 11:54

  • Chufty #28 3 years ago

    You're loosing (sic) badly on the 360 because the atrocious speed and precision of your Xbox controller.

    Anyway, Serious Sam games are awesome. I was, just the other day, wondering what had happened to Croteam. I hope there's an SS3 in the works!

  • Hunam #29 3 years ago

    Fantastic game. The 8 player co-op was utter lunacy of the best kind.

  • miiiguel #30 3 years ago

    "You're loosing (sic) badly on the 360 because the atrocious speed and precision of your Xbox controller. "
    I can give you that, though I'm in for the thrils, not so much for the kills. Disclaimer: that's me though, I can understand the "pros", no judging here.

  • Malek86 #31 3 years ago

    Cool. I have the Xbox game, and while greatly simplified from the PC version - the addition of lives was necessary, as the dual analog wouldn't let you survive long, but there were too many around, on Serious difficulty i finished with a whole bunch lives left - it was still pretty good fun. Too bad it doesn't work with VGA in Europe.

    But, that was two games: TFE and TSE. If they are giving only TFE (and maybe not even all of it, as I recall the original game was more than 12 levels), maybe 1200 points is a bit of a stretch. And TSE was superior anyway, so...

    Though I wonder what does that mean when they said "reimagining". Maybe it will be worth it even if you already have the PC or Xbox games. I'll be checking it out, as I am a fan of the series.

    @miiiguel: well, come on now. I remember, both Serious Sams never had any problem on my PC. Even now on Win7 and HD4670, they work just fine from installation. Though if you want it, you have to manually set widescreen mode in the ini file, but that's only once. I'll admit coop is pretty good though, I played it once in LAN and it was great fun.

  • muscleblade #32 3 years ago

    Ive always bought more XBLA games than retail games. This isnt going to change when the best game releases this summer is Xbla games. Marvel VS Capcom here i come. The new game from Epic looks to be fantastic too.

  • MisterSlimm #33 3 years ago

    Judging by the screenshots, the graphics are only dazzling if you haven't seen the PC original or any game in the last ten years.

  • riz23 #34 3 years ago

    @miiiguel Nice try, but of course it's not all like that. :) Main point being I played this game seven years ago why pay another tenner now?

  • muscleblade #35 3 years ago

    "You're loosing (sic) badly on the 360 because the atrocious speed and precision of your Xbox controller. "

    That has already proven to be a false statement in cross platform releases like Lost Planet. If your good with the controller you wouldnt dream of using a keyboard and mouse. I use that enough at work.

  • Malek86 #36 3 years ago

    @muscleblade: but Serious Sam is not exactly your average, modern, slow shooter. The character moves fast, and so do your enemies. In the Xbox version they even had to add a form of auto-aim, otherwise it would have been nearly impossible to play.

  • miiiguel #37 3 years ago

    Main point being I played this game seven years ago why pay another tenner now?

    Well, maybe if you want to, idk... "play it again riz23" ? :) All in all, it's all a matter - like everything - of personal decisions, for instance, I have a pretty big collection of movies and I watch them more than once, I re-read books. Though, ppl are diferent, my boss says he doesn't understand why I buy movies, as he can't watch them more than once. Fair enough.

  • asphaltcowboy #38 3 years ago

    Not sure why everyone gets so excited about Serious Sam, I never really found it that compelling :(

  • muscleblade #39 3 years ago

    I think it looks great and i will probably get it. I bought Cellfactor, another FPS on XBLA and i enjoyed it a lot.

  • Dr_Wadd #40 3 years ago

    I was only recently saying to someone that we needed a 360 version of Serious Sam, but I`m not sure that this is what I had in mind. I assume that if this is a port of the older games then the enemy numbers are going to be largely untouched. I want to see the greater processing power available now used to throw even more enemies on-screen at once. That said, there is an extremely good chance that I`ll pick this up when it is released.

  • Roamer #41 3 years ago

    Why don't they add split-screen to these games? That's what makes consoles great for multiplayer gaming. If not for that, why bother re-releasing a 8-year old game? If I wanted to play with strangers online, I'd have bought a PC....

  • siro #42 3 years ago

    I buy movies even though I watch them only once (or not at all in many cases). Same for games and books.

    I really liked Serious Sam Coop, but I don't see me playing it from the couch. The action is just too frantic to be not right in front of the screen. Also 1200 pts are always a major downturn to me. :(

  • mcbain23 #43 3 years ago

    methinks this'll be good fun.

    That "bull charging" moment was awesome!

  • Waldo #44 3 years ago

    It's using Serious Engine 3, so the visuals will be upgraded considerably. Look at the comparison screenshot linked to in the article.

  • Waldo #45 3 years ago

    It's using Serious Engine 3, so the visuals will be upgraded considerably. Look at the comparison screenshot linked to in the article.

  • Vermillion3000 #46 3 years ago

    Serious Sam is awesome. Can't wait to play in the comfort of my HD telly at home rather than hunched over my work PC.
    I's a good time for downloadable games.
    Which is nice cos it's a pretty crap time for boxed product.

  • Vermillion3000 #47 3 years ago

    Serious Sam is awesome. Can't wait to play in the comfort of my HD telly at home rather than hunched over my work PC.
    I's a good time for downloadable games.
    Which is nice cos it's a pretty crap time for boxed product.

  • muscleblade #48 3 years ago

    @Vermillion3000

    Exactly!

  • SomaticSense #49 3 years ago

    Roamer wrote: "Why don't they add split-screen to these games? That's what makes consoles great for multiplayer gaming."

    They did for the Xbox versions. Hopefully they'll do the same for this one as well.

    But I'd be lying if I said I didn't want them to focus on the Live co-op side of things this time. That was never an option in the Xbox release, and if anyone desperately needs split-screen that version is backwards compatible anyway.

    Live co-op on Serious Sam. Hell yeah!

  • SomaticSense #50 3 years ago

    "loosing badly (sic)"

    Sorry, I can't help it. Spelling is most definitely not correct.

    I know it shouldn't, but this really winds me up. Especially when it's proclaimed that it is correct and not done by accident. Even some journalists have started doing this. It's wrong, simple as.