Serious Sam Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Serious Sam: Double D: XXL is a shoot 'em up side-scrolling shooter video game developed by Mommy's Best Games and published by Devolver Digital. It was released on February 13, 2013 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. The game is part of the Serious Sam indie series and is an improved version of Serious Sam: Double D.

Plot[]

The plot in Serious Sam: Double D: XXL is exactly the same as in the original game, with the exception of a few new levels that involve the use of vehicles.

Characters[]

Enemies[]

Weapons[]

Gameplay[]

Serious Sam: Double D: XXL functions much like its predecessor. It is 2D and features the same Serious Sam-inspired gameplay that its predecessor has. Gunstacking is also included. However, there are several large differences. First, the game supports local co-op for two players. The second player can drop in at any time by hitting the A button. Secondly, the second player will control Huff, the character from the Serious Sam: Double D trailer.

Guns can be upgraded in two ways; ammo or a plain upgrade. Ammo simply increases how much ammo the player can hold. There are several ammo upgrades, but they must be purchased at once. The second upgrade, the plain upgrade, vastly changes how a gun works. For example, the shotgun can be upgraded to the Cybernetic Bees, which fires bees that lift enemies in the air and harm them. Upgrades must be purchased with Cerebral Controllers, which are obtained by killing enemies.

Several new enemies have also been added to the game. Completely new enemies are in, such as the Torcher Kitty, which is a cat in a floating jar of green liquid that spews fireballs from its mouth. In addition, several cannon-fodder enemy types, such as the Beheaded Rocketeer, will have armor in some parts of the game in order to make them more challenging.

Levels[]

Several of the game's levels have been reworked to accommodate the new weapon upgrades and co-op. It is unknown how much has been changed.

The levels in Serious Sam: Double D: XXL are identical to the original version with the exception of the addition of several race-type levels, where Sam pilots vehicles to kill enemies for money while avoiding track obstacles. Each act has an additional vehicle stage:

  • Act 1: Rocket board (vehicle: jet-propelled snowboard)
  • Act 2: Dinofighter (vehicle: rocket-launching dinosaur)
  • Act 3: Lunicycle (vehicle: dynamite-powered unicycle)

In these additional stages Sam loses the use of his weapons and gains control of a vehicle to move through the level. There are no additional secret areas, just stashes of money for upgrades.

The game adds small silver stashes that contain health and armor upgrades located in secret areas and scattered around. These upgrades increase the limit on your health and armor to 200 each when all collected. Once collected they will reappear on subsequent playthroughs but will not provide an upgrade. The chainsaw is the easiest method to opening these.

Development[]

Following the release of the original game, Nathan Fouts took a break before commencing work on an Xbox 360 port in December 2011. Mommy's Best Games and Devolver Digital agreed on features that would make such a port worth releasing, which Fouts subsequently developed, following the content specifications for the platform.[1] By March 2012, Fouts was deeply engaged in creating new game art for a "(sorta) secret project" relating to Double D.[2] Voice-over was added for all characters, with John J. Dick reprising his role as Serious Sam. For the cooperative multiplayer mode, Fouts initially considered adding a "Hologram Sam", based on one of the characters from the multiplayer modes of other Serious Sam games, as the second player character. He eventually agreed with Michael Dalmon, the actor from the trailers, to use his voice and likeness, adding his character to the game as Dan "Huff" Huffington, along with additional dialog between him and Sam.[3][4] To combat repetitiveness and adjust the game's pacing, Fouts created more levels that required less shooting, of which some used vehicles and others necessitated strategizing.[5] He stated that many of the elements added were previously not included in the original game due to time constraints.[6] The expanded release was announced in May 2012 as Serious Sam: Double D: XXL with a projected release later that year.[7][8] The certification process for Xbox Live Arcade was completed in December 2012.[9]

In a two-part "Gun Diary" series of videos publicized between January and February 2013, Fouts explained the additions made to XXL.[10][11][12] By February, he lent most of his work time to marketing efforts for the game.[13] Ajanovic, Johnson and Rosenthal also worked on this version in their respective capacities.[14] A launch trailer was released alongside XXL.[15]Devolver Digital released the game through Xbox Live Arcade on February 20, 2013, co-publishing it with Mastertronic. Mommy's Best Games held a launch event titled "Shave and a Haircut 8-Bit" in March in Louisville, Kentucky, and invited local game developers to showcase their work. At the time, Fouts stated that XXL was likely to arrive on personal computers at some point. In June 2013, he started porting the game to the platform, cleaning up hard-coded elements, and after a break continued development in September. XXL was released on Steam on October 21, 2013, as a free update for existing owners of Double D, which remained playable separately. The Serious Sam Collection, a physical compilation of Serious Sam games including XXL for Xbox 360, was released by Mastertronic and Maximum Games in July 2013.[16] The game was altered to run directly off the disc and without requiring a connection to the Xbox Live services, which was otherwise a requirement of XNA-based games. Fouts believed that this was the first time an XNA game had been distributed physically.[17] XXL continued to sell through 2015, although sales had been declining.[18] The Xbox 360 version was delisted from Xbox Live Arcade shortly after Mastertronic filed for administration in November 2015.[19]

PC version[]

After being confirmed by Mommy's Best games, Serious Sam: Double D: XXL came to the PC as an upgrade to Serious Sam: Double D sometime after the Xbox 360 version was released.

The PC version on Steam will automatically download and upgrade itself, and when starting the game players are given the option of the 2011 original version or the 2013 XXL version.

Modes[]

SSDDXL gameplay

Co-op gameplay.

Serious Sam: Double D: XXL contains both single player and local co-op. Local co-op can be played in the campaign levels and the challenge levels.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. https://www.shacknews.com/article/77668/serious-sam-double-d-xxl-has-high-chance-of-pc
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20200601134410/http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2012/03/blackberry-pie-chart.html
  3. https://venturebeat.com/2014/11/08/mommys-best-games-boss-talks-barf-gunstacking-and-shakin-that-rump-interview/view-all/
  4. http://8bithorse.blogspot.com/2012/12/serious-sam-double-d-xxl.html
  5. https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-live-developer-interview-mommys-best-games-maker-shoot-1up-and-serious-sam-double-d-xxl
  6. https://gamasutra.com/view/news/170142/Serious_Sams_latest_indie_outing_grew_into_more_than_marketing.php
  7. https://www.engadget.com/2012-05-16-serious-sam-3-bfe-serious-sam-double-d-xxl-run-screaming-to-xb.html
  8. https://www.engadget.com/2013-01-10-serious-sam-double-d-xxl-storms-xbla-on-feb-20.html
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_Sam_Double_D#cite_note-MBG:_Certifiable-54
  10. https://www.engadget.com/2013-01-31-serious-sam-double-d-xxl-dev-diary-shows-xbla-additions-stacks.html
  11. https://www.gamezone.com/news/serious-sam-double-d-xxl-gun-diary-1-has-crazy-weapon-stacking/
  12. https://www.polygon.com/2013/2/12/3981478/serious-sam-double-d-xxl-gun-diary-gives-the-lowdown-on-weapons
  13. http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2013/02/apple-pie-chart.html
  14. http://www.mommysbestgames.com/expertise.html
  15. https://www.polygon.com/2013/2/20/4010474/serious-sam-double-d-xxl-trailer
  16. https://www.polygon.com/2013/6/28/4473676/serious-sam-collection-coming-to-xbox-360-on-july-12
  17. http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2013/08/ouch-we-slipped-disc.html
  18. http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2016/02/development-year-in-review-2015.html
  19. https://www.xboxachievements.com/news/news-22912-Mastertronic-Titles-Delisted-From-Xbox-Games-Store.html

External links[]

Advertisement