MW ULTRA
Protovision is proud to present MW ULTRA, an epic title for the Commodore 64 from Lasse Öörni (the developer behind Steel Ranger, Hessian and the Metal Warrior series).

MW ULTRA is a reinterpretation of the original Metal Warrior game released in 1999 that sees you take control of Ian as he unravels a conspiracy taking place around him and inside his mind. Ian will have to use his wits and his skills to survive against street gangs, highly trained soldiers, wild animals, robot drones and much more as you navigate your way though many different environments in order to uncover the truth to who he really is.

MW ULTRA is a great title that features interactive action adventure gameplay all within the confines of an engrossing story environment. In asking him what inspired him to reboot the Metal Warrior Series after its long hiatus, Lasse reveals:

“Each of the original MW games had been made in an ad-hoc manner based on the ideas I had at the moment, both for story and gameplay. Combined with that I was still only learning programming, game design and storytelling, particularly with the first game, this left the feeling that things could have been done better.”

Indeed it is perhaps a little known fact that Lasse experimented to reboot the franchise for the Game Boy Advance and PC but these turned out to be failed attempts that fizzled out to nothing. It wasn’t until a co-worker (Marja Kuipers) began writing fan fiction based on Lasse’s trilogy of novels that featured Metal Warrior characters that firmly planted the seed that a reboot of the series would be warranted in an expanded story setting.

“I came up with an expanded story that would remain relatively unchanged during the development, and the idea of combining stealth, melee combat and gunplay. Once I confirmed that the project was on, Marja would become the story advisor, which basically meant that we'd at times discuss the story and characters, and some things in the game would change based on these discussions.”

Lasse’s commitment to the reboot can be exemplified by the fact that it took MW ULTRA over two years to complete. Part of the reason for this would be the completely overhauled game engine:

“After finishing Steel Ranger, I verified the project's technical feasibility, coming up with a method of screen-redraw based scrolling that would allow a large scrolling window and unique color for each char as long as the whole screen would not have unique colors. I also experimented with sketches of the larger bosses to make sure C64 could deal with them.”

MW ULTRA features smooth animation, fast paced combat, a wide range of weapons and utilities, outstanding boss battles and skill enhancements. But when we asked him about what were his favourite new features, Lasse was keen to highlight:

“The grapple gun is most certainly the number one! I had not even planned for it from the start but once I worked out the routine and the sprite animation frames to draw the different angles of the rope smoothly enough I just had to put it in. Another is the cover system, which allows more tactics and allowed me to design dangerous enemies and bosses that are possible to beat without taking damage, instead of just firing everything you have and seeing who dies first. And finally, the more complete melee combat move set. I had wanted to do that for a long time, but in previous games other features always came first and then there was no more memory.”

As you can see from the official game trailer, MW ULTRA is an exceptional game that really pushes the C64 to its limits and you can order your copy of the Collector’s Cartridge edition from the Protovision Shop.

But before we go, we just had to ask Lasse about the future of the Metal Warrior game franchise, to which he cryptically says:

“Right now I have another idea for the next game, but if you look closely enough, there are certain story & character elements in MW ULTRA that leave a hook for a possible continuation. It would not follow the rest of the original games strictly, instead taking off from where the finale of MW ULTRA ended.”

Lasse also joined the Protovision team after completing MW ULTRA. We look forward to seeing what is in store for the future of the Metal Warrior series.

Official Trailer:

Development status:
Available


Credits:
Produced by: Covert Bitops
Distribution of cartridge version: Protovision
Design, Program and Graphics: Lasse Öörni
Music & SFX: Kamil Wolnikowski, Lasse Öörni
Story Assistance: Marja Kuipers
Additional Loader Code: Thomas Giesel, Per Olofsson, Wolfram Sang, Christoph Thelen
GMod2 Assistance: Chester Kollschen
Data Compression: Johan Forslöf
Production lead cartridge version: Tim Jakob Chen-Voos
Manual Proof Reading: Milo Mundt
Manual and Box Design: Lobo

Gallery:

Status updates:

Watch now: MW ULTRA Trailer
(News written on 14.08.2020)

Have you seen MW ULTRA, the latest game of the Metal Warrior series? Head on to our official trailer at https://youtu.be/wSMiE9wottA and take the time to preorder this stunning action adventure in the Protovision Shop today! (the music in the trailer is from the actual game soundtrack).