Double Fine has experimented with all manner of projects, including a nostalgic Peanuts-like Halloween-themed RPG, a mech combat tower defense game, a Kinect-based Sesame Street spin-off and a Kickstarter-funded retro throwback to the point-and-click adventures of yesteryear. But the game its upcoming sci-fi comedy romp Headlander most reminds me of is arguably Double Fine's most beloved title: its debut effort (and Eurogamer's 2005 game of the year), Pyschonauts. Where Raz's summer camp adventure had you venturing inside other people's heads, Headlander lets you steal anyone else's head and replace it with your own sentient floating noggin.This is because you're the last biological creature left in the galaxy, while everyone else has had their persons uploaded into digital data and lives like Scarlett Johansson in Her. As such, anyone else's body is naught but a hollow vessel ripe for the possessing. You see, you're not just any floating head, but a floating head equipped with a cool vacuum that lets you suck the skull off anyone you come across before replacing it with your own.
It's a great visual gag, especially when you latch your perpetually bewildered avatar onto the body of a robot dog, trophy steer or novelty snowman. Each corporeal form comes with its own moves too, be they cosmetic (like different dances) or practical (like various guns). If it sounds a bit like Stacking, the Double Fine game about body-swapping through Russian nesting dolls, that's because it's headed (no pun intended) by the same project lead, Double Fine's art director Lee Petty.
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