Fifteen years ago, a brand-new third person sci-fi comedy title launched for PlayStation 2 and Xbox called Destroy All Humans! This cheeky little number lampooned the McCarthy-era United States, taking the player back to the time of Roswell, the Red Scare, Area 51, and aliens (insert meme of the History Channel dude here). The humor was off-the-wall, the gameplay was tight, and the parody a little on the nose at times. The title spawned several sequels and something of a cult following. Sadly, the franchise has been radio silent for over a decade, with the last title being 2008’s Path of the Furon.
IGN broke the news earlier today that our favorite smartass alien, Cryptosporidium-137 (aka Crypto), will be returning to gaming very soon. THQNordic has partnered with Black Forest Games to bring Crypto and his extraterrestrial brand of destruction and deadpan to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC next year. This comes immediately after THQNordic announced that another popular 2000s title, Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, would be receiving the remake treatment as well.
The reveal trailer has a nice little throwback to one of the early missions in the first game, where Crypto has to take over the airwaves to broadcast a message from his superior, Orthopox 13, across a new medium known as television. The trailer is set to Rammstein’s classic “Ich Will,” and manages to capture both the badassery and bawdiness of the franchise, all in just under two minutes.
Destroy All Humans! was one of my absolute favorite single-player games of my childhood. Even as a not-quite teenager, the jokes about little green men, Communists, and life on Mars were enough to keep me entertained for hours on hand. And getting to fly a UFO around Bumfuck, USA and level whole buildings with a death ray? Almost too much fun for one humanoid to handle… almost.
In case you need to itch your Crypto scratch before the remake comes out, it’s worth noting that both of the original games are available on the PlayStation and Xbox storefronts. So get to the Mothership and get yourself reacquainted with Crypto-137 (or, if you played like I did back in the day, like Crypto-160 or so) before he invades your platform of choosing next year!
Check out the reveal trailer from IGN below!