D3Publisher Working On “Retro” Matt Hazard For PSN/XBLA

We don't know about you, but we really like the laugh-at-ourselves comical style of the impending Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard . If you're not familiar, it's a third-person action game based on a fictional '80s video game hero that is returning once more to the limelight. It also features great voiceover work from Neil Patrick Harris and Will Arnett.

But in order to cement the illusion in place, D3Publisher is taking it a step further – so says Joystiq – and issuing a "retro" side-scrolling Matt Hazard game for the PSN and XBLA this summer. Eat Lead is scheduled to release on March 3 so there's a significant gap between the two, but that's okay; we appreciate the effort. Basically, you're trying to convince the audience that Matt Hazard – a classic, Duke Nukem muscular type – really did exist way back when, so what better way to do that than to bring one of his games "out of the past?" It's not really a complicated concept, but it's certainly interesting. Besides, how often do we really get a chance to play a true-blue spoof of the industry? We'll be blasting at everything from zombies to interstellar space soldiers, and if you don't get a kick out of that, you haven't been gaming for very long. At the very least, The Return of Matt Hazard should offer some genuine laughs, and we need more of that, too.

Stay tuned for our review of the game, and we'll try to dig up a release date for this 2D Matt Hazard side-scroller. It's probably a safe bet to assume it holds the same panache…fake as it may be.

Related Game(s): Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard