Make no mistake, war is coming, with all its glory, and all its cuteness

July 13, 2019 12:50 PM

StarCraft: Cartooned (trailer) is now live at Blizzard's online store as an official add-on to 2017's StarCraft Remastered. It redraws every single piece of art in the classic RTS game to look and animate like a children's cartoon, without otherwise changing the core gameplay (Ars Technica). Specifically, StarCraft: Cartooned looks like a Carbot Animations cartoon (fandom wiki)—because the YouTube channel in question, operated by Canadian artist and animator Jonathan Burton, was tapped to create Blizzard's first full cosmetic overhaul mod (gameplay with commentary) for a retail game (following his unofficial mod [fandom]), in the style of his StarCrafts cartoons (YT playlist).
posted by filthy light thief (8 comments total)

this is really, really incredible. I realize that there is something in my brain that doesn't want to accept the cartoon version as being as complex and difficult as the old one!
posted by rebent at 2:23 PM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is really cool! I did not know this was being taken anywhere after the StarCraft Ⅱ mod, which I first saw back in 2016 when it got featured for the last match of SHOUTcraft Kings November.

That event (putting Carbot live on stage & stream at Blizcon) is burried a little within the fandom link. To highlight: here is the start of that match. You’ll get two pro players (Stephano and Stork) face off knowing they are controlling little cartoon characters instead of the usual aliens.
posted by Martijn at 3:10 PM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is really cool, but I have to admit I'm a tiny bit disappointed that it has a 2000s Castle Crashers aesthetic instead of a 1980s GI Joe aesthetic.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:53 PM on July 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

But does it redraw all the cutscenes too?
posted by PennD at 5:02 PM on July 13, 2019

But does it redraw all the cutscenes too?

I think so! Haven’t been able to find it yet, but Falcon Paladin (the caster linked to in the first post of having gameplay with commentary) has stated he will be playing the campaign in cartoon mode. That suggests to me that every aspect of the game has been reskinned.

He will be streaming the campaign starting this Sunday (… somewhen within 24 hours depending on time zone?) but not sure whether he will be doing it on his YouTube or his Twitch page. Maybe keep an eye out.
posted by Martijn at 3:55 AM on July 14, 2019

I wanted to play a quick game of starcraft the other day only to find that I can't launch it until it finishes downloading a 1GB patch.

But I gather I need to pay some money for this?
So even though I don't intend to get it I still can't play starcraft without downloading it?
Annoyed!
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 8:18 AM on July 14, 2019

Yes, this is a $10 official mod.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:26 AM on July 14, 2019

I was more objecting to having to download the content without planning on installing it.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:25 AM on July 15, 2019