With all of the hustle and bustle of Gamescom, a cool, hidden gem of a story appeared on Kickstarter earlier this week and while I’m not one to pimp out Kickstarter projects (except maybe SGC. *Cough!*), this is something that can be incredibly awesome if it reaches it goal.

Tribute Games, the studio behind Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, has a revealed a brand new project it has in the works, which will reunite its talented development team with famed pixel animator Paul Robertson.

Mercenary Kings is a 2D run and gun platformer reminiscent of such games of Metal Slug, which adds some fresh gameplay elements to genre. Elements such as a heavy emphasis on a crafting system that allows players to fully customize their arsenal, so they can prepare the perfect strategy for any given situation. There will also be an equally heavy emphasis on local (and perhaps online) 4-player co-op!

Not to mention it’ll sport the same endearing art style as Scott Pilgrim and feature the patented bat-shit insanity you’d expect from one of Robertson’s short films! Oh and just as a cautionary heads up, I should say that link falls into the NSFW category.

Right now, the game is in a prototype stage and is planned for a PC release with a desire to also launch it onto the Xbox 360 (a build for which is already being worked on) and mobile devices, but to make this multiplatform release possible, the group had to turn to Kickstarter. Otherwise, it would have to turn to a publisher and possibly risk steering away from its original vision.

With that in mind, the team is asking for $75,000 in order to make the game a reality without publisher dependence, although the team is hoping to reach $200,000 in total pledges in order for Mercenary Kings to reach its full potential.

Will this Kickstarter work out for Tribute? As a lover of kick ass retro games, I sure hope so! But even if the desired $200,000 milestone isn’t reached, the fact that it has gained over $36,000 worth of pledges in just a few short days, is perhaps a good omen for Mercenary Kings becoming a reality!

Here’s the announcement trailer:

If all goes well, Mercenary Kings should Move Out in time for Spring 2013.

For more information, please click the link below.