With precisely zero build-up, Activision Blizzard has released Starcraft: Cartooned on the Battle.net store. A fully cel-shaded version of the classic RTS game, Cartooned is available as DLC for StarCraft: Remastered for $9.99 and allows you to experience the original game with graphics done by Carbot Animations (famous for YouTube series StarCrafts). The official description for Cartooned reads as follows:
Since Cartooned is simply DLC, it doesn’t break compatibility with the base Remastered game. That’s good, too, because it would be a real pain in the ass to have to find separate servers for this. There’s a group of StarCraft diehards that will likely never touch this, so having that layer of compatibility will help to sell this to anyone interested.
While I’m surprised this DLC has even happened, I’m also really surprised this isn’t an elaborate joke. I think it’s fantastic that Blizzard is willing to experiment with such a popular brand in this fashion, and it actually makes me really interested to see this in motion. Even in its remastered form, I’m not actually that big of a fan of StarCraft‘s art style. I know it has been considered legendary for nearly two decades now, but I’ll gladly take a cartoony and vivid reimagining any day over dark sci-fi.
