Who's big, red and likes the liberal application of fist? No, we're not referring to a perverted Santa Clause - we're actually talking about our favourite friendly demon, Hellboy. Star of a woefully underrated film, a long running comic book, and even his own animated series, Hellboy is the man's man of the underworld. He begrudgingly kicks demon butt when duty calls, but would much rather play with kittens instead. Hellboy has already made one outing to the video game world, back in 2004, but that dismal effort has since been banished to the seventh level of Hell. And even down there, the first game is so ugly that it makes the piles of decomposing corpses and giant lakes of baby vomit that surround it look pretty.

Thank the unholy gods then that this Hellboy is looking very, very different. For starters, it's being developed by the talented folk at Krome Studios in Brisbane, rather than some obscure studio in upper Siberia. Krome's recent title, The Legend of Spyro, proved yet again that it knows how to make high quality games. During a recent sortie to the Krome office, we got our first look at the next-gen excursion for this likable cousin of Lucifer.

Heading to Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP, the total Hellboy team at Krome is comprised of around sixty staff. Thirteen are focused purely on the handheld version, while the rest are developing for both the 360 and PS3 at the same time. It's a third-person action game, where fisticuffs and melee action are the order of the day.

The game's most exciting feature is that it's designed from the ground up for co-op play. On both the PS3 and 360, it makes use of the same co-op technique that we recently saw in Gears of War. That is, the entire singleplayer campaign will be co-operative compatible, and that includes all cut scenes and story-telling elements. If you've ever played Gears of War in co-op mode over Xbox Live, you'll understand why this feature is so exciting to us.

Full Article at IGN