William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has finally been restored to its original second-person non-linear branching narrative format. The greatest work IN English literature is now in the greatest format OF English literature: a chooseable-path adventure game on Nintendo Switch.
To Be Or Not To Be comes from the awesome mind of Ryan North, author of Dinosaur Comics, the Adventure Time comic book series, and Marvel’s Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. He teamed up with the Tin Man Games back in 2015 with the original release on iOS, Android, PC and Mac, and this great team-up once again comes together for the release on Nintendo’s handheld console.
Players can become three different characters from Shakespeare’s classic: Hamlet, Ophelia, or even Hamlet’s Dad, King Hamlet (Spoiler: you get ghost powers and then must investigate your own murder). Travel through time, fight pirates and sensibly bring evil King Claudius to justice in a court of law or stuff him into a cannon and fire him into a wall. It’s up to YOU!
Yorick skulls mark the choices Shakespeare took in his play which can be followed for the original story or abandoned to carve out a new adventure. View the Haml-o-meter at the end of each story to see how well you stuck to the Bard’s vision!
The original print version of To Be Or Not To Be was a huge Kickstarter success, helped by the fact that Ryan enlisted a crack team of the coolest and most attractive artists of our time. These include the talents of Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Anthony Clark (Nedroid), Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade), Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal), Ethan Nicolle (Axe Cop), Andrew Hussie (MS Paint Adventures), Zach Weiner (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) and a host more that couldn’t possibly fit into this press release!
To Be Or Not To Be has been developed using Tin Man Games’ critically acclaimed Gamebook Adventures Engine. A dyslexic friendly font support has been added for readers with dyslexia and every story path has been fully narrated.
Ryan North’s To Be Or Not To Be is now available to download from the Nintendo eShop. It costs $6.99 USD / £6.99 / €7,99. It is also available on the App Store, Google Play, Steam and the Humble Store.