One of the nicer surprises at the VERY packed New York Comic Con was actually hidden in plain sight at the Microsoft booth. While packs of gamers waited in lines to play the spectacular Mass Effect 3, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and a few other AAA games, right next to those was Fusion: Genesis, a sprawling, top-down space shooter/RPG/MMO hybrid by Starfire Studios headed exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade later this year. You probably haven’t heard of Starfire just yet as this is their first title under that name, but the four-man team is comprised of Chris Tilston, Mark Edmonds, Philip Dunne and Ross Bury, all ex-Rare talent with credits that range from GoldenEye, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark and Kameo. Fusion looks and plays like none of the above games at all, but it’ll definitely seem familiar to fans of PC classics such as Starflight, Star Control or even the Sega Dreamcast sleeper, Armada. The game also tips its cap to classic arcade shooters, Star Wars and Star Trek in spots, but I don’t want to spoil too much in this preview…

I had the chance to see and play through a few areas in the game thanks to Philip Dunne, the game’s Art Director who was fairly thrilled at showing off all the hard work that’s going into the project. So far, everything clicks from the dual stick fly & shoot controls to the nice variety of ships and weaponry they can be fitted with. Smooth frame rate and excellent controls aside, you’ll not want to go into Fusion expecting a bullet-hell shooter or some other coin-munching machine from days gone by. What’s here is a more deliberately paced (yet still thrilling) chunk of story-driven space combat with a bit of mining and shopping for good measure. From what I was able to grasp of the story, it’s packed with a few familiar genre elements including space pirates, a dark evil being mucking thing up across the galaxy and a few interestingly awesome yet derivative (in an homage-centric manner) ship designs. However, the ability to play through the lengthy campaign as one of six different factions makes replay value a core feature of the game. Yes, both co-op (1 – 4 players) as well as PvP (1 – 8 players) are supported in Fusion’s persistent game world, which means there will be a load of competition gunning for each other or meeting up over XBLA for some co-op questing.

Ships can be outfitted with two weapons and a special attack that drains a recharging energy meter. This adds some strategic balance to the shooting so the game feels at time like a dungeon crawler set in deep space. You’ll come across friendly AI ships that need assistance or have to take on missions where you’re part of a larger fleet attacking or defending an equal or much larger enemy force. In solo play, the game is indeed fairly challenging, especially in maps where you and a group of AI allies take on an enemy’s war fleet. I briefly played through three different scenarios that had massive capital ships or a star base that needed taking down or protecting and it’ll be interesting to see how the community responds with tactics of their own to assist new players who might feel overwhelmed by the grand scale of these battles. As this is an online game, I’d imagine you won’t see any cheats for some super-weapon that can wipe out enemies in a single blast. Dunne let me play around with a killer leveled up craft that DID have a powerful energy beam straight out of a Japanese arcade shooter, but he stressed that it was something you’d have to work really hard to obtain in the full version.

Another core feature is the ability to raise stat-boosting “sentients” that you can slot into your ship if you happen to own a Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Fusion: Sentient, the companion game to Genesis. These sentients can boost your ship’s armor, auto-mine ore, repair damage and more based on how you play the phone game. Since it wasn’t on display at the show, I’ve no idea how it plays other than Dunne telling me it was a RTS set in the Fusion universe. I don’t actually own a W7 phone (I’m STILL using my N-Gage QD, as I primarily play games with it – RIFTS: Promise of Power, ftw!), but it may be worth looking into picking one up if Fusion takes off (and I want to keep up with the rest of the players raising their own sentients). I forgot to ask if there would be a way for gamers without a W7 phone to purchase sentients, but I guess I’ll need to do an interview with the guys at some point to ask that and a few other questions.

Meanwhile, back at the Fusion ranch, the presentation here is stellar. Excellent character portraits and scrolling text help spell out missions and objectives while the main game is packed to the gills with rich colors, detailed ships of many sizes and plenty of gorgeous effects. While the action takes place on a single plane, some of the prettier maps give off the illusion of depth thanks to elements such as massive asteroids tumbling about and some massive capital ships. I was fooled for a few seconds from afar because the large typeface in the game is reminiscent of the one found in Mass Effect, so I thought I was watching a space combat mini-game from ME3 until I got closer to check it out. I think I played for about half an hour or so and I wanted to stay longer but another editor-type was waiting patiently as I was trying hard not to drool on the controller. I wisely handed it off to him so he could get a taste of the game before the show shut down for the day, but I’m definitely looking to play the final version when it launches. By the way, the soundtrack in the game is by Steve Burke, the genius behind the scores to Kameo, Viva Pinata, Jetpac Refueled and other Rare titles. He’s also the guy who’s music has been heard by every Xbox 360 owner (who’s not hearing impaired). That theme played during the Avatar editing process is his creation.

With 100+ ships, 200+ weapons, 1000+ upgrades, 23 stages and six distinct classes to play as, it’s pretty much a given that this game will find itself an audience that’s going to go nuts for everything it has to offer. My only gripes about the game are that it’s a 360 exclusive and ONLY available through XBLA. Granted, any exclusives (particularly ones as solid as this) are just great for Microsoft and of course, XBLA. However, it would be awesome to see this pop up on the PS3 and Vita as well or even the 3DS and Wii U in the future. As for the digital-only part, it’s sad to know that those gamers still not with a decent online connection are going to miss out on what’s looking like a must-buy title, but perhaps those folks will get to see the game on one of those 3-pack disc releases with a few other of the best XBLA titles from this really super year for the service. Imagine a Bastion/Fusion/Crimson Alliance set or something similar on a single disc? I’d buy that (and for MORE than a dollar!) for sure…