Alison and Colleen: Saturation Depreciation is an open-world adventure game released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, XBOX, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. The console ports were developed by Cor-Son Games in association with Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ through Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was the first game to not be co-developed by Radical Entertainment due to conflicting ownership.
Development[]
The game was built from an early beta for Alison and Colleen: Come in Peace, Go in Pieces. Cor-Son Games was going through financial issues at the time due to a lack of support from their parent company, so they determined that the best way to make their money back was by making a game for multiple systems (as a means of appealing to people ready for the next generation of gaming and those who still owned older systems.)
In order to ensure the game would be ready in time, the beta was outsourced to three regional subsidiaries, with each working on ports for handhelds, sixth and seventh generation consoles and the companies would collaborate with other developers. THQ helped outsource the ports to other developers.
The game was in production since 2004. The development team was split, with one focusing on the game and the other focusing on general gaming. It was going to be released in 2005, but it was delayed due to the finished product being too buggy. The delay went on until it was finally released in December of 2006.
Cor-Son had no intention of making a port for the Nintendo DS, but were forced to by the publishers to account for sales. They instead hired Full Fat to develop a version of the Game Boy Advance port and had Destination Software publish it as a joke. The ending to the game featured Alison and Colleen themselves mocking the system.
This is one of two games to be certified by THX, the other being Alison and Colleen: Proving Day. The game also used Dolby Digital and the Sofdec/ADX video and audio streaming formats with the first coming as an afterthought to make up for corrupted data.
Plot[]
Alison and Colleen discover that everyone in their town has become obsessed with a generic FPS and are literally turning into zombies. The two girls attempt to stop the zombies and destroy the game.
The GBA port takes place within the game and has you assume the role of Alison where you try to rescue Colleen. The port was made with the Blue Roses Technologies engine.
Reception[]
The game received mixed to average reviews. The best reviewed ports were those for the GameCube, XBOX, XBOX 360, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable, whilst the PS2 and DS ports were deemed to be of the worst quality.