Review Fix Exclusive: Clayton Kauzlaric Talks ‘Voodoo Vince: Remastered’

Review Fix chats with “Voodoo Vince” creator Clayton Kauzlaric, who discusses the remastered version coming to the Xbox One and Windows PC.

About Voodoo Vince: Remastered:

If you own a voodoo doll, you get to tap into its strange, mysterious powers. But if you *are* a voodoo doll? That’s when things get really fun.

Join Vince on a wild tear through crawfish-laden swamps, haunted graveyards, and the eccentric French Quarter in search of his missing keeper, Madam Charmaine. Show enemies who’s *really* boss with 30+ voodoo attacks involving falling safes, prickly pushpins, bolts of lightning, and more. Vince may get his butt kicked, but his opponents feel the pain!

Review Fix: Why bring back Voodoo Vince?

Clayton Kauzlaric: I’ve always been a little sad that Vince seemed destined to remain in the past. There are still fans of the original game who have kept their original Xboxes running all these years. Anyone else who might be interested in the game has to look for a console and a copy of the game on eBay. I’ve always been really proud of Voodoo Vince and wanted to bring it back for those fans and make it available to a new audience.

Review Fix: Why has this game stayed a fan favorite over the years?

Kauzlaric: I think different people like Voodoo Vince for different reasons. Some people liked the charm and humor of the game. Others may have been more into playing a very straightforward, challenging platformer. Since we announced the remastered version I’ve been hearing from a lot of people who grew up with the game. Those memories and associations can be pretty powerful.

Review Fix: What was the development process like for this one?

Kauzlaric: It’s still ongoing. I’m not a programmer, so this is just a rough summary… A lot of our efforts have centered on updating the game engine to support more contemporary shaders and rendering tech. The original game had a custom engine. We also had to use a strange in-between version of DirectX back then. Our engine communicated with the original Xbox hardware using some tricky Assembly code. It took a lot of work, but Beep’s devs have everything running in DX11 now.

Review Fix: How is this version different away from the visuals?

Kauzlaric: The biggest difference to me is how the game feels playing at 60fps. It not only looks great, it makes the controls feel more precise. Beyond that, I was always happy with the gameplay in Voodoo Vince. We built the entire game world around how Vince controls. That’s a big part of developing a character platformer. Changing anything connected to that can set off a “domino effect,” which mean digging into every part of the game. That not only takes a lot of time (and money), it ends up feeling like a different game. That wouldn’t be Voodoo Vince. That would suck for players who loved the original game.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone play the remastered version?

Kauzlaric: If you loved Voodoo Vince in the past but haven’t had access to the original Xbox for many years, this will be a way to revisit an old friend. Maybe you heard about the game and wanted to give it a try. The remastered version makes that possible without the need to dig up an original Xbox console. And if this is the first you’ve heard of Voodoo Vince: if you like a really pure character platformer with pinpoint control and lots of bottomless pits, this game is for you!

Review Fix: Any plans for a PlayStation 4 release? (Pretty Please!)

Kauzlaric: Sorry! The only console we’ll be on is Xbox One — Vince is still owned by Microsoft, after all. The good news is that we’ll be on Windows and hopefully Steam, so non-Xbox owners will definitely have a way to play the game.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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