Barkley 2, the sequel to the bizarre 2008 freeware RPG Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, has been in development since 2012. However, a couple of official posts throw the vaporware game's existence into question.
Dunked or still dribbling?
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden was a bizarre RPG which was an affectionate parody of 16-bit JRPGs and 1990's NBA subculture. In the year 2053, real-life basketball player Charles Barkley is living in Proto-Neo-New York, twelve years after the Great B-Ball Purge of 2041. Most of the world's B-Ball players were hunted down after a forbidden technique known as the Chaos Dunk killed millions. From there, the game turns into a crazy and hilarious journey from start to finish. A colony of furries inhabit the sewers below Proto-Neo-New-York. Diabetes is this game's version of poison. The events of the movie Space Jam are treated as canon and the Monstars even make an appearance. The creators ran a successful Kickstarter for a sequel, colloquially called Barkley 2: Curse of Cuchulainn.Since 2012, Barkley 2's development has been incrementally continuing, although there is no release date yet. However, some posts on the Something Awful forums (via Twitter,) imply the team has fallen apart:
https://twitter.com/whoisJoshBossie/status/1135253417146822658
Hiratio's posts paint a picture of mismanagement and members moving on to other things. However, the official Twitter for Tale of Game's sent out some Twitter posts in response to the Something Awful posts. From the posts, we've gathered several details:
- 'bhroom,' the one running the account, is working with one other person, but the development isn't full time.
- Other than Barkley 2 being dead, everything about Hiratio's posts about the team's schism is true.
- All of the Kickstarter money went to the game. It wasn't squandered, but "the management to get the ambition that was set in motion was."
- Out of all the development's issues, the biggest one was the lack of updates and transparency.
Are you still waiting for Barkley 2? Do you still think it'll release? Let us know in the comments below!
