Fort Boyard on the Nintendo Switch and PS4

The Crystal Maze would not be without its sister show, known as "Fort Boyard".

Fort Boyard had a brief airing in the UK but did not take as well to our culture, as both Channel 5 and Challenge TV commissioned runs.


The show has continued to run in France with many variations on its premise, but it is known for being far more physically enduring on the contestants.

Well, if you're a Nintendo Switch owner like me, have a look in the upcoming section of the eShop of your hybrid console, and you'll find that soon, you'll have the chance to challenge the Fort in a virtual format. Could we be a step closer to the dream of having The Crystal Maze on the PlayStation?

If you don't have a Nintendo Switch, then check out the details on Nintendo's Website.

Set to release on 19/6/2019 for the sum of £26.99, the game will only be available by eShop. It will also be available on the PlayStation 4.

The description indicates the availability of Solo Play mode and Multiplayer mode, but dissapointingly only provides 10 Challenges and you'll need a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to play the game, so you can't use the Joycons.

The premise of Fort Boyard was that a team of contestants stormed the fort, and then played the challenges within the cells of the fort - the first part of the game involves collecting Keys to the treasure room door - if you failed to do this by the time limit for the first part of the game, you'd have to sacrifice team members who'd be locked into a prison and took no further part in the game. The lock in mechanics were still present, in that you'd get automatically locked in for failure to escape in time, or the ALIS style games we've all come to dread, where you'd get the crystal or get locked in.

The second part was then finding clues to the password to release Boyard's gold - completion of a challenge would yield a word - the password would be the common word that linked all the gained words together, for example, "Black", "Star", "White" could have the common word of "Board".

In the other localities of the show, the teams would also need to earn TIME in the treasure room - creating a 3rd part to the show.

You can catch clips of Fort Boyard on YouTube, but for me - in Richard O'Brien's words - "Crystal Maze was the better show."

So, knowing Fort Boyard has gotten a game on the switch, what do you think about The Crystal Maze getting it's own turn? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

See you in the Maze!

Jon

ARTICLE UPDATE - 30/5/2019

Since posting this article, I have been informed of some innaccuracies for which i apologise.

Evidently, you will be able to play with the Joycons - the store page said "Pro Controller" from which i made this report.

The Launch Date has changed to 20/6/2019 since the article was published, this may change again in light of video game development.

There will be more than 10 challenges in the game.