Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure: Arcade has been announced for PS5, with developer Art of Play Interactive planning a Backerkit crowdfunding campaign.
The game's description spells out the assignment: “Challenge them to mini-games to earn their respect and participation in your on-stage history report.” Saving the world is on the itinerary, too. Apparently, passing history wasn't enough pressure.
Backerkit funding comes with a collectible phone booth
The campaign is intended to help fund the final stages of development through digital and physical game copies, exclusive merchandise, and apparel. Art of Play is also planning a limited physical release, including a PS5 edition and an option with SNES-style packaging.
The campaign's announced extras turn the film's time-travelling phone booth into a collectible. Different rewards apply to backing, reserving a pledge, and joining during the opening window:
- All backers: A metallic phone booth card featuring Rufus, the guide played by George Carlin.
- A $5 pledge reservation: Two additional metallic cards featuring Bill and Ted.
- Backing within the first 48 hours: A fourth metallic card showing the historical figures pressed against the booth's glass, plus separate top and bottom pieces.
Those four cards and the connecting pieces can be assembled into a small metallic phone booth. It's a physical reward that borrows directly from the movie's central prop, rather than another box of loosely related merchandise.
Fifteen levels, couch co-op, and Napoleon's ice cream
The side-scroller follows Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted Theodore Logan through 15 levels based on the original movie. You can play as either lead solo or team up for local couch co-op, with both characters working together.
Brawling shares the stage with historical recruitment. Billy the Kid, Socrates, Napoleon, Beethoven, and Genghis Khan are among the figures the duo will meet, with distinct minigames used to win their participation in the history report.
The examples have a suitably strange streak: Beethoven gets a music duel, while Napoleon challenges Bill and Ted to an ice cream-eating contest. Those encounters give the historical cast something more specific to do than wait at the end of a fight.
Napoleon's ice cream challenge
Story mode also provides the progression into the game's other modes. Completing it unlocks arcade mode, minigames, and additional content. The result is a campaign-led structure, with separate activities opening up after the main adventure.
Original film audio meets hand-crafted pixel art
The presentation takes its cues from 16-bit arcade games, pairing hand-crafted pixel art with an ’80s rock soundtrack. The adaptation is specifically rooted in the 1989 film.
Its voice audio also comes from the original movie recordings, including George Carlin as Rufus.
Art of Play has made its production policy explicit: “We are a strictly no generative AI studio across all our titles.” The studio says that policy also covers the trailer and supporting marketing materials.
The Australian developer's previous projects include Danger Mouse, Lady Death: Demonicron, and The Phantom, giving this adaptation a place alongside its other retro-inspired licensed games.
Backerkit's pre-launch notification signup is already open ahead of the campaign. For more games to explore in the meantime, browse GAMES.GG's adventure games.
