Do not be deceived by the above gallery. This is not a prank or a proof of concept. is now live at Blizzard’s online store as an official $10 add-on to 2017’s . It redraws every single piece of art in the classic RTS game to look and animate like a children’s cartoon, without otherwise changing the core gameplay.
Specifically, looks like a Carbot Animations cartoon—because the YouTube channel in question, operated by Canadian artist and animator Jonathan Burton, was tapped to create Blizzard’s first full cosmetic overhaul mod for a retail game.
The DLC does not add any new gameplay or mechanical content to the package. Instead, it transforms every single graphical element in the game, from menus to sprites to between-mission briefings, to look like the Carbot Animations animated series “StarCrafts,” now in its seventh season on YouTube. (Carbot’s YouTube channel also includes unofficial animated series based on Blizzard game series and .)
As you can see in the above gallery, all of Burton’s existing designs have been translated into the working game in their silly, bulbous, flat-shaded glory. In fact, they saw their gameplay world premiere last month at an official tournament in South Korea, where pro players tested the mod and confirmed that, yes, silly as it looks, this mod otherwise delivers pure action.
Further Reading
Burton says that Blizzard’s work on paved the way for his mod to become a reality, since the updated engine supports a complete sprite swap without disrupting the core gameplay. (That’s in essence how the original release works, anyway.) And unlike Carbot’s 2016 mod, which only redrew assets within that sequel’s limited arcade mode, today’s new mod smothers the full experience in Burton’s redrawn characters.
A few original assets remain, like FMV sequences and some interstitial art at the beginning of each campaign. Otherwise, you’ll find a ridiculous amount of redrawn cartoon material—even in the between-mission briefings. In those, you’ll see Burton’s full treatment look its silliest as the game’s original, dramatic music and voice acting play out over childish art. Having tested the mod briefly before filing this report, I would argue that this is an entirely new way to experience the game, if only because of how easy it is to follow Burton’s bold, primary-color designs as battles get hectic and Zerglings rush .
Further Reading
Reminder: If you’re simply itching for classic action, either single-player or online, and don’t care how it looks, you can grab the complete, original game in its 480p, 4:3 ratio glory for free at Battle.net. From there, you’ll have to buy both the upgrade ($15, if you don’t already have it) and the mod ($10) to take your classic experience to a Saturday morning level.
