There may be a whole lot of baddie-decapitating involved in 300: March to Glory, but producer Jeff Nachbaur says the gameplay involves more than that. It's all about strategy - managing your own internal resources, mastering combos and special moves to kill specific enemies in this graphic novel/movie-based PSP exclusive.

In an interview at Game Zone, Nachbaur declares:

There is a whole lot of killing of Persians as you would expect. However, there is more to it than that. Our combat system is a bit more thoughtful – it isn't a button masher. You can button mash for the first level or so, but after that, you really need to start thinking about what you're doing. Our solo combat is deep, allowing you to upgrade weapons, use special abilities we call Battle Skills, unleash Wrath attacks, and perform combos to dispatch enemies.

Jeff says internal management and combo-killing defines 300 in the solo gameplay, and when you have to control an entire line of Spartan soldiers there is still a lot of strategy and thinking involved. Button-mashing newbies indeed won't last long in this game!

When asked about King Leonidas' strengths and abilities, Jeff is quick to point out why Leonidas heals through Battle Skill. "Potions and the like just didn't seem very Spartan. It should be all about the warrior and not anything else. That's what a Spartan is. These are guys who went to war naked."

We might just as well add: being a warrior isn't all about killing, it's also about thinking.

300: March to Glory is expected to come out on the U.S. this February 27 while Europe will be getting it on March 30. Since the release dates of this game is coming closer each day, it is just apt for us to know just what we're getting into once we decide to buy this game.

So it's a good thing that the game's Associate Producer, Jeff Nachbaur, is shedding some needed info with regards to how they manage to adapt the movie and the graphic novel to a game, and just what unlockable goodies could we get our hands into. He mentions directly that the game should be very bloody and gory - so expect a lot of decapitation and dismemberments.

Then he went on to discuss about their gameplay - the Phalanx. What you have to do is control all the 300 soldiers at once. Included in the unlockables are movie trailers, a four-part interview with Frank Miller, film-stills, concept arts, storyboards among many others. Anyway, here's the video for you to enjoy!

We're not too certain about the movie or the graphic novel, but we're pretty sure that you are quite excited about Collision Studios' 300: March to Glory. The game's producer Jeff Nachbaur doesn't really mind of you don't care about the other adaptations as he pointed out that the game is pretty much stand-alone.

According to the producer, Collision Studios designed the game in such a way that players will be fine even though they don't watch the movie or read the novel. Speaking of design, Nachbaur explained that March to Glory isn't a simple beat 'em up game. He said,

Most beat 'em ups feel repetitive because the combat system is overly simplified or superfluous to your combat goals. We make combos necessary. We make sure that you need to accomplish something specific. This requires the player to constantly think and consider what choice is the best choice and this engages the player.

Despite that, Nachbaur shared that their developers took some inspiration from other games and movies. Some of these include Spartan Total Warrior, Lord of the Rings, Mark of Kri, Rise of the Kasai, as well as Samurai Warriors. The producer continued and mentioned that given all these, plus the movie and the comic book, March to Glory definitely has a lot to live up to:

Our color palette is a bit more broad, closer to the comic than the film, but our visuals on average are very movie based. Our cinematics are comic depictions of film assets. We also didn't go for actor likeness with many of the character but stuck more to the comic roots.

Nachbaur spoke about some of the game's certain aspects especially that of Leonidas'. He revealed that at first, they considered having little first aid kits that players can pick up to replenish health but it looked and felt alien. They also thought of having "rally points" wherein players would stand on a platform and repeatedly press a button to gain health. All the while, Leonidas would be screaming and pumping up the troops.

Lastly, Nachbaur mentioned that he is not quite fond of the in-game Primitives. Based on Persian tribes, these are highly evasive and agile set of people so it is really hard to be effective against them.