Newest Awesomenaut is a time-traveling space monkey with a jetpack

Nothing makes a fighting game like a colorful cast of unique characters. Whether you cite scientist-turned-goo-monster Arakune from Blazblue or creepy-crab-walking-dance-fighter Voldo from Soul Calibur, sheer unmitigated weird is key to a fun fighting game. Developer Ronimo Games seems to understand this perfectly with the reveal of Yuri, the newest character in their upcoming game, Awesomenauts.

If you haven’t read our previous coverage of Awesomenauts, Yuri fits right in with the game’s cast that includes a cyborg ninja lizard and beatboxing bounty hunter named Froggy G. Yuri is a survivor of the Russian space program who was sent to the future when he entered a warp anomaly that enhanced his intelligence and drove him mad. So like any proper mad, super intelligent space monkey, he fashioned his former space vessel into a “an equally mad timetraveling supercomputer jetpack” that translates his still primitive monkey speech.

I support this character design.

Check out a showcase trailer for Yuri below. Awesomenauts comes out on XBLA and PSN this January!