Barkley 2: Revenge of Cuchulainn Kickstarter now live, over 33 percent funded already

The Kickstarter drive for Tales of Game's Studios' Barkley 2: Revenge of Cuchulainn, the sequel to its 2008 freeware game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, is now live with an initial funding goal of $35,000.

As of this writing, the Kickstarter campaign has already pulled in nearly $12,000 from over 300 backers, three hours after the funding drive went live.

Tales of Game's also announced the availability of a free Mac port of Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. The studio made the game as an unofficial sequel of sorts to the 1994 basketball game Barkley Shut Up and Jam! and the 1996 film Space Jam. It featured numerous current and former NBA stars, including Barkley (the player character) and LeBron James, and was full of pop culture references.

The Mystical Realm of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa (the sequel's full name) is an action role-playing game, whereas its predecessor was a turn-based RPG in the style of 16-bit Japanese titles such as those in the Final Fantasy series.

Barkley 2's story picks up from the end of the original game. Here's the developers' synopsis:

The year is 666X. A powerful youngster, wise beyond his years, awakens from a B-Ball induced coma aboard the mysterious dwarf space ziggurat Necron 7, held captive by the Malevolent A.I. Cuchulainn. With no memory of who he is or where he came from, he adopts the identity of X114JAM9 and sets off into the Post-Cyberpocalyptic Wasteland in search of the enigmatic Cyberdwarf, the only one who can reveal to him the terrible truth behind his forgotten past and make sense of his harrowing future.

Tales of Game's calls Barkley 2 "a coming of age story" and "a story about love, hope, betrayal and redemption," among other things, and it appears to have a much wider scope than the original. The Kickstarter description characterizes it as having a "heavy emphasis on exploration, choice, character development and discovery."

"X114JAM9 ... sets off into the Post-Cyberpocalyptic Wasteland in search of the enigmatic Cyberdwarf"

According to creator Eric "cboyardee" Shumaker, "It's a game that we want to make as fun to play as it is funny." He added, "We have a lot of really, really cool and crazy ideas for this game that we really want to explore."

Kickstarter backers who contribute at least $10 will receive a copy of the game upon its completion, which is currently set for the fourth quarter of 2013. For now, Tales of Game's is developing Barkley 2 on PC, but according to the studio's Twitter account, a Mac version will be the first stretch goal if the Kickstarter campaign meets the $35,000 goal.

For more on Barkley 2, check out The Verge's article on the game, and watch the Kickstarter video below.