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"Movie Tie-ins"

Whilst looking at a list of upcoming games that were going to be shown off at E3 in America, I noticed one strange name in the list. Ben-Hur, the Charlton ‘NRA loving monkey basher’ Heston’s sword & sandals epic is finally going to be made into a videogame. I suppose it will be some sort of Chariot em’ up, with rival racers fighting tooth and nail to beat the opposition in large racing coliseums. Will it be a good game, or will it rely on the quirkiness of the title to sell itself?

So what makes a good movie tie-in I though to myself?
Staying faithful to the original film/s is very important, but also you must actually make a good game system, with enjoyable gameplay and good playability, combined with the authentic atmosphere created by the film.
Over the last few years we’ve been privy to some pretty lame attempts at converting a film into a game: Monsters Inc, Harry Potter, Planet of the Apes was one of my favourite films ever. I was looking forward to the videogame version years ago and after much delay, it came out and was rubbish. Driven looks to be a poor game based on a poor film, The Italian Job wasn’t great, The Fifth Element, Street Fighter the Movie *shudder* and so the list continues. Some have these have been cheap (or expensive!) cash-ins, which relies solely on the films success to sell (e.g. Harry Potter), whilst others have just been large disappointments (Planet of the Apes).

Star Wars tie-ins haven’t always been too great despite the fact that the Star Wars brand name is the biggest franchise in movie history. There’s been Force Commander, Jedi Power Battles, Demolition, Super Bombad Racing, Masters of Teras Kasi to name but a few, none of which really excelled.
Recently however, we’ve had a turn for the better, with Rogue Leader, Galactic Battlegrounds, Episode 1 Racer, Jedi Outcast coming out and proving that Star Wars games can have the great atmosphere & music of the movies combined with good gameplay, level design, playability etc.
‘The Battle of Endor’ level in Rogue Leader demonstrates perfectly the marriage of perfect Star Wars atmosphere with music, sound effects, voice acting, and the fact that it mirrors the events of the film flawlessly, whilst the player experiences a brilliant section of Star Wars fun.
Hopefully the Episode II tie-in games will be decent.

Star Trek games have always seemed to be pretty good, culminating in the success of Elite Forces, developed by Raven Studios, a team that has a good track record.

What more can I say about GoldenEye? Perfection. Rare used actual blueprints of the film sets to get their levels just right, and the events in the game closely follow those of the films (with a few exceptions), and there’s nothing you can fault it on.

We’re soon to be deluged with more movie tie-ins including: Spider-Man: The Movie, The Great Escape (been on schedules for aeons), Terminator, The Thing, Robocop and probably loads more. Hopefully those titles will be good, but you never know.

Part of what makes a good movie tie-in is how much we the player would like to BE the character in the game. We’ve all dreamt about being James Bond or flying X-Wings or having Lightsaber battles, but have we dreamt of being a cuddly monster from Monsters Inc? Or Harry Potter? Or Sly Stallone is a racing car?

So what films would I like to see as games in the future?

Dirty Harry: similar to Headhunter or Max Payne, you play tough as nails cop and anti-establishment icon, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan in a 3rd person action thriller.
The game follows Harry through many sites in San Francisco on the trail of the heartless murderer nicknamed ‘Scorpio’, in the ultimate battle of wits, but he also finds himself constantly fighting the political bureaucracy throughout his manhunt.
Harry ends up playing a game of cat-and-mouse with Scorpio; a game that involves the life of a young girl the villain has kidnapped and is threatening to kill, unless Harry plays his twisted and demented game. You also get to apprehend other dirty criminals during the course of the game, using Harry’s unique method of policing.
Has the funky Lalo Schifrin music score, big gun, big hair, big sunglasses, loads of action taking out all those criminal punks in 70s San Francisco.

Enter the Dragon: Playing as Bruce Lee, you must infiltrate your way onto Han’s mysterious island fortress, to take part in “a tournament of martial arts”. Aided by middle aged pretty boy Roper, and Afro wearing kung-Fu funky dude Williams.
The climax of the game is the huge Kung-Fu battle between Han’s pyjama wearing minions and the prisoners, plus the final battle in the hall of mirrors against Han.

Racing games based on Herbie, Cannonball Run and Smokey & the Bandit.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley sticks virtual bananas up tailpipes, cruises the streets of Beverly Hills in his “crappy blue Chevy Nova”, the cigarette truck chase, the Harrow Club scene and the final battle at Victor Maitland’s mansion.

Ghostbusters: Although there was one on the Spectrum all those many years ago, we would like to see a new version, perhaps similar to Luigi’s Mansion?

Dawn of the Dead: George Romero’s brilliant 70’s zombie flick should definitely be made into a video game.
This 3rd person action game would start off in the zombie infested building at the beginning. After you rid the building of the undead, you must meet up with your friends and escape to the mall in the helicopter. The majority of the game would take place in the large mall overrun by zombies. You would have to organize a team of humans, each with their own skills & weaknesses (flipping back and forth from person to person like in Project Eden) to create a base of operations, block off the exits, destroy the zombies in the mall, and build up your defences in preparation for periodic attacks by bikers and the zombies you tend to attract. Weapons would consist of whatever could be scrounged or purloined from hardware and sporting goods shops within the mall. The mall would have all the basic levels, including a basement, the main section, a top floor, with multiple stores and corridors you'd have to explore for items and hideouts. Not only would you have to locate and set up your base, you'd have to examine small storage closets, bathrooms, and maintenance rooms for temporary protection while you are on supply runs between the shops and your central base. Sometimes, of course, you'd stumble across a room that may seem ideal, until you uncover a nest of zombies in the corner waiting to eat you for dinner.
And how would you know if a zombie has infected someone in your group? Resident Evil style menus would let you monitor the health, physical and mental levels of your team mates and weapon supplies. Sometimes their illness might just be exhaustion or fear, manageable with an antidote you could find in the mall. Other times, the symptoms would progress and you'd have to protect yourself and your entire team from infection.
You'd have to manage your weapons with the same attention to detail. There would be times, for example, when using guns would draw huge numbers of zombies to your location. Other times, they'd simply ignore your shots and stay away.
Dawn of the Dead would not simply be an action game, however. You'd also have minor missions along the way. You might, at one point, be entirely focused on building your shelter, when a member of your team alerts you that he is ill and needs medicine. Or that someone has been injured by a falling store gate while trying to escape a packed group of zombies inside the health food shop and you must drop everything and rush to his aid. Or that someone in your camp is starting to act zombie-like. At one point you might have to escape the mall and drive the big trucks up to the door to cover the exits, to add to your protection of the mall.
Sequels or add-on packs could include: Night of the Living Dead - The player would be stuck in a house with a host of CPU characters, fighting off the zombie menace.

A 007 game featuring levels based around the best bits of previous films (a bit like Rogue Leader) would be cool. Battles on ski slopes, Roger Moore chasing an assassin down the Eiffel tower and then racing through Paris in half a Renault, the Man with the Golden Gun & Live and Let Die car chase scenes, The car chase down the hillside in the yellow Citroen 2cv in For your Eyes Only, Car Chase from Diamonds are Forever, the big final fight scene in You Only Live Twice, the riverboat chase in Golden Gun, and all the other classic bits.
Like 007 Racing but better plus loads of FPS sections.

Predator: Arnie and his team of meatheads go out into the hot jungle, but are faced with the fight of their lives against the Predator.
A FPS or 3rd person game a la Max Payne, you control big badass Dutch (Arnie), and your team-mates could be CPU controlled, similar to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and they all say famous lines out of the film, like “stick around”, “knock knock”, “we make a stand now, or there’ll be no one left to go to the chopper”, “get to the chopper!!”, “there’s something after us…and it ain’t no man” etc.
One section would see you taking out the baddie guerrilla camp, with all the fireworks and pyrotechnics that accompany the scene.
The jungle setting could be similar to the latest Turok game, with dense foliage, waterfalls, etc.
Puns, guns, muscles, action, more guns, and Predators....who could want anymore?


What other movie tie-in games should be made?
Are most movie tie-in games just mere cash-ins?
What other factors contribute to a good movie tie-in?

Maybe I should have called this topic 'Free Porn' instead of the boring 'Movie Tie-ins', as i'm sure that more people would have noticed it then........

Whilst looking at a list of upcoming games that were going to be shown off at E3 in America, I noticed one strange name in the list. Ben-Hur, the Charlton ‘NRA loving monkey basher’ Heston’s sword & sandals epic is finally going to be made into a videogame. I suppose it will be some sort of Chariot em’ up, with rival racers fighting tooth and nail to beat the opposition in large racing coliseums. Will it be a good game, or will it rely on the quirkiness of the title to sell itself?

So what makes a good movie tie-in I though to myself?
Staying faithful to the original film/s is very important, but also you must actually make a good game system, with enjoyable gameplay and good playability, combined with the authentic atmosphere created by the film.
Over the last few years we’ve been privy to some pretty lame attempts at converting a film into a game: Monsters Inc, Harry Potter, Planet of the Apes was one of my favourite films ever. I was looking forward to the videogame version years ago and after much delay, it came out and was rubbish. Driven looks to be a poor game based on a poor film, The Italian Job wasn’t great, The Fifth Element, Street Fighter the Movie *shudder* and so the list continues. Some have these have been cheap (or expensive!) cash-ins, which relies solely on the films success to sell (e.g. Harry Potter), whilst others have just been large disappointments (Planet of the Apes).

Star Wars tie-ins haven’t always been too great despite the fact that the Star Wars brand name is the biggest franchise in movie history. There’s been Force Commander, Jedi Power Battles, Demolition, Super Bombad Racing, Masters of Teras Kasi to name but a few, none of which really excelled.
Recently however, we’ve had a turn for the better, with Rogue Leader, Galactic Battlegrounds, Episode 1 Racer, Jedi Outcast coming out and proving that Star Wars games can have the great atmosphere & music of the movies combined with good gameplay, level design, playability etc.
‘The Battle of Endor’ level in Rogue Leader demonstrates perfectly the marriage of perfect Star Wars atmosphere with music, sound effects, voice acting, and the fact that it mirrors the events of the film flawlessly, whilst the player experiences a brilliant section of Star Wars fun.
Hopefully the Episode II tie-in games will be decent.

Star Trek games have always seemed to be pretty good, culminating in the success of Elite Forces, developed by Raven Studios, a team that has a good track record.

What more can I say about GoldenEye? Perfection. Rare used actual blueprints of the film sets to get their levels just right, and the events in the game closely follow those of the films (with a few exceptions), and there’s nothing you can fault it on.

We’re soon to be deluged with more movie tie-ins including: Spider-Man: The Movie, The Great Escape (been on schedules for aeons), Terminator, The Thing, Robocop and probably loads more. Hopefully those titles will be good, but you never know.

Part of what makes a good movie tie-in is how much we the player would like to BE the character in the game. We’ve all dreamt about being James Bond or flying X-Wings or having Lightsaber battles, but have we dreamt of being a cuddly monster from Monsters Inc? Or Harry Potter? Or Sly Stallone is a racing car?

So what films would I like to see as games in the future?

Dirty Harry: similar to Headhunter or Max Payne, you play tough as nails cop and anti-establishment icon, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan in a 3rd person action thriller.
The game follows Harry through many sites in San Francisco on the trail of the heartless murderer nicknamed ‘Scorpio’, in the ultimate battle of wits, but he also finds himself constantly fighting the political bureaucracy throughout his manhunt.
Harry ends up playing a game of cat-and-mouse with Scorpio; a game that involves the life of a young girl the villain has kidnapped and is threatening to kill, unless Harry plays his twisted and demented game. You also get to apprehend other dirty criminals during the course of the game, using Harry’s unique method of policing.
Has the funky Lalo Schifrin music score, big gun, big hair, big sunglasses, loads of action taking out all those criminal punks in 70s San Francisco.

Enter the Dragon: Playing as Bruce Lee, you must infiltrate your way onto Han’s mysterious island fortress, to take part in “a tournament of martial arts”. Aided by middle aged pretty boy Roper, and Afro wearing kung-Fu funky dude Williams.
The climax of the game is the huge Kung-Fu battle between Han’s pyjama wearing minions and the prisoners, plus the final battle in the hall of mirrors against Han.

Racing games based on Herbie, Cannonball Run and Smokey & the Bandit.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley sticks virtual bananas up tailpipes, cruises the streets of Beverly Hills in his “crappy blue Chevy Nova”, the cigarette truck chase, the Harrow Club scene and the final battle at Victor Maitland’s mansion.

Ghostbusters: Although there was one on the Spectrum all those many years ago, we would like to see a new version, perhaps similar to Luigi’s Mansion?

Dawn of the Dead: George Romero’s brilliant 70’s zombie flick should definitely be made into a video game.
This 3rd person action game would start off in the zombie infested building at the beginning. After you rid the building of the undead, you must meet up with your friends and escape to the mall in the helicopter. The majority of the game would take place in the large mall overrun by zombies. You would have to organize a team of humans, each with their own skills & weaknesses (flipping back and forth from person to person like in Project Eden) to create a base of operations, block off the exits, destroy the zombies in the mall, and build up your defences in preparation for periodic attacks by bikers and the zombies you tend to attract. Weapons would consist of whatever could be scrounged or purloined from hardware and sporting goods shops within the mall. The mall would have all the basic levels, including a basement, the main section, a top floor, with multiple stores and corridors you'd have to explore for items and hideouts. Not only would you have to locate and set up your base, you'd have to examine small storage closets, bathrooms, and maintenance rooms for temporary protection while you are on supply runs between the shops and your central base. Sometimes, of course, you'd stumble across a room that may seem ideal, until you uncover a nest of zombies in the corner waiting to eat you for dinner.
And how would you know if a zombie has infected someone in your group? Resident Evil style menus would let you monitor the health, physical and mental levels of your team mates and weapon supplies. Sometimes their illness might just be exhaustion or fear, manageable with an antidote you could find in the mall. Other times, the symptoms would progress and you'd have to protect yourself and your entire team from infection.
You'd have to manage your weapons with the same attention to detail. There would be times, for example, when using guns would draw huge numbers of zombies to your location. Other times, they'd simply ignore your shots and stay away.
Dawn of the Dead would not simply be an action game, however. You'd also have minor missions along the way. You might, at one point, be entirely focused on building your shelter, when a member of your team alerts you that he is ill and needs medicine. Or that someone has been injured by a falling store gate while trying to escape a packed group of zombies inside the health food shop and you must drop everything and rush to his aid. Or that someone in your camp is starting to act zombie-like. At one point you might have to escape the mall and drive the big trucks up to the door to cover the exits, to add to your protection of the mall.
Sequels or add-on packs could include: Night of the Living Dead - The player would be stuck in a house with a host of CPU characters, fighting off the zombie menace.

A 007 game featuring levels based around the best bits of previous films (a bit like Rogue Leader) would be cool. Battles on ski slopes, Roger Moore chasing an assassin down the Eiffel tower and then racing through Paris in half a Renault, the Man with the Golden Gun & Live and Let Die car chase scenes, The car chase down the hillside in the yellow Citroen 2cv in For your Eyes Only, Car Chase from Diamonds are Forever, the big final fight scene in You Only Live Twice, the riverboat chase in Golden Gun, and all the other classic bits.
Like 007 Racing but better plus loads of FPS sections.

Predator: Arnie and his team of meatheads go out into the hot jungle, but are faced with the fight of their lives against the Predator.
A FPS or 3rd person game a la Max Payne, you control big badass Dutch (Arnie), and your team-mates could be CPU controlled, similar to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and they all say famous lines out of the film, like “stick around”, “knock knock”, “we make a stand now, or there’ll be no one left to go to the chopper”, “get to the chopper!!”, “there’s something after us…and it ain’t no man” etc.
One section would see you taking out the baddie guerrilla camp, with all the fireworks and pyrotechnics that accompany the scene.
The jungle setting could be similar to the latest Turok game, with dense foliage, waterfalls, etc.
Puns, guns, muscles, action, more guns, and Predators....who could want anymore?


What other movie tie-in games should be made?
Are most movie tie-in games just mere cash-ins?
What other factors contribute to a good movie tie-in?