The Golden Compass. I read the book and saw the movie. It was brilliant. I loved it so much but then I played the game. The penny dropped and Christmas was over.
You see, proper developers, who actually develop proper games, seem to release their games in the months before and after December, but never in December. This means the December gaming is usually spoilt by some lousy half built, no TLC game such as The Golden Compass.
As we all know, the vast majority of movie tie-ins are pretty rubbish, and have been made to promote the film in a rather ugly way. They usually feature a slightly altered storyline and are released a few weeks before the movie to remove the element of surprise. However most movie fans know that it is no good wasting your money on these games because, just like the pirate dvd advertiser in cinemas ’Its no match for the real thing, it is the experience that counts.’ Well I tell you now, there ain’t no good experience of movie tie-ins.
But behold the change. Kung Fu Panda. A direct movie tie-in developed by some people in various studios across the globe, featuring the same storyline and characters as the movie, and released a week before! Its the first movie tie-in which a) has good graphics b) has good controls and c) which feels like a game rather than bad promotional material. This is good.
The second brilliant tie-in is Bourne Conspiracy. It isn’t a direct movie tie-in, but it focuses around Identity and a little on its own storyline. This game has been designed for its audience: you. It may not have had a movie release alongside it, but it is based on a movie, therefore we could have predicted the worse. If the consistency of all movie tie-ins start to be like these two examples then we will all be laughing with happiness.
Unfortunately however I believe that we may have got lucky with these two games, some lousy Swedish developer is going to create a obscene movie tie-in to The Quantum of Solace and its usually the great movies which are spoilt by bad movie tie-ins. And that’s a shame.
Words by John Wills
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Does Kung Fu Panda represent a change in quality for movies turned to games? Probably not.
58 days ago
I think that movie games are mostly always bad. However, The Simpsons Games (Road Rage, Hit and Run, The Simpsons Game) aren’t too bad. The James Bond games aren’t that bad either (Nightfire, Agent Under Fire)