Nostalgia, as Cole’s post on the ever-ubiquitous Final Fantasy VII so deftly illustrated, is a disease afflicting games criticism. It’s understandable why. The people writing about games today (not to mention the majority of people making them) came of age during videogames’ golden age. It’s no wonder fond memories color their perception of the entire medium. Nostalgia isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it inspires creativity. Just look at Bionic Commando Rearmed. But as Luc Sante says, “Nostalgia can be defined as a state of inarticulate contempt for the present and fear of the future.”
Me, I love the future. I’m a ceaseless optimist, fueled by the promise of tomorrow, I am. When I feel the symptoms of nostalgia (itchiness, aquaphobia, uncontrollably defending Battletoads, frothing at the mouth) taking over my brain, I remember movie tie-ins. I think about going to Pompey Video and plunking down four dollars to subject myself to The Rocketeer on NES. I think about buying Die Hard Trilogy as one of my first Playstation games. Then I vomit and, like an exhausted drunk, I feel a little bit better.
The movie tie-in is changing though. While you still see trash like Secret Level’s Iron Man game making millions, the big budget retail rush job isn’t the guaranteed success it used to be. Iron Man may have been a hit for Sega and Secret Level (providing the cash flow to finish the giant flop Golden Axe: Beast Rider), but The Incredible Hulk tie-in, released by Sega just a few months later, sold about as well as cans of Coke II. It isn’t just brand strength and high cost that makes tie-ins a greater risk. Against all odds, standards of quality are going up for consumers. Rather than release another over-budget bad game that fails like Superman Returns, EA decided to kill their The Dark Knight tie-in.
Warner Bros. Interactive, on the other hand, is trying two different strategies. The first is an economical twist on the old formula. The Watchmen: The End is Nigh, released just last week on PSN and Xbox Live to universally awful reviews, is the image of a traditional movie tie-in; a generic, artless beat ‘em up with familiar characters tacked on. This isn’t a success yet, but it was cheap to make and even cheaper to distribute. It’s a smart move that delivers the game directly to its intended audience — I’d wager the marketing speech describes them as “hip, techno-savvy hipster neo-nerds with strong brand familiarity” or something equally grotesque — and keeps the game away from retail competition. Now Paramount Interactive is seemingly following suit with their Star Trek tie-in.
Warner Bros.’ second approach is a bit more interesting. In the next two months, they’re publishing two full retail games, Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator Salvation. Both games are being developed by GRIN, of Bionic Commando fame, and are built on the very same engine. Both are prequels, foregoing the constraints of movie plot adaptation, allowing the developer more creative leeway with the license. They are also both aimed to be short, around eight hours long a piece. By handing the games to a respected, proven developer, utilizing that developers pre-existing technology, Warner Bros.’ is trying to give their games a fighting chance in a competitive field by ensuring they have a modicum of quality. They’re acknowledging that their audience won’t put up with crap.
The future’s a brave new world, ain’t it? I don’t know if these new experiments in movie tie-in games will finally break the thirty-year old history of forgettable garbage, but it’s a start. And, dare I say, it shows a sign of maturity in the business of videogames. Not just in selling them, but in the demands of the people playing and making them.
Related links:
Design Resurrection: How Capcom Finally Proved That It’s Game and Not Graphics That Matters
Curveball: Hands-On With Wanted: Weapons of Fate
Maybe You Should Just Watch Them: Hands-On With Watchmen