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August 8, 2005 | 12:04 PM PST
by: Phillip Levin
While many movie-to-game translations are – and no pun attended – seemingly lost in translation, every so often, a developer and publisher wows the game community with a class-A piece of software. Games like GoldenEye for Nintendo 64 come to mind, no doubt. These rare releases bring a smile to gamers, for sure, as they’re the light at the end of a very, very dark tunnel, filled with crummy, no-good movie-based videogames.
King Kong, the upcoming videogame from Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil creator Michael Ancel, is shaping up to be one of those movie-games we’ll happily look back on, rather than pretend never happened. The project is based on the up-and-coming Peter Jackson remake of King Kong and will share many similarities with the Hollywood film. For one, both are set to hit the ground running just in time for Christmas. Moreover, both feature a monkey. A big monkey. Or overgrown ape. Or whatever readers want to call him. And, more importantly, both are shaping up to be great installments in the popular King Kong franchise.
The way in which Ubisoft is approaching the game version of King Kong, scheduled for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360, is pretty exciting. The studio is utilizing a first-person game engine to tell the story of King Kong, along with a share of third-person segments in which players control the giant Kong himself. More excitingly, though, the title evokes adventure-themed gameplay as opposed to straight-up shooting action like many other first-person games. Indeed, Ubisoft hopes to create a truly authentic King Kong first-person adventure.
The Facts
Larger Than Life
While both Universal Studios and Ubisoft have been quiet on the subject of both the movie and the game’s storyline, we do know they will stick with the main plot laid down by the 1933 film. So, in other words, we have an idea of what the game has in store for players.
Gamers play as Jack Driscoll, who travels to the mystifying tropical Skull Island with his crew, Carl Denham and Ann Darrow, to explore the island and shoot a documentary about its inhabitants; a mix of ancient tribes and gargantuan wildlife. Once on the island, the crew begins filming, however, there trip soon changes to a rescue mission when Ann is captured by one of the island’s tribes. The tribe takes her to offer her as a sacrifice to the god-like King Kong. But to both her crew and the tribe’s surprise, Kong falls in love with Ann, and runs off with her. Jack and his remaining partner set off to find and rescue Ann, but when they do, Denham decides to bring the overgrown ape back to New York city as an attraction, hoping for fame and fortunate. What he gets is a mess. Kong escapes from his impound and takes Ann along for the ride.
While the game will be very story-driven, following these events closely, Michael Ancel, the game’s director, hasn’t forgotten about the gameplay. King Kong employs a first-person perspective in which gamers spend most of the game. Some parts of the game are in fact played from third-person as King Kong himself, but these segments are not the focus. That noted, there are a few things that make King Kong different from any average, run-of-the-mill first-person shooter, most importantly of those is that it’s not even a true-blue shooter. Indeed, Ubisoft is designing something that could be labeled a first-person adventure, much like Nintendo’s very own Metroid Prime series.
Jack must make his way through the dense, un-mapped Skull Island fighting off gigantic prehistoric creatures, ranging from dinosaurs that roam the ground to beasts that own the sky, trying to save Ann. In this sense, it’s a shooter, because, after all, it does feature weapons like guns and bow and arrows. However, Ubisoft is carefully crafting the journey so that ammo is scarce, forcing gamers to use what they do come across cautiously. The developer wants to create an adventure that makes the big guns truly feel like just that -- “big guns.” So, it’s ensuring that when gamers finally come across a handgun or automatic rifle, it feels like they have a lot of power at their disposal. In an attempt to do that, the designers are limiting players to mostly bow and arrows a lot of the time.
King Kong
In between action-packed shooting, the title features many puzzles to solve. A lot of these puzzles come in the form of having to run from gigantic creatures Jack cannot kill, finding away to live. Making these situations even more dynamic, many of the wildlife players will encounter will interact with each other, sometimes even fight with each other. These portions seem decidedly survival-horror-like, re-creating scenes that are like something right out of a Jurassic Park flick or, of course, the King Kong franchise itself.
In a recent trailer released by Ubisoft, we see some of this intense action demonstrated. Jack and his camera men are seen running from a tyrannosaurus rex as they try to open up a locked gate. Jack distracts the gigantic dinosaur just long enough for it to spot a flying pterodactyl. The rex lunges towards the flying bird, catching it with its deadly jaws. Afterwards, the rex continues pursuing Jack, tearing his way through any obstacle he can hide behind. Rain splashes down on the scene and the rex’s deafening roar echoes through the island. It’s authentically atmospheric. Eventually, the group finds itself cornered by the prehistoric monster. And the trailer ends there.
This run-and-gun gameplay should provide something fresh, as there aren’t many videogames that feature such themes.
King Kong, the upcoming videogame from Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil creator Michael Ancel, is shaping up to be one of those movie-games we’ll happily look back on, rather than pretend never happened. The project is based on the up-and-coming Peter Jackson remake of King Kong and will share many similarities with the Hollywood film. For one, both are set to hit the ground running just in time for Christmas. Moreover, both feature a monkey. A big monkey. Or overgrown ape. Or whatever readers want to call him. And, more importantly, both are shaping up to be great installments in the popular King Kong franchise.
The way in which Ubisoft is approaching the game version of King Kong, scheduled for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360, is pretty exciting. The studio is utilizing a first-person game engine to tell the story of King Kong, along with a share of third-person segments in which players control the giant Kong himself. More excitingly, though, the title evokes adventure-themed gameplay as opposed to straight-up shooting action like many other first-person games. Indeed, Ubisoft hopes to create a truly authentic King Kong first-person adventure.
The Facts
- Features a story-driven first-person adventure campaign
- Puzzle-solving mingles with survival-action gameplay
- Play as King Kong in beat-em-up segments of the game
- Based off the upcoming Peter Jackson film, King Kong, premiering in theaters this December
- Developed by Ubisoft’s Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil creator, Michael Ancel
- Highly stylized graphics engine drives the game on current generation consoles
- Cutting-edge technology brings the title to life on next-generation gaming platform Xbox 360
- Launching on GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360 this fall
Larger Than Life
While both Universal Studios and Ubisoft have been quiet on the subject of both the movie and the game’s storyline, we do know they will stick with the main plot laid down by the 1933 film. So, in other words, we have an idea of what the game has in store for players.
Gamers play as Jack Driscoll, who travels to the mystifying tropical Skull Island with his crew, Carl Denham and Ann Darrow, to explore the island and shoot a documentary about its inhabitants; a mix of ancient tribes and gargantuan wildlife. Once on the island, the crew begins filming, however, there trip soon changes to a rescue mission when Ann is captured by one of the island’s tribes. The tribe takes her to offer her as a sacrifice to the god-like King Kong. But to both her crew and the tribe’s surprise, Kong falls in love with Ann, and runs off with her. Jack and his remaining partner set off to find and rescue Ann, but when they do, Denham decides to bring the overgrown ape back to New York city as an attraction, hoping for fame and fortunate. What he gets is a mess. Kong escapes from his impound and takes Ann along for the ride.
While the game will be very story-driven, following these events closely, Michael Ancel, the game’s director, hasn’t forgotten about the gameplay. King Kong employs a first-person perspective in which gamers spend most of the game. Some parts of the game are in fact played from third-person as King Kong himself, but these segments are not the focus. That noted, there are a few things that make King Kong different from any average, run-of-the-mill first-person shooter, most importantly of those is that it’s not even a true-blue shooter. Indeed, Ubisoft is designing something that could be labeled a first-person adventure, much like Nintendo’s very own Metroid Prime series.
Jack must make his way through the dense, un-mapped Skull Island fighting off gigantic prehistoric creatures, ranging from dinosaurs that roam the ground to beasts that own the sky, trying to save Ann. In this sense, it’s a shooter, because, after all, it does feature weapons like guns and bow and arrows. However, Ubisoft is carefully crafting the journey so that ammo is scarce, forcing gamers to use what they do come across cautiously. The developer wants to create an adventure that makes the big guns truly feel like just that -- “big guns.” So, it’s ensuring that when gamers finally come across a handgun or automatic rifle, it feels like they have a lot of power at their disposal. In an attempt to do that, the designers are limiting players to mostly bow and arrows a lot of the time.
King Kong
In between action-packed shooting, the title features many puzzles to solve. A lot of these puzzles come in the form of having to run from gigantic creatures Jack cannot kill, finding away to live. Making these situations even more dynamic, many of the wildlife players will encounter will interact with each other, sometimes even fight with each other. These portions seem decidedly survival-horror-like, re-creating scenes that are like something right out of a Jurassic Park flick or, of course, the King Kong franchise itself.
In a recent trailer released by Ubisoft, we see some of this intense action demonstrated. Jack and his camera men are seen running from a tyrannosaurus rex as they try to open up a locked gate. Jack distracts the gigantic dinosaur just long enough for it to spot a flying pterodactyl. The rex lunges towards the flying bird, catching it with its deadly jaws. Afterwards, the rex continues pursuing Jack, tearing his way through any obstacle he can hide behind. Rain splashes down on the scene and the rex’s deafening roar echoes through the island. It’s authentically atmospheric. Eventually, the group finds itself cornered by the prehistoric monster. And the trailer ends there.
This run-and-gun gameplay should provide something fresh, as there aren’t many videogames that feature such themes.
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November 20, 2009
