Half an hour deep into the grim styling’s of the Dark Knight’s latest video game venture is just about enough to leave millions of true believers (a possible Marvel reference here) wondering why their favorites didn’t get a smoothly rendered masterpiece to do them proud.
Without making it sound like excerpts from a tried and tested lecture there’s a few points to understanding why the Arkham Asylum formula was a winner. We have a game that seamlessly glorified its central character and all he stood for to what next-gen was capable off rather than grabbing a handful of gimmicks to beat him down. Actually publishers Eidos had it going right from the start when they decided to base the game on the popular Arkham Asylum mythos and rope in veteran writer Paul Dini to that end, rather than leave the Batman scraps from the latest blockbuster to bear his name. Cementing that with fan specific gems, right from a focus on the bat’s heavy detective arsenal and abilities, to a throwback to long ignored villains such as the Killer Croc and the inclusion of the original animated series Joker voice, Mark Hamil (of star wars Luke Skywalker fame) was not a bad move either.
So let’s step out of one of the most brilliant open world hero games of the year and set an example to the other potential men in tights (and other oddball heroes from the graphic novel universe) that could use some justice themselves.
1. Spawn: The most popular anti-hero to hit the comic and graphic novel scene didn’t make it to a single decent video game. In fact, he officially featured in one of the worst games to ever shame the PSone. Straight fact. So now that its out in the open renowned creator and founder of Image Comics, Todd Mc Farlane has very little to hide behind, solely considering the amount of source material he’s got to draw inspiration from. Why take any three pages of the no-gimmicks Hellspawn issues and you’ve got a winner already. We don’t want to see a giant pixelated brute walk through a pixelated city, collecting pixelated pick-ups, and shooting out even more er… pixelated things in some candy coated excuse for a ‘dark and evil’ chapter in Simmons life. We want the tried and tortured protagonist to feature in a storyline that leaves us shaking amidst just that amount of heroism required to feel like were doing something inevitably right. Throw away the flashes and grime and give us some relentless blood and violence that shapes the character into being the ultimate hellspawn, neck deep in brutal hellspawn abilities, the way dear Todd always intended it to be. That leaves us with a plea for a realistically crime stricken New York, and alleys that actually cause nightmares and, oh of course, the cape. Get that hellish, oversized cape right.
2. V for Vendetta: The movie adaptation didn’t disappoint for as much as you would expect a heavy focus on witty dialogue and literary focus from the novels to take centre stage, best for doing anything but a videogame proud. But let’s not forget the terrorist genius that is V himself. Neck to neck with stealth and a passion for blowing things up to get his point across, you can’t but sense a more sensible gaming experience to the third person mayhem this game would encompass. Sure there’s not much going on without a healthy dose of cutscenes that dwell deep into V’s terror psyche. But on the surface those will do just well blending into a dark city of higher corruption only V would strive to correct with minimal weaponry and all the more genius. Where Batman uses that handy utility belt, V could master a similar approach to his tools in the game and get by untraced. It is time to glorify the more strategic player with a taste for offbeat outcomes as much as his fingers will let him keep up with.
3. Iron Man: The man behind the armor, Tony Stark, ends up being quite a celebrity at the end of the day for his involvement in all those brilliant Marvel crossovers or quite simply his avid contribution to the Avengers. That’s pretty much every reason to fill an Iron Man game with ‘No Way’! Moments the way Arkham Asylum had them in spades. For all other purposes this one has to be all out and there’s no two ways about it. Focus on Tony Stark’s brilliant passion for building heavy weaponry then incorporating it all within one convenient suit, to choose how you want to mercilessly ignite squads, tear apart planes or simply flip over a few tanks. If the movie-based game got one thing right, it was flying around what seemed to be limitless sky, but being a pigeon can be fun only for a handful of minutes in today’s video game world. We want a clear hold on Stark Industries’ heavy machinery to fly skies away from the repetitive missions in the movie-based game. For starters, the end of the game unlockable costumes gimmick could be traded in for different mission specific customizable armor to choose from. This works well in players determining how they want to seek and destroy rather than have Stark play Halloween.
4. Hellblazer Constantine: The PS2 version tried to crossover under the guise of taking direct inspiration from the Hellblazer graphic novel series, but was struck down with unmistakable bearings of a blockbuster cash in. Don’t believe it, then you probably didn’t notice a grim looking Keanu Reeves on the cover of this damned-to-be-average first person shooter. The makeshift spell casting doesn’t bring the levels closer to the contemporary styling’s of a metropolis riddled in supernatural conflict and tension the way the Hellblazer series has spoiled fans to expect. The need of the year then, is a game that focuses on ex-magician, now demon ass kicker John Constantine’s misadventures from the point of view of a world under fire vs. a man with a plan to do things his own way. A little more originality in game mechanics that would enable our fearless character to customize his approach to weapons would be good. Then, take that approach further by learning directly from Arkham Asylum’s slamming free flow combat system. One minute John’s serving a mean right hook, the next he’s countering a demon’s lame attempt to strike and at the last he’s melting a face with his crucifix shaped shotgun. Repeat, mix it up, style your combos, and there’s now room for the rash exorcist in us all.
5. Swamp Thing: This one follows right after Constantine because they’ve crossed paths a number of times in the DC Universe. Only this one is a giant vegetable mass that fights off threats to his swamp home. Yep, a bit disappointing and not too fancy in comparison when you read it like that but hey, he is no Shrek. The oddity that is Swamp Thing gathered a lot of fans when he rolled through a successful TV series run and a brilliantly illustrated graphic novel saga and that counts. After two lackluster games for the NES and Gameboy (excused immediately for the year they were pushed through), things are looking good for the grumpy swamp dweller with his involvement in the soon to be released DC online universe game. Some would argue that that an extra character is all he’s worth while some would hope for an exclusive third person adventure that balances the destructiveness of a big brute like the Hulk within a more eerie creature feature setting. Since this is a character that uses his environment to the fullest, we can only hope for that clever use of illustration and gameplay to meet somewhere along the line and turn more than a few heads toward a long ignored masterpiece in its own.
6. Sin City: It’s high time someone injected Frank Miller’s intertwined tales of crime and corruption into something worth losing your fingers on. Take no other meaning, but keep that imagination going steady as publisher Red Mile plan to unveil the dark noir saga onto popular consoles for the promising year 2010. So far as design and approach are concerned, Flint Dille (man behind the design and scriptwriting for Dead to Rights and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay) has been roped in so we are already getting a little rest knowing they’re thinking from a unique design viewpoint. And as far as the storyline goes, anything that borrows from the Hollywood adaptation would do just fine, a multi angle story arc that culminates into a deserving ending play after play. At this point it’s important to realize where Sin City has the potential to crush every other name on this list. When a game like Arkham Asylum manages to do so much with an angry millionaire in a bat suit, Sin City can’t possibly fail with the amount of detail Frank Miller has put into crafting his masterpiece and then digressing it within each of his complex characters viewpoints. The real concern really is if game developers can keep up. The open-ended game play formula looks like a must from this standpoint but well let the developers surprise us on this one.
7. Watchmen: We can let the fancy film adaptation of the series off with a warning, given handling the project must have been way above ambitious. But there are a lot of things games can do that movies can’t, and now we are picky. Under those standards, Watchmen: The End is Nigh released earlier this year and failed as a repetitive beat-em-up. Just about as repetitive as the number of times you’ve heard game adaptations go down this way. Well there’s some exceptionally good graphics if you’d care to look beyond the disappointment but there’s very limited quantities of original series creator Alan Moore’s detail and maturity, and that’s heartbreak. It almost seems as if the game’s variety was traded in for conveniently programmed algorithms that allow you to just run through each characters attacks a hundred times too many before you lose that initial awe. Here’s where the runner up would have to include a healthy interest in each of the playable characters in the Watchmen Universe and incorporate them within the bigger adaptation that would hopefully take its upbringing from the graphic novels and nothing less.
8. The Punisher: This vigilante should have started a war against THQ ages back when the PS2 game to bear his name let us poor unsuspecting fans down. Why it clearly hinted the player step in shoes of the raging Frank Castle and mercilessly inflict revenge with blood soaked results. That it did, but only as conveniently placed, semi-interactive cut scenes blinding us from the fact the game was pure run of the mill first person monotone. For the remainder that still await their due, lets cry out for a publisher to pick up on a gem like ‘The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank’ graphic novel that showed the character at his brutal best and also threw in a little creativity to the madness. If Arkham didn’t pass a few pointers already to any publisher planning to pick up the series where THQ left off, then the title ‘Hitman’ should strike like a well-executed headshot. The Hitman game ethics intersect with The Punisher’s ways too many points to ignore. To THQ or to whom it may concern, take the hint and give us a Punisher than can approach his brutally righteous kills as an art and keep it fully playable in all its Mature Rated videogame glory.
9. Sandman: To adapt Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to a game devoid of a strong visual forefront is a crime. Simply put, this World Fantasy Award winning series leaves very little option for an adaptation and there’s just a couple of ways to get it right. Each tale of heavy torment and self-realization in the central character Morpheus’s saga is enough to make God of War seem like a fairy tale. Morpheus himself draws so much complexity from being the ‘Lord of Dreams’ and his immortal status, as do the characters around him who all find themselves in a state of time and domain travel. We’ve got realms with names like ‘Asgar’ and ‘Faere’ to much more identifiable domains like a fiery ‘Hell’, so why hold back. Unleash the novel in all its glory to a game that can actually traverse beyond open world gameplay to inter-domain travel. It also makes it possible for developers to think less of attacks and combos just this once and focus more on interactivity and creating a surreal adventure exploration, a skill last handled best by the geniuses at Lucas Arts. Dreamers await.
10. Snake Woman: All this talk about bestselling graphic novels cutting it as games overseas and we sense a lack of patriotism towards the art. Look no further than Shekhar Kapur, India’s torchbearer to the graphic novel scene and then stumble onto the mythos surrounding one of his debut entries, ‘Snake Woman’. Proudly presented at leading bookstores all over the city, what we have here is a midwestern female protagonist unknowingly reincarnated from the soul of a serpent as per ancient Indian Naga (snake) legend. So don’t be surprised if said harsh realization leaves said woman with a passion to kill and devour beings, but take comfort in knowing she soon takes after the greater cause of avenging a centuries old wrong. Ah, there’s a balance involved, and more importantly useful fodder for a videogame adaptation that will rise above the standards known developers have already set in the Indian industry. Backed with a storyline extracted from Indian legend and brewed to maturity, the game can readily adopt the anti-heroic see-saw aesthetics popular in games like Spiderman: Web of Shadows and emerge victorious. The final product would see a brave step in the right direction for the Indian gaming industry and give us something that levels Arkham Asylum well before expectations can settle in.
Sure it’s pretty much a risk sticking to a list with minimal mainstream appeal but the moral here is if publishers look beyond the usual bubblegum super hero comic clutter there’s some unadulterated quality to go around. Today’s gamers can sniff out cash-ins within minutes of collecting flashy power ups to no end and it marks a golden rule for adaptations to stick to their guns, leaving no page unturned.
- By Jash Singh Reen