This week on XBLA we have another game based off an upcoming movie with R.I.P.D.: The Game. In R.I.PD.: The Game you’ll find yourself taking control of one of two lawmen dispatched to the otherworld with the task of moving stubborn souls to the other side who refuse to go without a fight. The game is a third-person shooter, features online 2 player co-op and it will set you back 800MSP. If you’re interested, you can download the demo here. Let us know what you think if you give it a go!
R.I.P.D. the movie will hit theaters this Friday, July 19th. To see the game in action, check out the launch trailer after the jump.
Most movie-licensed games are a special kind of terrible, but every once in a while you’ll find a gem that salvages the crummy image they’ve cultivated for themselves. That’s not the case here. At best, these are thinly veiled advertisements for summer blockbusters; at worst, they’re gaming’s equivalent of Happy Meal toys – cheaply assembled from hunks of material lying around to capitalize on the fervor of whatever the target demographic is smitten with at the moment. And like those little plastic tchotchkes, if you want the thrill of playing with a relic of your new favorite license, you’re going to have to eat some junk.
It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve finally whittled down a surprisingly robust list of big-screen bombs. We’re counting down the top five worst Xbox Live Arcade movie tie-ins (in no particular order).
Games tied to movies have a history of being terrible. They often have rushed development cycles, and most are so tightly linked to the movie that it’s impossible for the developer to have any sort of real freedom during their creation. Sure, sometimes we get an instant classic, and once or twice we’ve been blessed with a genre changer like Spider-Man 2. But let’s be honest, it’s a rare thing when one actually lives up to player expectations. Developers like High Moon Studios can’t even take their amazing work on the Transformers: Cybertron games and translate that into a good movie title.
Given all this it’s not surprising that publishers are looking for ways to continue to cash in without breaking their development budget. We’ve seen attempts to bring games to Xbox LIVE Arcade, most with poor results. Games like R.I.P.D. and The Expendables 2 are ho-hum on their best day. But smart movie studios have gone mobile. Android and iOS developing giant Gameloft, who were initially known for their console clones N.O.V.A. (Halo) and Modern Combat (Call of Duty), have struck gaming gold with movie tie-ins. By breaking down gameplay to core ingredients they’ve seen success with both Despicable Me 2: Minion Rush and Iron Man 3: The Official Game. Both may be “just” endless runners, yet somehow both are also en..dless fun. And we think Iron Man 3 could be just as fun on the 360.
The deal this week is admittedly scant on Xbox Live Arcade offerings, but there’s a decent pull or two if you’re looking for a game based on a movie. …
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