Most of the time, when you run across a video game based on a popular film, it sucks. One mere mention of Madagascar Kartz around the office will send an intern running out the door screaming. Fortunately, there are those rare cases when a game actually looks like it’ll live up to the potential of its movie license. That appears to be the case of Rango: The Video Game, which is set to arrive next month alongside the film of the same name. In case you’re unfamiliar with the movie, it’s an animated adventure that follows a chameleon who’s having a bit of trouble trying to figure out who he is. He doesn’t lack appeal by any means, as he’s voiced by the ever-charming Johnny Depp. And he’s got a lot of spunk, and doesn’t mind belching fire in someone’s face should they deserve it. The film looks like it’ll be a lot of fun (and it doesn’t hurt having director Gore Verbinski and Industrial Light and Magic on board) and Behaviour Interactive is assuring that the game will keep pace.
Rather than being based on events in the film, Rango: The Video Game will instead focus on the chameleon’s legendary “Tall Tales”, and how he managed to escape impossible situations with the greatest of ease. Sure, these might be questionable considering Rango’s overall courage, but never mind – they’ll set the stage for some interesting gameplay segments. One has you playing golf while zombies come charging at you, while another features an interesting take on what a Rango video game would be like in the 80’s, complete with pixilated enemies and old-school backdrops. And, of course, being the cowboy that he is, Rango will be shooting his way through the Wild West as well. While we haven’t gone hands-on with the game just yet, it looks very promising from what we’ve seen so far, and it doesn’t hurt that Lucasarts’ Industrial Light and Magic actually supplied real character models for the game.
What that essentially means is, instead of having some intern trying to model Rango to the best of his or her ability from scratch, they’ll actually be using a character modeling taken straight from the film. And since those characters look amazingly good, the game should be right on par with it. We’re still missing some details from the game, such as what other stages await us, if any good bonus rounds can be played with friends either locally or online, or if Depp will also be voicing Rango’s video game counterpart. (We’re going to take a safe bet and say no, but we could be wrong.) Regardless of what happens, we should be in for a fun ride, indeed. No Madagascar hex here. We’ll get a better look next month at both Rango the game and the film next month at GDC, before they release. Be sure to check back for the final verdict. But, c’mon, can a gun-slinging chameleon really mess up? Er, wait, it’s Rango. Hmmm…
