(Literally) Rebooting a franchise.


Role-playing survival game is willing to take risks

When I was going through my mind about the best movie license games it didn’t hit me to think about not so current titles. Tonight once again proving that I’m late to the party, I finally watched Tron for the first time. This was not the first time I was introduced to the world of Tron, the first was one of my favorite license titles and an exceptional movie based game .

Tron 2.0 was a game based on a movie, that took place in a video game (phew try wrapping your head around that for a second). The game was basically a sequel to the original movie that came out in 1982, staring the son of one of the main characters. Unfortunately I traded the game a few years ago and haven’t bought another copy so pardon me if my memory is hazy about the story. The game managed to do a lot of things right which in some ways mirror the Chronicles of Riddick success.

First is the pedigree of the developers, Monolith has a reputation for great first person shooters, they were of course behind No One Lives Forever (which I did not play alright! I just know someone is going to comment), and later on FEAR. Then there is the license itself, a movie like this really just begs to be made into a video game, which gave us basic arcade games back in the old days. Monolith not only managed to capture the world, but gave us some great moments. Tron 2.0 looked fantastic giving us that wire frame look that we all know and love. The developers had an easy time taking the movie property and making a game out of it, as the movie itself takes place inside a game.

The run and gun aspects of a FPS were different in Tron 2.0. First is the pivotal weapon the info disc, it isn’t used like a regular gun for obvious reasons, and can also be used for defense. The game had a lite RPG system allowing the player to install upgrades onto themselves and to their various weapons (I’m still waiting on the parts for Josh 1.65, I’m getting laser eyes), making the basic game play different for players. Then there are the some of the best moments of the movie put into game form. Info disc battles and light cycle combat, both featured and used for great effect. One of my favorite levels in Tron 2.0 was having the player escape the nightmare that is formatting the hard drive. Watching the level being erased by a giant red wall of death was a great moment. The game wasn’t perfect however, it did feature a lot more platforming elements compared to most FPS including one level that was nothing but. Still it worked in many ways like other great license titles.

The first way is that the game was built as a sequel to the movie, not for the movie itself. This allowed the designers to take more liberties and not follow the events of the movie rigidly. While Chronicles of Riddick was designed to take place before the movie, Tron 2.0 took place after Tron. The game play as mentioned above was not dumbed down and in many ways had more then the average FPS which is similar to CoR again. Once again game play was not sacrificed for using a movie license in a game, which is the main recurring theme in great license titles.

Supposedly there was a Tron movie sequel in the works to go along with Tron 2.0, I haven’t heard anything about that, fortunately Tron 2.0 is an acceptable continuation of that universe.

Josh

End of Line


  • It’s good to see Tron 2.0 getting the respect and recognition it deserves.

    I find it interesting that now there is a new Tron movies in the work I hope that it acknowledges the plotline of Tron 2.0 even though I fully expect that it won’t.

    It feels like Tron 2.0 has earned it’s right to be treated as being just as important to that franchise as the original work.

  • Tron 2.0 is indeed awesome. I don’t think I have much more to add other than that.

  • Are they still working on a Tron movie sequel? The last time I heard anything about it was right after Tron 2.0 was released.

  • There was a new video for an upcoming Tron sequel called Tr2n, shown at Comic-Con.

    “The Dude” Jeff Bridges is back. Trailer (Shaky Cam, sadly) can be found here.