— by CHRIS HYATT —
Nowadays, when a movie comes out, it comes prepackaged with the soundtrack, a novelization and a video game for whichever systems have the best tech (sorry PS3). The catch is that the movie is typically made first (excluding a few titles such as “Street Fighter,” “Mortal Kombat” and “Prince of Persia,” for example), so if the movie isn’t very good, chances are the game won’t be very good either.
“Tron 2.0” is in an interesting situation. The world of lightcycles is nearly 30 years old. The video game that follows it must look both modern and retro simultaneously. Even though a sequel game, “Tron 2.0,” already came out in 2003 (it was not inspired by the actual sequel), “Tron: Evolution,” the official game for the movie, has leaked courtesy of Spike TV, and it looks good.
The first and most important aspect of the game is graphics, and they are butter for the web. All the familiar characters are beautifully rendered and lightcycles looks the ish for 1980s redux. When lightcycles collide, the explosions are smooth and Matrix-esque. The chase camera tracks cleanly, so all you have to worry about is locking onto your targets.
The gameplay itself seems pretty easy. I’ve not played it yet, as it won’t drop until the holidays, but the controls seem intuitive. One hand controls the lightcycles, the others are digits of death. The objective is straightforward: Show. No. Mercy.
Lastly, the music must be on point. Since Daft Punk is doing all the music for the movie, I’m nowhere near worried. I’m a techno kiddie through and through, and Daft Punk is among my favorites. They have the music on lock. Don’t like techno? Don’t believe me? Ask Kanye West how Daft Punk worked out for him.
All in all, “Tron: Evolution” is shaping up to be a solid shooter game, the best kind. Great graphics, a nice retro feel using modern tech matched with a dope soundtrack means this game can only be bad if, and only if, you’re bad at video games or you don’t like them.
. . .
Follow Chris Hyatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hyattch.
Sweet.
I wonder why they chose to change the videogame to not match the movie? Especially since there are already sequels planned and Ive heard one of the names they are thinking about is “TRON: Evolution”