Making a movie out of a video game has a long and checkered history (while I’m at it so does making a movie from a video game. Do you hear me Uwe Boll? Make the pain stop already!). More often than not the video game iteration of a movie is really just a mediocre creation designed to milk the crap out of a popular movie franchise, but this Tron movie trailer makes me wonder if it’ll be different. If the trailer is any indication that’s the case. To say nothing of the gameplay, the trailer features an impressive cinematic that pulls us back into the Tron universe in style.
The concept behind the game is an attempt to bridge the story between the two movies. The original Tron was released 30 years ago, and the sequel, Tron Legacy, actually takes place a few decades into the future. The game naturally takes place between these two and tells us what’s happened in the grid over the past 20 years. If I had to guess, it’s probably not anything good, and since the trailer starts out as “War is coming” I’d say my concerns are warranted. The disc fighting in the trailer is intended to be a large part of the game as are the light cycles. Unsurprising, since the cycles are one of the coolest things about the Tron universe and my favorite scene from the original movie.
I always thought it would be a difficult task to make anything from Tron look badass. If you look at the original movie you’ll see why. Everything was bright neon colors and terrible graphics. The fight scene here in the game trailer though features the player (I’m making an assumption here, unless we’re expected to be one of the grunts getting our ass handed to us. Still he does look like the Tron Legacy Villain, doesn’t he?) taking down some computer generated baddies. After dispatching his opponents, our masked protagonist moves on to his last victim. A quick couple back and forths with some flips and energy disc throws and it’s all over. Best of all, you won’t be going in alone, you’ll have friends to help you along as well. I hope this means that the game will have a built in cooperative campaign mode. I mean just about any game worth it’s salt should have one (Yeah I’m talking to you Bioshock, suck it up and let me play with a friend already). Welcome to the grid, program.
