Universal Interactive brings the excitement of the big screen to the GBA’s smaller venue
By Michael Lafferty

You’ve seen the movie, now play the game. Or maybe you’ve played the game, now go see the movie.

The entertainment industry is quite good at feeding or capitalizing on its various arms. Movies are based on books, or books follow movies. And the software business is doing a terrific job of developing games based on popular films.

There have been Harry Potter games, Spider-man games, and even a game based on the successful action film The Scorpion King starring The Rock.

The film has branched out beyond the big screen, and has found another home, on a somewhat smaller screen. The Scorpion King: The Sword of Osiris, a Game Boy Advance product,  features a new storyline, special moves, six new worlds to explore, new weapons and collectibles, and a plethora of adversaries.

The story is as follows, for those who have not seen the film:

The evil Menthu has kidnapped Cassandra, the beautiful bride of Mathayus (portrayed onscreen by The Rock). Menthu and his equally evil sorceress apprentice, Isis, want to use Cassandra’s magic to awaken the Dunes of Natash, an evil desert oasis that can cast a thousand-year desert storm to desolate the lands of Egypt. In order to defeat Menthu, Mathayus must find the world’s most powerful sword, the Sword of Osiris.

Universal Interactive coordinator Nick Torchia took time to talk with GameZone about transitioning the movie onto the console platform.

Question: When developing a game based on a movie, what are the most important elements that must be consistent between the two?

Nick: “One of the most important elements is keeping the world consistent with the film. The mood, look, and feel must accurately reflect what the film is trying to convey because if you stray away from that course, you might lose what you are striving to do. It is important for certain levels to remind the player of the film, even if the Game Boy Advance version has a different storyline. For example, the sand storm level was lifted directly from the original script and we turned that into one of the game's 24 levels. Even the Oasis scene was used as a backdrop for one of the game's six worlds. Little things like that are important when developing a game that takes inspiration from a film because you create a connection between them both. It is also intriguing to see if your vision reflects what the movie producers had in mind.”

Q: Obviously fans have preconceptions about what the game will be like based on the film. How does a production company cater to the fan-base?

Nick: “This was an easy one for us to tackle. Considering that The Rock's fan base is predominantly children and teen-agers, you want to create a game where the players have the abilities of their new favorite action here. Players want to run, jump, climb and attack numerous enemies throughout action-packed levels. Just from the movie previews alone, you can see the
Rock sword-battling and fighting for his life, so the game should follow that architecture. The most important thing is for the player to ‘feel’ like he is the Scorpion King and I think we captured that.”

Q: When you develop a game based on the movie, are there any marketing or licensing hurdles that must be overcome, or are such things taken care of at the movie's inception?

Nick: “Yes, there are hurdles to overcome but nothing too serious to cause delays. You have to get certain aspects cleared (such as the storyline, since it was original); The Rock had to approve the model we used for the GBA and so on. But it was very smooth sailing for this title most of the time. The Rock and his people were very easy to work with and showed a tremendous amount of
excitement on this project, so my life went much easier. The marketing side was equally impressive as well because the game benefits from the studio's marketing push behind the film. So when the mass market sees previews, billboard and radio ads for the film and then sees the GBA version in the store, you have a good chance that he or she might buy the game.”

Q: Obviously the Scorpion King trades on a very recognizable individual – The Rock. Did you need to do anything different or receive any input when creating the character he plays for the GB?

Nick: “Not really, all I needed from The Rock was his approval – if he liked what he looked like pint-sized, so to say. I worked with the lead artist at WayForward Technologies, Matt Bozon, on what he should look like and The Rock agreed that the end result looks good. The Rock did not have any influence in game design or direction.”

Q: What is the most challenging part about creating a game such as Scorpion King for the GameBoy? What does the GameBoy platform offer that are not available on other platforms?

Nick: “Actually, I really enjoyed creating this game on the GBA. I got tremendous help from Sean Krankel, the Producer on Crash Bandicoot: the Huge Adventure for GBA, so the both of us looked at what the GBA excels at and what it doesn't. We are both huge fans of the old-school Super Nintendo and Genesis games, so that was where our influences stemmed from. You can see ideas from past titles such as Castlevania, Rastan and even Strider in this game.

“What the GBA forces you to do is to create a game that must have solid design and well thought-out levels because you are limited to what the GBA has to offer – two buttons and so on. With that in mind, you look back at what made games so much fun to play because games in the past didn't have the technology readily available like console systems have today. You have to go to the root of what made games fun and that was the challenging part of creating this game. Luckily for me, WayForward Technologies understood that and their vision was right on target with ours.”

Q: Obviously the GameBoy is not set up, speaker-wise, for the best sound output, but why (generally speaking) does the sound portion of the game always seem to receive minor attention?

Nick: “Sound is so important in a game, just like it is for a movie. When games have superb sound, whether it is the score or just ambient noise, it adds so much to the gameplay experience. Look at Resident Evil for the GameCube, the use of sound is so important in creating the mood of that game. I wish more emphasis was put onto sound in games because it adds another dimension to the game and makes it that much better. Remember when Actraiser came out for the SNES – the musical score was amazing and still rivals some music from today's console games.”

Q: What do you perceive will be the future of this platform? Of the industry?

Nick: “The Game Boy Advance will be around for a while because there is still so much more we can do with the system. The games that were so addicting like Super Metroid, can be brought back to its original form, so that is really exciting. I am looking forward to producing more games for the GBA. I have several ideas and I am just waiting for the next project to use them.

“The industry right now is full steam ahead. It can only continue to grow because technology is getting much more advanced, developers are exploring new and unique game ideas, and the anticipation factor is there as well.

“What I mean is that people cannot wait for GTA4 or Halo 2 to come out – it follows the same line as a movie sequel. After seeing Spider-man, I am sure people are anxiously awaiting the next one, and games are gathering that same kind of following.”

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