First Look: “Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters”

With Green Lantern coming out….oh crap, next month!…the obligatory video game tie-in is underway. Recent video game tie-ins to comic book movies have suffered the double whammy fate of being a licensed property based on a movie, and have sucked. Iron Man and Thor, I’m looking at you.

The sad thing is, these should be easy to make. We know that good comic book games can be made, because Batman: Arkham Asylum was absolutely amazing. We know that good movie games can be made because Spider-Man 2 was great.

The point I’m making, which is backed up by the two previously mentioned titles, is these titles should be easy cash grabs. Just make a solid game that makes us feel like we’re the character, and we’ll buy it in droves. Arkham Asylum kicked ass because we felt like Batman, darting through the shadows and throwing batarangs at thugs. Spider-Man 2 worked because we felt like Spidey, swinging with ease throughout New York and saving the day. Iron Man didn’t work because we felt like we were controlling an RC tank blindfolded.

If you’re wondering the point of all this, it’s because I recently got my hands on some info for Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, the upcoming tie-in video game for the game.  And yeah, I first kind of scoffed and rolled my eyes at it; another comic book movie game, right? But their actually seems to be an ever so slight glimmer of hope.

The console version, being developed by Double Helix (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Silent Hill: Homecoming) looks astoundingly decent and fun; not something that will win game of the year, but the trailer already looks like it gets the feel of Green Lantern and strikes to capture the space faring, fast paced combat excitement of the character. Most interesting to me, however, is the Wii/3DS/DS version (no PSP edition has been announced yet) developed by Griptonite Games, who have a long track record of creating portable editions of bigger releases, having handled the DS release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the portable editions of Lego Star Wars, this version strips the attempts at crafting realistically designed characters, instead utilizing the consoles to create versions that appear more similar to their comic book counterparts. Both games appear to tout a co-op mode, which is surprising and exciting; wouldn’t being a Green Lantern with a friend be twice as exciting as being one yourself?

I’ve got to say though, this is one of the few times an art style has made the Wii version more interesting to me than another consoles (the other time being Ghostbusters), but the waggle wand controls are still concerning, which means I’ll probably wind up playing the Xbox 360 version. We’ve got a few screenshots below of the 3DS version and box art for the Xbox 360 and Wii editions, so let us know in the comments which poison you’ll be picking. Also, if you’re interested in some more imagery from the game, the official Facebook page for Rise of the Manhunters has an “3D Energy Viewer” with exclusive screenshots from the 360/PS3 edition, which are presented in a 360 degree, 3D appearance; there’s some really cool ones, too, which further lead me to hope that maybe, just maybe, Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is going to be well worth our hard earned money.

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