A new crop of videogames extend the summer movie fun and serve as marketing tools for the features. Players of the Iron Man videogame actually get to be Iron Man. © SEGA of America.

It's summer movie time, and while moviegoers are reaching for the popcorn, gamers are just as eagerly reaching for the Wii control or joystick. Today's summer movie videogames are offering the chance to participate in the adventure -- to be the hero -- in addition to ever better graphics and new storylines.

For example, SEGA of America Inc.'s Iron Man videogame players are immersed in the world of Tony Stark -- and actually get to be Iron Man. Using the advanced technology in Iron Man's refined suits, players can evolve the battle armor with a wide array of high-impact projectiles and ammunition. The players then speed through massive open-ended battlefields, strategically blowing up and destroying any enemy force while using that enemy's own weaponry and vehicles against them.

There's similar appeal to The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor mobile game based on the summer movie sequel (opening Aug. 1 from Universal Pictures), which is targeted toward 18-35 year old males, action/adventure movie enthusiasts and players of action games on mobile, PC and console.

"You play in the lead role of Alex O'Connell and have to race through exotic locations fighting soldiers and mummies to save the world from the Dragon Emperor," explains Gonzague de Vallois, VP of publishing, Gameloft, which produced the mobile game.

In addition to extending the summer movie fun, companion videogames play another important role. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor game will launch two weeks prior to the theatrical release in the U.S., so it works as a great marketing tool for pre-buzz of the film," de Vallois says.

"The tie-in with videogames and Hollywood has been something that has been prevalent, if not necessary, over the past three years," de Vallois comments. "Almost every action/adventure film released nowadays has a game tie-in. The videogame market is huge, and studios understand that the audience for games is very similar to target audience for action/adventure films."

Familiar Territory
"The biggest challenge is taking a two-hour movie experience and turning it in to a 10-hour-plus game that's just as captivating and interesting, yet is developed in half the time on 2% of the budget," comments Andy Satterthwaite, producer, Speed Racer: The Videogame, from Warner Bros. Interactive Ent.

The producer of Speed Racer: The Videogame says the challenge is to take a movie and turn it in to a 10-hour game developed in half the time on 2% of the budget. All Speed Racer images © Warner Bros. Interactive Ent.

"We [Sidhe Interactive] got introduced to the project when Warner Bros. Interactive Ent. realized we were probably the best people for the job," Satterthwaite says. "After we completed GripShift for PlayStation 3, we earned a reputation for doing slightly obscure arcade driving games in a very short time. And prior to working at Sidhe Interactive, I was the producer on Wipeout XL and Quantum Redshift (both very fast futuristic racing games), so Speed Racer: The Videogame was a really good fit for both myself and the company. "On Speed Racer: The Videogame, we decided to go with the spirit of the film (i.e., high-speed combat racing) rather than copy the story exactly," Satterthwaite adds. "It seems to have paid off, as the film and game complement each other, rather than try and fill the same gap." The game was released on Nintendo Wii and DS on May 9.

Satterthwaite notes that a key goal for film-related videogames is to create enough parallels in the game to make the playing experience familiar (as seen in the movie), yet different and fresh. "You can go to the movie, then come out and race as Speed Racer in the game on the same tracks you've seen… but it's a different racing season, so the player isn't recreating the same events or having the story spelled out to them," Satterthwaite continues. "Instead, they can enhance the experience and the movie story in their mind."

Gameloft's de Vallois agrees. "The game varies from the film in that it doesn't capture every single aspect of the movie, nor does it feature every character. We targeted the main scenes and translated those into the game.

"This is the exclusive official mobile game of the film and we wanted to not only stay true to the core storyline, since it has such a huge cult following, but also add some fun and creative elements to take advantage of the cool action-adventure theme and exotic locations," de Vallois says. "We worked closely with Universal Pictures to ensure that the mobile game was reflective of the upcoming film, so we're pretty confident that the game stays quite true to the movie. The locations featured in the film are in the mobile game: the Emperor's tomb, Shanghai, Himalayas, Shangri-La, etc."