Working Title 03.15.07: Silver Screen Games - The Transporter

Posted by Jordan Williams on 03.15.2007

Last week it was a movie that made Soccer look cool, this week it's a movie that makes UPS look like the best job in the world. Can 'The Transporter' get turned into a decent game? Let's find out.

Welcome back to the #1 Column to have a trailer that's 20 minutes long, WORKING TITLE. Last week we kicked off Silver Screen Games with a movie that was pretty much already a video game to begin with, Shaolin Soccer. This week we will go ahead and get a serious toned move that could really double as a game...as long as we don't use it's craptacular sequel. Get ready for another short column filled with me fantasy booking the industry.

Note: None of the following ideas are being put into motion or anything of the sort. This column series is a work of fiction and a mixture of my ideas of how something should be made.

I only put this there because I've been getting emails from people who either think:

A. I work for the industry and I am telling them about a future game or
B. That I am stating this as fact and you should see this game in the near future for your chosen console.

Neither is true, it's just me going on a long "What if..." rant. Nothing more.

Screw UPS

Who do you call when you need to get something delivered? Fast. UPS? Nope. FedEx? Hell no. You call Frank Martin, The Transporter.

His business works fairly simple, you give him a ring, you tell him where the package (or in some cased, person) needs to go. He gets it there. You don't need to tell him what it is; you don't need to tell him who you are giving it to. No questions asked.

It's a damn good service if you ask me, but like most good things, it does indeed have to come to an end. That's where the first Transporter movie came in. For those of you who haven't seen it, I'll go on head and tell you that Frank was transporting something that he knows he shouldn't have been transporting, and thus brought down the hell of every bad evil mafia/gang boss in the area.

But how was business before that?

How did Frank get into his Transporting business? How did he get so damned good at it? Who were his more reliable clients before the big fiasco in France? While I am SURE we could just make some direct-to-DVD prequel, how about we suspend disbelief and let's pull a Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Let's make a prequel.

How Frankie met Car...y?

Okay, some things that you learn in the first couple minutes of the movie is that Frank Martin, like almost every badass in the history of movies is an Ex-Special Forces agent. We don't know why he isn't with them anymore, or what he did to get booted out, but he doesn't work with them anymore. He now runs his little highly illegal business. When the movie picks up we are just in the final days of his business, it was going good until that one package came and blew it all to hell. But from how he handles situations in the first part of the movie, you can tell that he is not new to his line of work at all, which means Frankie-boy has been doing this for quiet a bit of time. How long? Who cares? It's long enough to do a prequel.

Seeing as the ,movie already has a sequel, trying to do a game where there the story carries on after the plot ended is a bit too easy, but doing a prequel and showing how he honed his skills and got into this line of work is right up his alley. Anyone who has seen this movie knows that it's a nice blend of car stunts and action. That's exactly how the game should play out. I couldn't see it being any other way.



Driving and Fighting never mix...right?

Yeah, there are very few games that can bend driving and action style without sacrificing playability for one or the other. Of course, this game will probably be no different if it is ever made, but does it really have to be that way. If this game was made, the logical/easy way would to separate the levels. There would be certain levels that just revolved around driving(making your delivery) and then there would be levels strictly devoted to kicking some ass(when the delivery goes wrong). It would work for the most part, but people who are more fond of driving games will be able to easily point out the flaws in the driving area, and same for the people fond of action games.

So why not just eliminate all of that from the start? This guy IS a one man business. Let's have it be run by one screen, then. Sandbox style gameplay is quickly become cliché, but it's a good cliché. A lot of game snow have benefited from the idea of your character being able to run around in a freely flowing world and taking on the levels as you wish, with padding time and extra mission in between. It's actually sort of rare to find an action game that just shuffles you through levels one after another, that is bow much Sandbox style has changed, and it can help change this game as well.

The Car Aspect

In the movie, Frank's pride and joy on four wheels is his BMW-7 Series. It's fast. It's armored, and he can take a lot of punishment, and it's also no secret that it's expensive. Like I said earlier Frank has been in the business for awhile by the time the movie opens up, maybe when he first started he didn't have such a badass car. This aspect can play into the game in a few fun ways. First off, as with any delivery person, the car is just as important as the package. If the car breaks down or gets destroyed, you obviously can't deliver the package on time. This should factor into the game. The car is always used to get to point A from point B, and is almost every game; it's always expendable, too. Let's not make that the case this time around. Frank can have the ability to get better cars in the future, but during his deliveries, let's say he is stuck with that one car, if it blows or he loses it. He can't get another until he buys a new one. He can still commandeer vehicles on the road, but as with most Sandbox games, cars normally driving in the road pale in comparison to the badass beast you were driving before you trashed it. Let's make the player be a bit more careful with the car. Sure, it's always cool to ram someone off of the road and into the water, but it does a lot of damage to the car. Something you'll have to think about when you play it.

The Frank Aspect

Frank Martin, being the ex-Special Forces agent he is, knows how to fight. So there will be no awkward moment in the game where all you have is a punch and kick at your disposal and you eventually learn ultimately useless combos later on. He should start out with all of this knowledge already. Of course, if you are able to bust out neck breakers right from the get go, the game isn't going to be much of a challenge. There would need to be some system put in place to limit the moves you could do at a certain time. Be it you can only perform the harsher moves when a special meter or whatever is high enough, or you can only do the moves while in a certain health condition. Something. Frank also has knowledge of firearms, which always comes in handy when you are just swamped. The movie itself was more about the hand-to-hand combat rather than the gunplay, so I wouldn't expect guns and ammo to be a big part of the game. It will probably be limited to something you just use when you are backed up against the wall

The Rules Aspect

At the start of the movie, we learn Frank has three rules that he ALWAYS adheres by:

1. No names.

2. A deal's a deal.

3. Never open the package.

Thos are HIS rules, HIS words to live by. The player should be asked to live by them as well. The first rule is sort of a throwaway to implement into the game, since you'll probably end up giving your customers some sort of name anyway, the second rule should be a bit easier to implement, though. Once you accept a contract, you have to do it. No quitting, not just opting to throw the package in the water and never seeing it again. You got to go through with it.

This will make the player actually think of what contracts he chooses and which ones he doesn't. Sure, escorting this here briefcase to the Airport could be a lot easier than taking this trailer to the docks and avoiding detection, but which one will probably pay better in the end? Either way, whichever one you choose, or if you even choose both, you'll have to do them.

Rule three is just begging to be broken, the bulk of the first movie was just built on rule three being broken and the other two broke with it. If you never open the package, how else will you get the mafia or the government or whoever else you are working for pissed at you? Of course, you aren't going to open up every single thing that comes your way, but you know with a rule like that, somewhere down the line it is going to come back to bite you in the ass.

Well, that are more in depth and detailed as I had originally planned it, but hey! It makes sense.

That's enough of the fluff and background stuff, time to go ahead and break it down.


Silver Screen Games presents...

The Transporter



Just like with Shaolin Soccer, we need to know who would make the game. Because this is a game that I really can see being on all three consoles, I'm just going to go ahead and say Ubisoft. Mostly because they are the first thing that popped into my head after Namco...but Namco made Dead to Rights 1 and 2, which would means this would probably end up playing just like those...which isn't a good thing.

Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft or Namco

Console: I really can't see this being a console exclusive. Let's say everyone get's a version.

Type of Game: Action Adventure/Driving, Prequel to the first movie.

Rating: I left this part off because it was almost a given that Shaolin Soccer would end up being an E game, but I can see this one hitting T territory.

Could it Work?

The Transporter is a fun movie to watch, and the plot and action were sort of universal. If you liked action movies, you could pretty much just sit down and watch this. The same would be the case for the game. Just the idea and plot alone behind it would be enough to get the casual action game player interested, not necessarily the hardcore movie fans like in a lesser known movie. It'll be one of those games everyone hears about and rents before they get it, as with most titles of the genre.

Why would I play it?

Because you'd want to. Not trying to say this would be the best game since Sliced Bread 2k7, but it would be a game that would sort of be that one sitting in Blockbuster, and you'd try it out because it looked interesting. We've all been there before, if it wasn't for that type of "C'mon...rent me" look, I would've never played Hunter: The Reckoning, which is still one of my favorite games to this day.

Plan and simple, this game will be just like the movie (albeit different plot). Nice, simple fast paced action that will please you when you play it. Nothing else really to explain.


Working Feedback

Yep, I got a couple of tidbit mails over the last two weeks. Just a couple of things I figured I should post, I have to show my readers some love, right?

The first one if from certified Workaholic (they said I needed some witty name to call my readers), Todd Vote:

Just thought I would drop a note about a couple of games that I think started where a movie left off.
The Matrix Online, started at the end of the trilogy to continue the story. Neo is dead; people are divided into three, for lack of a better term we will call them sects. You either work for Zion, or you work for the machines, or you work for The Merovingian.
For some reason The Thing keeps popping into my head as a game that continues after the movie. I could be wrong, as I didn't play much of The Thing.

I actually had forgotten this game existed (much like the rest of the world). I remembered hearing about it, but I didn't know it had taken place after the movie. I thought the game itself was mixed in with the plot from the movie. I now know I was wrong. Thanks for the mail, Todd.

Oh, and I looked it up. You were right; The Thing is also another game where it's a video game only sequel to the original. Good work.

Next up is first time Workaholic, Ryan Rogatschnigg(I have no idea how to even BEGIN pronouncing that.), he chimes in with a short and sweet one about Jet Set Radio Future:

In my opinion

JSRF is much weaker than Jet Grind Radio on Dreamcast. A fantastic
game. JSRF was fun, but it lacked ... something. Something that set
JGR apart. Anyways.

RIP Dreamcast


Yeah, I've been told by some friends that JSR was a bit straighter forward and better overall than JSRF. I should go check it out one day, but my DC has been dead for months. I figure they'll be pretty cheap now...just have to find one that works. Thanks for the heads up, Ryan.


Next time...

Well, that's Transporter in the books. Next week is going to be a bit of a challenge. I originally had a lot of these columns and picks planned out from the start, but next weeks is conflicting a bit. It's on a movie that I KNOW fans want to see a game of, but the subject itself isn't exactly something I know TOO much about. But I'll try to make it work.

Next week, Silver Screen Games will see if it can turn Highlander into a decent game.


Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and this column won't have a name until it beheads every other column with a name. There can only be one.