Working Title 03.22.07: Silver Screen Games - Highlander

Posted by Jordan Williams on 03.22.2007

How come a movie, TV series, comic book, flash movie, and cartoon about immortals who run around beheading everyone hasn't had a decent game yet?

Welcome back to the #1 Column to Not be a fan of the subject it will talk about this week, WORKING TITLE!


Did that line up there make no real sense? Well, let me go ahead and get this out of the way. This week's Silver Screen Games is about Highlander. Now, I'm not exactly a Highlander fan, I don't hate it, it's just that I'm not really a fan of it. Although I know a lot of people (including some friends who read this) are, so I decided to throw them a bone. I know when I usually say a column is going to short, it ends up being about normal length, but makes no bones about it this time, this column WILL be short, not being an active fan of the series really hurts how long I can really ramble on about and still make sense.


The things I do for friends.


*cue the Queen song*

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE WEEE AAAAARE

I still like that song. Anyway, this week, like I said. We'll be looking at Highlander. Now, Highlander can be a pretty vague term, seeing as if there is a form of media(not including games), Highlander has been on it. Trying to base a game off of the movies or show alone will get us nowhere, so how about we break out trusty list of types, hm?

Say it with me now:

Prequels, Sequels, Adaptations, and Universals.

Good, now let's look at that and see which one could possibly work best with a Highlander video game?

Prequel? Well, seeing as Highlander in itself tends to jump around timelines it would be really hard to nail a prequel of the complete Highlander franchise down, on top of that, they ARE Immortal, which makes a GIANT span of time before the action began. Too much time if you ask me.

Sequel? Well, there IS a new Highlander movie coming out this year, so a video game tie in WOULD work, but for the sake of this issue let's just say that movie doesn't exist. It's been faaar too long gone (and technically, ended) for there to be a sequel. I MAY be wrong here, but Duncan MacLeod won, right?



Adaptations? Hell no. I'm not even going to give you a really good reason as to why or why not. I'm just going to say "No" and you're going to like it. My word is law.

So that leaves us with what I personally think would be really cool for a game like Highlander. A Universal game. Think about it, this idea has spawned countless comic books and novels, a slew of movies, a cartoon, an anime, a flash cartoon, and spin offs to a TV series. All of these have taken place at a different place and time, and in most cases, with a different character, or a wider cast of characters.

What's stopping us from making our OWN Highlander?

Nothing, that's what.

Taking a page from Lucas

So, how in the hell would you take a game with such a large and expansive Universe and make it playable.

Let's take a page from Lucas and make Highlander an action RPG. Of course, an action game would be an obvious choice, but I really think an action RPG in the vein of KoTOR would work so much better. You could cover a lot of story in a shorter (or longer) time, you get introduced to a lot more characters, and you actually have a chance to care about them. It seems like the perfect fit, and I for one and someone shocked that someone hasn't pulled the trigger on this already.

Anyway, you could create your Immortal from the start and go through there on a plot that I couldn't possibly begin to explain, but I am sure there are tons of fan fiction writers who have already have it set. I told you I don't have a lot of personal info to go on here, but I do know this game could be very nice in the right hands.

I could really see BioWare or someone taking this license. After all, they did very good with KOTOR, and Jade Empire was also very good(a bit underrated, too). Although I personally am not a big fan of the source material, I'd play the game if it was handled by the right people.

So, with that said, let's go ahead and break it down.


Silver Screen Games present...


Highlander



Developer/Publisher: BioWare. Like I said, I can really see them doing good by this license. I honestly can't see anyone else doing it.

Console: Highlander has swords as a main focus and weapon. So that means it's definitely going to show up on the Wii, which means that it'll be on at least Xbox 360 or PS3, too.

Type of Game: Action RPG, Universal Storyline.

Pretty cut and dry(no pun intended). Like I said, looking at what I could come up with without having any real knowledge of the subject outside of a quick skim of Wikipedia, I'm sort of surprised that no publisher or developer hasn't had this idea first. Maybe they have and we just don't know it yet? Hmmm...

Could it work?

Highlander is pretty much done and over, except for the new movie, and it STILL has a huge following. I definitely think a game, especially with a strong story like this could have, and would work.

Why would I play it

Now this one is a bit trickier. I can see people playing this one for a multitude of different reasons. The first one would obviously be that they are fans of Highlander in the first place, so they found the game and decided to play it. The second would be people who are fans of BioWare's previous works, or the type of Action RPG they do. The third would be the Wii fans. God knows they love any game where they can do violent motions with the Wiimote.


Thank God that's over...

Well, this one is in the books. Sorry for the shortness, for it will all be made up next week. Next week in the final issue of Silver Screen Games, I'll be looking at "one of the best shows ever cancelled" and its finale movie.


Firefly and Serenity.

Could it work as a game? I don't know. Again, I wasn't exactly a big fan of the show or movie...but to avoid having this problem, I won't be writing next weeks Working Title. We'll have a special guest writer who knows A LOT more about the subject than I do. Who? You'll just have to see next week.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and I really hate it when I have to do a short column. Sorry guys.