Great news for people who like to make references to the “you’ve captured their stunt doubles” joke from “Spaceballs,” there’s a new third-person “Guardians of the Galaxy” video game coming out later this year. And you can watch the trailer for the game from Eidos Montreal at the top of the page right now.
Before you ask, this “Guardians” game isn’t connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like last year’s “Marvel’s Avengers,” also from Square Enix and Eidos Montreal BTW, it takes place in its own universe and tells a stand alone story. But even if they couldn’t get the likeness rights for any of the actors, this game sure goes out of its way to try to make you think of James Gunn’s MCU movies.
For one thing, it features the movie version of the “Guardians” lineup: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and of course, Rocket and Groot. plus Mantis. And they all feel pretty similar to their movie counterparts. Plus, this version of Star-Lord pretty much wears the same outfit as Chris Pratt, Rocket’s accent is VERY similar to the one Bradley Cooper uses, Groot is absolutely based on the movie version rather than the comics, and the Benatar — or whatever the ship’s name is here — pretty much looks exactly like the ship seen in the movies.
It also features some very similar jokes, like when Mantis calls Quill “Sun-Lord,” or the gang gets called “Gardeners of the Galaxy.”
But then there’s the music, Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero.” We get that the intention is to capture something of the spirit of a James Gunn movie soundtrack but much like 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” it kind of misses the point. Gunn doesn’t just mine nostalgia for its own sake, he deliberately picks songs to curate a vibe or suggest something about his characters, and generally they’re interesting choices and surprisingly deep cuts.
“Holding Out for a Hero” is a fun song indeed, but it’s extremely played out to the point that its practically a cliche. It’s been used in dozens of soundtracks and movie trailers and just this week alone was featured in the trailer for Kevin Smith’s “Masters of the Universe” reboot on Netflix. No way would James Gunn make such an obvious, and frankly lazy choice. Sorry guys, but it’s the truth.
Anyway, the new “Guardians of the Galaxy” game, announced Sunday during distributor Square Enix’s E3 2021 presentation, is a third person adventure-shooter where you’ll play as Star Lord/Peter Quill. Set about 10 years after some kind of interstellar war and, in this universe, taking place very soon after the Guardians first become a team — shocker — they’ll have to save the universe.
The game’s developers say it’s designed to have a bunch of complex narrative options that let Star-Lord make decisions for the rest of the team. True to their dynamics in the films, certain characters will get angry with you if they don’t like the choices you’re making for them — which might include making another teammate threaten to kill someone, apparently.
It comes out Oct. 26.
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