Futurama Game

[Reply #80 on:]

 

Originally posted by davids:
Will any part of the game allow you to take control of the planet express ship? If not they have missed a good opportunity.

That's an absoluteley awesome idea, I'd love to take control of the P.E ship, and give those torpedo tubes some use. As far as I know, unfortunately I don't think there is in the first game. But if not, hopefully they'll be a second game and it'll be in that 

[Reply #81 on:]

It's kind of strange that at this late stage in the games development there still isn't a solid release date. The insert in my Season 3 DVD says July, all the magazines say July, The Official XBox magazine has just released with a playable demo, Sky One are running plugs for the game with every Futurama episode, most magazines say they will have a full review next month, & Amazon says July.
Yet nobody is still sure about the status of a gamecude release, and some sites still list the PS2 release as August!
Even though its not 100% certian i'm getting prepared to pick up my copy on July 4th (as most sources state).

One thing that annoys me is the trailer on the Season 3 DVDS. This was made quite a long time ago when the game was still in the middle of development.Since then the graphics have been drastically improved (the final version looks excellent, really like the show). I just think that people may see this trailer and get a negative first impression. 

[Reply #82 on:]

Do european GC games play in north american units?

I don't think it will matter anyways.  I've been to the vivendi site and the offical futurama game site (which has a uk domain) and there is no mention of a gc version at all.

[Reply #83 on:]

if they included the PEship the game would be way better because it adds speed and control in the game which i havent seen in the reviews yet.

[Reply #84 on:]

Slightly bad news everyone!

This probably isn't even worth mentioning, since its small, but I'll mention it anyway.  I just got my newest issues of Game Informer, with E3 coverage.  There's a small section called "disapointments and duds" in the E3 section, with a passing reference to Futurama:

"Throw in the spate of piss-poor liscensed product (Charlie's Angels, Lobo, Futurama, and The Fast and the Furious, among others)...."

Pretty choice words, considering the interviews with the production team have indicated that they supposedly want to avoid being a piss poor liscense product.  Hopefully the comment was indicitive of their expectations of the game, rather then actual play time with it, but we'll see.

[Reply #85 on:]

the first 2 UK reviews are saying its good with a 7/10 and 75% scores saying it is very funny

[Reply #86 on:]

 

Originally posted by Gripper:
the first 2 UK reviews are saying its good with a 7/10 and 75% scores saying it is very funny

Clool, that's promising. Would you mind saying which reviews they were? 

[Reply #87 on:]

The 75% review was from PSM2, and the 7/10 review was from Official Playstation 2 Magazine. I think.

[Reply #88 on:]

 
It's already been cancelled for Gamecube.

Stupid Nintendo, I am angry.

[Reply #89 on:]

...But it's still coming out on GC in the UK, isn't it 

And thanx Kazzahdrane 

[Reply #90 on:]

I am not sure Otis. IGN.com and Gamespot.com don't even show the US version as cancelled from what I can tell, but I do recall reading that they were.

   

[Reply #91 on:]

like i said, go to the official sites and see for yourself no mention of a gc version and no gc logo next to the xbox and ps2 logos

[Reply #92 on:]

As mentioned in other threads, i hope for the UK with these leaflet piccys:
 

Originally posted by aslate:
Ok, i've scanned the Futurama Game leaflet that came with the DVDs, just cut out the relevent bits:

[Reply #93 on:]

I would believe the website from the DEVELOPER *AND* the PUBLISHER of the game, not a leaflet that you have no idea when it was printed.

[Reply #94 on:]

It came with my Futurama S3 DVDs thank you very much.

[Reply #95 on:]

That's nice you still don't know when the leaflet was printed.

Also you can check http://www.nintendo-europe.com/NOE/en/GB/search/search.jsp?searchText=futurama&indexName=all  and see that the only search results this brings up is a press release from January 7th with no other mention of the game at all.

Listen, I REALLY want the Futurama GC game too but all facts (and I mean RECENT facts) point to there not even being one in the works.  Why would Vivendi and USD hide mention of an gc game but promote the xbox and ps2 ones?  Soon you'll have to accept the facts and realize it's not coming. 

[Reply #96 on:]

 

Originally said by Fry:
You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless. You've got to hope even more and cover your ears and go blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.

[Reply #97 on:]

I'm a very pessimistic person. 

[Reply #98 on:]

Hmmmm, thanx for all the info  I'm just not sure what to believe now. I got the same flyer in my Season 3 DVD's, but from what I read I was kinda getting worried that the GC version has been cancelled since that flyer was made  I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

[Reply #99 on:]

Game interview and the mags were as posted above
 http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news/news_story.php?id=92618 

[Reply #100 on:]

 

Why no Zapp Branigan? Was there a problem with the guy who did the voice?

Haha the people that did the Q&A weren't very good Futurama fans after all.

[Reply #101 on:]

Why doesn't someone email the company making the game, and the company producing the game?  They have departments designed to do that sort of thing, you know.  Make sure to email the European companies, and specify if it will be released on the GC in Europe.

[Reply #102 on:]

I use emails as the last resort.  There's no up to date evidence anywhere that says Futurama is coming to the GC so that pretty much settles it for me.  Plus I just saw this while browsing cube.ign.com.. you can also see what's missing from the late summer early fall release dates ( http://cube.ign.com/release.html  ).

[Reply #103 on:]

 

Originally posted by Dantastic:
I would believe the website from the DEVELOPER *AND* the PUBLISHER of the game, not a leaflet that you have no idea when it was printed.

The trailer on the site does say GameCube.

[Reply #104 on:]

It's not coming.

To settle this once and for all I emailed SCI games (the only official site that still says there is a GC release but lacking the box art I might add).  I'll post the reply when it comes.

[Reply #105 on:]

why does the game have to be cell shading? couldn't it just have regular graphics?

[Reply #106 on:]

Uh, do you even watch the show?  It LOOKS like cel shading for crying out loud.  The graphics engine is absolutely perfect for the show.  Check out the somewhat blander looking "Simpsons Road Rage", which doesn't use cel shading, for proof.

Further about the cube version, if you search for the game on IGN.com, they list four different versions and two of them (GC and the rumored/once planned GBA game) are listed as "this game has been cancelled", with the other two remaining.  As well, they had an edition of the "N-Query" mailbag section where someone asked about it and the reply was that the cube version had been cancelled so they could focus on the consoles that have the biggest userbase in the US (PS2 and X-Box), or something to that effect.

I also looked in my newest Game Informer, and in the release date section they list a PS2 version, and X-Box version, both coming on 8/12/2003, but no cube version.

Face it, its not coming, at least in the US.

[Reply #107 on:]

I know about the US cancellation, but i'm arguing for the UK side.

[Reply #108 on:]

wait, first it's not coming out on PC, then it's NOT BEING RELEASED IN THE US?! that really pisses me off...

[Reply #109 on:]

 

Originally posted by SlaytanicMaggot:
wait, first it's not coming out on PC, then it's NOT BEING RELEASED IN THE US?! that really pisses me off...

theyre talking about the gamecube version dingus. not the ps2 and xbox version.

[Reply #110 on:]

I'm arguing on the side of the US and the UK gc version being cancelled... http://www.futuramathegame.co.uk  the official site is a UK site and it has no mention of it and there's no up to date source that says it's being released... hopefully i'll get an email back tomorrow or the next day confirming what's already obvious.

[Reply #111 on:]

as long as it comes out on PS2 ill be happy
and if it doesnt *space-ray shooting noises*

[Reply #112 on:]

EXCLUSIVE: 'LOST' FUTURAMA EPISODE REVEALED, PLUS INTERVIEW!

Producer Klaude Thomas tells all on SCI's promising 'toon-based game adaptation, exclusive scene footage inside

18:42 Futurama - who doesn't love it (the US TV network that's cancelling it aside)? Matt Groening character design, primo-Simpsons era quality gags, a robotic lead character whose most notable characteristics are his obsession with porn, drugs and stitching up his friends - that's quite a combo!
Of course, fantastic cartoons often make for bad videogames, but developer UDS reckons it's pulled out all the stops to make this a fitting send off to the excellent series.

And more than just a game, the cutscenes in Futurama constitute a brand new 'lost' episode, scripted by the writers of the show themselves, which creator Matt Groening sees as the final episode of the Futurama saga.

Producer of the game Klaude Thomas was on hand to tell us just what to expect, but before you read that, you might was to check out our exclusive clip from the 'lost' episode, which provides the comedy as you begin the game.

Okay, obviously this is an adaptation of Matt Groening's ace sci-fi comedy - what's the actual storyline in the game?

Thomas: The story was written by J Stewart Burns, who has previously wrote episodes of Futurama including one that won an Emmy award. After a fantastic start, the game begins with the Mom corporation striking a deal that gives them abround 50 percent of the Earth, and so she becomes the supreme ruler, and decides to turn the planet into a giant spaceship.

So the Futurama team's immediate reaction to this news is to run away, but their spaceship is all banged up.

The first thing they need to do is repair the spaceship, but as the story progresses they get caught up in a plot to stop Mom from achieving her plans for universal domination.

The first problem they have is that the Professor's dark matter engine has been sold to a pawn shop for a pistol, and Fry has to go and get it back.

So after various adventures, Fry gets it back, and the guys escape from Earth with the dark matter engine, and from here you get to play as various different characters like Bender, Leela and Zoidberg as the plot takes some typically Futurama-style implausible twists.

You'll need to go back in time, engage in a whole series of battles and then... [at this point Thomas told us exactly what happens at the end, which made us laugh, but is possibly something you'd be better off experiencing yourself].

It's an absolutely brilliant twist. All the way through there's so much stuiff going on - that description doesn't really do the game justice. As well as the main story, there's an awful lot of a side plot and elements that show you more of the Futurama universe.

So what kind of gameplay are we talking about?

Thomas: What we've done with the gameplay is we've deliberately tried to aim for classic platform adventure gameplay. We wanted the player to pick up the game and understand how to play right away.

You can play as all three main charaters, Bender, Fry and Leela, as well as Zoidberg, and every character plays differently. Leela and Bender are more involved in hand-to-hand combat, Fry's more involved with shooting, Zoidberg's got his own special weapon; it's absolutely classic and I think very enjoyable platform gameplay.

You get to do the shooting, the jumping, a lot of exploring - there's a side plot of rescuing all the nibblers to gain access to all the locked material. It's pretty solid. I think a hardcore gamer will find side elements that entertain them, but I think our main goal has definitely been to make the gameplay refreshingly familiar.

What does Matt Groening think of the game?

Thomas: I know that Matt Groening's kids got to play the game - Matt has been reviewing the game periodically and he has the ultimate sign off on the game - and he wanted to make sure that not only he could play it and enjoy it, but so could his kids.

And apparently they liked it so much that when they were playing it in the studio they didn't want to put it down, so we're happy with that.

I feel that maybe Matt Groening hasn't been that happy with some of the other stuff that's come out in the past that he's connected with, but he had no real input into the Simpsons stuff - here he has the final say. And I think he wanted to make sure it was a good game after the reaction he saw to some of the previous games.

As you say, we've seen some pretty despicable TV cash-ins in the past - how authentic does Futurama stay to the style of the cartoon?

Thomas: It's absolutely authentic. As I said the script was written by a scriptwriter from the series, the music was all recorded by Chris Tyng, who also produces the music for the show, approval on the game is by Matt.

Furthermore, all the artwork from the game has come from or been approved by the Curiosity Company, and of course all the voice actors are the same one's who actually provide the voices from the show (not just the US actors, incidentally - in other countries where English isn't the first language, we've used the actors who provide the voice for the cartoon in that country. Hey, we're thorough!). So it's absolutely spot on.

In one case we had a scenario where Matt Groening wanted the outlining of the characters done a bit more to be closer to the series, and so we had a few months of extra work to get that right, just to get the game exactly the way he wanted it. I've worked with other licences in the past, but I think this one has everything.

The presentation side of things sounds excellent, but is there a challenging game in there, too?

Thomas: You know, it starts off pretty easy, because you've got to get used to the game before you become too challenged; I think that in Bender's levels and Leela's levels, and especially at Mom's HQ, you're gonna find a lot that not only will take quite a bit of effort to overcome, but later on you'll need to come back to unlock various bonuses.

We've set the game up so that if you collect all the nibblers you'll gain access to all the video cut scenes, which amount to a new episode of the TV show in themselves. I think Matt Groening sees Futurama the game as the final episode of Futurama the series. But anyway, finding all of the unlocks is really very challenging.

As you progress through the game, what sort of new features are there?

Thomas: The first level serves to allow you to get used to the game, finding out what you can and can't do. But then pretty quickly playing as Fry you get a gun and then a series of guns - you get some pretty nice stuff towards the end.

Then there's Bender, who's completely different from Fry; he's got spinning attacks, and the kind of stuff you'd expect from a robot. Then there's Leela, who's completely different again - she's got martial combat skills, as in the show. There are sub levels in the game that make reference to other games, there's a whole range of gameplay there.

There's the obvious influence of the show, but what videogames have inspired you in the design of this title?

Klaude Thomas: The designer of the title is a guy called Mark McGinley, and he's pretty old school; he's familiar with classic platformers and adventure games, as well as more contemporary stuff like Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, all that kind of stuff.

Even games like Mario to a certain extent - we've even drawn on games like Tomb Raider a little bit for the auto-aiming. There's too many to list really.

Our favorite Futurama episode involves zeitgeist surfing naïf Beck as a guest star - any chance the cosmic goofball is gonna turn up in the game?

Klaude Thomas: We had a lot of cameo's that we wanted to put in the game, like we had Zapp Branigan, we really wanted to get him in the game, but in the end we couldn't get him in as a main character so we got him in in the background. You'll see a lot of cameos in the series, but sadly not Beck.

Why no Zapp Branigan? Was there a problem with the guy who did the voice?

Thomas: No, it wasn't that at all - the guy who wrote the script just didn't write him in. In hindsight maybe we would have asked him to write him in, but you know, he wrote what he wanted to be the last episode of Futurama, so we couldn't really tell him we knew the series better than him!

Can we expect to see more Futurama titles in the future?

Thomas: That's a tough question for us to answer obviously. I would say not, because this game was described by the creators of Futurama as the final episode of Futurama.

We've included the full episode in the game, and the way the plot goes, well, it couldn't really be much more final. But at the same time, Matt Groening said in a recent interview that if he does see a future it's in interactive stuff, and movies. So who knows?

[Reply #113 on:]

 

Originally posted by aslate:
Originally said by Fry:
You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless. You've got to hope even more and cover your ears and go blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.

  HA, HA...nice one.

Come on GC...blah-blah-blah-blah

[Reply #114 on:]

 http://www.sci.co.uk/games/press_releases.asp?id=119

SCi Games is pleased to announce an exclusive sponsorship deal to support the release of Futurama on PS2 & Xbox.

SCi have secured the exclusive rights to sponsor Sky One’s output of Futurama – the animated series, between June 15th & August 31st. New scheduling of the show comes into effect during this period as follows;

Saturdays – 09:30-10:00, 13:00–13:30, 20:00–20:30

Sundays – 09:30-10:00, 12:00-12:30, 19:00-19:30

Each episode will feature a 15 second sponsorship sequence at the beginning and end of the show, as well as 5 second ‘bumpers’ either side of the advert break. In addition all promotional spots scheduled by Sky across the network will feature the product packshot.

Working closely with Sky One’s creative team, SCi have realised a sponsorship credit that compliments the series itself. Drawing heavily from the creative style of the stand-alone website, uniformity across the entire campaign has been assured.

This campaign represents a first for SCi and both its scale and execution demonstrate our commitment to this fantastic product. Sponsorship of the original license is a prime opportunity to deliver Futurama – ‘The Game’ to both the dedicated fans of the show, as well as a wider mass-market audience of Kids 10-15 and Adults 16-24. The show performs strongly with both these audiences and additional scheduling combined with brand new episodes will continue to support this performance.

Futurama will be released on August 1st on Playstation 2 & Xbox

[Reply #115 on:]

The news that there will probably not be another Futurama game is really sad, I thought this might be the show's big chance to live on...

[Reply #116 on:]

Yeah it is pretty sad  But hopefully it'll still be able to live on in comic form 

[Reply #117 on:]

ill have to start getting the comics after they finish playing all the futurama episodes.
it'll be a sad sad day when i have seen every episode.

[Reply #118 on:]

I wish we could get diffinative confirmation on the GC version anywhere, coz I dont wanna have to buy another console for it.

[Reply #119 on:]

u should have bought an XBOX