The Walking Dead video game is swiftly approaching! Earlier this week, developer Telltale Games released the first trailer for The Walking Dead (episode one). Watch it now!
Though we won’t be seeing the same level of action as a Left 4 Dead or Resident Evil, as we know, Robert Kirkman’s post apocalyptic drama is more about character and story, and Telltale’s Walking Dead will be no different. The Walking Dead hits Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC, and Mac in late April for about $4.99.
But The Walking Dead is only the latest of the comic book video game trailers to have dropped recently. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Traveler’s Tale revealed a World’s Finest trailer for Lego Batman 2 featuring a first for Lego games: Character voice overs. But not just any character voice overs; Clancey Brown as Lex Luthor (Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies). See it below.
Possibly more exciting for me personally than the DC Universe coming together in a Lego game, is Spider-Man’s return to an open world New York City environment in the game adaptation of Amazing Spider-Man. Activision’s last few attempts at sandbox Spidey games were a creative flop, but with new Spider-Man developer Beenox (fresh off two great Spider-Man platformers in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time) behind the wheel, it will be very interesting to see how our friendly Spider-Man takes to his new neighborhood.
It was that trailer that led me to another Spider-Man video game trailer, or commercial, perhaps, which spun me off into a glorious hour of my life wasted on YouTube, revisiting some really great comic book video game commercials.
If that didn’t make you want to run to Sears and buy Spider-Man for your Atari 2600 in 1982, then nothing ever would have.
It was after that commercial that I started to notice a goofy, yet somehow strangely awesome trend in superhero video game marketing featuring live actors dressed as comic book characters to sell the game. Check out this commercial for Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, nearly 20 years after Spider-Man’s video game debut.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcX8inzKbAk
But the awesomely bad costumes didn’t end with Spider-Man. This commercial for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shows that Michelangelo isn’t above stealing from children.
Sorry, Mike, but a piece of Pizza can’t get me my Tetris fix!
Joel Shumaker’s Batman films have a pretty large base of haters, and no matter how much some may hate a Val Kilmer Bruce Wayne, an even bigger embarrassment was the Batman Forever video game. However, the commercial was pretty damn impressive…at least by 1995 standards.
You know what the world is missing? More hand modeling by Wolverine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaVV3TkVkmY
During my journey through YouTube, I was happily surprised to find an ad for one of my personal favorite games growing up, The Punisher on the NES. I doubt my mom would have let me have this game if she had seen this commercial.
With video games becoming more and more cinematic, so are their trailers. And of all the video game trailers and commercials I’ve gone through, my favorite still remains the first official trailer for Batman: Arkham City. It’s just a thing of beauty.
Such a well wasted afternoon. What’s your favorite comic book video game trailer?
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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net
@andrewEhurst
Wow! Some of those just brought me back!
Woah! I hadn’t seen a lot of these!
And That one from Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro… I actually … LIKED those costumes, and the spidey wall flip was pretty impressive.
Makes me wish we had a 2nd live-action tv show in the 90s (since the one from the 70s failed)(though I honestly don’t hate that show either).