Familiarity Can Breed Fun: CD-ROMs Straight From the Silver Screen

Do the rows and rows of new CD-ROM games have you completely flabbergasted? Maybe the sight of a familiar movie character would put you at ease when plunking down your hard-earned cash. Though film studios and game companies have rarely churned out much more than shallow shovelware, this holiday season shows a renewed effort to make movie-based games that include plot, acting and some decent gameplay.

Timing is everything with Men in Black: The Game (Southpeak; $40), which came out right as the popular alien action/comedy flick was released on video. You play the game from a third-person perspective (as in Tomb Raider), but the designers did a nice job with sweeping camera angles that lend a cinematic effect. There are puzzles scattered through the game, but the basic idea is to punch, kick and blast your way through the bad guys and, er, alien things.

You play as either Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones’ character), J (Will Smith) or L (Linda Fiorentino). The pixelated characters look a bit like the actors, but the voices are done by impersonators. Though it’s an OK action game, MiB gets a bit tedious because you’ll find yourself saving games, dying, loading games, dying, saving games, etc. ad infinitum. The story line seems buried in the background, too, and much of the movie’s humor is missing.

Timing isn’t everything in the case of Blade Runner (Westwood; $50), based on the 1982 Ridley Scott movie, which was based on Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi novel. As in the movie, the game is set in Los Angeles in 2019, when police known as “blade runners” hunt down replicants, or androids, that closely resemble humans. You assume the role of Ray McCoy, a blade runner who has to solve a variety of crimes tied to the evil Tyrell Corp. A basic detective game, Blade Runner’s strengths are its fast-moving, immersive environment, ambient sounds and high-tech gizmos.

Though the game is touted as the “first real-time 3-D adventure” with multiple endings, you never get the feeling your actions affect the outcome. Still, the acting is superb, with voice-overs from Sean Young, James Hong and Brion James, who all had parts in the film. There are 70 relatively lifelike characters, and main-guy McCoy seems the most wooden of them all. (Could he be a replicant, too? Hmmm.) Though not too challenging for hard-core gamers, Blade Runner is a feast for the eyes and ears, with some nice plot twists.

For kids, the animated battle between “The Little Mermaid” and “Anastasia” comes to computer screens. Ariel’s Story Studio (Disney; $35) puts an emphasis on learning, with cute poems that explain the meaning of words in the story. Plus, kids can record their own music or learn about underwater creatures and plants. Anastasia (Fox; $35) is more of a graphical adventure, letting kids play as the puppy Pooka, with the albino bat Bartok making snappy banter. The game emphasizes arcade games and Russian history instead of basic skill tests.

All Dogs Go to Heaven Activity Center (MGM; $30) is an all-around treat for children. Kids ages 3-8 will howl for the variety of mini-games, like finding objects in a junk-filled garage, mimicking music on a jukebox or “painting” cartoon cels. The educational video clips are sadly from leash-yanking dog shows, but overall it’s a great “edu-tainment” experience.

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Mark Glaser is a freelance writer and critic. You can reach him at glaze@sprintmail.com.