Computer and games console owners have been able to buy games based on
popular Hollywood movies such as Die Hard and Alien for years, but a slate
of controversial new games based on art-house movies are set to hit the shelves
this Christmas as manufacturers attempt to target older, up-scale customers.
“There is a significant market out there that developers have never really looked
at,” said Graham Deane, managing director of Digitz, one of the manufacturers.
“We think these new games offer an alternative to mindless, derivative
shoot-em-ups.”
First to reach the stores will be Nil By Mouth Crash Bandicoot, described its
makers as ‘a riotous series of violent encounters and loud shouting’ in which the
player wanders through a London council estate smashing furniture and beating
people up in order to complete a journey of self-discovery. The game features
humorous digitised audio clips of Ray Winstone screaming.
Breaking the Waves – A Highland Odyssey is an atmospheric adventure game
featuring goblins, magic spells, random sexual encounters and meditations on the
power of faith and unconditional love. It will only be available for the Apple
Mac.
Pi: Extreme Tetris Nightmare is a fiendishly addictive puzzle game which, its
makers promise, can cause irreversible mental damage if played long enough.
(Requires the Nintendo Electric Drill Fun Pak add-on.)
Tekken ‘Beat’ Cop Challenge is a martial arts game for the Playstation 2 based
on the popular Yakuza films of Japanese director Takeshi Kitano. The game has
caused controversy in Japan with its gruesomely realistic images of gang violence,
punctuated by scenes of complete stillness and natural beauty.
Dogme 95 Supermarket Trolley Simulator is one of the less controversial
titles, but is expected to have limited appeal due to the makers’ insistence on only
using two colours for the graphics. Players control a shopping trolley which
moves around a computer-generated supermarket picking up items from the
shelves.
Meanwhile, Sega’s David Cronenberg Crash Season 3000 has already been
banned in the UK.