HERCULES - Athletic Organizations - http://maxpages.com/thebigshow2000/HERCULES

Titus seems to have the market cornered
when it comes to icons of heroism. With
Superman, Xena, Warrior Princess and
Hercules characters under license, N64

owners should have no problems when it
comes to saving the world. Unless the
French company makes the same mistake
twice, Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys should be leaps and bounds
better than the "videogame atrocity" that
was Superman: The New Superman
Adventures.

Hercules is based on the campy
adventure show in the same vein as Xena:
Warrior Princess (another Titus game due
in December) that has become extremely
popular thanks to the wonders of
syndication. Even though, leading actor
Kevin Sorbo is leaving the show for a shot
at the big screen (shudder), fans of the
program will be able to re-enact some of
the loopy adventures and maybe even get
a taste of that tongue-in-cheek humor that
made it such a television force.

The game is early in development, so
concrete facts are difficult to come by.
We do know that it'll be a 3D adventure
game with some RPG elements. Cast as
the mighty son of Zeus, our hero must
liberate dad from his evil uncle Ares, God
of War, and banish some of those nasty
Titans back to wherever they're from.
Along the way we expect Herc to
encounter some of his mates from the
show like Iolas and Jason. There will be
opportunities for Hercules to interact with

other characters in the game beyond
bashing their faces in. We presume he'll
have to use a little diplomacy and actually
talk when he comes across random
villagers, travellers and ogres.

Hercules is being developed by Player 1,
the same team behind Robotron 64 and
Milo's Astro Lanes. Each of those
games had the same problem of extreme
mediocrity with nothing in the game to
really grab a gamer's attention. With the
debacle of Superman already on their
record, another subpar effort could really
damage Titus' vulnerable reputation.

There was speculation that Titus was
developing RPG games for based on both
Xena and Hercules that would somehow
be able to crosslink with each other. The idea was to have a game for
Xena (or Hercules) where a player advances and builds a character that
can then be saved to a Memory Pak. That character could be then
unleashed into the world of Hercules (or Xena) and operate their advanced
characters in that other world. Just like on the television show. However,
and that's a big "however", there's no confirmation whether or not
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is that RPG game, nor is there any
evidence that Titus would actually be able to pull off such a complicated
and improbable game. It would be deep into the year 2000 before the
release of such games since it is confirmed that Xena, Warrior Princess:
The Talisman of Fate is a fighter and not and RPG.

Outlook: Hercules could be a fine 3D adventure game if Player1 follows
the path set by successful titles that have come before it like Castlevania
64 or the third person levels in Shadows of the Empire. Many N64
owners complain about a lack of mature titles, and here's one that doesn't
have brightly colored cartoons, but it'll still be a challenge to make the
game fun if it's going to have highly detailed characters like we expect it
too. As long as it's not another Superman, Hercules should be okay.

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Page Updated Mon Jun 14, 1999 10:38pm EDT