THQ's Muscles Swell With the Power of Grayskull

[Tom Goldman]

THQ's Muscles Swell With the Power of Grayskull

THQ has signed a new deal to bring classic Mattel properties such as He-Man to videogames.

THQ and Mattel have agreed to a new multi-year alliance that will see many new toy properties converted to videogame form. He-Man [http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Fashion-Fairytale-Transforming-Doll/dp/B003FZAADY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294239710&sr=8-2] is a notable part of the contract with THQ.

Part of the deal between the videogame publisher and the toy giant includes videogames based on the Masters of the Universe brand, which features characters such as He-Man, She-Ra, Skeletor, and black mage lookalike Orko. Other properties named are Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Polly Pocket, Monster High, and more.

Using these franchises, THQ plans to develop games for multiple platforms including consoles, handhelds, mobile devices, social networks, and digitial distribution portals like Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. It'll also delve into Mattel's brands to create new content for drawing tablet peripheral [http://www.amazon.com/uDraw-Studio-Game-Tablet-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003ZTTCBQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294238886&sr=8-1] for the Wii.

So unless you were in love with PS2 era [http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Horse-Adventures-Riding-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001AZ7RMS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294238989&sr=8-1].

He-Man is a property that has been largely ignored by the videogame industry, with only a handful of titles released featuring the man that is a he over the past thirty years. It's baffling, because he's a giant guy with a sword that battles a man with a skull for a face, a premise ripe for videogame use.

THQ and Mattel are already developing certain games based on these properties, with plans to announce them throughout 2011. The two hope to have the first titles from the deal on retail shelves by the holiday season.

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[The Cheezy One]

THQ are my favourite publisher, pumping out strong titles like dawn of war, STALKER SoC and Company of Heroes. But I may give these a miss

 

[teh_Canape]

as long as they don't bring back the animated movie's He-Man

Spoiler

what works for my sister, works for me
god that quote still haunts me

but still, nostalgia is taking over me, so yeah, I'll keep an eye on this

 

[ASnogarD]

Sounds like some publishers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for franchises, heres an idea: Inovate, make something new , take a chance and stop relying on 'safe' franchises that had a proven record.

... besides , those who used to watch He Man wouldnt want a modern game version of that cartoon as He Man was the ultimate goody doer about with a empahises on family viewing safety.
Younger players wouldnt understand the appeal of a Conan like dude who doesnt chop up his foes is glorious bloody chunky battle after downing flagons of ale and hours of wenching.

 

[CaptainCrunch]

... besides , those who used to watch He Man wouldnt want a modern game version of that cartoon as He Man was the ultimate goody doer about with a empahises on family viewing safety.
Younger players wouldnt understand the appeal of a Conan like dude who doesnt chop up his foes is glorious bloody chunky battle after downing flagons of ale and hours of wenching.

Dude, New He-Man is pretty friggin' badass too. 2002 wasn't that long ago.
<youtube=CTHUJDc2ZV4> @3:00 for awesome backstory element

 

[DTWolfwood]

different publisher doesn't necessarily mean different developers.

Robot Chicken's skit with Man at Arms and whatsherface was hilarious XD

Still the whole thing reeks of shovelware

 

[SonicWaffle]

Sounds like some publishers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for franchises, heres an idea: Inovate, make something new , take a chance and stop relying on 'safe' franchises that had a proven record.

Is He-Man really a "safe" franchise? It's mostly forgotten these days except by we geeks, who like to revel in nostalgia like a pig in shit. It has the potential for being a decent game - burly dude with sword fights magic skeleton - but nothing to make it stand out except the aforementioned fading nostalgia.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Robot Chicken's skit with Man at Arms and whatsherface was hilarious XD

Pfft, it is nothing compared to the might of Mo-larr, Eternian dentist!

"How come Beastman got the dental floss and I got a fucking drill in my eye?!" cracks me up every time :-D

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

THQ is by far my favourite publisher and these sound like they'd be XBLA games... I'd definitely try them out.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Needs to be done

... besides , those who used to watch He Man wouldnt want a modern game version of that cartoon as He Man was the ultimate goody doer about with a empahises on family viewing safety.

Seriously, we didn't even believe the He-Man mythos then. It was all about Skeletor. Prince Adam had a pink sword for god's sake, and Teela/The Sorceress had very interesting...tracts of land.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Robot Chicken's skit with Man at Arms and whatsherface was hilarious XD

Pfft, it is nothing compared to the might of Mo-larr, Eternian dentist!

"How come Beastman got the dental floss and I got a fucking drill in my eye?!" cracks me up every time :-D

I always liked the one where He-Man threatens to skull-fuck Skeletor.

Is it me or does He-Man seem like a kid's friendly version of Conan?

 

[T-Bone24]

So, you could say that fabulous secret powers have been bestowed upon THQ?

 

[BioHazardMan]

I hate when people tell publishers to "stop using the safe franchises". Why? To risk losing sales if a new IP flops? Doesn't make sense from a business standpoint if people keeping on buying the next installments of their franchises.

 

[ASnogarD]

I dont get why people are so worried about new IP's flopping... I mean its not like the designer takes an entire team and a few years to test out a new mechanic or innovation and then release it to see if its any good, they will code some tests for the mechanic / innovation and present that to a team to see if its intresting enough to run with.

The indies play with ideas all the time, some flop others fly but none costs millions because they are done on the cheap, so surely a commercial dev studio can put together some concepts and ideas together and come up with new IP's ?

I personally think big publishers dont simply because they dont have to, why bother when CoD 36 : Moderner Warfarer Again , for another time with more killstreaks will sell for millions anyways.

Its the gamers fault for the lack of innovation, if you keep buying shit there aint no impetus to make anything better than shit.

We have been here before , the games industry , the last time the industry crashed .

 

[Don't taze me bro]

Man, I used to love He-Man as a kid. I was a big fan of the cartoon and had so many of the figurines. Now, I could hardly bear to watch the opening trailer someone linked earlier. It's so... camp.

 

[Cyberjester]

Sounds like some publishers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for franchises, heres an idea: Inovate, make something new , take a chance and stop relying on 'safe' franchises that had a proven record.

Is He-Man really a "safe" franchise? It's mostly forgotten these days except by we geeks, who like to revel in nostalgia like a pig in shit. It has the potential for being a decent game - burly dude with sword fights magic skeleton - but nothing to make it stand out except the aforementioned fading nostalgia.

Not really, everyone knows what you're talking about when you say He-Man.

It's also old fashioned, terrible, run away, oh god my eyes.. Etc.

No-one I know likes it. I'm assuming I'm not an anomaly, so if that was the opinion of the general public, it would make sense why they wouldn't have made as many games. Especially when they can use Conan. Still old, but people actually like Conan.

On topic, there's been a few games of each of these, enough that it shouldn't be news and Ubisoft shouldn't be wasting money on it. Granted, Hot Wheels was pretty cool at the time, but that's about it.

If they ditched these games, they could reduce costs, which means Dawn of War Retribution could be cheaper. 'dreams away'

 

[SonicWaffle]

Not really, everyone knows what you're talking about when you say He-Man.

Everyone knows what you mean when you say Tubgirl, but you wouldn't make a game out of it...

No-one I know likes it. I'm assuming I'm not an anomaly, so if that was the opinion of the general public, it would make sense why they wouldn't have made as many games. Especially when they can use Conan. Still old, but people actually like Conan.

Speaking for the British here, fuck Conan. I want a Thundercats game! Now that could be fucking epic! It was so much bigger over here than He-Man, though I have no idea why

If they ditched these games, they could reduce costs, which means Dawn of War Retribution could be cheaper. 'dreams away'

If they ditched these games they also reduce potential profits, which could mean they'd have more money to spend on your favourites!