For the little Steven Spielberg in you all
It’s no secret that I love movies, I talk about them on the podcast all the time, I want to start my own movie podcast for real…I mean I worked in the movie theater industry for a little bit over a decade; I love me some movies. Back in the day, which was a Wednesday if you were curious; there was a video game called The Movies. It was created by Lionhead Studios, whom you may know from Fable fame; The Movies tasked players with creating a movie studio and creating short films; in fact, it featured an online service where players could share their movies with each other, essentially it was YouTube, before there was YouTube. I absolutely loved it, so when I saw Super Sly Fox’s Blockbuster Inc, I was instantly in.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
Blockbuster Inc. feels like the sequel to The Movies that we never got, just as in that old game in Blockbuster, players will be tasked with choosing an era and running a movie studio. Players will literally design each building from the ground up, hire writers, producers and other personally, deal with actors and their moods, all while trying to turn a profit. Right off the bat, Blockbuster Inc. evokes a familiar feeling as its aesthetics are extremely similar to that of The Sims. Players will construct buildings using a grid, simple drag and drop; specific rooms are thankfully separated in the menus so players can easily create a producer’s office or a writer’s room just based on equipment placed. For those who may not want to build each room the game also offers prebuilt rooms with everything needed to get going except the human.
Just building fancy offices and sets won’t cut it, players will have to hire and develop top talent to make their studio successful. This is all handled via the ‘hiring tab’ in game and gives players the chance to check out each candidate. Each person has traits that will bring a different vibe to the studio, not all of these are positive of course but that only adds some drama. Since this is a game about making money at the end of the day players will have to balance their hires between unknowns who of course will be cheaper but less experienced and the A-list talent; which demands a premium in pay but will make the movie better overall, decisions, decisions.
I’m not kidding when I say that the possibilities are endless in Blockbuster Inc. Players have the freedom and tools to create a movie of their dreams. With a large variety of costumes, sets and more at their disposal there are thousands of films to be made here. It can be almost overwhelming if I’m honest, however the game has a great tutorial that will help to ease players into the swing of things. I loved my time with Blockbuster Inc, filled that hole that The Movies had left so long ago. Its awesome to see this underserved genre in gaming seeing a resurgence; Hollywood Animal, Movie Tycoon among others, has fans of movie-making games eating good this year. Don’t sleep on Blockbuster Inc, as the first one out the gate; its an utter blast to play and create movies in this world.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
