Heroes fans – wait! Before you pee all over in your pants in excitement, let me clear this. There is no such game in the works…as of now. But considering I have tons of free time, I decided that it won’t hurt to speculate a bit about the possibility of one such game. Now I won’t claim that the original idea was mine. In fact, I happened to stumble upon a discussion at the 9th Wonders forums, a fan forum dedicated to Heroes, the hottest new show on the box right now.

The story of Heroes deals with the life of a few individuals who wake up one fine day to discover that nature has decided to do a Darwin on them. From spontaneous cellular regeneration to doing a Superman and taking to the skies, they can do it all. Throw in a super villain hell bent on acquiring all the powers, even if that comes at the cost of living on a diet of brains, and a future vision of New York destroyed in one humungous explosion and you have got some compelling prime television there.

Now with the TRP ratings shooting through the sky, the series is a gold mine for the producers to milk dry. So it wont be surprising if we soon see a nice box packed “Heroes – The Game” or something similar sitting pretty on the shelf one of these days. But the question is, do we need such a game?

Traditionally, very few TV shows have translated well into games based on them. 24, a highly rated show didn’t live up to the expectations once it was made into a game. Similarly, CSI has got a couple of games out in the market but nothing that could match the actual show. So when someone asked about a Heroes game in the above mentioned forum, fans were similarly divided in opinion as to whether there should be one at all.

On the positive side, the show’s theme lends well to a game. Any character that can fly faster than the Blue Caped hero or turn invisible ala The Invisible Man or even go up in a mushroom cloud once the insanity meter explodes can be translated on to the video game screen. Believers say that the proposed game would be a great way to tie in the viewers with the show by offering parallel story lines. Gamers can create their own unique characters with powers of their own choice and join the quest to “Save The World”. Who wouldn’t love to stop time and go around saving people ala Hiro Nakamura? Of course I would be doing some things questionable but let’s leave that aside for the moment. The presentation style of the show is like a comic with an overarching theme encompassing all the characters at the same time. Similarly the game can borrow these factors to enable the gamer to be a part of the quest, form a brotherhood with the other heroes and take on the Evil. It could also be in the mould of an RPG where the characters level up, which could be in reference to the characters on the show slowly realizing and refining their abilities. The possibilities are endless but there is one question that the naysayers of the game are asking.

Will they be able to pull it off? Many have tried before and failed miserably. Besides, they point out that the show is still in its nascent state. The show scores on the drama front but will it translate well if converted into a game? What will Mohinder do besides going around with The List and talking to people? What will Peter do besides leaping off buildings and pushing off the bangs off his face? Simply put, there will be many characters with awesome potential but nothing really there to do in the game. That will be something like the death knell for a promising game. Maybe once the action parts of the show pick up, the game would be more feasible but as of now, it should be left alone.

With both the sides putting forth valid arguments, its really difficult to make the decision right now. A game will be there at some point of time is a forgone conclusion. The base line is, will YOU be buying it?

Thanks to all the members on The 9th Wonders Boards for the great discussion.

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By N2H

• Reginald Miranda Says:
  April 7th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

  GODDAMN! You’re on a roll here arent you?!!
  A Heroes game sure would be fine - just as long as they dont make it like the Justice League game or something.

  I’d really like to think of it as something where you have abilities and you’d use multiple abilities at the same time or combinations of them.

  Its hard to explain - but think Kameo