I often hear longtime platformer fans complain they don't make 'em like they used to, and bemoan the perceived "selling out" of their favorite mascot franchises, when all they want is the great gap-skipping of old that they remember from their younger days.

Most of us were kids during the 3D platformer heyday. So maybe, though, just maybe, if any of those games were to be released today, we'd say they looked like children's games. Brash Entertainment's upcoming Space Chimps film tie-in platformer is a kids' game, and giving it a whirl today was what made me think about days of yore.

It doesn't look too fancy, and it's aimed to be friendly to the younger set. But it sure took me back a bit, which was a surprisingly fun experience.

Space Chimps is hitting Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PS2 on July 15th, just a bit ahead of the film. I was only vaguely aware there was a film - it's summertime, after all, and between Kung-Fu Panda and Wall-E, I asked the rep if Brash was a little bit concerned about the release timing. Why not wait until there's a bit more of a lull in the mascot-led, kid-friendly animated flicks?

"I do think with school out, we'll be in good shape," she told me.

The game's based on the upcoming film, and features animated cutscenes from it, which looked adorable on the Xbox 360. The basic premise is that a pair of NASA chimps, descendants of the very first space monkeys, find themselves on an alien planet, tasked with rescuing its citizens from the rule of an evil overworld.

The Space Chimps game lets you play as either Ham the Third, the male monkey, or Luna, his female cohort, depending on what sequence you're playing through. Ham can brawl and do a sort of diving headbutt, while Luna soon picks up a little lizard buddy (exclusive to the game) who can ride on her sleeve and act as a first-person gun. There are also little exploding red dudes called Plodeys that you can pick up to hurl at walls to open new doors and solve puzzles.

After clearing an area with Ham, by beating up some spear-toting hostile aliens and opening my way forward with a Plodey, I got to navigate Luna through a cavern of rivers and floes. Leaping on chunks of stone as they fell down a waterfall (that was either hot, or poisonous, or just generally hazardous enough to induce death) reminded me of the simplicity of the early 3D platformers - and the frustration, too, which was not necessarily a bad thing.

With Luna, I knocked off the head of a statue and carried it to a button, which would keep the platform I needed from sinking. The whole works was old-school, and nothing real snazzy to look at, but the chimps look cute, the film looks like it could be lots of fun, to the extent that those character flicks always do, and I was surprised at how long I spent playing it.

Maybe I miss my roots? What do you guys think - do you miss the old 3D platformers? Think your current age has anything to do with it? Would you play a "kids' game" if it reminded you of what you used to enjoy?

The publisher has deals in place with developers Factor 5 and Game Republic to work on unannounced movie tie-ins and the publisher is behind a Saw video game, but we have to be worried for Brash's fate. Alvin & the Chipmunks reportedly sold well to the shovelware buying crowd, but it appears that Jumper: Griffin's Story only sold 16,000 copies. Ouch.

Changes at the top of Brash; Jumper sold 16,000 units [The Cut Scene]

We're already working on a title that is more than two years out, and because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude. It's been really fun to dig deep into this universe.

Brash Entertainment Signs Multi-Game Development Deal With Factor 5

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 13 /PRNewswire/ — Brash Entertainment today announced a game development deal with California-based game development studio, Factor 5. Under the terms of the worldwide agreement, the partners will collaborate on an unnamed title releasing in 2010 to be announced around the E3 Expo in July.

In addition to creating the multi-million selling STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON franchise, INDIANA JONES, CONTRA: THE ALIEN WARS, LAIR and the classic TURRICAN franchise, Factor 5 is well respected for driving the technology of games. Factor 5 was a technology partner in the development of Nintendo's Wii and GameCube consoles, provider of the MusyX sound tools, partner in the Sony PlayStation 3 Edge toolset group, and has pioneered many technological advancements in the areas of audio and visuals in video games in collaboration with Dolby Labs, THX, and AMD/ATI.

"We do our due diligence on potential partners; we want to understand their in-house tech, and get to know their team and its capabilities. Factor 5 has a solid track record in creating licensed games that, in combination with their technology expertise, makes them an ideal partner," said Mitch Davis. "But what really cemented the collaboration was their passion for the IP and the world in which the game will live. Because that's when you are going to get really good games — when the people who are making it are really enjoying the process."

"Typically, there are two issues developers have with making a licensed game. First, they tend to have shorter development cycles. Second, there are often very tight constraints on how you can portray the world of the
IP, its characters and story. The resulting lack of creative freedom can be very frustrating — especially when it's a world you are excited to explore," said Julian Eggebrecht, President and Co-founder of Factor 5. "But collaborating with Brash is much different, we're already working on a title that is more than two years out, and because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude. It's been really fun to dig deep into this universe."

"In collaborating with Brash, we were introduced to a very compelling fictional world and given the freedom to expand it through the game. We are working directly with the creative talent from the film, and feel that the close collaboration will result in an amazing game play experience that immerses the player in an incredible fantasy world."

Brash Entertainment Partners with Game Republic, Inc.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 12 /PRNewswire/ — Today Brash Entertainment announced a game development deal with Game Republic, Inc., the Japan-based studio led by famed game producer Yoshiki Okamoto. Under the terms of the worldwide agreement, the partners will collaborate on an unannounced game based on a popular Hollywood film. The game will release in 2010.

Game Republic, Inc. was founded in 2003 under the leadership of industry visionary, Yoshiki Okamoto. A 20-year veteran of the game industry, Game Republic, Inc. CEO Okamoto has had a dramatic impact on the styles of gameplay prevalent in modern titles and is credited with pioneering new genres including "one-on-one fighting" with Street Fighter II and "survival horror" with Resident Evil. In addition, his teams have delivered such popular franchises as Lost Planet, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Darkstalkers and many more.

"As a gamer, I am extremely excited to work with Okamoto-san, who has produced some of my favorite games," said Brash co-founder and CEO Mitch Davis. "The Brash business gives us the luxury to match the best Hollywood IP with the skills of the most talented independent game developers; our partnership with a strong studio such as Game Republic, Inc. is an excellent example of that."

"One of my goals with games is to do something revolutionary with something that has been never been seen before. The opportunity to re-imagine a fictional world provided by a compelling Hollywood IP using the interactive medium of games is very exciting to me," said Okamoto. "In collaborating with Brash, we were introduced to a very compelling fictional world and given the freedom to expand it through the game. We are working directly with the creative talent from the film, and feel that the close collaboration will result in an amazing game play experience that immerses the player in an incredible fantasy world."

Leigh and I are very excited about this new venture. We are big gaming fans and we think it would a great opportunity to continue the SAW legacy into a different platform/medium. Keeps things fresh for us anyway. A lot of people have asked us if we would be interested in writing another SAW movie...well, we are writing another SAW story...but it's for the game. We're treating this story like the SAW movies with lots of twists and turns. We have no idea how that is going to apply to a computer game format, considering that most games are generally pretty simple in it's plotting. Maybe its a good thing that Leigh and I are naive to the video game world and that we're writing it like its a movie!

Ah yes, ignorance is bliss, and could make for a relatively blissful video game version of Saw, at least until the game developers get a hold of the script and pull a more horrifying hack job on it than anything Jigsaw could have come up with.

Still, it's good to see such an important person to the franchise working on the game. It's not every day you get the creator of a movie working on a video game adaptation, much less the creator who is also the executive producer of the most popular horror franchise of the last few years.

The New Year - 2008 [James Wan's MySpace Blog - Via WhatUpThug]

And then they started licensing the awesome concept for video games!! Due out on Halloween October 2009 for Xbox 360 and PS3, we CAN'T WAIT! Developed by Brash Entertainment with the Unreal Engine 3, supposedly the game will be the result of close movie to game studio collaboration.

Oh, and to all the Saw fans. I'm sorry. (Not about this post, but that you've been sucked into liking crappy movies.) Oh, I kid. I love you all and have already judged you as perfect for reading my ramblings.

WhoIsJigsaw [Official Site via GameLife]

BRASH Entertainment ANNOUNCES JUMPER VIDEO GAME IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX, BRASH BRINGS THE NEXT science fiction-ACTION-thriller TO A CONSOLE NEAR YOU

Hollywood, Calif. - November 13, 2007 - Brash Entertainment announced today the development of a Jumper video game, to release alongside the film of the same name from Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises. Jumper is the eagerly anticipated science fiction-action-thriller directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), and starring Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Jumpers, people with a genetic anomaly that enables them to teleport themselves instantaneously to anywhere on the globe, have existed for centuries. An age-old battle rages between the Jumpers and the Paladins, a clandestine organization set on eliminating them from the planet. The Jumper game extends the film's storyline, following Griffin, a battle-hardened Jumper determined to avenge the death of his parents at the hands of the Paladins. Griffin's quest to find the killer spans exotic locales around the world.

"Jumper is shaping up to be the action adventure film of 2008, and Brash is excited to be there, at the beginning, with a game that further explores the Jumper universe," said Mitch Davis, co-founder and CEO of Brash Entertainment. "We've been working closely with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox to create a game that delves into the world of the Jumpers and the Paladins."

"When you combine all of the talent associated with this film and infuse it with one of the best action film minds today in Doug Liman you know that you're in store for one thrilling experience," said Elie Dekel, Executive Vice President, Licensing & Merchandising of Twentieth Century Fox. "Brash will take all of these elements to create a top-notch video game experience that will keep gamers on the edge of their seats."

The Jumper video game will be available for the PLAYSTATION®2 computer entertainment system, the Wii™ videogame system from Nintendo, and XBOX™ 360. The game is scheduled to ship February 12, 2008 followed by the theatrical release on February 15, 2008 and has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information about the movie please visit http://www.jumperthemovie.com/.

In a setup similar to Guitar Hero's venue progression, the squirrel-like annoyances will screech their way from high school gyms to Burning Man. Despite our once unabashed love for both the former show and movie, we're now older, wiser and way more knowledgeable about studio enhancement. You lied to us, Alvin. And we'll never forgive you for it.

Brash To Publish Alvin And The Chipmunks Rhythm Game [gamasutra]

Red Herring did some snooping around about new gaming startup Brash Entertainment that is scrounging around for $150 million to let them create 60 to 100 games based on books, movies and music.

Ryan Olson did some digging around and couldn't find a damn thing about the company recently profiled in teh Atlanta Business Journal.

He did manage to track down one of the company's officers and the PR agency handling the company's eventual launch, but no one would say word one to him. Well, not true, they did say no comment.

The PR company did say that a lot of the information out there is speculative or wrong, but didn't bother to say what was which.

So if all else fails, go to another game company CEO for some fun quotes, like, say, Gamecock's Mike Wilson:

"It sounds like a grand disaster anyway... a bunch of guys from outside the business thinking throwing wads of money after big name licenses and then finding teams willing to do the games is 'less risky.' They are nuts," Gamecock CEO Mike Wilson told me via email.

Indeed. Brian Crecente

Brash a $150M disaster [Red Herring]