The upcoming G.I. Joe video game won't rely on just the movie, instead the game will tap into 45 years of history, from comics to toys to the cartoons, the developers say.
"It wouldn't work if we just followed what was presented in the movie, which is an origins film, to have a fun gameplay you want to get right in and start blasting away at Cobras," said Jason Enos, senior product manager for the game.
So the game, slated to hit a day or two before the Aug. 7 movie, will start off where the movie ends.
Players will take on the roll of one of the dozen Joe characters playable in the game and, because G.I. Joe is all about teamwork, the game will always have two characters on screen at a time. With two-player drop-in coop, it can be a single player or multiplayer game.
But, Enos said, there won't be support for online coop.
The game plays from an odd angle, with the characters seen from a quasi-isometric view, and typically playing up, almost into the screen. Movement is done with the left thumbstick and targeting with the right.
The controller's right trigger shoots, the X button is a melee attack. Special attacks are performed with the B button and you strafe with the left trigger.
Auto-targeting reticules show who is aiming at who. An enemy has either a green or orange reticule on them if they are targeted. If they have a yellow reticule, than both players are targeting the enemy.
The game also has features the accelerator suits from the movie which temporarily make the characters invincible. The suits also can shoot missiles, rail guns and give characters boosts of speed.
You can swap characters as you play, by finding and getting into a swap chamber during the mission, but all 12 characters are not unlocked initially.
The game's characters are broken into three types, heavy, combat and commando, each of which have some special abilities needed to get into certain areas, much like what was seen in the LEGO games.
G.I. Joe features 20 missions, four PSAs and 75 file cards hidden throughout the game. At one point you will also switch over to the side of Cobra to play some missions. The game can also be replayed as some of the Cobra characters.
The game has three modes, casual, advance and hardcore. When played in casual you have infinite lives. In advance, lives work a bit like Left 4 Dead, with characters returning after you hit a check point. In Hardcore, once you're dead, you're dead.
The game is due out on the DS, mobile, PSP, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. The Wii version, Enos said, will include some motion controls. For instance, the game will say "Yo, Joe" when you hold the remote in the air and some of Snake Eyes attacks will be performed by slashing with the remote.