Introduction

Yes, the upcoming third X-Men movie subtitled The Last Stand will have a movie tie-in game from longtime X-Men game publisher Activision that will be titled (somewhat unoriginally) X-Men: The Official Game. However, this movie tie-in will be different than the normal game of this genre as it won't be a straight adaptation, but a game that takes place in-between the second and third X-Men movies.

On top of that the script for the game is being co-written by long time X-Men comic book scripter Chris Claremont and Zach Penn who co-wrote the second and third films. FiringSquad got a chance to ask some questions to Z-Axis, the developer of the game and got responses from lead game designer Jason VandenBeghe and executive producer Scott Bandy.

FiringSquad: First, how did the idea come about to make the X-Men movie game a kind of X-Men 2.5 project?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: It was actually a natural fit; constraining gameplay to movie events is often tricky, and it means that the player isn’t getting anything new for their gaming dollars. Setting the events of the game between both films solved a bunch of problems for us logistically, and gave us the creative freedom to expand the X-Men canon.

FiringSquad: How did you get Chris Claremont to come on board to write the script for the game?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: Both Chris Claremont and Zach Penn (the screenwriter for X2 and X3) were actually very interested in our project from the start; it really didn’t take much convincing.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us at this point about the storyline for the game and how it relates to X-Men 2 and X-Men 3?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: Our story fits neatly between the second and third films, and is a “prelude” of sorts to X-Men: The Last Stand. We set up events that unfold in the third film, and have an opportunity to explain some elements of that film more completely (such as why Nightcrawler is no longer with the team).


FiringSquad: The game will have three playable characters; Iceman, Nightcrawler and Wolverine. Why were these characters chosen and what sort of abilities will they have?

Jason VandenBeghe and Scoff Bandy: We chose each character for different reasons, but our goal was to have as diverse a roster as we could muster. Super hero games often give you a palette of heroes to choose from, but under the hood those are just different skins on the same gameplay. We wanted to make each character we picked be as complete and as unique as we could make them.

Thus, when you play our Wolverine, you’ll be playing the most complete Wolverine we can give you. You’ll have access to his full regeneration powers from the beginning, his claws, his strength; Wolverine is quite possibly the best melee fighter in the Marvel universe, and we want you to feel that powerful when you play as Wolverine.

When you play our Nightcrawler, you’ll have his full teleportation powers. We wanted to re-create the Oval Office scene from the beginning of the second movie, and we think the results speak for themselves. You’ll be able to teleport to objects any time you like, and in combat if you keep moving, you’ll be nearly untouchable.

When you play our Iceman, you’ll be sliding through the air on his ice slide with a freedom that only Iceman has, and you’ll be able to freeze nearly anything you can see. We think of Iceman’s gameplay as “combat snowboarding”, and we think you’ll like it.