Speed Racer: The Videogame

Jos Ruffel, business development executive at Sidhe Interactive, has spoken out about the company's experience creating the Speed Racer game, saying the title's success was hampered by the movie's poor reviews. Speaking on the Licensed Game Process panel at GCDC, Ruffel discussed what it was like to develop a game based upon a movie license which was better received. He explained that, despite overall good reviews, the game suffered from the unpopularity of its film counterpart. When you make a game based on a license you really are playing roulette - you don't know how the film is going play out in the market, he said.

Speed Racer: The Videogame, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, hits stores across North America today on Wii and Nintendo DS. Based on the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film directed by the Wachowski brothers, Speed Racer: The Videogame features the voices of Emile Hirsch as Speed Racer, Matthew Fox as Racer X and Christina Ricci as Trixie, who reprise their film roles as playable characters.

Gamertell is reporting that retail chain Target has starting putting out a Speed Racer-themed gift card that has a USB 2.0 Flash drive built in. The 60+ MB Flash drive comes preloaded with Speed Racer promotional files including coupons, wallpaper, coloring pages and a cheat code (which Gamertell provides) for the Wii version of the game.

Warner Brothers Interactive revealed a video game tie-in for the upcoming Speed Racer live-action film in 2008. The video game will be developed by Sidhe Interactive, who created the racing-puzzle PSP, PSN and XBL title GripShift. Sidhe will be working closely with the film crew to stay as accurate to the film as possible. The film is adapted from the 1960s Japanese animated series and will be directed by the Wachowski brothers (i.e., The Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta.) The film will star Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door) as Speed, Christina Ricci as Trixie, John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Speed's parents, Matthew Fox as Racer X, and the Korean pop singer Rain as Taejo. The Wii and DS versions of Speed Racer will be available when the film comes out on May 8, 2008. The PS2 version will be available when the DVD is released.

The idea that the notorious Wachowski Brothers would end up making a 'family film' based on 1960s Japanese anime, Speed Racer, seems to be one of those odd outworkings of the film business. In May 2008 film-goers will be able to hand over their cash to go and see the story of the eponymous young driver and his all-wonder-car Mach 5 entering The Crucible cross-country race in order to save the family auto firm. As for the game based on the movie, there's very little information currently available. It is likely, however, that it may involve a combination of racing and the various gadgets that Mach 5 comes fitted with.

Warner Bros. Entertainment has announced Speed Racer for Wii, DS and PS2. If it's like the show we remember, it'll be coming to those systems speedily. At least if you consider speedily to be around the same time as the 2008 major motion picture release for the Wii and DS versions of the game, and the film's DVD release for the PS2. The game will be based not on the cartoon that we know and love. Instead it'll follow the story of the upcoming Wachowski brothers' movie (based on the show)