Activision announces Men in Black game

The new Men in Black movie might be experiencing production problems (word is the script needed mid-shoot rewrites, so you know it's good), but that hasn't stopped Activision from assembling together a team of highly-skilled agents to work on a game based on the franchise. Today, the Call of Duty publisher revealed that they're putting together a Men in Black game and aiming it for a Spring 2012 release date... as long as the movie finishes in time. You know, if they're able to find funny things for Will Smith to say as he shoots aliens and talks to a dog.

“The Men In Black franchise is an unbeatable starting point to deliver a genre-bending gaming experience with a level of production value on par with Hollywood,” said David Oxford, Executive Vice President of Activision Publishing. In the press release, Activision promises an experience that will stay true to the spirit of the franchise, with action-packed gameplay intertwined with a lighthearted tone.

Activision didn't go into any additional details on what the game will actually entail, and the images released so far don't really give us the most in-depth look, either. The only interesting thing that can be discerned is that it doesn't look like the player is going to be playing as Will Smith's character, at least not all the time. The guy in the first image is likely either a young Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black III's plot involves time traveling) or a new character entirely. If it's a new character, maybe they're going to make a Mass Effect-style game – that would actually work, and be quite interesting.

For as easy as it is to be negative about Activision making a game based on a dated movie franchise, we can't forget how surprisingly good X-Men Origins: Wolverine was. It's been a few years, they're totally due for another fluke success, right?

Oct 13, 2011