Celebs got to gaming

Getting to play with characters that look like your favorite celebs sure can get things quite exciting in a game.

What’s popular with the masses, is popular with gamers too! This is the mantra followed by the gaming industry to include game characters inspired by celebrities in their games. So movie stars, sports icons, popular singers…all have been featured, digitised and immortalised in video games as game characters.

Recently Bipasha Basu was featured as a character in the game Beach Blaze by Zapak. Before that, gamers have had a taste of Salman Khan as well. But the real action so far has been in the west. Let’s take a look.

In pictures: Bipasha in mobile game

Several game developers, in their bid to cash in on Hollywood hit movies have made movie-based games in collaboration with movie studios. These games feature characters from a hit movie. For example, the Matrix game series featured game characters based on Jada Pinkett-Smith, Keanu Reeves and other stars from the movie series. Nightfire, a video shooter game based on James Bond, and had the 007 look like Pierce Brosnan, who starred in Bond movies at the time.

Movie-based games or licensed games as they are called are usually released shortly after the movie has been released, to cash in on the popularity of the movie. Sometimes the game can be based on a movie released much earlier too. For instance, the game, "To Russia With Love" developed by EA, featured Sean Connery’s likeness as the game character of James Bond. Or the game Godfather features likenesses of quite a few of the original cast of the cult movie, including that of the late Marlon Brando.

Game developers have also started collaborating with TV studios to make licensed games based on hit TV shows. These include 24: The Game, is based on the hit TV series, 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Another aspect of developing licensed game development is to have a celebrity endorse the game and be a part of the game, which is based on their area of expertise. These games are usually named after the celebrity endorsing it, and feature a digitised likeness of the celebrity. For example Tiger Woods who features in the Tiger Woods PGA tour game series, Tony Hawk and other pro skaters featured in Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series etc.

Game developers sometimes model their game characters after celebrities as a tribute to their legendary status. The game characters of Marshall Law and Forrest Law in the Tekken fighting game series are a good example of this. They have been modelled as a tribute to the martial arts legend Bruce Lee. The characters even feature Bruce Lee’s the signature style high-pitched shouts and exclamations along with his characteristic Jeet Kune Do moves and attacks.

Some game makers tend to look to celebrities for inspiration to base their game characters on. They may go about it two ways; the official route or the unofficial route. Following the official route means obtaining the images, specifications, help, and permission of the celebrities. For instance, the game The Sims: Superstar Expansion features celeb game characters like Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne and Andy Worhol.

Taking the unofficial route means modelling the game character after the celebrity from available imagery and information and not officially acknowledging the fact. Good examples of this are the strong resemblance between game character and celebs. For instance, Leon from the Resident Evil series is modeled after David Bowie, Snake from Metal Gear series games looks like Kurt Russel, while Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat series looks like Jean Claude Van Damme.

Games get a lot spicier with a dash of a celeb look-alike! Let’s look forward to more such games.

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