MCM Expo: Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters Breaks The Mold Of Video Game Movies

Lets face it. These days, movie Video Game tie-ins are notorious for being cheap cash-ins, with poor gameplay and even worse graphics. I've seen the best and the worst, but they tend to be medocre products not worthy of gamers time and money. So when the Rise of the Manhunters was announced I had conflicting feelings: I'm a huge Green Lantern but I was worried the product just wouldn't stand up to the challenge. After playing it at MCM Expo, I can confirm that Rise of the Manhunters is, in fact, one of the best tie-ins I've played in years.

Green Lantern plays like God Of War with power rings, allowing you to buy and upgrade abilities.

I was playing a section, taking control of Hal as he fought hoards of Manhunters, setting up towers for their nefarious purposes. The game had me hack & slash away at Manhunters whilst trying to destory the towers. One problem I had was how repetitive this could become, I'm hoping the final product will be more varied, with different enemies and missions.

Constructions that could be made this early on in the game included a spiked bomb that would explode on contact, and an elastic arm that could extend and grab and swords that would slash the enemy. I've been told more constructions become available as the game goes on, which will be interesting to see what will be coming from that magic ring.

One thing I noticed was that the game feels like a very multiplayer-driven experience. Having a player drop in is as easy as pressing start, allowing Sinestro to join Hal's side as they fight the man hunters. One of the best things about multiplayer is the "Drop-In, Drop Out" feature, which allows players to continue playing, despite having friends leaving the party. Having a second player really does help, like classic gaming at it's best.

Surprisingly, for a movie tie-in, the game looked great. Thankfully, the game plays as good as it looks. You can really get a sense that a large amount of effort has been made to imitate the unique envisioning of the Green Lantern movie. Backgrounds are polished and shiny.

Whilst the game won't be groundbreaking, it's nice to know that sometimes game companies actually take care of the movie tie-in franchises. As both a Green Lantern and a video game fan, I'm so happy that they aren't treating this franchise poorly. They've actually been putting in some effort, and it has impressed myself and other gamers at the convention.

This game has set the bar, and I really hope the full release will be just as good. Here's hoping this can teach certain game companies a lesson; movie tie-ins don't have to be a glitched up, ugly mess rushed into production for the sake of a quick buck.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters will be released on June 7th 2011 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, Nintendo DS and 3DS. Green Lantern is scheduled to be released worldwide, in 3D, on June 17th 2011.

The game was played with both single and multiplayer modes on the Sony Playstation 3.