Across Two Mediums “Riddick” – Movie to Videogame

Following my Natural Law of Entertainment, publisher Vivendi announced that Starbreeze was re-developing ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, along with whole new chapters in single and multi-player domains. Titled ‘The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena’, it picked up right where ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ left off and followed Riddick’s attempts at escaping Dark Athena – a Mercenary vessel where he lands up unwillingly after escaping Butcher Bay. However, just like the movie sequel, the game did not generate the anticipated response and was perceived as a mere extension of ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ without any novelty in graphics or game-play.

Nevertheless, my laws etc aside, there is no doubt that ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ is one of the most popular and favourite series across movie and video game formats. It is a rare feat to be recognized for content and execution in movies and video games of a series and Riddick treaded the path of success in this regard.

Life any fan, if you are attempting to relate the video games with any Riddick movie to feel better by enhancing your intellectual knowledge, then let me assure you that those attempts are in vain, for there is hardly any plot overlap between both the formats. However, some character and plot elements are common. Besides Riddick, the bounty hunter John’s character also makes an appearance in the video games. It was played by Cole Hauser (The Cave, Hart’s War, 2 Fast 2 Furious) in Pitch Black and was one of the casualties in the movie. Riddick is also seen using ‘Furyan Rage’ – a deadly attack capability featured as synonymous with collective anguish and rage of an entire race called Furyans in both ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ movie as well as ‘Escape from Butcher Bay’ video game.

Vin Diesel and David Twohy claim to have finalized a script for the third iteration. As I revisit my hard disk movie collection to watch those ‘to die for’ scenes and dialogues from both the movies, I cannot help but wonder whether they will get third time lucky and deliver a sequel (either in movie or video game format) that packs a punch as formidable as Riddick’s persona deserves to be credited with! Guess only time (and cash registers) will tell!

The entire series now spans the following media:

Motion Pictures:

• Pitch Black (2000)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury – a 35 minute made for DVD animated movie set after Pitch Black’s events and following Riddick’s attempts to escape a mercenary vessel whose captain wants to keep him frozen for his ‘prized collection of criminals’. Well, I wish I had one such collection myself!
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
• Two live action – sequels are in the works

Short Films:

• Into Pitch Black (dealing with Riddick’s past and crash of the spaceship in Pitch Black)
• Slam City (short flash movie prequel detailing Riddick’s arrival, surgery for ‘eye-shine’ & escape from Ursa Luna Slamcity Facility)

Video Games:

• Hunt for Riddick (point-and-click video game on Riddick’s official website)
• Escape from Butcher Bay (released in 2004 on PC and Xbox)
• Assault on Dark Athena (released in 2009 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3)

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