Okay, Alan Moore would definitely not be happy with this. Warner Bros has announced that Watchmen: Justice Is Coming, a MMO-fighting game for the iPhone, will arrive later this month.
Watchmen: Justice Is Coming takes place in the 1970’s of Watchmen lore, during which masked vigilantism has been outlawed. What to do when you don’t have masked crazies protecting you? Become one yourself. Players get to design their own vigilante using a costume editor, after which they’ll enter the online world and get to street fighting with other players.
“Average citizens evolve into fully equipped costumed avengers by completing unique challenges, exploring the universe and battling enemies,” Warner Bros said.
Judging by the screenshots, it looks like you navigate the online world from an isometric perspective and run into other players lounging around, who you can challenge in a fight. During battles player health is represented by big yellow life bars at the top of the screen, just like in Street Fighter or any other fighting game. It also looks like you can customize your skills as well with different fighting styles, attributes and stats.
So, it’s kind of like an iPhone mini-MMOG where you duke it out with other players and enemies fighting game style? Warner Bros’ press release doesn’t even seem sure of how to describe Justice Is Coming, describing it as a “multiplayer online adventure fighting game.” The game will make use of developer Last Legion’s cloudMMO technology, which uses Amazon’s cloud computing services to drive the multiplayer action.
Watchmen: The End Is Nigh was one thing ($20 price point aside), since it actually stars characters from the Watchmen story. This just seems like a game that happens to be set in the Watchmen universe because the movie’s about to come out. Alan Moore is probably burning his iPhone as we speak. That’s if he even has one – that guy probably still uses a typewriter.