This is part two of our genre-oriented look at the games market in the near future. Our methodology is available in part one of the series, which is on shooters. Today it’s all about action adventure, a ridiculously overbroad umbrella genre. Games in this category may or may not include design elements like platforming, puzzle solving, sandbox exploration and combat in any form. So it’s a tough category to parse, but since things like Tomb Raider compete with things like Grand Theft Auto, it's necessary to look at the field this way.

Traditional

The games you think of when you think of the term “action adventure” include combat and environment-based spatial puzzles. Think “Tomb Raider”—the creators of these games definitely did at some point.




1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
X360/PS3/Wii/PC/NDS/PSP/PS2/iPhone
LucasArts/LucasArts
September 16
As the flagship product of the biggest multimedia Star Wars event since Episode III, The Force Unleashed videogame has the full might of the Lucas marketing machine behind it. It also has a powerful premise. The space between Episode III and IV, that incredible time when Darth Vader had his run of the galaxy as the ultimate space douchebag, has been waiting for too long to be detailed. Star Wars is just about the strongest brand in entertainment, so three million sales would not surprise.




2. Mirror’s Edge
X360/PS3
EA/DICE Sweden
Holiday 2008
Mirror’s Edge is the defining title of the “new EA.” That this once conservative company is now heavily pushing a new IP starring a female protagonist in a uniquely stylized parkour-inspired action game speaks volumes about the publisher’s new direction. But it also says a lot about the game’s strong chance to be real quality stuff—there’s true franchise potential here. A little luck will see this become the Assassin’s Creed of 2008, meaning it will get to a million pretty quickly.




3. Ghostbusters: The Video Game
X360/PS3/PC/PS2/Wii/NDS
TBD/Terminal Reality
October (high chance of delay into 09)
There was never a reason to be worried about Ghostbusters, even with Sierra in turmoil. Few projects are as sure a thing in this industry as this long-awaited return to the Ghostbusters universe, and the involvement of the original creative team ensures its credibility to the entirety of the audience. The bigger question is why Activision hasn’t leapt at the chance to add what will almost certainly be a million-seller to its portfolio. Perhaps the company will yet add it, or perhaps somebody in that boardroom knows something the laypeople do not. Either way this remains a big deal, and there’s little chance it won’t make it to market.




4. MadWorld
Wii
Sega/Platinum Games
Q1 2009
The first title this generation from the minds that once gave us Okami is appropriately confounding, being a black and white hyper-violent Wii exclusive. It’s so unique it might not actually be competing with anything here, and exists alone in a private subgenre. The closest thing MadWorld has to a predecessor, the early 2008 gem No More Heroes, actually did not do too badly in the west. MadWorld is slightly less opaque in its premise and the Wii installed base is gigantic now, making sales in the hundreds of thousands a possibility.




5. Tomb Raider Underworld
X360/PS3/PC/PS2/Wii/NDS
Eidos/Crystal Dynamics
November 18
The revitalization of the Tomb Raider brand, though now years distant, remains a clinic in how to find and reignite the value in a critically mismanaged property. Tomb Raider Underworld now finds itself about to enter a market that actually wants to embrace it, which should push it well into the low million sales category. Perhaps this will just be an iteration on Tomb Raider: Legend. The core technology is the same, after all, though Crystal Dynamics has shown several new combat and graphical features that will help. Even at one’s most pessimistic, however, this is still the best shape Lara’s been in since the mid-90s.




6. Bionic Commando
X360/PS3/PC
Capcom/GRiN
2009
Cacpcom’s surprise return to its beloved NES game is a gamble. The original’s defining swing mechanics were already complex in 2D, and any solution to a problem as subtle as reinventing that play in 3D likely won’t please all fans. Still, Capcom has surprised with just about all of its other games this console generation, both critically and commercially. Bionic Commando is also still far enough away that it’s hard to tell if it will have any strong competition at all. The west will embrace this, perhaps to the tune of half a million or more.