Hollywood's Video Game Invasion of the '90s | Gameforumer.com ...

Hollywood has always had its fingers on
the pulse of popular culture, so when video games began to blossom
during the ?80s, Tinseltown saw an opportunity to expand. Within a few
years, the gaming market was awash with titles featuring A-list actors,
iconic athletes, and all manner of celebrity in-between. It?s hard to
imagine a time when star-power had such sway in video games, especially
when you consider that the concept of celebrity has devolved over the
past decade into anyone who?s willing to share their messy existence of
a life in front of a Bravo TV camera. The number of actors, musicians
and athletes who lent their likenesses to video games throughout the
?90s is absolutely staggering. There?s no way we could go through all
the instances where the player could interact with a celebrity, so we
narrowed the list down to a select few games that represent the vast
scope of this strange trend.

Actors

Privateer
2: The Darkening
- PC
?96

In all honesty, this list
could?ve been populated purely by installments of Wing
Commander, but
for the sake of our collective sanity, I?ve pared it down to arguably
the most star-studded entry in the series. 1996?s Privateer 2: The
Darkening starred a fresh Clive Owen long before his fortune turned
around with roles in Sin City
and Children
of Men. It also featured the
talents of fabled thespian John Hurt, who won an Oscar for his work in
The
Elephant Man as well as the
my personal award for Best Cinematic Death in Alien.
While his role as a deranged bartender may have been slightly
below his pay grade, you can?t help but notice how much fun he was
having the whole time. But throughout the years, Privateer 2 has become
synonymous with one name in general. Christopher Walken lends his
strangely hypnotic talents to the game, and in typical Walken fashion,
seems very confused with his presence in the universe. Walken is one of
those actors who?s such an iconic figure, that his mere presence in a
role pulls the audience out of the experience and causes them to focus
on the strange and unnatural world that is his life.

Apocalypse
- PSX ?98

It really seems like Apocalypse
was originally conceived as a film, but ultimately transformed into a
piece of interactive entertainment. The 1998 PSX title famously
plastered Bruce Willis? name and mug on every single piece of
promotional art imaginable. The action icon lent his voice and likeness
as Trey Kincaid, a wise-cracking meat-head who just so happens to be
the only thing that stands between us and armageddon. If you look past
the clunky action and dated visuals, you?ll find an interesting piece
of video game history that featured one of the strongest attempts by
Hollywood to create a game that was cinematic not from a mechanical
perspective, but rather in terms of how the product was marketed. The
phrase ?Starring Bruce Willis? accompanied the title whenever it was
mentioned. While the game itself is sadly forgettable, its legacy lives
on in the fact that developer Neversoft?s next project would be the
immensely popular Tony
Hawk?s Pro Skater.

Musicians

Revolution
X ? Arcade ?94

It might?ve taken them nearly
25 years to reach the peak of their popularity, but Aerosmith was smart
to capitalize outside the world of music while on this precipice. One
of these non-musical ventures was Revolution X, an arcade light gun
shooter that later got ported to most home consoles of the mid-?90s.
The game presented a dystopian future where the world government
declared war on this planet?s unfortunate youth. Lucky for us
youngins, Steven Tyler and friends were on hand to lend their support
during our uprising. Most of the band was nearing their 50s by the time
the game was released, which makes me question which side of this
conflict they would really support. The game culminated in a final
battle at London?s legendary Wembley Stadium ? why the war ended here
was never quite explained, but many theorize that Aerosmith was still
bitter over being snubbed from 1985?s Live Aid. Still, no matter how
cheesy the idea of an aging rock band leading a Gen-X revolution is,
Aerosmith can still rest easy knowing that they were never subjected to
a Make
My Video title for Sega CD; Mark
Wahlberg is still trying to
live that one down.

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