X-Strike will keep doing its best to keep videogame movies pointed in the right direction with its next project, Sidequest, which parodies "all things RPG, from Final Fantasy to Earthbound," as DeMarco puts it. Production had been shut down for a while due to severe scheduling (those darn day jobs again) and costuming issues, but everything is back on track now, to the point that Ekkebus hopes to start X-Strike's very first sequel this summer. "Resident Horror picks up some time after Silent Horror ends and has much more of a basis in the Resident Evil world," he explains.
So long as Hollywood keeps getting it wrong, the team at X-Strike will keep working around uncooperative schedules and squeezing every last dime until it screams in order to do right by gamers, but what if they didn't have to? If time and money were no object, what would their dream game movie be? Ekkebus taps some all-time favorites, saying "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. All absolutely amazing games from the past that would ... need to be done perfectly to satisfy the fans." DeMarco also would like to do a Belmont tale, but in a slightly different, vaguely terrifying sort of way: "Personally, I am still in love with the idea of doing a Castlevania rock opera." Eek.
X-Strike features may not have big budgets, eye-popping visuals or even particularly good lighting, but they do treat their subjects with genuine respect and affection, something yet to be accomplished by any videogame movie that's ever made it to the metroplex. Let's just hope they give the cops a heads up next time, or their next DVD might have to be based on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
When Susan Arendt isn't writing news at 1up.com or her weekly gaming
column, Token Female, she's training her cat to play DDR.
