I was an on-and-off again He-Man fan growing up. I was born after the original series stopped airing, but reruns on Cartoon Network ensured that I was up to date on all the adventures. The show was definitely fun to watch, but it just wasn’t as good as other shows designed to sell toys. Now He-Man is making a comeback, but in an admittedly smaller role.
Chillingo, a mobile games publisher, got the rights to create a game based on He-Man. It looks to be your standard beat-em-up, but with He-Man doing the beating up. Here’s the first trailer:
I have to admit – the game at least nails the spirit of the original series. All the major heroes and villains are represented in the game. The only problem is that little voice acting shown in the trailer proves that they didn’t get a single original voice back for this project. He-Man sounds completely wrong, and Skeletor’s amazing voice is nowhere near the same pitch it needs to be at.
Thankfully, it seems that Chillingo will have tongue firmly planted in cheek with this game. They have to with a game title like “He-Man: The Most Powerful Game In The Universe.” Anything else would be a gross abuse of such a stupid title.
Of course, the real challenge here is Chillingo finding somebody who still cares about He-Man. Beyond a few hardcore collectors, there aren’t that many fans around anymore. The cartoon reboot that came out in 2002 was pretty good, but the average kid will probably not even remember it.
Regardless, I’m glad that somebody is keeping the He-Man spirit alive. It may not have been the best cartoon, but Skeletor is one of my favorite villains of all time. It would be a shame if he was lost to the annals of cartoon-based product placement history.