Go Speed Racer Go! – Speed Racer the Video Game

For all of you Speedophiles out there who are restless for the Speed Racer movie from the Wachowski brothers (Matrix, V for Vendetta), here is some more fantastic news for you. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will launch the Speed Racer video game in May 2008 on the Wii and Nintendo DS as the Speed Racer film hits theaters. It will be also released on the PS2 when DVD launches after the film’s run at the box office.

The PS2 and Wii games are being developed by Sidhe Interactive which will allow players to take on the role of the characters from the film, getting behind the wheels of each character’s signature and race combatively just like the beloved anime series. The “car-fu style” of action within the game will closely represent the action style being designed by the Wachowski brothers for the film itself as they lend direction and assets to the development team directly from the film’s set.

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“Speed Racer is an exceptionally creative property and teamed with the Wachowski brothers’ vision it makes for action-packed racing gameplay,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The game will capture the intensity of the racing in the film to give gamers and movie fans a chance to take the wheel after the experience the film.”

“We are very excited about this natural extension from the Speed Racer film to the video game. Larry and Andy are video game fans themselves, so they believe that an interactive game is a key component to the entire Speed Racer experience,” said film producer Joel Silver.

Anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida created Speed Racer, a live-action family adventure, that follows the young race car driver Speed in his quest for glory on and off the track in his Mach 5. The film will feature other characters that fans of the show will remember, including Speed’s family and his mysterious arch-rival, Racer X. The film stars Emile Hirsch as Speed, Christina Ricci as Trixie and Matthew Fox (Jack on LOST”) as Racer X as well as Oscar winner and political loud mouth Susan Sarandon and everyone’s favorite Elvis impersonator John Goodman as Mom and Pops Racer.

Having watched the series as a child, I must say that all of this is highly amusing to me, and one of the things that would make me look forward to such a challenging endeavor would be for the game, at least, to have all of the hilarious bad voice dubbing. That would make the game more endearing to long time fans of the series, and if they were to incorporate that into the film as well, that would just be too funny – but we all know that will not happen. Anyway, stay tuned as more develops on Speed Racer.