This weekend gave us two bits of Guardians of the Galaxy goodness for us to relish in. One has me super excited and the other not so much. I don’t really like to dwell on negatives, but sometimes you just can’t help yourself. But first off, let’s look at the really awesome news. A new Guardians of the Galaxy trailer launched this past weekend.
This trailer is serious business. I absolutely love it. I fell in love with the first movie after watching the first full trailer. I still break out into “Hooked on a Feeling” at random times to this day. The character introductions and overall tone of the trailer really set the stage for a great movie. I eventually bought the movie the week it came out on video. I had planned to just rent it first, but my wife and I knew we were going to watch it multiple times and we decided buying it was the best course of action. We don’t regret that decision at all. We both love the movie and my kids love it.
But back to the new trailer. While the song isn’t as catchy as “Hooked on a Feeling”, it is still great. The trailer also shows us a lot of the cool new set pieces and characters we will see and meet in this highly anticipated sequel. We get to see a giant space monster and the Guardians fighting it. We get to see some cool interactions between the core cast of characters. We get to meet Mantis for the first time. But best of all, we get to meet Baby Groot. Groot was already the breakout star of the first movie, but his baby self is absolutely going to steal the show in this sequel. The trailer has three great Baby Groot moments. The first is Groot riding Rocket in a throwback to the scene in the Kiln prison from the first movie where the roles were reversed. The second is where Rocket is trying to explain to Groot how the bomb works. And finally, we get to see raging Baby Groot in all his terrifying cuteness.
I am totally in love with Baby Groot and plan on buying all kinds of Baby Groot merchandise. Anyone else who isn’t willing to spend their life savings on Baby Groot toys and plushies is simply a cold hearted heathen.
Seriously though, this trailer has really sold me on this movie and I look forward to all the other trailers and of course the movie that will come out end of April 2017.
The other bit of Guardians news is that there will be a game coming out. It has been a long while since we have had a Marvel movie tie-in game and my interest was peaked when I heard that we would be getting one for Guardians. Then I saw that the game was going to be a Telltale adventure game and my heart sunk just a little.
I am not knocking Telltale and their work. They make some pretty solid games. Shoot, their Batman game shows that they can do a solid and fun superhero story in their adventure format. But I don’t really want to play the Guardians in an adventure game. I think that the Guardians fit a much different gameplay style. The brawler, such as Final Fight, Double Dragon, X-Men arcade games and more.
When you look at the Guardians, you see 5 very different characters who fight in very different ways. Each character can pull of unique playstyles and be a lot of fun. We haven’t had a solid brawler in a long time and Guardians would have really meshed well with the format. I have a lot of fond memories playing brawlers growing up. At home, I had Double Dragon, Aliens vs Predator, and many others. At the arcade I had X-Men, Aliens vs Predator (a way better game than the inferior console game), and others. Even the Avengers had a decent brawler on the home console (not as good as other brawlers out there but fun none the less). So why not the Guardians of the Galaxy? Why do we stick them in an adventure game where the action will take a back seat to the story?
I am sure that Telltale will tell an incredible story, they better anyway. But really, there has to be a better way to give us a Guardians game. While Telltale is giving us a good Batman story, it comes after Rocksteady gave us solid and fun Batman action games. Are we going to do a reverse and give us an action game later or is this going to be the only Guardians game? I really hope this isn’t going to be all we get.
Anyway, with all that, I will give my final word. “I am Groot.”
