The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer Q&A Feature

The film, The Incredibles, was one of the success stories of the year winning awards and presenting some really innovative ideas that captivated a huge family audience â?“ young and old. The game based around the film was also successful with great gameplay which has been missing from titles based around big branded family films. It has compelling gameplay, was addictive and was the essence of the film. With work well underway on the sequel, Derek dela Fuente spoke with Stephen Townsend, Producer from Heavy Iron Studio, about making The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, which begins at the film's conclusion.

The backdrop story to the game is the Underminer's threatening emergence to wreak havoc on the residents of Metroville. Players battle the Underminer and his robot minions in the vast underground world built by this diabolical genius. It is up to Mr Incredible and Frozone to once again save the day. You will play as Mr Incredible or Frozone, upgrading your character's moves and abilities as you advance through the game.

Does THQ regard the first Incredibles game as an overriding success and what have been the negative comments pertaining to the game that the team has worked on with the sequel? Certainly the controls were not as tight as one would hope?

The first Incredibles game was a huge success and it delivered what its target audience wanted â?“ an opportunity to re-live the film through an interactive experience. One of the great new improvements for the next instalment of the Incredibles game is the ability to now play as Frozone, complete with ice glides and freezing abilities, right alongside Mr. Incredible. A greater variety of control has been added to both characters making them more suited for visceral combat than ever.

How would you best describe The Incredibles game and what do you see as some of the new innovations in the sequel?

The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer is a 1 to 2 player cooperative action\combat game in which players can take control of Mr. Incredible and Frozone as they chase down a completely new super villain with an entirely new storyline. The cooperative game play allows a single player to control his A.I. counterpart by giving commands to guard, follow or attack aggressively but another player can jump in or out of the game at any moment. In addition, weâ??ve given the players the ability to earn experience points allowing them to become more powerful as they progress.

Many see The Incredibles as the perfect family game â?“ but is there a focused effort by the team to appeal to avid hardcore arcade gamers and what aspects of this new offering do you hope to delight them with?

With the focus of this Incredibles game being on Mr. Incredible and Frozone, weâ??ve really put a lot of effort into making the multiplayer component both challenging and entertaining. While both supers work in tandem to defeat The Underminer and his minions, weâ??ve also created a sense of friendly competition between Mr. Incredible and Frozone by allowing players to view and compare their stats upon completing each level. There are also combat arenas and mini missions outside of the main story line requiring each player to tackle independent tasks while fighting enemies in order to successfully complete the level.

The game starts off where the film ends so how much interaction with the film studio has gone on to ensure full continuity of characters, etc.?

As with the first Incredibles game, both Disney and Pixar were highly involved with the development of the concept. Together weâ??ve created a new storyline with a host of new minions who serve The Underminer. The game script, the creation of henchmen and the environments were an iterative process with constant feedback from Brad Bird and Pixarâ??s creative team. One of the most exciting and challenging parts of creating this game was developing the back-story for a character that had less than thirty seconds of screen time in the first film. Pixarâ??s Story Supervisor, Mark Andrews, was instrumental in helping the Heavy Iron creative team evolve The Underminerâ??s brief debut in the film to a super villain with a sinister plan to pollute the world of the â??topsidersâ?? in preparation for his complete take over.

Mr. Incredible and Frozone are the central focus of the game but will the rest of the family play their part and can you expand on how you will be able to upgrade your health and special moves and, more importantly, can the game be played entirely by either character thus offering great replayabilty or will you need to switch?

With The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer our intent was to create a more focused gameplay experience which, in the spirit of the film, allows players to re-live the glory days with best friends, Mr. Incredible and Frozone fighting side by side. With each defeated enemy, the supers gain experience points and re-gain health. Upon completing each level, players can in turn use these points to choose from a variety of upgrades unique to each character such as ice glides and freeze blasts as Frozone or super punches and Incredi slams as Mr. Incredible. Players will quickly learn that each characterâ??s unique skills will be vital in defeating certain types of enemies and avoiding or conquering different environmental hazards. However, almost every encounter within the game has specifically been designed to allow the player to use a variety of techniques with both characters to get past them which creates a lot of replayability.

Please tell us about one new move, one enemy and one special skill effect that the team is most proud of presently?

In Rise of The Underminer we wanted to create challenging situations for the players but allow them to be armed with abilities to deal with the increasing challenges. One new innovation for the game is the introduction of the Super Move. When players are skilled enough to acquire one of these, they can use it like a â??smart bombâ?? producing an effect which literally obliterates every enemy in the vicinity and appears as though itâ??s either shattering or freezing the playerâ??s screen, depending which super executes the move. One of the most impressive enemies in the game is called the Crustodian. He is the robotic overseer of The Underminerâ??s massive underground robot manufacturing plant as well as one of the bosses the supers must defeat during their quest.

How technology focused still is the team and what are the goals for the team pertaining to the game?

The biggest innovation for this installation of The Incredible is the introduction of 1-2 player co-operative gameplay. In addition, weâ??ve further enhanced the technology used in the first game to create impressive lighting effects and even more authentic looking water. We kept with our goal of making the game look and play equally as well across all console platforms.

Diversity in level design was a really cool aspect of the original game. Can you tell us about a couple of really exciting levels within the game and which different enemy types are pertinent to each level?

The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer is far more story driven that the previous game in terms of pure level-to-level progression. We start with the supers chasing down The Underminer and battling his minions in Metroville. Soon after they are quickly lured below the surface into his domain where an ambush ensues. Because The Underminer has been plotting his plan to pollute the surface for many years, heâ??s developed an impressive network of interconnected underground caverns. Thereâ??s a Sludge Station where the heroes must travel from barge to barge avoiding attacks from Grubbots just to find themselves in the ice caverns of the Magnomizer guardian, who controls a device with strong enough negative polarization to remove the Earth from its axis. Each of The Underminerâ??s bots serves the dual purpose as a functional part of the daily operations of his facilities as well as his army, ready to do battle at a moments notice. For the game weâ??ve created over 14 unique new enemies.

What special attention has been paid to narrative and sound?

Rise of the Underminerâ??s audio was meticulously planned out to create a linear storyline, which, similar to Hollywood films, has a definite beginning middle and end as well as a few unexpected plot twists. Weâ??ve also created some pretty humorous conversations between Mr. Incredible and Frozone that take place during gameplay to convey the story while simultaneously giving helpful hits to the players. The combination of Tommy Talarico Studioâ??s sound design, the voice talent of John Ratzenberger as The Underminer and the filmâ??s composer, Michael Giacchino, creating an all-new orchestral score exclusively for the game, present a truly spectacular audio experience.

Give our readers one reason to buy this game.

The Incredibles: Rise of The Underminer is the interactive sequel to Pixarâ??s Academy Award winning film and now with 1- 2 player co-operative play, itâ??s truly fun for the entire family and will be available this holiday season on PlayStation, Xbox, Game Cube, DS, GBA, PC and Mac systems.

Many thanks!