Animorphs

How the Animorphs videogame will affect the books

In the first In-Focus, I want to discuss how Animorphs videogame can affect the books. The videogame is another, more expensive and hi-tech, form of merchandise. The Ani Merchandise in the market, eg. the transformers, are average at best and, in my opinion, doesn't do anything to promote Animorphs, if not scare people away from it. The question is, will the Animorphs videogame do better, or will it still be crap like most of the licenced videogames?

At first, I find it hard to believe the videogame will be much good. I mean, let's face it. Most of those movie/books licenced games aren't any good, and the poor quality of the AniTV and other Ani merchandise doesn't help either. I myself never bought any of them, and are not going to unless they can think of something more practical than transformers. The student diary is a good start, but they need something more original to get people's attention and make them buy it. I can't say the videogame is practical or original, but at least, it's a break from those goosebumps-like promotional attempts.

If the videogame is done well, and I hope it will be, it would be a great way to make Animorphs available to a wider audience. This might also be a good way to get some new readers interested in Animorphs, since some older readers are leaving Animorphs and there are few new readers. And it can prove that not all merchandise are crap.

But while we hope that the videogame will be good, we have to be prepared for the worst. The videogame might just as easily be the biggest crap game of the year. What would happen then? How will it affect Animorphs? I think that not much immediate damage will be done. People will just criticize it and put it aside then forget about it. But as various poor quality merchandise had caused Goosebumps' decline, so can the Animorphs videogame, with the 'help' of some more bad and boring transformers, create a bad only-for-nerds image for Animorphs, which in turn will cause the Animorphs' slow and painful decline.

The videogame has the same effect as the AniTV which you can't exactly call it bad. But after seeing the AniTV, your own imagination of everything in the books, such as how the characters look, how they sound, where they live, just vanished. No matter how hard you try to imagine a good looking Jake, the actor on AniTV just pop into your mind. If you like him, then that's fine. But if you just hate him, it can get frustrating. While the videogame may not be as influential in that department, it can still break a few dream bubbles. And for fiction books like Animorphs, your own imagination is very important and in the most part, what makes the books interesting.

We won't know how the videogame is shaping up for awhile. But since it's developed by GT Interactive, a company with a good record, and it is Animorphs, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now and hope for the best.

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