“Minutemen” sends “Watchmen” fans to video game past

THE NEXT LEVEL

Can’t wait for “The Watchmen”? “The Minutemen” provides a retro look at the kind of game you might have played in the game’s alternate 1985 world.

While fans wait the Zack Snyder film adaptation of “Watchmen” – and the Xbox Live downloadable game “The End is Nigh” – www.minutemenarcade.com/uk has a 2-D sidescrolling fight game in the tradition of “Double Dragon.”

After the site loads, the viewer is taken to a nostalgic, slightly run-down diner. In the corner is a well-worn “Minutemen” arcade game. Insert “coins” and enter an 8-bit world of sound and graphics.

Gamers can play as either the original Nite Owl or original Silk Spectre as they try to take out Moloch and his henchmen in 1942 New York.

There are several Easter eggs for Watchmen fans in the game – from the game’s “Veidt Enterprises” logo, referring to the alter ego of the masked hero Ozymandias to a poster for Rolf Muller’s Park Circus, Rolf Muller being the presumed secret identity of one of the 1940s Minutemen.

The game is simple, and short – Nite Owl and Silk Spectre can walk, punch, kick and jump, though I don’t know that they ever have the need to jump in the game. There are three levels, a street level, subway level, then a second street level ending at Moloch’s theater. Defeat Moloch, and the gamer is rewarded with an HD version of the “Watchmen” trailer.

– Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman