This is a topic I think I’m going to try to bring across to BANDAI if possible, and try to hopefully impart some wisdom on it. That being the topic of film or TV to video games.
More often than not there seems to be more lousy movie to video game translations than good translations, a tricky proposition that mostly is like jumping on the shiny hand grenade of sucky video games if you fail to create the ideal (or at least a good enough) video game.

Last year alone we’ve been “treated” to such things as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Four, Constantine, Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc. OK, I won’t say Peter Jackson’s King Kong was bad since it can yet appeal to those who might like it… mind you, however, you’re going to have to be favorable to “realism over shooter enjoyment” games like The Getaway : Black Monday in order to be fascinated by the realism burdened King Kong. Look, just RENT the darn game! Nothing like first person experience to tell you whether you’ll like it or not.
The point is, and yes I have a point, the point is that most games translated from movies were just no good. And don’t get me started on TV Series to video game translations which is it’s own walk down suckitude lane! But sometimes a game comes along that totally rules… a game like this. This game is one of those rare breeds which actually was a good translation that respects the movie it’s based on.

This breaks the record, by the way, for longest movie to game translation.
Last one that held that was Fight Club, which took several years between movie to game… only unlike The Warriors they should have kept waiting on Fight Club since the game they (bleep)ed out was horrible.
Not this time. This is fine. Let’s kick it back, however, to the movie in question way back when.
It’s 1979, and Walter Hill is releasing what will become a cult classic. Think of it as the Akira of American cinema only with more street gangs, and less bikes… or psychic powers.
Now I didn’t know this until I saw the X-Play review of this game, so I was surprised by this too! It seems that the movie was based on something I never thought possible. It was based on an ancient greek tale about a group of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, forced to march through rival armies on their long road home. That is, by the way, all well and good… only Walter Hill was about 20 or so years before his time since only recently movies based on ancient anything myths have become hot properties in theaters!
So what do you do if you are in the end of the 70’s and the trend to making “old school” movies hasn’t caught on yet? Set the story in the “present” day and open a can of whupass on theatergoers everywhere!

Here’s the story.
It’s 1979 and in New York City there’s nothing worst than the gangs of New York. And by that I don’t mean the freaky Leonardo DiCaprio movie with the funny dressing, talking and looking “gangs of NY”. Anyway 1979 and the head of the largest gang in town, the Riffs, has called a truce and summoned nine boppers from each and every gang of the Big Apple to a meet. This “personality” who runs the roost with The Riffs, a man named Cyrus, has ambitions of power and riches through unifying all the gangs into one power… too bad somebody at the meet has different ideas. But back to the gangs, one of the gangs showing up at this big throwdown is a gang from Coney Island known as The Warriors. These punks from the land of the Wonder Wheel have come along with the rest of the gangs to hear Cyrus’ words, but end up being framed for his death after the leader of this gang called “The Rogues” shoots him and chaos erupts (which only gets worse, or better if you’re the Warriors, when the cops crash the meet after the shooting).

Of course it means death for The Warriors as the Riffs, pissed over the death of their leader, calls on all the gangs of the city to make their run back to Coney Island a Mission Impossible… which is most do-able since Cyrus had achieved almost messiah like status amongst the gangs prior to the meet where he meets his demise! So not knowing until the last 30 minutes of the movie that they’re being hunted by cops AND every gang between the meet and Coney Island, the Warriors have to run and fight their way back home bopping their way through gangs like the Baseball Furies, the Orphans (losers), and more, wrecking all who get in their way and losing a few of their own on the hard road back.

However it looks like The Warriors aren’t the only ones to receive

wisdom in the last 30 minutes of the movie, it looks like somebody shows up at Riffs HQ with information on who truly capped Cyrus and the Riffs make with all due haste to Coney Island to catch the REAL killer, showing up in time to put a very large hurting on the real killers… yeah, that’s what you get for pissing off a black gang in NYC!

The movie is a cult classic, and from beginning to end it rages with a beauty you rarely see in movies from the 70’s and 80’s. One of the best I’ve seen, and recommended, solid movie. But what about the game?
The game, made by those fine people at Rockstar Ontario, is true to the movie and goes beyond the movie by beginning three months prior to the movie… and one year prior.
You start as The Warriors initiate their newest member, the artiste of the spray can known as Rembrandt. These first levels opens you up to the gameplay, and how you make your chosen Warrior do this thing including the fighting and the Warchief functions where you control your Warriors in battle.

Let’s start off with the fighting. The combat system is a rich variety of moves and combos you can pull off that makes fighting a beautiful ballet of bloody devastation, allowing you to deal out a wrecking with little problem, with a learning curve that makes it very easy to pick this game up and quickly jump into the fighting with no hassles and no difficulties. And this is good, especially since the AI is by no mean stupid in this game. They can learn your moves and pick up your style, countering it if you become too predictable! They also can surround and outnumber you, or come flying out of the sidelines and knock you over while your focused on an enemy, taking your footing out from under you if you aren’t watching your back. You’ll need to keep an eye out and mind your surroundings during a fight since it can mean the difference between wrecking and being wrecked.

Then there’s the Warchief function. By holding down the R2 button you can call up the Warchief options if you have a gang following you. From this you can give your soldiers six different commands (using the right analog stick (R3)), from wrecking them to destroying property (which you will do from time to time), so don’t forget to use it since it’s really useful.

The main part of the game is the storymode, in which each level marches you towards the fateful event, where you meet the gangs of New York (both from the movie and gangs you only had a fleeting glimpse or mention of in said movie) as well as a variety of missions and side missions to take on. X-Play, in their review, complained about the “side missions” and that they were too many… hmm… I don’t have the same problem as X-Play in this regard. I think the side missions was good enough, and not too many. Side missions? Nothing too big. Steal radios, tag enemy graffiti with Warriors tags, and get ahold of money via muggings and robbing stores (using the Batman Begins lock picking system for picking the locks in this game), that and random destruction from destroying cars to wrecking stores and whole neighborhoods. Yeah, it might be tedious to some but not me.

The second part is unlockable flashbacks. Taking place a year prior to the event, you find out through these flashbacks how The Warriors were formed through missions set for doubles teams.
There’s also a Rumble section where you can make your own gang (mixing and matching gang members from the many gangs to form your own gang, gang members being unlockable as you play each level), a radio where you hear updates on gang activity (and storymode events) as well as music from the movie, and an exercise area where you can up your abilities. This, by the way, is easier than it sounds and you can easily master the three activities without problem. The first two, sit ups and pull ups, only require you to rapidly tap the X button so that’s no problem. The third, working a punching bag, requires combos of the square and X button and that too isn’t hard to master.

Once you get rolling, and into the story of the game itself, you’ll find that you are playing a very rich, very detailed, very good game that respects and honors the movie it’s based on. The voice acting is perfect, a fine match to the movie that has no “flat” or “bad” voices whatsoever in this game. The characters are all true to their movie counterparts and you find yourself drawn into the lives of these Coney Island misfits with little difficulty. Unlike games like Xenosaga Episode II which lacks heart and a story that gets the players involved, you’ll find that you will have no problem getting drawn into the world

of The Warriors and the members as you play, which can only be a good thing in my opinion.

The brawler aspect of this game rocks. With abilities to beat down, throw around, smack around, and (later) even lock up and handcuff your enemies? You’ll find a great many ways to deal out a beatdown is at your disposal… but there is also many ways to help your team. By doing side missions between levels in your Coney Island neighborhood (exiting onto the streets looking for people to help) you can earn extra abilities which can help you. These abilities can make it easier for you to free Warriors arrested by the cops, or allow you to hold more “Flash” to heal yourself and your teammates (similar to Medal of Honor : European Assault only in this game you do it when the soldier drops). Oh, and they can do likewise for you which is something new, AI that are smarter than the average AI! They, in turn, can free you if you’re cuffed. They can also bring you back from a bad wrecking with a shot of “Flash”… yeah, “Flash” equals drugs so I guess that’s one bad deal, in that the game is using a page from NARC in order to heal your Warriors. But at least it’s only the one thing, Flash, and they don’t exploit it heavily like NARC did.

Of course if you’ve seen the movie one of the hallmarks of the movie is the running away, especially since you are being hunted by a ton of rival gangs and discretion suits you best when you are heavily outnumbered and outgunned. This aspect works perfectly, and is beautiful to behold. At several times during the game you’ll find yourself outgunned, and you’ll have to run for it. During these highly visual chase sequences you’ll have to pull off a sequence of jumps, fence climbs and smashes while fleeing rival gangs (the first gang being a gang of mimes called The Hi-Hats). These sequences are intense, visually vibrant and oh so good looking. Oh, and it’s HARD! Especially when you’re running along rooftops and have to execute precision jumps (complete with slow mo action jumping visuals) in order to make it to the end of the level. Trust me, it only sounds easy to nail these jumps all the time. You’ll most likely spend the first couple of runs probably missing these jumps and doing the long fall to ground level… but then again you might nail it the first time! Let’s break it down…

The Warriors Breakdown
What’s Hot?
As far as brawlers go, let alone one based on a movie, this is worth owning. Being true to the movie and yet giving you a ton of new exploration “space” to really get to know the characters from the movie, you are given a really deep experience here with characters you’ll bond with as you take them out to wreck rival gangs and cops who stand in your way. They could have easily (bleep)ed out a god awful game, and just racked in the money from nostalgia fans and not much else, but instead they went out of their way to make a game that respects The Warriors, honors The Warriors, and gives the gamer something worth spending their time playing. From beginning to end the game is hard core button mashing, and yet that’s a good thing since it’s done so damn well. Rockstar Ontario brings home another worthy game for your collection, and I couldn’t be happier telling you to try it out.

What’s Not?
The week ended before I could finish the game, showing how intense and deep it is. I figure this game at least has about 20 or so hours of gameplay, if not more. And like God of War I think you might come back to this one even after beating it to better your wrecking skills, or just because it’s fun.
There are a few things though to note.

One is the fact that this doesn’t try to be a Grand Theft Auto clone. While it does have explorable environs it’s more like Predator : Concrete Jungle than Grand Theft Auto… only in this case it’s fine since you don’t seem to mind as much the limiting “levels” as you did in NARC, for instance (one world with limited potential). In this game as you tackle each challenge you are either sent out on the subway to your target location (amongst the many areas of NYC), or you walk out into your own Coney Island turf for a mission. From there you’re given objectives to complete with only the freeroaming walk about of your own turf offering up any sort of freeroaming “side missions” to undertake.

Second problem is those side missions. They are only unlockable as you complete the game, and only a few can be unlocked at a time (1 or 2 at a time). So you are not really being given the grand amount of side missions you got

in, say GTA or Incredible Hulk : Ultimate Destruction, but again that’s OK since the game is fine enough.

Another problem noted by X-Play about this game is the overabundance of side missions, and if you have to do it over and over you might get a little tired of it, but it’s not hard. Here, see for yourself.
Let’s start off with tagging enemy graffiti. Tagging enemy tags is basically using your controller to “Trace” a design (as your Warrior tags away), which is kind of easy but if you fall out of the “design” the controller vibrates and you lose valuable time (and paint) which means you’ll have to find somebody to sell you more paint if you run out while tagging… not hard since it’s only $5 a pop for spray.
Picking locks is a simple rotating gear matching thing ala Batman Begins’ lockpicking sequence, while the most innovative is the mugging which involves matching your left analog stick’s position to a position which causes the controller to vibrate (which causes the top of two meters to rise fast). Simply get your meter (top) full before the bottom one (the target’s resistance) to successfully mug them. This is also, mind you, used to resist arrest, but instead of matching vibrations you have to avoid the vibrations (since you’re doing the opposite, being the target instead of the aggressor). Also be mindful of people observing you mugging people, sometimes you have to order your Warriors to “silence” witnesses before they rat you out.
Finally there’s lifting car stereos. Break the window and quickly spin the left analog stick counterclockwise to undo the screws to lift it. Easy as pie.

Basically these are not the most difficult of “side missions”, and you’ll find that you need to do these to accomplish certain side missions (like helping a war vet see his old sarge, which means robbing the local jewelry store to get the cash needed for his ticket).
If I had to think about it I don’t think there were too many side missions, though (for the record) you probably shouldn’t aim for perfection by trying to stop and wreck 10 rivals during a chase sequence if that‘s offered to you… there’s usually a ton of them when they chase you, and they easily box you in fast so… well… I just ran and didn’t stop to pick a fight.

Another problem is your AI can as easily fall victim to your attacks as your enemies. I’ve… well… knocked down my own Warriors at times by accident as well as enemies. Once I start swinging I knock down ten pin people left and right… and, well, sometimes I knock down the wrong people. It doesn’t look like accidentally hitting your Warriors taps their life meters so there’s at least that.
Otherwise there’s nothing that can make the game bad.

Moments to Remember?
Lots of things to remember, especially that this is true the movie it is based on. Once you see the movie for yourself you’ll see that Rockstar Ontario did a banging job on making a perfect adaptation of the movie that honors and respects the movie. Very very memorable.

What to Ignore?
You seem to have one guy on your team who seems… well… way too hyped about the gang, which shows whenever your in the gang‘s hangout looking at your options like taking on the next mission, or flashback mission, or replaying levels. He goes on with stuff like “RESPECT THE WARRIORS!”, and so forth. Very very upbeat about whoever is doing that.

One thing not to ignore is the buzz going on in the room, and the streets. As you stand around the hangout you can hear all your Warriors talking all at once, often dropping word that hints at what is to come. Another talking heads moment is on the streets, where Rockstar Ontario once again brings back the talkative AI that wanders the streets and say the darndest things! The things they talk about too, but you’ll see that as you play!

Overall?
The game is true to the movie, and by that it is the best game to movie adaptation I’ve seen last year. The action, the hard hitting brawling aspect, the ability to get to know your characters very well, everything. The game works by being an excellent tribute to the cult classic it’s based on, as well as going beyond the movie and expanding the story to give you a more complete and more solid experience.
Once you get hooked on this game you’ll see why it’s worth checking out. Very hot.
Now all we need is a sequel. Yeah. Usually I don’t ask for sequels, and you should usually fear when somebody throws together a sequel of a movie adaptation game, but this time I would love to see how Rockstar Ontario continues where the movie leaves off, and brings us back to the world of The Warriors, because if you must have faith in a company to do right by a product then have faith in Rockstar Ontario.