Free Running for PSP

By Ellie Gibson Published 12 May, 2005

Is, you know, super-cool, oui.

The French can make anything look cool. Even their celebrity chefs are suave, sophisticated and good-looking, for heavens' sake. They've even gone and invented a sport that involves nothing more than jumping off of things, whilst somehow looking cooler than Andre 3000 eating ice cream in the Antarctic. And now, inevitably, Eidos is doing a game based on it for the PSP.

Screenshots can be found here.

Free Running is being developed by Core in association with Sébastien Foucan, co-founder of the "parkour" movement, and free running collective Urban Freeflow. (They're British, if you hadn't guessed by the slightly painful name.)

Sébastien acts as your in-game mentor, teaching you new moves and tricks as you run, jump, vault and climb your way through the concrete jungle. Members of Urban Collective can also be unlocked as playable characters.

There are more than 50 stunts to master, including the Kong Vault, Vertical Wall Runs, Pharaoh Climbs, Rail Split Vaults and Bedingfield Neck Brace. We might have made one of those up.

A variety of game modes are promised, including the option to race against computer or human opponents - wirelessly, we'll boldly presume.

Free Running is due out in the autumn, or le autumn as our French friends would say. Probably.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • #1 7 years ago

    This looks weird. If you get a "ninja" animation set with a character it could RAWK. :)

  • RobertFoster #2 7 years ago

    THPS withought the skateboard? I've seen some videos of them actually jumpping off stuff. You think "I want to do that, but I like my legs not inside my chest"

  • Bezzy #3 7 years ago

    Very much like Rolf's Cartoon club, you can start today

    (What? Yeeeahh!)

    I didn't think I'd be bouncing around like these guys, but I took it slow, progressed without putting myself in danger, and I'm on the way!

  • [maven] #4 7 years ago

    Wasn't there an odd Luc Besson produced film with something like this?

    Strangely, I can actually imagine it being fun (like Spiderman 2 without the webbing) if done well.

  • volb #5 7 years ago

    "le autumn as our French friends would say"

    This brand of french speech characterisation strikes me as entirely alien no matter how often I see it. Crono Cross had especially cringe-worthy moments because of this ("Moi is very beautiful, oui, hou là là";).

    By the way, in french le would become l' since it is followed by a vowel, but that would kind of destroy the joke, I guess.

    Edit : Evil HTML
    Edited by 2 at 12/05/05 @ 20:45

  • Frogger #6 7 years ago

    The french would say "l'automne".
    The Besson movie with people jumping everywhere is "Yamakasi".

  • joephish #7 7 years ago

    Dude this Free Running thing is so cool. Apparently there was a CH4 one off thing called Jump London... maybe? I want to see it!

  • Kami #8 7 years ago

    You mean like that BBC promo of the guy running over rooftops and s**t?

    That's a SPORT now?

  • Kiigan #9 7 years ago

    It's called "le parkour". It was only a matter of time before someone made a game of it :)

  • 3william56 #10 7 years ago

    Vive Le Difference!

    This could be great: basically an urban version of all the platformy puzzley bits of Prince of Persia without the crappy wall jump combat, and with a hint of garlic and a dodgy accent. Magnifique!

  • Donglebomb #11 7 years ago

    > Apparently there was a CH4 one off thing called
    > Jump London... maybe? I want to see it!

    There was Jump London, and later there was Jump Britain. I taped both of them out of mild curiosity and never got around to watching either. C'est la vie. :)

  • eurisko2k #12 7 years ago

    As a Traceur (or free runner), I'd like to point out that the game shouldn't be all about jumping buildings and s**t...

    The Game has been helped devoloped by urbanfreeflow.com a uk parkour web site. they have made statements more about the game, as alot of the members are characters in the game....

    www.urbanfreeflow.com

  • Grunk #13 7 years ago

    I Know some french people and they are definately not cool.

    Looked some of the pictures on the site, just looks like people standing walls.

    Besides, didn't these guys invent it, not the french....
    Edited by 1 at 13/05/05 @ 13:42

  • firewolf_999 #14 7 years ago

    well, as im a traceur myself, roof jumping isnt really parkour. and people that live in Britain Jump Britain is on 10th June 21:45 channel 4! and i think this game looks bad, but ill probably buy it though! and yes, it is now a sport!

  • andybunny #15 7 years ago

    well I actually am into free running so itll be cool to play summin, be kinda similar to all the THPS games if ur a skater or FIFA if ur a footballer!
    im just annoyed its only comin out on PSP for the moment!