TDK plan Shrek Kart
Film-based, portable, animated racing action; a game on three bandwagons!
TDK Mediactive has struck up a deal with DreamWorks to create a new Shrek game for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. TDK, a company better known for its writeable CD media than its gaming connections, intends to turn the loveable cast of the hit movie into racing dynamos, using the tried and trusted "kart" formula. A little uninspiring to say the least, the racer will feature Shrek, Princess Fiona, Lord Farquaad, Donkey and other favourites (presumably numbering eight in total) spinning around a bunch of tracks based on themes from the film. The film, incidentally, has so far grossed over $240.6 million, so the license is nothing to be sniffed at. Piggy-backing the film's popularity and the trendy kart-racing template will no doubt generate a lot of sales, and since Nintendo's new portable itself is all the rage, we'd be surprised if TDK held this one back for long. One would expect to see the treadmarks of tiny wheels sometime early next year. The Shrek license that TDK has secured is a pretty all-encompassing one, spanning five years and allowing the company to develop for current and future generation videogaming platforms. Joining the GBA version of Shrek Kart (or whatever they deign to call it) will be the previously announced Xbox version of the game. Shrek on the Xbox by the way, will be a slightly more ambitious, original adventure game set in new areas with familiar faces dotted about. Microsoft's J Allard (the General Manager of the Xbox platform) said the team was making "amazing progress" on it last time he checked. Given that the team who did Shrek the movie are working on projects new (a CG animated film of Terry Pratchett's Norns series) rather than a sequel, we reckon Shrek Kart and the Xbox adventure will arrive sooner rather than later.
