THQ rip us a new one
Publishing firm latches onto Ren and Stimpy creator's new show
Former Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi has been working hard on his new animated TV series, "The Ripping Friends", which is set to debut Saturday mornings on Fox Kids later this year. Obviously a hot property, THQ have latched onto this and scored an exclusive contract to develop games based on the show. The Ripping Friends features the humorous exploits of the world's most manly men, four superheroes on their quest to make the earth a safer place to be more manly. The first game is due for the end of this year, to coincide with the show's launch. Ren and Stimpy is classic comedy, and Fox Kids' President Maureen Smith believes that Kricfalusi's next project is likely to plug the holes in their programming strategy. THQ's VP of product development Michael Rubinelli points out that the show actually invites the viewer to take part in the action, to do something instead of sitting there on the couch festering. "We think this type of involvement --that actually brings kids into the action -- is an ideal springboard for developing interactive games." From the press release... The Ripping Friends superheroes, Crag, Rip, Slab and Chunk, are the four manliest men in the world and live and train for their next mission in a super industrialized complex futuristic city called R.I.P.C.O.T. ("Really Impressive Prototype City of Next Tuesday"…but the 'n' is silent). While they live just slightly ahead of the rest of the planet, in the world of next Tuesday, one of their enemies manages to stay just out of reach in the world of next Thursday. Uhm, that pretty much says it all.