With the December release of the first installment of Peter Jackson's
The Hobbit trilogy fast approaching, the inevitable onslaught of tie-in games is ready to start.
San Francisco–based developer Kabam announced that it is creating
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age for web browsers and
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth for smartphones and tablets.
Both titles will be free-to-play and, like many Kabam games, will feature strong social components.
An unexpected tie-inThe Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age (that's the one for browsers) will allow players to control the fantasy armies of the various races of middle earth like dwarves, elves, and orcs in battle.
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth (phones and tablets) will be a more familiar feeling town-building simulator similar to Kabam's
Arcane Empires, and will task players with the construction and management of fantasy settlements in Middle Earth.
Both of these titles are scheduled for a release later in the autumn, and interested players may sign up for the beta of
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age on
Kabam's website.
Earlier this summer, Warner Brothers and Lego announced the
Lego The Lord of the Rings which will be coming out later this year for consoles, the Nintendo 3DS, and PS Vita.
While not strictly tied in to the release of
The Hobbit, it will feature many of the characters from the film in their later adventures.
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I second what curtisrshideler said word by word, most specially the part about the GBA games based on "The Two Towers" and "Return Of The King"... what were supposed to be just a couple of forgettable movie tie-ins doomed to be overshadowed by their, in theory, superior desktop console counterparts, turned out to be two amazingly developed, both in gameplay and presentation, and unfairly overlooked Diablo-like dungeon romps.
A town-building simulator is (besides unworthy and disgraceful to Tolkien's legacy) the least appropiate and least imaginative genre they could have come up with for the "The Hobbit" franchise.
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curtisrshideler | 21:23 - 26 September 2012
Pretty disappointing. I would have imagined WB would have treated this license with a little more respect. I expected something as good as LEGO Harry Potter, Bastion, or one of their other good titles.
I've personally played the LOTR and Hobbit games on GBA and they are what I think of when I think of J.R.R.T.'s work and the movies. I think a story this good deserves a Zelda-like action/adventure game with the story carried along by at least beautiful animation/graphics like in Horn.
But, if they're free, I might take a look at them for a minute or two before deleting and posting a bad rating. I sure hope LEGO LOTR makes it to iOS, and in turn, convinces them to release a LEGO Hobbit.
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