‘The idea was for a Black James Bond’: the making of 50 Cent: Bulletproof | Games

THe rapper 50 cents (Form name Curtis Jackson) was inevitable in 2005. There was no British classroom without a teenager Jackson's G-Unit clothing, while his catchy Candy Shop and Da Club dominated the radio. The background story of this New York-like he survived in Queens was also one of the largest rappers in the world-especially for a convincing tradition.

This year, 50 cents with its second studio album The Massacre sold more than a million copies in one week. In order to pay this superstar, his label Interscope Records planned a Twin strategy: a Hollywood biopic (Biopic (Hollywood) (Biopic (Become rich or die tryin ') and a licensed video game, 50 cents: Bulletproof – both will be published by November 2005. “I think the general public is blew up from my game,” said 50 cents of the IGN website. “It feels more like an action film.”

British developer real GamingPreviously responsible for a poorly preserved fight, the task was to create Fiddy's 128-bit era adventure. The problem was that it only had 11 months. “I remember that we would get to the office at 7 a.m. and only leave around 11 p.m.,” recalls the artist of the game, Han Randhawa. “We all lived from a diet with KFC. 50 cents were all my life. I even read the doctor's report from the time when he was shot just so that I could put bandages on his 3D character in the right places.”

The designer of the game, Haydn Dalton, says: “It's funny, because this was a game about these guys from the bonnet, and yet this white guy from the northwest of England was all her dialogue involved in the game. It was kind of uncomfortable, but I didn't have much time, so it was about inventing something on the fly.”

The time was surprisingly nice too 50 cents: bulletproofWhat is 20 in November. In this shooter, 50 cents are caught in a shady underground network full of dodgy terrorists, racist bikers and the Mafia members. 50, 50 and his G-Unit gang (including Tony Yayo, Young Buck and Lloyd Banks), who enforced him with these nine gunshot wounds, races through the inner city environments, first shoot and ask questions later.

It is as if G-Unit has been modeled on the A team, with each member bringing something unique (Yayo is an explosive expert; Banks packs locks), while the game also has an surprisingly intuitive mechanics, with its squad during the shooting behind Walls. With the script that the author Terence Winter wrote of the sopranos, the cinematic cutting teeth, at which 50 cents are entertained with corrupt det McVicar, are a special thrill.

He is a dirty policeman who is expressed by a crazy eminem who constantly demands more blackmail money so that he can send his child in expensive karate classes. The McVicar of White Rapper is made by Dr. Dre, who pronounces a stoned weapon dealer, who says things like “This is a serious shit there” when 50 cents buys a rocket launcher. The game is also full of licensed 50 -cent songs, which means that you can kick a heavy face while Wanksta plays in the background.

“We were really blessed because 50 cents felt more of a superhero than just a rapper,” explains David Broadhurst's director. “The idea was to make him a black James bond.” But Broadhurst admits that the British development team missed a large part of the gloss and glamor of this production. “Vivendi [the game’s publisher] kept us away from 50 cents and g unit; We would be sent all her audio. I remember that 50 cents had invested in vitamin water, so we had to bring the drink into play as a buyable object. “

There are also specific inquiries that Randhawa also remembers. He says that G-Unit member Tony Yayo wanted constant revisions in the face of his character. “I knew that I had done a good job on Yayo,” laughs Randhawa. “When we wrapped one of the executing producers, I came to myself and said: 'The other members of G-Unit say that they absolutely nailed Yayo's ugliness!”

According to Dalton, the original idea for 50 cents: bulletproof, more of an open world game that resembles the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. An early building made it possible 50 to jump into the U -Bahn to navigate through the Big Apple, but meant strict deadlines that the development team had chosen easier experience. Dalton reveals: “An idea was that 50 all of these hookers were managed on the street and that they collected drug money for him. 50 were able to control these women via a mobile phone and a special PIMP management system (PMS). I know that people could appear in this function today, but Bulletproof was a product of his time.”

While other rap video games, such as those in the DEF JAM fight series, had violated Emcees against each other, Kuggel -iche was refreshingly rappers than heroes. “It was nice to have a work of art in which the rapper was more direct than the antihero,” explains Sha Money XL, Executive producer of the former G -Unit Records.

Money XL led the 50 cents: Bulletproof Soundtrack and he admits that the title of the game can easily be viewed by the rapper's many enemies as a call to violence. “Maybe some people wanted to test whether 50 were really bulletproof, but if someone shooted at G-Unit in 2005, then we would shoot back. At that time, 50 was the kind of person they either loved or hated them.”

This split could explain why 50 cents: Bulletproof was fooled by critics. The game only has a score of 52% on Metacritic, with the reviewers criticizing the chunky goal of the game. The director of the game believes that there was a clear agenda against the production of off.

“It was obvious that many reviewers hadn't even played bulletproof,” says Broadhurst. “Perhaps they didn't like licensed games or a black lead character that sold drugs. I don't know, but many people expected it to expect it and felt surprised when it turned out to be pretty good.”

There were scraped plans for a direct bulletproof sequel, in which the focus was on urban warfare and g unit in the middle of an America in a civil war. 50 cents: Bulletproof, however, inspired a underestimated sequel from 2009 about the Swordfish Studios that were developed 50 cents: blood in the sandWhere Fiddy Bizarry wages war against terror in the Middle East, after stealing a crystal skull of terrorists.

These two 50-cent titles were not a trigger for more hip-hop video games. Dalton has a theory about why: “50 cents was the last really global mainstream rap superstar. Since then there has been a vacuum. Although our game has made a lot of money, a new rapper game is simply not obvious.”

Due to the complex license agreements, it is unlikely that there will be a remaster of 50 cents: Bulletproof at any time. For those who have a time machine back until 2005, it is important to track down a copy of the original on eBay.

As Dalton puts it: “Yes, our game was rushed, but I don't regret it. If you go to Reddit, you will see many people who nostalgically see for what we have created.