Is GRIN the New Brash?

Movie tie in games are big business in the video game industry. For just about every big budget movie which hits the theater a video game is almost guaranteed to appear on Gamestop shelves across the country. While these games are almost universally reviled as being shameless cash ins by reviewers they create just that...cash. Usually far out of proportion to their quality and budget.

So, onto this scene in 2007 rolled Brash Entertainment. Founded in 2007 it was created with the expressed goal of producing nothing but movie based video games. With start up cash of somewhere around 400 million dollars things were looking good. The somehow got the licenses to such big movie franchises as Saw and, rather puzzling since there hasn't been a movie in years, DC Comic's Superman. However the only games which ever saw the light of day under their name were Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jumper: Griffin's Story, and Space Chimps. While they came out on multiple consoles, as any good movie tie in should, their review scores were brutal. Averaging out their highest metacritic scores only brings their score to about a 40. Apparently the public agreed these games weren't so great because the company quickly went out of business in November 2008.

The fallout from Brash Entertainment's spectacular failure is still being felt. Just this past week Factor 5 announced it was closing its doors due to the falling through of its deal with Brash to creat the aforementioned Superman game. This implies that said deal must have had a rather large payroll riding on it which never materialized. Exactly how Brash managed to waste $400 million dollars in about two years is a topic I might cover in a future blog.

Now, to the point of this post. Has GRIN become more Brash Entertainment than Brash Entertainment ever was? In the past two months they have released Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator: Salvation. Tie-ins to major blockbuster films. While averaged out they only have a metacritic rating of about 59 that is light year better than Brash ever dreamed of. It's important to point out that most of those low scores were a result of the games being criminally short. They both have clocked in somewhere around four or five hours.

While the jury is still out on whether or not these two games are going to sell things are looking good for GRIN. The fact they managed to get those two major franchises and make the games decent is a miracle. If they can just make them a little longer with some additional polish they could finally achieve the magical alchemy necessary to create good movie video games. I'll admit that the only game of theirs I own are the two recent Bionic Commando titles but the potential is there.

They can't do any worse than Brash.

Movie tie in games are big business in the video game industry. For just about every big budget movie which hits the theater a video game is almost guaranteed to appear on Gamestop shelves across the country. While these games are almost universally reviled as being shameless cash ins by reviewers they create just that...cash. Usually far out of proportion to their quality and budget.

So, onto this scene in 2007 rolled Brash Entertainment. Founded in 2007 it was created with the expressed goal of producing nothing but movie based video games. With start up cash of somewhere around 400 million dollars things were looking good. The somehow got the licenses to such big movie franchises as Saw and, rather puzzling since there hasn't been a movie in years, DC Comic's Superman. However the only games which ever saw the light of day under their name were Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jumper: Griffin's Story, and Space Chimps. While they came out on multiple consoles, as any good movie tie in should, their review scores were brutal. Averaging out their highest metacritic scores only brings their score to about a 40. Apparently the public agreed these games weren't so great because the company quickly went out of business in November 2008.

The fallout from Brash Entertainment's spectacular failure is still being felt. Just this past week Factor 5 announced it was closing its doors due to the falling through of its deal with Brash to creat the aforementioned Superman game. This implies that said deal must have had a rather large payroll riding on it which never materialized. Exactly how Brash managed to waste $400 million dollars in about two years is a topic I might cover in a future blog.

Now, to the point of this post. Has GRIN become more Brash Entertainment than Brash Entertainment ever was? In the past two months they have released Wanted: Weapons of Fate and Terminator: Salvation. Tie-ins to major blockbuster films. While averaged out they only have a metacritic rating of about 59 that is light year better than Brash ever dreamed of. It's important to point out that most of those low scores were a result of the games being criminally short. They both have clocked in somewhere around four or five hours.

While the jury is still out on whether or not these two games are going to sell things are looking good for GRIN. The fact they managed to get those two major franchises and make the games decent is a miracle. If they can just make them a little longer with some additional polish they could finally achieve the magical alchemy necessary to create good movie video games. I'll admit that the only game of theirs I own are the two recent Bionic Commando titles but the potential is there.

They can't do any worse than Brash.

I think Grin have potential. They have done some pretty decent games, even when working within the confines of a movie license.

I agree. The only thing really wrong with Terminator and Wanted was how criminally short they were. If they were about twice the length they ended up being I believe they would be perfectly good games. Nothing life changing but something you wouldn't feel cheated by and could enjoy. As it is charging $60 for four or five hours of gameplay is upsetting.

GRIN could be great if they took their games further. Right now it seems like they're trying to find their place.

Yeah, I find it interesting how quickly GRIN became a big deal. They really haven't had a great game but their stuff seems to atleast be on the brink. I'm looking forward to hearing what the future has in store for them.

Indeed, it seems at some point about a year or so ago a bunch of people decided that GRIN were the people to make their game. In the past two months they have had Bionic Commando, Terminator: Salvation, and Wanted: Weapons of Fate. That's a good chunk of the major releases for the first part of the year.

I'm curious to see both how well these games sell and what they have up coming out next. Right now we don't know about anything.

As long as they don't become LJN, it's all good.

GRIN has been around for quite a while.  They made some arcade games and then went on to do Ballistics and Bandits Pheonix rising. After that they made the PC versions of GRAW 1 and 2. 

I think that difference between the two is that Brash, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be in the business to specifically make licensed games on the cheap. Yes, they talked about making licensed games that weren't crap in their press releases, but when the actual product came out, that didn't play.

I think that GRIN so far seems to have the basics of good game design down better than Brash ever did. Yes, Terminator is really too short. But at the same time, it has a few things going for it. It looks pretty good, even if it recycles a lot of assets. It animates well and the radial menu that pops up with the cover system is a nice small touch. In other words, the game is mediocre, not terrible. That isn't something you could ever say about Brash's work, which were all minimum efforts for maximum cash in. Besides, I think that GRIN has a chance to make a fairly substantial dent in this month's NPDs with Bionic Commando, something Brash never did.

To compare GRIN to Brash, in my opinion, is a little unfair to GRIN. Those guys, for whatever shortcomings they might have, know how to make a good game and are thus far having small signs of doing just that. I think they just need to focus on one project and put all their energy into making that spectacular. However, too many more four hour games, and the goodwill they've generated at least from me will all be lost.

I agree with your stance TheKidNixon. I wasn't saying that GRIN was somehow as inferior as Brash proved itself to be. I was merely stating that they seem to recently be in the market to make pretty good quality movie games. They seem to be pulling off what Brash was never able to accomplish.

Wanted wasn't necessarily a bad game.  It was simply a licensed game...and to be honest, for a licensed game, it wasn't absolute ass.  Terminator Salvation...well...from the reviews that the movie has been getting, the reviews for the game don't surprise me.  Regardless...again...it's licensed fair.

I was comparing them because Wanted and Terminator were better. I was trying to say GRIN is doing far better than Brash ever did at making movie based games. I'm trying to say they are having a bright future. I didn't bring up those ports because I was trying to talk about movie tie in games.

Well Grin made more then two games and they made the pc version of GRAW and GRAW 2 so I would have to go with...NO.

Again, I was just covering the movie based titles they have been coming out with recently. Not, Bionic Command, BC: Rearmed, or the GRAW ports.

This has been a very good lesson in that my writing skills might not be quite as good as I thought.

Never mention GRIN alongside BRASH again. Though their recent games may not have been spectacular, they weren't really all that bad either. And let's not forget Bionic Commando Rearmed.