Look Brigadier! It's a Doctor Who game

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 26 August 2010 11:59

Your IT - Entertainment

From the Why Haven't They Done This Before department comes news of a couple of new Doctor Who based games for the Nintendo Wii and DS.  Will Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth be bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?  Sonic Screwdrivers at the ready.

I have never played a game based on the long running UK produced Doctor Who series.  And the only one I can remember seeing was 1997's Destiny of the Doctors.

Now I know the good Doctor, in his latest guise, is all hip and groovy again, but he has been around for many years, with a rich background of lore to draw upon.  Why hasn't there been more games based on this fiction?

The answer is probably pretty boring, and to do with BBC licensing as such, but battling Cybermen, or the more famous evil robotic race, the Daleks (even if they were made of old  Mini Minor parts, and couldn't go upstairs) or attempting to outwit super villains such as the Master is ripe fodder for video game creators.

So the only surprise in the announcement that Asylum Entertainment is working on a Doctor Who themed video game, is that it hadn't come along earlier.  

So far there are only scant details about the game and its design; here is what has been divulged so far:

Licensed by BBC Worldwide and based on the top-rated television series starring the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, and his Companion Amy Pond played by Karen Gillan - Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth for Nintendo DS and Doctor Who: Return to Earth for Wii will hit retailers in the UK, Australia and selected territories across Europe. As Koch Media's exclusive Australian partner - QVS will be the exclusive distributor for Australia/NZ territory.

Inspired by the Doctor's adventures across time and space, Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth and Doctor Who: Return to Earth have been carefully developed to capture the imagination of Doctor Who fans and will enable the entire family to become the Doctor and Companion Amy in stories written with the Doctor Who production team.

Simon Bailey, Managing Director of Asylum Entertainment comments: 'We are incredibly excited to be collaborating with BBC Worldwide on these two new games.  It is our firm belief that the franchise has massive potential on the Nintendo DS and Wii formats and it's an honour to be bringing Doctor Who video games to the show's huge fan base.'