Hasslein Blog: Hasslein Books Needs Your Help With 2009's Watchmen: The Mobile Game

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Hasslein Blog

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Hasslein Books Needs Your Help With 2009's Watchmen: The Mobile Game

By Rich Handley

If you're a fan of Watchmen, DC Comics' iconic 12-issue 1986 comic book miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (and, really, how could you not be?), then chances are you've watched the 2009 film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder. You're probably also well aware of DC's controversial 2012 prequel line Before Watchmen, which spanned 37 issues and divided the comics industry regarding whether or not additional Watchmen stories should even be told without Moore's involvement. (I refuse to take a stance here on that debate.)

More recently, you're no doubt aware that the Watchmen characters are being ported over into mainstream continuity, as part of (indeed, at the crux of) this year's company-wide Rebirth reboot concept. Chances are, you've read more than one scandalized rant on that very subject. You may even have written one yourself. (Again, I'm avoiding that debate as well.)


What you might not be aware of is that there has actually been a good deal more. There have been a number of viral videos, a trio of Watchmen-themed role-playing game books published as part of Mayfair Games' DC Heroes Role-Playing Game, in-universe websites, promotional newspapers, four different Watchmen video games, and other odds and ends.

Wait. Four video games?

Hrrm.

It's possible that you've played the most prominent of these, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, Parts 1 and 2, produced for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 gaming systems, as well as for the PC. If you're particularly savvy, you may recall Watchmen: Justice Is Coming—Stepping Into the Shadow, a short-lived massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed exclusively for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, which ended up being taken down due to a number of technical problems. And most recently, there was an 8-bit Watchmen arcade game that you can still play online. But many fans have completely forgotten about (or never knew of) a fourth offering: Watchmen: The Mobile Game.

This is where you hopefully come in.


This side-scrolling video game, created by Glu Mobile for numerous phone models in 2009, featured six stages, numbered (oddly enough) zero to five. It wasn't overly well received, but is noteworthy for detailing how Rorschach and Nite Owl II brought down The Big Figure, as well as for depicting other events in Watchmen history.

So why am I bringing this up? Because I need your help. I'm just about finishing up the first draft of my next book, Watching Time: The Unauthorized Watchmen Chronology, which will explore every event from all of the above sources (the comics, the film, the viral videos, the RPG books, the website, the video games, the promo newspapers, and more), and I've run into a bit of a snag... see, I can't find footage of the mobile game anywhere.

I've been searching high and low, reaching out to folks who reviewed the game online in 2009, and even contacting Glu Mobile itself. So far, however, I have turned up nothing other than a video of chapter zero on YouTube, as well as a few preview videos that show very little of actual gameplay. I need to view the entire game.


Watchmen: The Mobile Game is the ONLY aspect of the Watchmen universe that I don't have access to as research for this book, and it's driving me crazy. And so I turn to you, the fans, for help. If you still have your mobile phone from 2009... if you're a Watchmen fan... if you can find Watchmen: The Mobile Game online... and if you're willing to record playthrough videos of chapters one through five, then please contact me. I will happily reimburse your expenses, list you in the book's acknowledgments, sing your praises here on the blog, and send you an autographed copy of Watching Time once it's published later this year.

I'm quite happy with how this book is turning out, if you'll pardon the immodesty. But I'm frustrated beyond belief at the thought of incorporating everything except for a single video game. I'm a completist, and that's how I've approached every book I've written to date. This, I sincerely hope, will be no exception.

So please help out a fellow fan, because it's something any good citizen would do (unlike Rorschach and The Comedian, who would more likely break my fingers or just shoot me for even asking). Or, if you don't have access to the game or don't have time to record it, simply sharing this article on your social-media pages would be a huge help. Thank you, my friends.



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