A new King Kong-based game is not only in development, but is due to release “later this year,” IP holder Legendary Entertainment has announced.
Kong: Survivor Instinct is an upcoming 2.5D action-adventure title coming to PS5 from studio 7Levels, a Kraków-based studio that’s been making games for over a decade across a number of genres for PC, consoles and mobile.
The announcement is part of a triple-game announcement of games based on Legendary’s Monsterverse. The other two titles are a new mobile title called Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers, and a Roblox game called Monsterverse Supersocial Roblox Experience.
There’s a trailer for the mobile title, but not for the other two titles, so we’re in the dark as to what this game will look like. What we do have, is a promo image from the studio’s LinkedIn page from a post following the press release being sent out, with the caption “OUT OF THE DARK. A NEW TITAN RISES.”
“The opportunity to work on the hugely popular Monsterverse IP has been an exciting and formative experience for us all at 7Levels,” said the studio’s co-founder Pawel Biela in a press release.
“Not only did we have a chance to show some of the fan-favourite Titans from a unique perspective, but we also found committed and supportive partners in the exceptional people at Legendary. Their deep understanding of the Monsterverse lore and what makes it so captivating to so many people around the world allowed us to recapture that essence and recreate it in our game.”
A new Monsterverse game is far from a bad idea, but this game will surely need to make a strong and positive impression the first time we see it in action.
Not through any fault of its own – the blame lies with 2023’s Skull Island: Rise Of Kong.
You might remember, Rise of Kong reportedly only had a one-year development cycle – and then got a whopping 23 on Metacritic, and was widely regarded as one of the worst games of the year, if not of all time.
Of course, there might be plenty who’ve not at all thought about Rise Of Kong in months, but it would make sense that, upon seeing a new King Kong game, anyone who paid attention to games last year might remember the last time they saw the giant ape in a video game.
This isn’t to say that the promo image above is looking like it’ll be anything akin to Rise Of Kong – but it’s not gameplay, nor does it provide any proper sense of what the Survivor Instinct will look like.
Gameplay has to establish that this will be nothing like Rise Of Kong, you could even argue doing that will be key to its success.
And hopefully it’s able to set that tone – Rise Of Kong’s failure sets it up beautifully for Kong: Survivor Instinct to swoop in and immediately establish itself as ‘the good King Kong game.’ It seems we’ll know sometime before the end of the year.
Source – [Legendary Entertainment Press Release]