The trailer's finally out. Though while not terrible as Skull Island: Rise of Kong, it does seem to have a mixed reception so far.
Though it might be just me, but I get the feeling that Godzilla not having a major role in this one might turn out to be a blessing in disguise later on. Because oof, Kong's model looks kinda rough there.
At the very least, Tiamat seems to be in the game too, so we'll just have to wait and see. That said, I definitely don't expect this game to win any awards any time soon lol
Licensed games are going to be a mixed bag in terms of quality anyway, so that sounds about right. The best ones I've played were Godzilla: The Series on Game Boy Color and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on GameCube. The former I remember being fun once I figured out how to beat the first boss, and the latter's a great game, though the Gandalf levels were frustrating as hell and Aragorn had a tendency to YELL HIS LINES. Also, imagine Sam and Frodo slaughtering waves of orcs at Pelennor Fields, 'cause you could do that. I miss that game.
Granted, Kong's not looking his best here, but I don't really mind that. I always preferred a stylized art direction over hyper-photorealistic graphics in video games (I'll take Dragon Age 2 over Inquisition any day) and thanks to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I find that janky graphics can be charming. Plus, I can excuse how a game looks as long as I have fun playing it, which is really the more important factor to me. That being said, I also expect the gameplay to have its share of jank, because not every licensed game is going to be on the same level as RotK or PS4 Spidey.
And if I'm being honest, I'm mostly interested in getting Kong: Survival Instinct if only so I can stream it on Discord, so me and the squad can laugh and have fun, and so I can scream at Abaddon! (Games that make you scream in fear are fun.) It's like the difference between playing, I dunno, Resident Evil 5/6 alone versus playing it with a friend so you can go "did you see that shit?!" "I did!" "LMAO RIGHT??" instead of just watching what happens on your own with no one to bounce off. Maybe it'll be like watching a So Bad It's Good movie with friends over beer and pizza, which is always a good idea.