Acclaim is supporting the title with an expansive marketing campaign with Miramax Films; Pressman Films; Kitchen Sink Press, publisher of The Crow comic book series; and Hollywood Records, producer of The Crow soundtrack. Kicking off the multi-tiered marketing push is an innovative cross-promotion with Hollywood Records with a limited-edition enhanced music CD that lets fans create their own fighting sequences and view "making of" footage of Acclaim's game. In addition, Acclaim will support The Crow with extensive print and broadcast advertising, online promotions and consumer sweepstakes.
"The Crow is an exceptionally dark and intense story that translates perfectly onto the computer and videogame screen," said Steve Lux, marketing director for action/adventure games at Acclaim Entertainment. "By capitalizing on The Crow's storyline and Acclaim's award-winning motion capture technology, we have created a completely immersive world where gamers can go head-to-head in realistic and visceral battles. Given the strength of our game, the property it is based on and the other partners associated with The Crow, we have designed an especially targeted advertising and promotional program to support it."
Players assume the role of Ashe, who has inherited the supernatural powers of The Crow and is on a steadfast mission of gothic vengeance. Forging ahead in this battle of wills and brawn, gamers find themselves doing warfare in extremely lifelike and haunting interactive multi-level environments.
This graphic 3-D fighting game pits players against some of the most formidable enemies ever captured on the computer/video game screen. Armed with an arsenal of weapons, including shotguns, pistols, machine guns and Molotov cocktails, gamers must annihilate their foes one by one. Choosing from dozens of fighting moves and an endless variety of battle sequences, gamers take on a faction of 26 enemy characters all driven by motion captured animation. Battling up to three characters simultaneously, The Crow boasts "intelligent fighting" action in which the execution of players' moves is determined by their enemy's location and type. For example, Ashe punches an opponent straight on if he is in front of him. If the enemy stands to his side, he backhands him. The driving beat of the alternative rock soundtrack spurs players further into battles.
As gamers explore more than 100 foreboding rooms and delve into mysterious environments, an "intelligent camera" follows them and creates a multitude of "cuts" that result in an immersive and cinematic feel. Prowling through their terrifying journey, gamers must locate various weapons, firearms and secrets to aid them in battles. Sub-games challenge gamers' nerves and reflexes to keep the action raging for hours.
Acclaim's The Crow will be available in November for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation for approximately $59.95, and on Windows 95 PC CD-ROM for $49.95.
The Crow requires 8 MB of RAM (16MB recommended), a Pentium 75 running Windows 95, 2X speed CD-ROM drive (4X recommended), 1 MB video card (SVGA 640x480, 256 color) VL or PCI bus, SoundBlaster and Direct Sound compatible sound cards and 5Mb hard disk space.
Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., a leading worldwide publisher of software for Nintendo, Sega, Sony and personal computer hardware systems, also publishes comic books under a variety of imprints. In addition, Acclaim develops coin-operated arcade and ticket-redemption games; operates blue screen and motion capture studios; and, through A.D.I., globally sells and distributes products from a variety of entertainment software publishers including Interplay, Marvel, Pulse Entertainment, Sunsoft and Take 2. Acclaim also has a joint venture with Tele-Communications, Inc. for electronically distributed interactive entertainment.
