‘Ender’s Game’: What I Would Want In The Video Game [Op-Ed]

Ender’s Game is coming up in the theaters this fall, and will inevitably become a video game. Here is what I believe should be in the video game, if it isn’t just another quick and cheap movie cash-in.

According to the classic novel by Orson Scott Card, Ender is a young boy, whose real name is Andrew Wiggin, taken from his family at the age of six to be enrolled in Battle School. Battle School is basically a military training facility in space where boys are trained for combat with an alien menace commonly known as the Buggers. After the victory decades ago by Mazer Rackham, the Battle School maintains a steady supply of fighters being trained for a possible next invasion.

Part of the training involves suit battles in zero gravity, called Null G combat. This part of the story should be the main focus of multiplayer games when Ender’s Game hits consoles. Zero gravity has been done before, and extremely well, in Dead Space. Dead Space was meant to be a survival horror game set in space, where zero gravity scenarios added a whole new dimension to the battles with the necromorphs. Just imagine a larger zero gravity chamber with actual players in a team vs team or free-for-all scenario with random obstacles thrown in based on a difficulty level, and you can see where this could be worth hours of replay value alone.

In Ender’s Game, the Null G combat utilized flash suits and light guns, much like what we call Laser Tag, except if part of your suit was shot, it was temporarily deactivated and “frozen.” Ender had become notorious for improvising and winning nearly every battle he took part in, which could be an incentive for players in the video game to practice. Other incentives could include better guns and suits with mini thrusters, or new obstacles for custom Null G chambers, with microtransaction DLC for customized flash suits and obstacles.

Other parts of the book and movie that could be used for the single-player campaign would be a Fantasy Game minigame based on the video game in the book. There might also be a possible progression-based storyline ending in spaceship battle scenarios for those who survive the Null-G combat with a high enough standing.

What would you want in a video game based on the upcoming novel-based film Ender’s Game?