THE MAKING OF JACKIE CHAN STUNTMASTER

MOST GAMES WITH A REAL PERSON'S NAME IN THE TITLE HAVE ACTUALLY VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH THEM. BUT THERE ARE SOME STARS WHOSE INFLUENCE ON A GAME GOES FAR BEYOND THEIR FACE AND VOICE. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THESE IS THE GREAT ACTION GOD HIMSELF: JACKIE CHAN

- PAUL KAUTZ

For decades, the name Jackie Chan has been synonymous not only with top-notch action, but also with an extra dose of slapstick. So it’s no surprise that the name has appeared on a number of game boxes over the last 40 years already (see the Rumble In The Box panel for more on that) – but none bigger than Jackie Chan Stuntmaster.

According to the game’s original developer Ian Verchere, Stuntmaster was planned as a Jackie Chan game from the very beginning, “I’ve always been a huge fan of Jackie’s films, and there are scenes from Armor Of God II: Operation Condor that could easily have been taken directly from Super Mario 64 levels. The pitch for me was simple: replace the Italian plumber with the most famous action movie star in the world. It didn’t need to be more complicated than that – make an excellent action platformer that captures the humour and physicality of Jackie Chan.”

This idea was met with some scepticism by the management of Radical Entertainment, but Ian soon pulled the ultimate rabbit out of the hat: the man himself! “The process was surprisingly simple: we basically called Jackie Chan up through his management, and the deal for exclusive rights to his animated likeness came together really quickly.” Which, according to Ian, wasn’t as expensive as you might think, given Jackie’s extremely high profile at the time, “I can’t say exactly, but it wasn’t more than $500,000.” And Jackie was more involved in the game than you might expect – more on that in the Mr Nice Superstar panel.

The game was supposed to be finished in the spring of 1999, but that didn’t happen. The next target date was the autumn of that year, and finally the spring of 2000, when it was finally released. The big question is, why did it take so long? “I wanted to make a game that was basically