E3 06: Nacho Libre First Look

LOS ANGELES--You might not expect the next project from the team who brought you Napoleon Dynamite would be likely fodder for a video game, but then, it does feature wrestling. Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black as a big-hearted Mexican wrestler, is due out in theaters next month, and Majesco will launch a Nintendo DS game tie-in this November in conjunction with the film's DVD release. The game is in development at Budcat Creations, the team which previously handled porting duties for the PlayStation 2 version of Doublefine's Psychonauts.

Alas, there isn't actually a Nacho Libre game yet, per se, but Budcat spent a couple of weeks prior to E3 putting together a proof-of-concept demo showing what the final product ought to look like. Nacho Libre will be--get this--a wrestling game at its core, and though we only got to see a canned animation of two fighters running at each other within a fully rotatable 3D ring, we could sort of see where this thing is going. The final gameplay will be a bit on the silly side, with exaggerated moves and animations, like when a wrestler's fist grows to absurd proportion when he throws a punch. A number of WarioWare-style minigames will also be included that will let you pump up Nacho's stats and abilities as you go.

Outside the main game, we got to see a concept version of the game's cutscenes, which use real photographs in a paper cut-out, Monty Python sort of style that already looked really funny. The game will also feature the likeness and voice work of Jack Black, who purportedly is way into what he's seen of the game concepts so far. Maybe you'll even find him playing online, since Nacho Libre will feature online play (not to mention one-cart downloadable multiplayer). Finally, just to give you an idea of where Budcat is going with the gameplay, we were told that Aki's Nintendo 64 wrestling games are a big inspiration for the design of this one.

Nacho Libre is due out in November along with the movie's DVD, and we'll bring you more on it when we get to see the game itself.