Developers: Blue Tongue
Publishers: Microprose

When it comes to a creating a game based on the universe of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, there is probably no way to please everyone. Hardcore fans of the classic 1959 science fiction novel criticized director Paul Verhoven's 1997 film for not being faithful to the presentation of the title characters and in fairness the words "Starship Troopers" are never uttered once during the cinematic version. But the film did manage to convey the over-the-top sense of propaganda that Heinlein presented in the novel, along with many stylish elements that are a staple of Verhoven's science fiction films like Total Recall and Robocop. Plus, the film was a lot of fun in a guilty pleasure kind of way; it was by no means the greatest science fiction story of all time but it was nice to look at and has developed a cult following that rivals the book as a result.

While it sounds like it would be difficult to find the middle ground between the film and the novel, Australian developer Blue Tongue seems like they're right on target with their upcoming adaptation to Starship Troopers. It shares some of the film's visuals and even utilizes an interface that is similar to the "interactive TV" segments that the Dutch director included in the film, while also maintaining the key element of the book, the powersuit armor – this was what made the soldiers so damn powerful in the novel and hence why they were called "Starship Troopers." All told, it looks like this strategy title really is trying to be the best of both worlds for fans of the book and the film. It is also at this point a lot more action intensive than the slow turn-based board game that Avalon Hill released in the 1970s.

But the most notable thing about this game is that it has not only come a long way since it was shown at E3 in 1998, it is actually a completely new game with a new engine. During that Electronic Entertainment Expo of days gone by – when the show was in Atlanta which proves that it was a long time ago in game terms – Microprose (before the company was bought by Hasbro) showed off a third-person action-oriented version of Starship Troopers that utilized the Unreal engine.