Although not quite as beloved as the original 1995 Jumanji movie, 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle struck a chord with audiences for its poking fun at games, terrific performances, and comedic moments. As such, it came as little surprise that it would be getting a sequel with Jumanji: The Next Level, which has a video game tie-in that will be available in a board game box.
Jumanji: The Next Level’s video game tie-in, Jumanji: The Video Game, was announced back in August with a trailer showing off some of its gameplay features and mechanics. Little had been revealed about the story, but Jumanji: The Video Game places emphasis on combat and beat ’em up gameplay.
As per Limited Run Games, Jumanji: The Video Game will be coming in a board game box. This immediately recalls the original Jumanji movie, in which the players were playing a board game instead of being warped into a video game.
The next Jumanji movie appears to double down on the comedic nature of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being “played” by Danny DeVito, as opposed to Alex Wolff, who played him in 2017’s Jumanji film. Meanwhile, Jumanji game characters played by Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan will all be controlled by different teenagers from 2017’s Jumanji. For example, whereas Kevin Hart’s Franklin Finbar had initially been controlled by athlete Anthony Johnson, Johnson will now be controlling Jack Black’s Professor Sheldon Oberon.
Beyond the Jumanji movies, the video game calls into question whether there will be more tie-ins in the future. Besides than the Jumanji: The Next Level video game tie-in, the upcoming Narcos game is a tie-in with the first season of the popular Netflix show of the same name. Similarly, Terminator: Resistance is meant to tie in with the new Terminator: Dark Fate movie that has many raving about it. As such, it is somewhat evident that the video game tie-in may be making a comeback after years of oversaturation with them.
Jumanji: The Video Game will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 8, 2019.
Source: Limited Run Games
