There is a point at which too much detail might become a burden to you as a player. Similarly, there is a point where too much freedom as a creative feels constraining. Super Sly Fox and Ancient Forge’s Blockbuster Inc. is a successor to the highly acclaimed (among the few that remember) The Movies. Released in 2005, The Movies was a tycoon game with a Windows Movie Maker suite attached. It just so happened to be a tycoon focused on film production throughout the years, and thus you could create vaguely detailed short films in which you could add V.O., subtitles, and in later years, special effects and stunts.

Playing spiritual sequel to the Adrian Moore, Stephen Hood, Mark Webley, and Peter Molyneux (the very same) designed title, Blockbuster Inc. does all of that and more. Sometimes to its detriment. You take control of a Fauxllywood backlot and proceed to carry a whole production company on your shoulders. This time you are branching out into TV and film. You could start your company at the end of Blockbuster Inc.’s timeline in the 2010s, or you could hop in your legally distinct Time, Area Respective Device Individually Specific (TARDIS for short) and start in 1920.

Technologically advancing through the years, both games focus on your studio expanding, moving into different genres, and exploring new techniques in filmmaking magic. Blockbuster Inc. attempts to broaden its scope not in the direction of the tycoon standpoint, but the creative mini-film major in you as a player. Though I do find it difficult to say player given how intricate it wants to be: Every set can be tweaked and pruned to perfection, you can direct a scene with much more detail, and generally, there is an idea that you are looking to create cinematic masterpieces.

On the one hand, this sounds fantastic. On the other, some of the charm from the Lionhead Studios title is lost in this modern casting. Comparisons are always going to be made between the two, though I think they are aimed at two wildly different groups of people. Blockbuster Inc. gives you the focus on the granular: Not only are you selecting budgets, writers, producers, and staff, but you rent out apartments and homes for your biggest stars, decide the quality of the food, set out the work schedule, and yes, you direct scenes on custom made sets.

Where this expansion on the details excites, it takes away from the pacing; spending more time in menus and building scenes. Sure you can get by on review scores like a Chris Chibnall Doctor Who series, but at the end of the day, you are a business trying to pay stars and staff a living while entertaining the masses. To get a good review score it takes time, effort, and a bit of creative zeal to pull off, something not everyone has or has time/energy for. Making the idea of blending the tycoon with the creative a bit of a mess.

There are bits of Blockbuster Inc. that I do enjoy, reminding me of all the flicks I made in years gone by that are lost on old and broken hard drives. Though nostalgia can’t carry a studio to success, and at some point, I need to start making hits, otherwise stars and starlets will be poached and I’m even further into the toilet. You see, as much as you are the creative mind behind the whole studio, your staff will bicker, writers will write something controversial, and some will even say saucy things that get the studio in hot water during interviews.

Via the luck of the draw, your people could sink the studio as much as your lack of creativity might. Thankfully you can save the sets you build and use them across saves, resulting in my legally distinct Time, Area Respective Device Individually Specific set being able to be used in the 1920s. That said, if you’re like me then you’ll not see a near century pass for your first studio. This results in Steamboat Wilson, your legally distinct mouse character, being released into the public domain.

Instead, you’ll start in different respective eras and try to play the hits: Cab Driver, Bad Guys, 2002: A Space Adventure, Crazy Person, 7 Perturbed Men, and of course Space Conflict. Jokes aside, the desire to remake the classics and maybe even something original is hampered by the number of animations and the connection you have with the world in terms of animations for your actors. Wherever your actors are placed in the scene, they can’t be placed in or on an object. They can run through them, but they can’t interact.

Say you want to make a mafia film starring that angry short guy you also have in a slapstick Christmas movie later in the year, but you need him and a bunch of other guys sitting around a smokey restaurant table. Well, you can’t. There is no sitting animation: You can talk, yell, run, bludgeon, and hell, even give/receive CPR, but one of the most simple aspects of the film is gone. Not to mention cameras are static and only shoot from the 4th wall, though you can pan, zoom, and cut to/from.

Where there are lots of animations, which can sometimes be annoying to scroll through, it can feel like you’ve hit barriers to your creative vision. Blockbuster Inc. is far more open than the title it is succeeding. At the same time, those abilities to move actors freely and the ability to create sets from scratch also show the limits of where we are right now. Not so much a leap forward in the decade between games, but a shuffle forward out of line to showcase more freedom. Freedom that ultimately feels constricting via its own limitations.

The comparisons are wide and notable, from end-of-year award shows to the overall feeling right down to the stunted video editor. However, there are minor changes to the business aspect, such as owning shares in rival studios or even poaching their stars. Despite this, the focus is on what you do with that money you gain from moderately successful films and shows, creating a gameplay loop that is (arguably) leaning heavily on detailed creativity rather than a balanced business sim with creative elements.

I don’t want to say Blockbuster Inc. is somehow bad or horrible. It is great at modernizing several aspects from The Movies that feel aged by now, even giving depth to the title. However, one thing that doesn’t feel modern is the performance itself. Where I’m ok with the likes of Ghost of Tsushima dropping a couple of frames in every tens of thousands, Blockbuster Inc. has on occasion dropped to a handful of frames. As I seem to say a lot, while I am meeting and exceeding the specs suggested in the Steam System Requirements, I’ve seen Blockbuster Inc. drop to 6-8 frames per second.

Though I am happy that we’ve seen a return to a beloved classic from the 2000s, I’m also left wanting something more from Blockbuster Inc. that hasn’t quite satisfied me yet. Something a bit more malleable creatively to allow me to play the business side more. In my extremely easy 2010s playthrough, I’ve made $50+ million opening weekend with some flicks, and yeah that’s satisfying to see, but I didn’t have much involvement in that and the reviews were still very critical despite its success. At the end of the day, it just meant I could buy shares in every other studio and become the Monopoly Man of Filmwood.

Blockbuster Inc. is building on the success of The Movies, and ultimately does a lot to gain favor with fans of the title. Though where it expands in the creative sphere, it falters with heavy limitations, pulling that scope back to the ground as dramatically as your least charismatic actor next to your superstar. With technical performance that’s shakey at best and violently erratic at worst, unless that’s addressed soon I’ve got a feeling others will be sorely disappointed. This is a shame given how good Blockbuster Inc. is, though mostly because it is The Movies with a couple of faults.

A PC review copy of Blockbuster Inc. was provided by Ancient Forge for this review.

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Blockbuster Inc.

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• A return to a tycoon great.
• An expansion to freedom of creativity.

Cons

• More freedom doesn't mean a deeper experience.
• Performance woes.