Genre: Platformer
Publisher: Brash Entertainment
Developer: Red Tribe
Release Date: July 18, 2008

Accompanying the release of the upcoming movie of the same name, Space Chimps aims to provide a family-friendly gaming experience that will complement the film's story line. Primates Ham III and Luna land on an alien planet in search of Earth's Infinity space probe, which has gone MIA. Along the way, they find that the planetary denizens are less than friendly, and they must fight for their right to … locate the space probe. At a press event last week, we were given a first look at a preview build of Space Chimps on the Xbox 360.

The "Space Chimps" movie is being developed by Vanguard Animation, known for films such as 2005's "Valiant," a story about World War II homing pigeons that featured the voice talents of Ewan McGregor and Hugh Laurie, and 2007's fractured fairy tale, "Happily N'Ever After." Some of the big names attached to the "Space Chimps" feature film are "Shrek" producer John Williams and "Men In Black" producer Barry Sonnenfeld.

Ham and Luna are the playable characters in Space Chimps, with different levels available to each. Ham is an agile trickster who has most of the combat sequences, whereas Luna is a serious thinker whose levels focus more on environmental puzzles (and who possibly gains sniper capabilities later in the game). The title features a total of 13 levels, although Ham will figure in more stages than Luna, since he's the primary movie character.

Space Chimps is extremely family- and child-friendly in that death and hatred don't exist in the game. It turns out that the "enemies" are under the influence of mind control, so they're not aware of their actions and actually need your help. Once you've freed them, they'll cooperate and help you with your quest. Ham and Luna never die, despite the numerous falls that one usually takes in platformers, and enemies aren't killed so much as conked on the head.

The game pays homage to a number of notable titles, with a Metal Gear Solid-esque sequence in which Ham hides under a bucket to sneak up on enemies and a wall run ability that's reminiscent of Prince of Persia. We were shown one of Ham's levels, so we were able to observe him climbing vines, swinging across wide chasms, sliding down pipes, jumping on bouncy mushroom caps and temporarily stunning enemies with a ground-slam maneuver. The full move set is available to Ham at the outset of the game, but if it's your first playthrough, you may not be aware of the abilities until they're introduced. To mix things up a bit, there will also be a flight level with one of the playable characters on a winged alien creature.

In their development of Space Chimps, Red Tribe has received a lot of cooperation from the movie studio. Vanguard provided movie creatives to inspire the developers, who designed about two dozen monsters and a few levels that aren't in the film. For example, one of the newly developed enemies is a witch doctor who can reanimate fallen foes, so it's imperative that you knock him out first before dispatching other enemies. The newly created content was approved by Vanguard to ensure that it was in line with the movie's look and feel.

The demo level boasted a vibrant color palette, and there were placeholders for some of the vegetation and graphics texturing, so the final product will have even lusher environments. Since the game is still in pre-alpha, the number of gameplay hours hasn't been set yet, although one of the presenters estimated that it would be approximately eight hours. If you enjoy monkeying around with Ham and Luna, then gameplay can be extended with offline co-op play.

As for the sound, the "Space Chimps" movie features the voice work of Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels, Andy Samberg and Stanley Tucci, and the score will include contributions from The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart and Blue Man Group. There's no word yet on whether any — or all — of this talent will be present in the game.

Space Chimps is currently slated for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii and Xbox 360, although the publisher would not confirm or deny the possibility of a PC version. The colorful environments and goofy protagonist should entice younger gamers, while the family-friendly experience and fun gameplay should be approachable to the young at heart. Watch for it this July.