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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 1:50:32 GMT -5
Post by Neo Rasa on Apr 18, 2007 1:50:32 GMT -5
It didn't do that well because it's a good movie and not a great one at a time when fantasy/sword and sorcery stuff was falling out of favor with the general pop culture (remember this was well after Terminator/Aliens/Robocop came out).
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 3:25:25 GMT -5
Post by ReyVGM on Apr 18, 2007 3:25:25 GMT -5
Terminator/Aliens/Robocop are neither fantasy/sword or sorcery.
Maybe it was because a little person was the main character?
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 5:41:10 GMT -5
Post by YourAverageJoe on Apr 18, 2007 5:41:10 GMT -5
I think he meant to disregard the "all the good sci-fi movies were coming out then!" logic. As in; they didn't necessarily outshine the movie since they weren't showing at the same time.
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 5:52:14 GMT -5
Post by aggroger on Apr 18, 2007 5:52:14 GMT -5
Never played the NES game and the coin op,but unfortunately I came across the PC version.To quote the Willow's Zzap! review,staring at the wall might be more fun - and it doesn't take half as long as Willow does to load. Loved the movie though.
EDIT - found a typo: "There's also an overhead segment where you play as Willow in a forest and need to avoid a horse of enemy soldiers coming at you."
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 9:17:01 GMT -5
Post by Revolver Ocelot on Apr 18, 2007 9:17:01 GMT -5
I think Willow failed to pull in the numbers the studio was expecting for 3 major reasons;
1. It was not pushed very well. There was hardly any advertising for it. There was only one TV spot for it and it was seldomly shown, and usually not during primetime hours.
2. There was a major oversaturation of fantasy films at the time. Willow was one of the last fantasy films of the 80s, and it came at the ass end of a non-stop fantasy marathon of movies like Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Time Bandits, Conan, Red Sonja, Conan (the Destroyer), Krull, Legend, etc. etc. A lot of these movies weren't all that great, so people were getting jaded with them.
3. It lacked star power. There isn't a single A-list actor in the movie. Certainly, Star Wars suffered the same problem, but it was pushed heavily with one of the most ambitious marketing campaigns ever seen at the time. If you even set foot near a comics convention in 1976, you heard about Star Wars. Willow didn't get the same treatment.
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 15:19:20 GMT -5
Post by Malroth on Apr 18, 2007 15:19:20 GMT -5
Glad to see an article on this game. I hated it when I was a kid because I didn't understand RPG elements back then, but when I re-played this a few years back I loved it. Good job.
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 16:49:09 GMT -5
Post by bioniccommando83 on Apr 18, 2007 16:49:09 GMT -5
I still have very fond memories of the NES game when my brother and I used to work on it, and have given it a playthrough in recent years. I'd known about the Arcade game (and this article reinforces the good things I've heard about it), but I had no idea there was a PC version out there. Glad to see the NES game is getting its due with an article here.
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Willow
Apr 18, 2007 20:33:06 GMT -5
Post by Neo Rasa on Apr 18, 2007 20:33:06 GMT -5
youraveragejoe: Yup. Sci-fi stuff was simply where the money and the popularity was at by the time Willow was released. There was simply no interest compared to the other blockbusters I mentioned.
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