UPCOMING mobile game Fighting Pride: The Manny Pacquiao Saga will have a historical mode where you can relive all the major fights of the legendary boxer’s career.
The only problem is, his opponents won’t be fighting under the names you know them as.
While developing the game over the past year and a half, co-creators OMG Inc. and Ranida Games quickly ran into the bogeyman that plagues major adaptations of real-life stories: permission to use names and likenesses.
“We will be recreating some of his iconic fights," said Francis Macatulad, vice president of OMG Inc. which holds the rights to create and publish a mobile game based on Pacquiao’s life. “[They will have] likenesses of his opponents, but of course due to IP restrictions, we will not be using their actual names."
Thankfully, they were able to get around this creatively — and with a dose of Manny-inspired humor.
“In the game, medyo cartoony yung look,” said Ben Banta, CEO of Ranida, describing how they used their own creativity to create characters inspired by Pacquiao’s nemeses.
“Actually, si Manny nga ang nagsasabi, because we can’t use the real names,” continued Macatulad, “sabi niya, yung kay ano, tawagin nating Miguel Lotto. Si Manny mismo ang nagsa-suggest.”
Despite this restriction, Team Pacquiao is well represented in the adaptation (including a young Mommy Dionisia). “Kasama po si Mommy D,” said Banta. “Mga importante na tao sa buhay niya, syempre, we recreate them in 2D sa game. Sa part na bata pa si Manny, syempre bata pa si Mommy D, so we had to research how she looked like that at the time, and si Manny, how he looked like at the time. Including si Buboy.”
The team strived to be faithful to the inspiring aspects of his dramatic biography.
“[At the start of the game] you will be playing Manny Pacquiao as a child in the mountains of Saranggani. Mga initial level natin is him gathering fruits for his family,” he continued.
“I am excited to share my life story through the fighting game Fighting Pride: The Manny Pacquiao Saga,” said the senator himself in a statement. “I hope my story will inspire future generations.”
To translate his life story into a game, both OMG Inc. and Ranida opted to adapt his life into a 2.5D brawler — similar, said Banta, to the classic title Streets of Rage, but with tweaks to make the combat “more satisfying.” There will also be a leveling and equipment system so you can upgrade your own version of Pacquiao, and take him to multiplayer battles to fight other Pacquiaos created by other players.
It’s this interactive character which made them feel that a mobile game was the perfect medium to tell Pacquiao’s story.
“That’s why our game is different,” said Mike Ochosa, president of OMG Inc. “Our content develops as Manny progresses. Madagdagan nang madagdagan ang kwento ng game. A mobile game platform lends itself to that kind of development. A book does not. A movie does not. A TV show does not.”
Both companies stressed that the game is still a work in progress. Footage and trailers released so far have contained alpha footage. No firm release date was announced, but the team is aiming for the second quarter of next year.
And as a “living and breathing concept,” as Ochosa called it, the creators have the freedom to update the game to respond to feedback and to help the game grow organically.
Who knows? If the game is successful enough that they are able to secure the rights, the team is confident they can easily update the game to add new characters, stages, levels, and perhaps, down the line, real-life foes.
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