Good news, everyone! The new mobile game “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” — developed in partnership with show creator Matt Groening and featuring the original voice cast — is now available free to download.
The game comes from Jam City, via its game studio TinyCo, and 21st Century Fox’s FoxNext Games. “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” features an all-new story created by Groening, executive producer David X. Cohen, and the “Futurama” writers. In the game, players embark in a galactic adventure in search of ancient alien artifacts to restore the fabric of spacetime after it is disrupted by one of the universe’s most recognizable yet enigmatic creatures: the Hypnotoad.
“Hypnotoad has always been one of ‘Futurama’s most mysterious amphibians,” Groening said in a statement. “In this game we finally get to learn much more about his bizarre abilities and mating habits. Perhaps too much more.”
Added Cohen, “Bringing ‘Futurama’ back in such a new and ambitious form was extremely difficult. Especially for the people I was bossing around and yelling at.”
The game reunites the Planet Express crew with a blend of simulation, combat, and choose-your-own-adventure gameplay. “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” will be updated with new characters, quests, and stories weekly. It’s free to play, with optional in-app purchases to boost gameplay (including a Jar of Nixonbucks for $4.99 and a Personal Pizza for $1.99).
Original cast members of “Futurama” returning to lend their voices for the game include Billy West. Among other characters West is voice of Phillip J. Fry, a 25-year-old pizza delivery boy who accidentally freezes himself on Dec. 31, 1999, and wakes up 1,000 years later in New New York where he gets a job with intergalactic delivery company Planet Express.
Other cast members include Katey Sagal (sexy cyclops Leela), John DiMaggio (kleptomaniac robot Bender), Phil LaMarr (Planet Express bureaucrat Hermes), Lauren Tom (klutzy intern Amy), and Tress MacNeille (Mom, the foul-mouthed owner of MomCorp.).
TinyCo created “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” in partnership with Groening and his Curiosity Co., along with Cohen, the original “Futurama” writers, and animation studio Rough Draft Studios (led by supervising director Peter Avanzino and producer-partner Claudia Katz).
Jam City (formerly SGN) acquired TinyCo — whose titles include “Marvel Avengers Academy” — in July 2016. Jam City’s portfolio includes top mobile games “Cookie Jam” and “Panda Pop” and titles based on licensed intellectual property including “Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game” and a forthcoming game featuring “Peanuts” characters. Jam City is gearing up for an initial public offering in 2018.
“We are ‘Futurama’ fanatics,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of Jam City. “As such, it is quite an honor for us to collaborate so closely with Matt Groening and David X. Cohen on ‘Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow.’”
Separately, FoxNext earlier this month announced the acquisition of Aftershock, the mobile-game developer entity spun off from Kabam after Korea’s Netmarble Games bought Kabam’s Vancouver studio and other assets last December. Netmarble is also an investor in Jam City.
The original half-hour “Futurama” series aired on Fox from 1999-2003. Comedy Central picked it up in 2009 for two more seasons before ending its run in 2013.
“Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow” is available to download for mobile devices via Apple’s iTunes App Store and Google Play.
Watch the trailer for “Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow”:
