There's always a new family film for the summer holidays – and Disney and Pixar's Brave is this year's. It follows the story of a young, headstrong princess called Merida, who doesn't think she's really cut out for this whole royal life thing – what with her unruly hair, talent for archery and hatred for corsets. Desperate to live her own life rather than the one she was born into, she wishes things could be different, only to find that by doing so, she manages to release a "wee ancient curse" on the kingdom. In that true family film way, it's then up to Merida to put everything right again and undo the curse that has befallen the Scottish Highlands before it's too late. Be prepared for tons of red hair, tartan and Billy Connolly.
Merida also has three younger brothers - the troublesome triplets Hamish, Hubert and Harris.
And not wanting to risk triggering an ancient curse on the world of games, Disney are sticking to the tried and tested tradition of releasing a game alongside the summer family blockbuster, in the form of Brave: The Video Game, which'll see you running, jumping and battling your way through rugged, "mythical" Scotland on a journey to lift the curse (someone really ought to tell them Scotland's a real place). Playing as the heroine Merida, amongst a few others, you'll be completing quests for people, solving puzzles and defeating ferocious enemies with your sword and bow – which, if you happen to own either the Xbox 360's Kinect Sensor or the Move motion controllers for the Playstation 3, you'll be able to use by waving your arms around, rather than pressing a few buttons.
The 'home' console versions also promise “co-op for family and friends and a special Bear mode”, which is good news for us, although we have a feeling the "co-op" mode will likely be a series of special missions that support a couple of players, rather than letting you play through the entire single-player story with a friend (as awesome as that may be). When it comes to the Bear mode, well, who knows - going by the name, that could involve anything, so long as it's relatively hairy.
Merida often compares her brothers to little bears - so perhaps the Bear mode is something to do with them?
And as usual with these sort of games, the DS version will be a bit different, having it's own set of missions and a myriad of characters to play as, although, sadly, at the time of writing, there was no sign of 3DS version. Brave: The Video Game releases on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and DS consoles, as well as a PC version, and we expect it to hit stores sometime this summer, around the time the film appears in cinemas.
