Super heroes are on the rise once again, on TV, in movies and of course: in video games! One of the next four-color heroes to hit the big time will be Marvel Comic’s Daredevil. Clothed in a sleek red devil costume and armed with a versatile lil’ billy club, Daredevil fights crime as the Man Without Fear. Ben Affleck will star in the Daredevil movie, which is set to open early 2003. Meanwhile, 5000 Ft is developing an exciting looking Daredevil game based on the film, which will be published by Encore. This will be Daredevil’s first video game appearance and it looks like Encore are working hard to make this special.

For those of you not familiar with the character, like many of Marvel’s heroes, Daredevil has a weakness. In the case of Matt Murdock, he is blind. During Matt’s teenage years, he rushed to push an old man out of the way of an oncoming truck. Unfortunately, a radioactive canister fell off the truck striking Matt in the eyes, blinding him. The upside is that as he recovered, Matt learned that although his sight was gone, the rest of his senses had improved dramatically! He could read newsprint off a page just by running his fingers over it; detect a man’s presence simply by the sound of his heartbeat and recognize a person’s scent down to what they’ve had for lunch. Most important of all is Matt’s “radar sense” which gives him far better perception than anyone with normal sight. It’s Matt’s radar sense that allows him to do daring stunts and fight crime fearlessly as Daredevil. During the day, he fights crime as lawyer Matt Murdock.

The game’s premise is that Matt Murdock’s best friend and law partner, Foggy Nelson has disappeared without a trace. Around the same time, the notorious Kingpin of Crime has been murdered, throwing the Underworld of New York City into a massive gang war. Things only get more interesting when Matt learns that his former college love, now professional assassin, Elektra is in New York and is somehow linked with Kingpin’s death.

Players will take control of Matt Murdock in his Daredevil persona as he searches to rescue Foggy and tries to hunt down Elektra. He’ll have to search the dark streets of Hell's Kitchen, all the while avoiding Yakuza punks, mafia thugs and ninjas.

Early screen shots reveal that the Daredevil game will be a platforming/adventure game from a third-person perspective, similar to other super hero games on GameCube like Batman Vengeance or Spider-Man. Game elements will include many of Daredevil’s hangouts such as Hell’s Kitchen and other areas with background based on Daredevil comic art. Classic characters from the comic set to appear include Elektra, Bullseye, Kingpin, ninja clan the Hand and others. As Daredevil, players will have many unique weapons such as his radar sense, his trusty billy club and grappling hook. Encore is also promising numerous power-ups and hidden secrets for gamers to discover.

Daredevil will be released for next-generation consoles including GameCube early in 2003 to coincide with the release of the film. The game is not yet rated, but Encore expects it to be rated "T" for Teen. We’ll be sure to update the preview when we get more information on the gameplay.