Sylvester Stallone Starred In A Legendarily Bad Video Game Based On One Of His Hits

By 1993, Sylvester Stallone’s career was in a precarious place. The “Rocky” and “Rambo” star hadn’t yet reached the stage where he could be described as washed up — a point he arguably reached by the early 2000s before reviving his career with the excellent “Rocky Balboa.” But the early ’90s were a tricky time for Stallone. His last “Rambo” movie, 1988’s “Rambo III” had failed to make as much as its predecessor and his last “Rocky” movie, 1990’s “Rocky V” was a historic low point for the franchise that originally made Sly a star. Once Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked Stallone into starring in the 1992 flop “Stop! Or my Mom will Shoot,” the man’s career was in serious jeopardy.

In 1993, however, Stallone had somewhat of a mini comeback, starting with mountain climbing action thriller “Cliffhanger,” which was not only a commercial success but managed to impress enough critics that it seemed Sly’s action career might just be getting back on track. Indeed, “Cliffhanger” remains one of Stallone’s best movies to this day. The “Rocky” star followed that up with a movie that doesn’t quite enjoy the same legacy, but which has developed a sort of cult following in the years since its release.

“Demolition Man” was a box office success, bringing in $159 million on a budget that started at $45 million but which ballooned to $77 million by the time the troubled production wrapped up. Still, it made a decent chunk of change, and though critics weren’t quite as complimentary as they were for “Cliffhanger,” the movie was a solid entry in what was becoming a shaky filmography for Stallone. Solid enough to warrant a slew of licensed video games being produced? Maybe. But one particular video game adaptation of the film didn’t do much to help the movie’s legacy — which is why it’s a good thing that nobody remembers the ill-fated “Demolition Man” 3DO game.

“Demolition Man” is a truly unique film. Though some critics dismissed it as a pastiche of better action outings, compared to some of the absolute slop the streaming age has produced, “Demolition Man” looks like a wholly original product.

The movie was helmed by first-time director Marco Brambilla, and starred Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan, an LA cop who, after a hostage situation gone bad, is cryogenically frozen alongside prolific criminal Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Spartan is the Demolition Man in question, as he has a penchant for causing untold destruction in pursuit of justice, hence the botched hostage job that opens the film. However, when Phoenix escapes his frozen state in 2032, Spartan is thawed to help the ineffectual cops that oversee the sexless corporate dystopia of “Demolition Man” hunt Snipes’ violent crime lord. Alongside some impressive action sequences, “Demolition Man” is noteworthy for its satirical humor which, depending on which critic you listen to, is either a pleasantly surprising addition to an otherwise bombastic thrill-ride courtesy of action maestro Joel Silver, or an incongruous and inappropriate addition to an otherwise decent blockbuster.

Either way, with a solid profit margin to its name, “Demolition Man” prompted Warner Bros. to start thinking about how it could milk the IP. The studio that had basically invented modern movie marketing with the so-called “Bat-mania” of 1989 was never going to let Stallone’s sci-fi action thriller simply exist as a movie, and started licensing “Demolition Man” toys, comic books, and video games. A slew of 2D games arrived courtesy of developer Acclaim, which oversaw platformers for the Super NES, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD. But in line with the futuristic setting of “Demolition Man,” Warners also tried to push the envelope somewhat with an entirely separate video game for the 3DO console that used Full Motion Video (FMV) sequences to immerse gamers in the 3D world of the movie. Developed by Virgin Interactive, this particular adaptation lamentably turned out to be as much of a dud as some of Stallone’s recent movies at the time.

There have been a ton of ill-advised video game adaptations, from the mess of a game that was “The Adventures of Gilligan’s Island,” to the cancelled “Dirty Harry” project that would have been Clint Eastwood’s video game debut. But unlike Eastwood’s failed shooter, the “Demolition Man” 3DO game actually made it to shelves — which might not have been all that positive a development considering the game’s legacy. 

The final game incorporated Full Motion Video scenes, some taken straight from the film others shot specifically for the project. That means that both Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes came in to film their movements against a green screen — a clip of which you can see below.

Demolition Man (3DO – 1994) Sylvester Stallone green screen shots for FMV digitization. pic.twitter.com/Aql0sTtBdQ

— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 27, 2023

Unfortunately, former Virgin employee Julian “Jaz” Rignall told Time Extension that it was nothing short of a nightmare actually getting Sly into their offices to shoot this extra footage.

“We had Snipes and Stallone into the Virgin offices somewhat under duress, it seemed. [Stallone] was contractually bound to do this. Actually getting him into the studio was a nightmare. He wasn’t remotely interested in doing it. He made an effort when he did finally turn up, but jeez. The arm-twisting to make it happen.”

After securing the footage, Virgin designed a series of levels that mirrored moments from the movie itself. Unfortunately, all the effort it took to get Sly into the studio wasn’t quite worth it, as the levels themselves were a sort of hodge podge of other game styles — similar to the way that critics accused “Demolition Man” of borrowing from better action movies. Whereas the critics were, arguably, misguided on that latter point, when it came to the video game, the pastiche accusations were a lot more accurate.

“Demolition Man” for the 3DO consisted of 16 levels, across which players would experience an array of different gameplay styles. Light-gun stages allowed for the use of the 3DO Gamegun peripheral (though it was optional), making “Demolition Man” one of only 12 3DO games that supported the use of the accessory. Elsewhere, one-on-one beat-em-up stages used the FMV footage of Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, making these levels distinctly similar to the “Mortal Kombat” games, which also made use of real footage to animate its fighters. With his beret, Stallone’s John Spartan even bore a slight resemblance to the character Jax from the popular fighting series. Other stages involved racing, while first-person-shooter levels, where, as noted by Time Extension, the radar took up so much of the screen that it was basically a handicap, as evidenced in this full playthrough.

Rather than make for diverse and engaging gameplay, then, this mish-mash of styles felt more like a series of half-finished games. It’s perhaps no wonder that “Demolition Man” for the 3DO ultimately failed to make much of an impact. But the less than impressive gameplay wasn’t the only issue. The 3DO itself was never a hugely popular console anyway, and was quickly subsumed by what was becoming an increasingly saturated console market. In 1994, Sony launched the PlayStation in Japan, releasing their console worldwide the following year. This essentially meant that the 3DO lost its competitive edge as the most advanced console on the market. Indeed, a port of “Demolition Man” was planned for Sony’s console, but when the PlayStation finally arrived too much time had passed since the movie’s debut, and interest just wasn’t there.

As such, “Demolition Man” for the 3DO has been relegated to a footnote in the history of an overlooked Stallone movie. Perhaps if that “Demolition Man” sequel ever actually appears, it will be accompanied by a decent game tie-in.