Today brings some interesting news. A Mars Attacks video game has been announced and is currently in development at Outlier. That’s pretty rad and, on paper, sounds like an excellent, shockingly obvious idea. Why hasn’t this happened sooner?! The interesting part kicks in because the developer has decided to make, of all things, a theme park simulator called Mars Attracts set in this universe. Yes, really. To say this is an out-of-the-box idea would be an understatement. That said, it also has a lot of potential, even if it’s not the obvious choice.
The above teaser gives us a taste of what Outlier is cooking up. The whole thing is set to a cover of House of the Rising Sun, adding to the strangeness of it all. We see various humans in a variety of situations before the camera eventually pulls back to show us that it is the aliens from Mars Attacks who have captured humans, making them centerpiece attractions of a zoo in space. For what it’s worth, the final shot is pretty impressive and intriguing.
Theme park simulators aren’t for everyone. From personal experience, I had never messed with them much until the Jurassic World Evolution video games came out. Those games were so shockingly great that I became a little obsessed. A survival/horror game of some sort would have made more sense in that franchise, but the theme park sim we got was awesome. Maybe that’s what we can expect here? Outlier’s official description of the game reads as follows:
“Mars Attracts is a theme park management sim set in the iconic universe of Mars Attacks. Build rides, hire and train staff, manage guest needs, and most importantly – abduct humans to serve as the star attractions! Craft the perfect park to appeal to your Martian guests, but don’t forget to keep your humans’ needs met too – the hideous enclosed-brained Earthlings can be prone to escape!”
Mars Attacks, as a franchise, began as a series of Topps trading cars in the ‘60s, which told a connected story. The series is most remembered thanks to director Tim Burton, who turned the big-brained alien invaders into a movie, 1996’s Mars Attacks!
For now, the game is due to arrive on Steam sometime in 2025. So, out the gate, it will be limited to those who game on PC or a device such as the Steam Deck. There’s currently no word on whether or not it will be released on consoles but one assumes if it goes well enough, that will happen at some point.
Look for Mars Attracts on early access on Steam sometime in 2025. For more, read about all of the new games coming to the Dead by Daylight universe.
