"Fallujah" Developer Getting Ready to Release Wii Game Based on Marine Simulator

Atomic Games president Peter Tamte says his company is still intent on finishing the controversial Six Days in Fallujah, but in the meantime the developer is releasing a Wii adaptation of a marine corps sim.

The game is called Marines: Modern Urban Combat and will give Wii users a break from the balance board and a reason to buy a Wii Zapper (aka plastic gun controller), putting players in charge of a gunner, assistant gunner and rifleman as they flush out Syrian- and Iranian-sponsored insurgents in Beirut.

Marines is based on the "Close Combat" series of simulators, which were developed by Atomic Games' sister company Destineer as marine training systems. According to the Marine Corps Times, Destineer had access to about 40 combat veterans from Camp Pendleton for the making of "Close Combat." In fact, those very same marines were the ones who inspired and contributed to Six Days in Fallujah after they returned from duty in Iraq. A commercial version of the simulator series was released for PC, Xbox and Mac under the title Close Combat: First to Fight.

Though Marines is entirely fictional, Tamte, who is also president of Destineer, says that the vision of the two games is similar:

One of our objectives with ‘First to Fight’ that also carried forward to this project is to celebrate the values of the Marine Corps — honor, courage and commitment. We view this more as an opportunity for the average consumer to understand more about Marines than they might get just by reading the newspaper.

The fact that a company that builds training tools for the Marines would come under so much fire for a realistic shooter like Six Days in Fallujah underscores how exquisitely sensitive people are about depictions of the war in Iraq. That may be part of the reason why Atomic is releasing Marines. Some decent PR and a bite of revenue from the massive Wii crowd would be a welcome respite from the firestorm over Fallujah.

Nevertheless, Tamte remains committed to Six Days and says the company continues to seek new partners.

"We as a society tend to glorify heroes from 50 years ago, as we should, but there are individuals whose sacrifice and courage and commitment is just as strong who are walking around us right now," Tamte told the Marine Corps Times.

Marines: Modern Urban Combat is due for release on November 3.