Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
Yep. I was surprised and immediately became interested when I heard there was an animated TV series around. And of course a little bit worried too, it's not like what I've read about the movie set in the game world promised much from other tie-ins ... But with the whole series available as a free download (see the externals) there wasn't much to loose from having a look.
Wing Commander Academy is set during the time everybody's hero Christopher Blair was at the academy, more specifically the time he spent aboard the Tiger's Claw under the command of Admiral Tolwyn. I don't remember how well this works with information given in the games and elsewhere, but that's the way it is. You'll see plenty of familiar faces, not to mention spaceships, if you've played the games to some extent, and the creators seem to have made good effort to not break against information and storylines in the games.
Two episodes in, and finding it enjoyable in a light, easy-to-digest way. There is a sharp upper limit to how involved and deep you can make 20 minute chunks of budget-animated space opera ... I didn't realize the actors from the later games reprised their roles here, I just thougt Maniac sounded a little more over the top than usual. It's nice to sit and spot connections to the games, and there are plenty of them, the people who did this did their homework pretty well. Nothing really goes against anything in the games, not so far anyway.
The video quality isn't the highest around, but it's servicable. It's recorded from TV, with commercials edited away and then compressed into divx format. There are plenty of compression artifacts to enjoy when you watch it full screen, but it doesn't matter that much. It's not like the source material is the height of animation detail and fluidity anyway ...
So I watched the remaining episodes a while ago and it feels appropriate to sum things up. From what I've read about the WC movie this series is a lot truer to the game universe, and a lot better too. Somebody wrote that it hurt to see the movie if you're a WC fan, and this certainly doesn't. It's a cheap animated adaption of the Wing Commander universe that ties in well with the games and that also tries to engage your brain a bit. It tries to, you know, make the characters have feelings and stuff like that, instead of just showing space action. There is plenty of that though, and while the capital ships blow up frightfully easy it's at least nice enough to make you want to play the games again.
And of course it's a free download. What's not to like?