A History of Keanu Reeves in Video Games – IGN

The Keanu Reeves renaissance (Keanussance?) is upon us, and we’re right here for it. Keanu has been kicking butt in motion motion pictures for many years now nevertheless it looks as if he’s extra ubiquitous than ever nowadays. Exterior of your John Wicks, he is popped up in Toy Story four as Duke Caboom (Canada’s biggest daredevil and stuntman) and performed an unbearable parody of himself in Netflix’s At all times Be My Perhaps. However Keanu’s largest shock look was at E3 2019, when he not solely took the stage to disclose Cyberpunk 2077’s launch date, but additionally the that he was enjoying a significant character within the recreation: the literally-named Rockerboy Johnny Silverhand.

And so, not simply in anticipation of Cyberpunk 2077, however in celebration of a beloved actor who retains so busy he may as nicely dwell on our screens completely… or simply for the hell of it, actually, let’s have a look again at a quick historical past of each one among Keanu Reeves’ many, many online game appearances.

Click on via the gallery above or scroll down for the total checklist!

Invoice & Ted’s Glorious Video Recreation Journey(s)

Manner again in 1989, Invoice & Ted’s Glorious Journey was first tailored right into a PC journey recreation, and we acquired our first glimpse of a digitized Keanu as Ted “Theodore” Logan and his counterpart Invoice S. Preston, Esq. as they traveled via time on varied adventures and unintentionally studying issues within the course of.

In 1991, Invoice & Ted’s adventures continued with the discharge of latest video video games on the Nintendo Leisure System, Recreation Boy, and Atari Lynx – each a completely distinctive expertise. Whereas the latter two took cues from the Invoice & Ted animated sequence, the NES model was very clearly an Eight-bit rendition of real-life Keanu Reeves. Take note of these characters as a result of this goofy time-traveling buddy comedy franchise is definitely getting a brand new sequel this yr in Invoice and Ted Face the Music… which most likely gained’t be getting a online game adaptation, which is completely bogus – however it might be most glorious if it did.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Following the success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of the traditional vampire novel, official online game tie-ins had been launched for a whopping 9 platforms between 1993 and 1995. All of those starred Keanu’s character from the movie, Jonathan Harker, although Keanu’s likness assorted wildly between titles. The lower-resolution renditions of Keanu appeared extra like Han Solo (or, in some instances, Aladdin), whereas the SEGA CD had full-motion video clips ripped straight from the movie.

Fortunately, Jonathan Harker’s costume of “white shirt and darkish vest” was paying homage to Ted Theodore Logan’s iconic apparel, which helped reinforce the truth that gamers had been taking a look at a small model of Keanu Reeves. Particularly when re-enacting their favourite moments from the film, like when Keanu roundhouse-kicked all these zombies.

Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Motion Film

This entry is definitely extra of a PSA – should you’re watching this video in search of Keanu Reeves video games, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. 1995 noticed the discharge of an interactive FMV journey recreation based mostly on Johnny Mnemonic, the William Gibson brief story that impressed the Keanu Reeves film with the identical title, nevertheless it didn’t star Keanu Reeves. The position of Johnny Mnemonic was as a substitute performed by Christopher Gartin, who may most likely play Keanu at bat mitzvahs, however is greatest identified for changing Kevin Bacon in Tremors 2: Aftershocks.

Enter The Matrix

The Matrix looks as if it ought to’ve spawned numerous video video games, however one way or the other, it solely acquired three official tie-ins and, bafflingly, solely one among them focuses on Keanu’s character Neo. 2003’s Enter The Matrix was directed by The Wachowskis, featured a few of the stars from The Matrix Reloaded, and instantly intersected with the occasions of the movies, however didn’t really enable gamers to play as Neo – a lot to the chagrin of followers who wished to reenact their favourite motion scenes starring the six-foot-one Lebanese Hollywood dreamboat roundhousing a bunch of Hugo Weavings and creepy albino twins.

Followers lastly acquired to put on the mantle of the One True Keanu in 2005’s The Path of Neo, which was the simple Matrix recreation that folks had been ready for because the film got here out.

Constantine

The hockey-loving thespian portrayed the DC comics demon hunter on the large display, which in fact then acquired digitized onto all of our small screens in Constantine: The Video Recreation. The sport itself was as okay as you’d anticipate, similar to Keanu’s spiky-haired mess of a personality mannequin.

John Wick

Tragically, Keanu stopped showing in video video games and we had been compelled to play tons of of video games that didn’t star the world’s sexiest motorbike using motion star till 2014, when Pay Day 2 DLC launched John Wick as a playable character, the primary of lots of Keanu’s in-game appearances because the notorious vengeful canine widower.

Later, in 2017, avid gamers acquired an opportunity to get contained in the motion star’s head, actually, when The John Wick Chronicles put the Johnny Mnemonic star in a digital actuality journey – a VirKeanual Reeves-ality simulator if you’ll. No? Okay.

Subsequent, Fortnite acquired an unofficial John Wick pores and skin in 2018, generally known as “The Reaper,” which Epic Video games tried to faux was not Keanu Reeves, despite everybody figuring out it was very clearly Keanu Reeves.

A yr later, most likely to show that they weren’t ripping off Keanu Reeves and/or to earn more money, Epic Video games launched an official John Wick pores and skin, revealed with a trailer wherein the precise licensed Keanu Reeves pores and skin squared off towards his unlicensed doppleganger.

Then, final yr, 2019, lovingly generally known as the yr of The Keanu, Keanu’s adventures took a flip for the turn-based in John Wick: Hex, an action-strategy recreation developed by Mike Bithell, the indie developer of Thomas Was Alone, which was a recreation that starred rectangles (presumably as a result of Keanu was unavailable).

Cyberpunk 2077

And, now, in 2020, we’re getting Cyberpunk 2077 — an AAAA open-world RPG that lets gamers dwell out their final fantasies of getting a loopy futuristic journey whereas the cybernetic ghost of Keanu Reeves is embedded of their brains.

We acquired an opportunity to talk to Keanu about his role in CD Projekt Red’s upcoming sci-fi epic, or you possibly can take a look at what happened to his character in the years between the tabletop Cyberpunk 2020 and the digital world of 2077.