Two of the summer's biggest movies feature '80s toys – G.I. JOE: The Rise of COBRA and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen -- and that means more movie games. While Activision has already laid claim to the Transformers license, releasing its first Transformer game two years ago, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro and Electronic Arts are hoping to duplicate the Transformers success by unleashing G.I. JOE video game in tandem with film release on August 7.

The G.I. JOE game has been in development at Double Helix for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP. Developer Backbone Entertainment is working on the Nintendo DS version of the game, which will share the same story as the other versions but is being built from the ground up to take advantage of the portable platform's capabilities. EA, the game's publisher, will publicly debut the game at Hasbro's booth at Toy Fair in New York City February 15-18 in conjunction with the new movie toys and merchandise.

While the motion picture will introduce the events that lead to the creation of the evil COBRA Organization, the game will actually serve as a virtual sequel.

"Given that the film is predominantly an origins piece, we're leaving it to them to tell the back story of each of the characters that are featured in the game," said Matt Marsala, senior producer, Electronic Arts. "And since our game features an exclusive storyline and picks up where the film leaves off, we weren't locked into making a 'play the movie' game."

Instead, Marsala said the team could choose which elements from the film made the most sense to bring into the game world, and combine them with elements from the cartoons, comic books, and toy lines that they've wanted to bring to life.

"The main narrative of the game is somewhat of a retelling of a classic G.I. JOE story arc with a modern day spin," added Marsala. "The start of the game opens in the days following the end of the film, and the remainder of the game is spent with G.I. JOE fighting for freedom wherever there's trouble."

Dax Berg, lead designer of the game at Double Helix, said the core gameplay was built for two-player co-op, so sharing a couch with your buddy will be the best way to play.

"You have a nice selection of G.I. JOE characters to choose from throughout the game, and there might be a few COBRA surprises where it may be possible to control the enemy as well," said Berg.

Several of the main characters in the game are the same as those in the film; Duke, Heavy Duty, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Ripcord all have significant roles. While the game will feature the likenesses of the film actors, they will not provide any voice acting for this virtual expansion. Outside of the film, there are a number of other playable G.I. JOE characters available, many of which haven't been seen since the classic cartoon series or comic books.

"And if that wasn't enough, we've added a bunch of supporting characters to help with things like enemy intel, mission and objective updates, air strikes, and more," said Marsala. "As for vehicles, we've got over a dozen available for the player to cruise around in, including the Snow Cat and Mobat; all vehicles have been designed with co-op play in mind, so you and your buddy should be well equipped when it comes to taking on COBRA in a ground assault."

The new game runs on a proprietary game engine developed by Double Helix, which has worked on past Hollywood-licensed properties including Star Wars, The Matrix, Indiana Jones and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"With a recent overhaul done to the graphics engine we have some great looking characters, environments, and effects," said Berg. "In true G.I. JOE fashion, you'll move through the world guns-a-blazin' across a wide playing field, moving and dodging from hundreds of enemy projectiles all the way."

Part of the team working on G.I. JOE also helped create Enter the Matrix, which remains one of the biggest convergence undertakings in games. For this project, Double Helix worked with some of the film's key creators and Paramount Pictures provided EA access to Stuart Beattie's script early on.

"It was incredibly helpful to have access to the script early on in development. And our visits out to the Paramount lot during one of the shoots was very helpful in getting the look of the interiors and vehicles down, as well as some of the key special effects," said Marsala, who was able to meet actor Ray Park (Snake Eyes) during one visit.

"We managed to get a few early looks at the film as it was being shot – it was really helpful to see how they were handling some of the key visuals in the film, and we did our best to match them in the game where it made sense; things like weapon effects directly helped inform the visuals in the game," added Marsala.

Beattie, who recently worked on translating Gears of War into a movie for New Line Cinema, nearly came aboard as the G.I. Joe game writer.

"I was going to write the G.I. JOE game, but I ended up being so busy around the clock on set with the film that I didn't have time," said Beattie. "It's going to be a great game, though. You get to be Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and cut up things."

Beattie, who managed to turn a theme park ride (Pirates of the Caribbean) into a global cross-medium phenomenon for Walt Disney Pictures, found similarities between the G.I. JOE toys and the pirate ride.

"G.I. JOE was a really interesting adaptation in that there wasn't a story," explained Beattie. "It was more like writing Pirates because there were a bunch of bits. You have to find a story that's unique to G.I. JOE. It's a world that couldn't exist in James Bond or Bourne. And then you have to pick the best characters, the most complex and visually interesting and put as many of them into that as you can. And then create a fun ride. I saw the movie last night and it's fantastic. Hopefully we'll get to do sequels and get to add a whole lot more stuff to this."

As to his focus with this first G.I. JOE movie, Beattie said COBRA doesn't exist in the beginning of the movie.

"In the second movie, COBRA will exist," teased Beattie. "It's an origin story of COBRA. It's like doing Anakin Skywalker and showing how he becomes Darth Vader and then showing how the good guys go about to try and stop him. It's really cool."