When meeting a fellow Tintin fan, the first question you’re likely to ask is simply: ‘which one is your favourite?’ Over the many years Hergé worked on Tintin, the cartoon went through several phases, ranging from the early comics where Hergé was still developing his style, to the later stories which had clearer plotlines and an established cast of supporting characters. My personal favourite? For me, it’s The Secret of the Unicorn – a story with an intriguing mystery at its centre, and plenty of Captain Haddock action. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that this was the comic selected for Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film adaptation.
Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the PharaohDeveloper: Pendulo StudiosPublisher: MicroidsAvailability: Releases November 2023 on PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch
Given the vast catalogue of Tintin comics to choose from, some might ask why the upcoming Tintin video game adaptation is based on Cigars of the Pharaoh. As the fourth volume of Tintin published by Hergé, the comic is a relatively early one, and lacks key characters such as Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus. But for Spanish game developer Pendulo Studios and French publisher Microids, selecting the comic was a matter of considering what sort of gameplay opportunities the story could offer, while also leaving room for a potential sequel.
“As Microids and Pendulo started to work on a new Tintin IP, we wanted to start at the beginning,” Microids brand manager Charles Leveugle tells me at a demo event. “But a complete beginning, not just the Soviets or America or Congo, a complete beginning with a complete adventure, with a variety of gameplay [styles], various countries to visit, various investigations to lead. In the first three albums Tintin is only living in one country… in Cigars of the Pharaoh he traverses three countries, he drives a plane, he drives a car, he meets Thompson and Thomson, he meets Rastapopoulos…
“Cigars of the Pharaoh was the perfect choice, and as it’s [connected] with the Blue Lotus, it opens the door for the next game.”
Before we start thinking about the next Tintin game, however, we should probably take a closer look at the game at hand. Releasing later this year, Tintin Reporter: Cigars of the Pharaoh is an action-adventure game, featuring a mixture of action sequences and puzzle-solving segments. A sensible combination of gameplay styles for a Tintin adaptation, really, given Tintin normally spends his time either investigating mysteries or narrowly escaping death. Leveugle tells me Pendulo Studios and Microids are aiming to make this adaptation “100 per cent faithful” to Hergé’s original work. “The ultimate guideline of this game is the comics,” Leveugle explains. “So we have a skeleton of the story, which we have to match 100 per cent, and then we can add some stuff in order to prolong the experience and make the game last around 10 hours.”