[INTERVIEW] Shane Mosley, Boxer
I recently sat down with boxing great, Shane Mosley, who lends his voice to the new Buena Vista game Pillman of Youth.
The Game Rag: First of all, Mr. Mosley, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Shane Mosley: Please, refer to me by my Christian name.
TGR: Verily. Now can you tell us about the Pillman of Youth project and, perhaps, what drew you to it? I understand that you contacted the developer directly when you first heard of its development.
M: Yes, that is correct. I had always been a big fan of the Pillsbury Doughboy. His carbohydrates have played a big part in my boxing career and I wanted to pay tribute. Of course, this was back when the title was known as ‘The Pillsbury Doughboy and the Doughnettes.’
TGR: That’s quite a different title from Pillman of Youth. Did the game have a different story going for it at the time?
M: The project’s direction has been the same from the beginning. Only the title has undergone any real change.
TGR: I see. So can you tell me what you do on the project? Are you the voice of the doughboy or “Pillman” as he is now being called?
M: Unfortunately no. They brought in DJ Jazzy Jeff to handle the character, but I think my role is just as important. I am the title’s narrator.
TGR: Ah, so you mostly handle the cutscenes I assume. Does the title have a sort of storybook feel?
M: No no. I am the narrator for the entire game. I narrate during cutscenes and actual gameplay. My job is to lend an immersive quality to the title. There are some things that games cannot properly convey and that’s where I come in. I talk about the direction the wind is blowing, what the enemies are thinking, how many steps the characters has taken and so on. It’s all for immersiveness and not for a storybook feel. The Pillman is about taking the damage to the other team in the most rugged way possible and a storybook feel would take the edge off the action.
TGR: So you’re saying that not one second goes by in the game without the gamer hearing your voice?
M: Right. I had to watch hundreds of testers play through the game to get this done right so there are a lot of variances on what I say depending on what the player does. All of my commentary was recorded while I watched the testers so it’s very accurate.
TGR: On a somewhat personal note; how do you feel about the changes from the Pillsbury Doughboy source material? You have to admit they’re pretty drastic.
M: I was disappointed at first, I admit, but the developers are very talented and I feel some minor changes will not bother even the most hardcore Pillsbury Doughboy fanatics. If you think about it, there isn’t really much that is Pillsbury Doughboy cannon so there was a lot of creative freedom that had to be taken advantage of to provide the character with an adventure worthy of a video game. This is why the giant robot invasion of Alpha Fortitude VI at the game’s start brings the gamer right into the action.
TGR: I don’t quite see how that is a minor change. Granted, you are correct that there is not much to the license but none of this seems to even keep with the general theme of happy cooking that the Pillsbury Doughboy is all about. Plus the character isn’t even the same. When there’s not that much to the franchise I would have thought at least the character would be the same and that the game would be built around who the character is. The doughboy is now numerous loaves of baked bread called Pillman, for example.
M: I don’t follow.
TGR: He doesn’t even have a chef’s hat.
M: Well, like I said, minor changes. An actual doughboy would not work. The physics of it are absurd. The updated character IS the doughboy, though. He giggles and everything.
TGR: But do you feel that the same game could have been made without even using the license? I fail to see the point of purchasing the rights to develop this game when the Pillsbury Doughboy himself is missing.
M: Well you couldn’t have the giggle then. We have the giggle.
TGR: Thank you for your time.