Wikipedia

50 Cent: Bulletproof

50 Cent: Bulletproof is an action video game developed by Genuine Games and published by Vivendi Universal Games for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which released on November 17, 2005. The game was reworked into a PlayStation Portable version titled 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition, with a top-down perspective, which released in 2006. A sequel, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, was released in 2009.

50 Cent: Bulletproof
Developer(s)Genuine Games
Publisher(s)Vivendi Universal Games
Director(s)David Broadhurst
Designer(s)Haydn Dalton
Rob Reininger
Programmer(s)Steven J. Batiste
Artist(s)Han Randhawa
Gary Brunetti
Yanick Lebel
Writer(s)Terry Winter
Composer(s)Sha Money XL
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable
ReleasePS2, Xbox
  • NA: November 17, 2005
  • EU: November 25, 2005
PSP
  • NA: August 29, 2006
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The story revolves around protagonist hip hop musician 50 Cent's search for vengeance against the hitmen who attempted to murder him. The game features members of the G-Unit rap crew as a gang. Dr. Dre plays an arms dealer, Eminem plays a corrupt police officer, and DJ Whoo Kid plays himself as a person selling "bootlegged" music (of the G-Unit camp) out of his trunk. A soundtrack album, titled Bulletproof, was released by DJ Red Heat's Shadyville Entertainment. It won "Best Original Song" in the 2005 Spike TV Video Game Awards.

Plot edit

50 Cent receives a distress call from his former juvie cellmate and friend K-Dog (Dwayne Adway), and assembles his crew - Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo – to help him. The crew goes to K-Dog’s location in Queens and shoot their way through an armored tactical squad, but 50 Cent narrowly fails to rescue K-Dog and is shot nine times.

50’s crew brings him to the apartment of Doc Friday, a former licensed doctor until he started writing prescriptions for himself, to recover for a few weeks. 50 Cent then goes to Detective Aaron McVicar (Eminem), a corrupt cop, to buy information about K-Dog’s whereabouts. McVicar tells him that K-Dog was taken in by the FBI, and is being questioned at a safehouse in Scarsdale, New York. He and Lloyd Banks infiltrate the safehouse to find K-Dog and the federal prosecutor already dead, and the same tactical squad from before trying to shoot him again. 50 kills them, searches the house for evidence, and notices a strange new tattoo on K-Dog’s arm.

50 Cent brings K-Dog’s phone to Bugs, a wheelchair-bound pawn shop owner and hacker, and they find a voicemail from biker leader Spider. He goes to their base, a junkyard in Brooklyn, and unsuccessfully tries to pose as K-Dog in order to meet Spider. A firefight erupts when he is found out, and 50 kills Spider. 50 recovers some shipping documents and, after noticing Spider had the same tattoo as K-Dog, cuts the skin off Spider’s dead arm to show it to Bugs. Bugs noticed the same tattoo on the arm of Triad leader Wu Jang, so 50 goes to confront and kill Wu Jang at his restaurant in Chinatown, Manhattan.

When 50 Cent rides the subway back to Queens, the tactical squad storms the train, having traced K-Dog’s phone to 50’s location. 50 shoots down the assailants and picks up one of their wallets, identifying him as DEA special agent Gabriel Spinoza. In exchange for his help, McVicar wants 50 to kill fellow corrupt detective Lou Petra to prevent him from testifying against him. 50 goes with Tony Yayo to Harlem, where they kill Petra and a major drug gang protecting him.

Booker (Chad L. Coleman), a homeless man that 50 Cent had befriended in recent months, warns him that Gabriel Spinoza survived their subway encounter and came by his apartment building asking about him. Booker, a Coast Guard veteran, also helps 50 make sense of the shipping documents he took from Spider, which lead to a dockside warehouse just west of JFK International. When 50 asks dock worker O’Hare (Sean Donnellan) for next week’s shipping schedule, O’Hare - a former associate of Spider - locks him in the warehouse and tries to have him killed by bikers. 50 and Young Buck kill all the assailants, and leave with the shipping schedule.

Upon returning to Booker for more help, 50 Cent witnesses Booker get shot down in a drive-by. At Booker’s funeral, 50 meets Booker’s daughter Alexa (Dominique Jennings). Alexa, a news reporter, explains that Booker was actually an undercover CIA agent investigating the same syndicate 50 Cent is. She gives him a note from Booker’s possessions that read “Eduardo Vasquez – Spinoza connection”. McVicar explains to 50 that Spinoza is probably the person that initially shot him nine times, and discovers that Eduardo Vasquez is a drug mule currently in a Midtown Manhattan morgue. 50 and morgue employee Matt (Paulo Costanzo) are shot at by Vasquez’s old gang, but recover the heroin sample from Vasquez and escape.

50 Cent takes the heroin sample back to local homeless drug addict Popcorn (Tracey Walter), and after rescuing Popcorn from some syndicate hitmen, Popcorn confirms that the heroin is actually pure Afghani opium. McVicar mentions that a Mafioso was recently let off of an opium possession charge because he was secretly an FBI informant. 50 goes to mob boss Frank Capidilupo's (Nick Jameson) casino/meatpacking plant, and is captured. 50 is rescued from a chainsaw executioner by Grizz (Dr. Dre), his longtime arms dealer, and they shoot every mobster on site to find out that the informant was Frank Capidilupo himself.

50 Cent, Bugs and McVicar listen to the tape from Capidilupo’s wiretap, and hear him meeting with Spinoza (Nolan North) along with Muqtada Muhammad, a Saudi embassy official with ties to oil money and terrorism. Alexa is kidnapped by Spinoza, and McVicar arrests 50 so he can take credit for busting the syndicate. 50 is thrown in jail, but Booker shows up alive and well to bail him out. 50 takes his entire crew to storm Muqtada’s cargo ship. 50 kills Muqtada and most of the syndicate goons, then goes to confront Spinoza and rescue Alexa. McVicar shows up to try to arrest Spinoza, who shoots McVicar in the knee. 50 then kills Spinoza and rescues Alexa. A tactical team led by Booker seizes a container full of missiles from the ship, but Booker allows 50 to get away with another container full of drugs as a reward. 50 and Alexa begin dating. 50 gives a paltry amount of the reward money to McVicar, then leaves the ship.[1]

Development edit

G Unit Edition edit

On August 29, 2006, Vivendi Universal Games released a G Unit Edition for the PlayStation Portable. While the story and cutscenes are the same as the console counterpart, the game eschews the third-person perspective game-play for a top-down, isometric viewpoint. Also added is multiplayer game-play through ad hoc wireless connectivity. The PlayStation Portable version featured a "Vitamin Water" minigame in which the player plays as 50 Cent at the apex of his business endeavors.

Soundtrack edit

Bulletproof
Soundtrack album by
50 Cent
ReleasedNovember 2005
Recorded2005
GenreEast Coast hip hop, hardcore rap, gangsta rap
Length43:15
LabelG-Unit Records, Shadyville
ProducerSha Money XL, J.Bonkaz
50 Cent chronology
The Massacre
(2005) 		Bulletproof
(2005) 		Curtis
(2007)

The soundtrack was released in November 2005 and features 13 new songs from 50 Cent.[2] Consumers who pre-ordered the album were also given a previously unreleased DVD of 50 Cent's 2003 European tour called "No Fear, No Mercy".[3]

Track listing edit

All tracks produced by Sha Money XL, except "Pimpin, Part 2" produced by J.Bonkaz [4]

No.TitleLength
1."Maybe We Crazy"3:29
2."When You Hear That" (featuring Tony Yayo)2:51
3."I'm a Rider"2:42
4."Simply the Best"1:42
5."Pimpin, Part 2"3:56
6."Not Rich, Still Lyin' (The Game Diss)"3:51
7."Why They Look Like That"1:40
8."Come and Get You"2:04
9."I Warned You"2:08
10."I Run NY" (featuring Tony Yayo)4:55
11."Grew Up"1:33
12."South Side"1:31
13."Why Ask Why"2:46
14."Hit Your Ass Up" (featuring Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo)3:19
15."G-Unit Radio" (featuring Whoo Kid)0:43
16."Window Shopper (Remix)" (featuring Mase)4:04
17."Movie Trailer"0:47
18."Best Friend (Remix)" (featuring Olivia)4:10

Reception edit

50 Cent: Bulletproof received generally mixed reviews due to poor gameplay mechanics but was praised for its solid storyline and music. It received 1 out of 5 and a Golden Mullet from X-Play.[37] In spite of this, it received a positive rating of 8/10 from Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine.

The PlayStation Portable G Unit Edition received mixed reviews from critics. GameSpot's Alex Navarro did, however, say that it was a better game than the PS2 or Xbox versions.[24]

In Australia, the game was banned for encouraging game violence,[40] with the distributor proving unsuccessful in its attempts to appeal the decision.[41][42] In January 2006, the Australian Classification Board approved of a censored version which removed its arcade mode, downplayed its level of gore and declared itself to be over automatically if any innocent people are killed during the game; this version was rated MA15+.[43][44]

Sales edit

50 Cent: Bulletproof sold 1,123,000 units, according to NPD Group (it is unclear whether this figure includes the PSP's "G-Unit Edition" release).[45] By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version had sold 600,000 units and earned $27 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 98th-highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Overall sales of Bulletproof reached 850,000 units in the United States by July 2006.[46] Its PlayStation 2 version received a "Gold" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[47] indicating sales of at least 200,000 units in the United Kingdom.[48]

References edit

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  3. ^ Stephen Totilo (November 2, 2005). "50 Loads Up 'Bulletproof' Video Game With New Songs, Remixes Archived November 25, 2005, at the Wayback Machine". MTV. Accessed February 8, 2008.
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External links edit

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