‘Friday the 13th’ Game Delayed For ‘Kindergarten Cop’ Game

Friday the 13th: The Game devs are pushing back the highly anticipated game to set their focus on adapting another popular feature film from the past.

UPDATE: This article is an April Fool’s Day joke. Friday the 13th: The Game is only weeks away from release. But, unfortunately, there won’t really be a Kindergarten Cop game.

It seems the Friday the 13th franchise is cursed. Earlier this year, Paramount pulled the plug on the feature film reboot, which was set to premiere this October. And although the video game had nearly come out, its developers are apparently putting the project back on hold as well.

The unfortunate news comes from problems with the ratings board. The game’s violent content and gruesome deaths were preventing it from getting a passable rating. After months of frustration, the devs are calling it quits for now to focus their efforts on another passion project of theirs — a faithful video game version of Kindergarten Cop.

“We hate to do this to our fans, but the Jason game we made is just way too violent,” co-creator Ronnie Hobbs tells GameSpot. “They’re telling us we need to cut out over half of the deaths to get an M rating. At that point, we might as well just make a whole new game. So, that’s what we’re doing.”

Hobbs clarifies that the decision to do Kindergarten Cop comes from keeping the game family friendly. With Friday the 13th off the table, they’re gearing up to do something more likely to get past the ESRB. Everyone on the Gun Media team is a huge fan of the 90s family film Kindergarten Cop, so that’s ultimately what was decided upon.

Kindergarten Cop – Courtesy of Universal

They’re leaving out the bad guys and all of the gun stuff just to be safe.

Although they’re stripping all of the Friday the 13th content from the game, they’re retaining its core gameplay. So Kindergarten Cop: The Game is keeping the asymmetrical 1-on-7 multiplayer format. One player controls Detective John Kimble, an undercover officer playing a substitute teacher. The other seven players will control kindergarteners. As Kimble, your goal is to maintain order in the class; child players are tasked with driving Mr. Kimble crazy.

Friday the 13th: The Game was set to have three locations, and the same will hold true for Kindergarten Cop. There will be maps set in the classroom, the cafeteria, and the playground. Kimble also has various “abilities” to control the kids with. This includes the “Ferret” ability, which brings out his pet ferret for a limited time to get the kids’ attention. You can also scream loudly at the children, capable of quieting all of them down at once.

The film’s most iconic moment.

Sources are also indicating Arnold Schwarzenegger is providing motion capture for Kimble, similar to Kane Hodder doing so for Jason. Likewise, he’ll also be providing the voice for the character. Hobbs, Wes Keltner, and the rest of the Gun team are aiming to make this as accurate as possible to the movie, using the same mindset they were with Friday the 13th.

Next: Friday the 13th Game Gets Its Rating (For Real)

The good news here is that I am, obviously, only kidding. Friday the 13th: The Game DID get its ESRB rating, and pre-orders are now officially CLOSED. This means that an actual release has got to be just around the corner. While you’re no doubt disappointed there won’t really be a Kindergarten Cop game, at least you’ll be hacking up counselors in Crystal Lake in no time.

See you at camp. And happy April Fool’s Day!