Escape To Plastic Beach (partially lost Gorillaz iOS and PC game; 2010)
Menu screen from the iOS version of the game.
Status: Partially Lost
This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its improper formatting and informal writing.
Escape to Plastic Beach was a 3-D action/adventure game based on the virtual band Gorillaz, specifically set on the events of the band's third phase with the same name as the game. It was developed by the (then) nine year-old company Matmi and the now defunt Zombie Flesh Eaters, who had already worked with Gorillaz on their first two phases, due to it's creator, Jamie Hewlett, also being the co-creator of Gorillaz, along with Blur's frontman Damon Albarn.
Background
This game is the third part of a trilogy of games to promote the band's latest album at the time: Plastic Beach. The first two parts (Chapters 1 & 2) were released at the same time in late February of 2010 on Gorillaz.com[1] for free, both only developed by Zombie Flesh Eaters.
There isn't a lot of information on the development itself of the game, but we do know the record label of Gorillaz in that time, EMI Music, had a role on the development of the game, as hinted here. This is probably due to the bankrunptcy that the record label was suffering at the time, and the trust they were putting on Gorillaz.
Launch and Critical Reception
A demo was launched on the website in March of 2010; in that same month, the game was officially launched on the website, and unlike the first two chapters, this game had a cost of $1.49 euros; it included an MP3 of the sixth track on Plastic Beach: Superfast Jellyfish, featuring De La Soul and Gruff Rhys. The iOS version launched in July of the same year at the price $0.99 dollars.
The game consisted of three chapters with different themes each one: the first was racing/persecution themed, situated on the music video of their song Stylo, the second was water themed, probably situaded on the music video of their song On Melancholy Hill and the third was flight themed, where you controled Gorillaz' ficitonal creator and bassist Murdoc F. Niccals as he glides around their home in that time, the actual Plastic Beach.
The game was critically acclaimed by fans of the band and even got a BT Music Digital Award (read more about it on Wikipedia) for Best Artist Promotion
Drowning of the game
Sadly, due to EMI falling for bankruptcy and by that, the phase ending, on 2014, the web version of the game, along with Chapters 1 & 2 were shut down from the website, and due to the band's return with their album Humanz, on 2016, the whole site got redesigned and the Plastic Beach escense and minigames were gone, now leaving them with less chances of restoring.
Then, due to issues with the compatibility on newer iPhone and iPad devices, the game is now currently unplayable and not for download (like the Angry Birds og games)
Fan Support
Old and new fans had dreamed of playing the game again or for the first time, and thanks to them, some of the assets were found and archieved for generations to see.
Assests from @GorillazFlash on Twitter/X
On July 14th, 2023, Twitter user @phase2murdoc responded to a tweet of the official Matmi account asking to bring back the game. Matmi responded by saying they would love to, but they don't have the rights to do it. Thanks to this, the fans decided to make a movement to help restore the game called #returntoplasticbeach, name given by Twitter user @obsess__possess (account now suspended, the user is still active).
The movement got to be trending in many countries, and after some time, Matmi got to be in a meeting with EMI Records. However, after soem tweets regarding the situation, Matmi suddenly ghosted Gorillaz fans with the only info that they went on a meeting in London to probably discuss about the game.
Screenshots
Thanks to the movement, Matmi released a bunch of screenshots of the game during July 14 and July 19. You can see them here.
See also:
5/4 (found unfinished Gorillaz music video; 2002)
Celebrity Harvest (lost production material of unfinished animated Gorillaz film; early 2000s)