Before you see Cocaine Bear in theaters, you can first play the video game. On Tuesday, Universal Pictures unveiled a free-to-play video game adaptation dubbed Cocaine Bear: The Rise of Pablo Escobear. Featuring 8-bit graphics reminiscent of what we would see on the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the game on your computer browser as well as on mobile devices. You can play it right now by heading on over to CocaineBear.movie/game.
The game seems to take some inspiration from Pac-Man with its simple gameplay. Players take control of the bear and are tasked with using the arrow buttons to traverse through pathways with the goal of eating every human on the map. The bear must keep powered up by consuming the cocaine that's been left on the ground in order to keep up the rampage. Catching an ambulance results in bonus points, referring to one of the more memorable scenes from the trailer. Consuming full duffel bags of cocaine, of which there are four on each map, temporarily provides super speed, making it easier to take out the humans.
Even with 8-bit graphics, the kills in the game showcase the insanity that can be seen in the actual film. Cocaine Bear looks to be unapologetically violent in its telling of the story about an American black bear who stumbles upon a large stash of the drug in the woods, embarking on a murderous rampage once he consumes it. It's clear from the trailer alone that the body count will be high, deserving of its R rating for "bloody violence and gore" coupled with "drug content."
Cocaine Bear May Be the Year's Wildest Film
Cocaine Bear is written by Jimmy Warden and directed by Elizabeth Banks. The film feature the late Ray Liotta in one of his final roles and also stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Margo Martindale, and Aaron Holiday.
The official synopsis for Cocaine Bear reads:
Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner's plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow … and blood.
Cocaine Bear will be released in theaters on Feb. 24, 2023, courtesy of Universal Pictures. You can view the official trailer below.