Cookie Jar Ent. has revamped its official website for its animated action series Spider Riders, adding, among other things, a massively multi-player online game (MMOG). Spider Riders: Battle for Arachna now allows players around the world the opportunity to chat and play against one another in real time at www.spiderriders.com.
Directed by Koichi Mashimo (.hack//SIGN, Gatchaman Fighter) the Spider Riders animated series is based on Cookie Jar’s book Spider Riders’Shards of the Oracle, written by Emmy award-winners Tedd Anasti and Patsy Cameron-Anasti, and published by Newmarket Press. The show takes place in the world of Arachna, where a young boy named Hunter Steele discovers the Inner World populated by people who ride 10-foot tall battle spiders to defend their land from the evil Invectids. Hunter soon learns that the only way out is to overcome his fear of spiders and train as a Spider Rider, with the ultimate goal of becoming the Arachna-Master.
Created by the marketing and digital media teams at Cookie Jar with web design by Montreal-based Tribal Nova and Frima Studios, the Spider Riders web site has already attracted more than 1.3 million registered gamers and has exceeded 50 million hits since its introduction last year, according to the company. The online game transports fans of the series to Arachna, where they engage in 15 skill levels and eventually take command of their very own battle spider.
Spider Riders is produced under Cookie Jar Ent.’s action-adventure brand, Coliseum, and is co-produced by leading Japanese advertising agency Yomiko and acclaimed Japanese animation studio Bee Train. The show airs on Kids’ WB! on The CW in the U.S., TELETOON in Canada and TV Tokyo in Japan.
