Vanilla Ice Is Part of the Impressive Cast in Video Game Crime Boss: Rockay City

Usually when Dallas-born rapper Vanilla Ice gets cast in something, it’s not all that impressive. It’s not like we expect to see him in Marvel movie roles — even if that would actually breathe some life into a franchise that’ll be stale until the next Deadpool flick or the inevitable Marvel Avengers reboot.

Ice appeared in some of Adam Sandler’s comedies — that is, until Sandler’s films starting transforming into Oscar bait. The rapper also famously got to perform with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen, but his place in cinema has steadily remained on the level of a Sharknado sequel, a direct-to-video Insane Clown Posse vehicle or a reality show where he Goes Amish.

This time, however, Vanilla Ice (aka Robert Van Winkle) has joined a cast with some impressive names on a project that’s getting a lot of viral traffic.

505 Games released a trailer on Thursday during The Game Awards broadcast for its new first-person, open-world title Crime Boss: Rockay City, set for release on March 28, 2023. The cast listing includes some heavy action-movie hitters: Michael Madsen, Danny Glover, Danny Trejo, Kim Basinger, Michael Rooker and Chuck Norris playing himself. Vanilla Ice portrays a music mogul named Helios, according to a post on his official website. 

Here’s the debut trailer for Crime Boss: Rockay City, out 3/28/2023! @EpicGames #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/MXeb1Wr4Xq

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 9, 2022

Crime Boss: Rockay City takes place in a 1990s Florida-esque city in which a virtual protagonist named Travis Barker (no relation to Kris Jenner) works his way up from the bottom of an underground crime syndicate to become the new crime king of Rockay City. Of course, he’s not the only crime boss who wants to take over the town, and rival gangs and bosses are looking to carve out the biggest slice of Rockay City for themselves by any means necessary, according to the game’s official website.

The game appears to be an open-world title inspired by the likes of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, with modern-generation game tech and a deeper, morphing storyline that molds a little bit more to the players’ decisions and schemes. Players will work for the different gangs and crime bosses on missions that unlock more of the story and fund their chosen gang’s efforts to gain money and power.

Crime Boss; Rockay City will also have a player versus environment (PVE) co-op multiplayer mode with up to four players that will reward teams with extra cash and territory.

It’s not yet known if Vanilla Ice’s character will be one that can be played or if he’ll be a non-playable character (NPC or a “Free Guy,” like the one Ryan Reynolds played in that movie).

It’s also not the first time Vanilla Ice’s voice and/or likeness has appeared in game form. Back in the ’90s at one of the high points of his music career, the THQ game studio created a side-scrolling, urban landscape cartridge called Rap City in which Vanilla Ice’s likeness and music would appear in 8-bit form on the Nintendo GameBoy.

Unfortunately, rights issues made the development of the game even more complicated, and the rapper’s name and music had to be removed. THQ finished the game with a generic character named Cool Q, aka the “baddest rapper in the hood,” who still looks like a lot like Vanilla Ice with his tall flattop hair and trademark hoodie. Cool Q has to save rap music by punching giant insects, retrieving hidden vinyl records and CDs strewn about the levels and doing special dances moves to power up his attacks.

Rap City obtained an official license from Nintendo for the GameBoy but it never got released. The YouTube channel Boy Curious found a completed build for the game and played and reviewed it for a comprehensive video for his channel.