You know which book properties haven’t been properly exploited in video game format? The fantasy tales by Edgar Rice Burroughs, notably the Tarzan and John Carter franchises. Game developer Tanglewood Games and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc hope to change all that with John Carter: Warlord of Mars.

Slow down, John Carter

But, before you get too excited, there isn’t much to see of the game yet. It’s got the backing of the company that owns the rights to everything Burroughs wrote but the game itself is still early in development. There’s some basic animation done, a few character models have been created and some of the cast have been recruited. But there’s still loads to do.

Before development jumps into high gear, there’s a Kickstarter campaign to look forward to. And you might want to do the backing thing, because the game itself will see Mr Carter first taking on Nazis in World War II before being teleported to Mars (otherwise known as Barsoom) by Nazi Hans Kammler’s experimental tech. Not bad going for a character that first turned up in 1912.

Mars is awfully topical at the moment, what with everyone from NASA to the UAE sending equipment to the red planet in recent months. It might be a plan to set a few new games there as well. We need more than just Doom, The Technomancer and Red Faction (plus all of these).

If you’ve always wanted to act out your Martian exploration fantasies while also fighting Nazis, then this is your chance. John Carter: Warlord of Mars heads to Kickstarter on 19 April this year — you can do your part by backing the game and possibly sparking off a series of them. Burroughs fans around the world are sure to be delighted.