Aspyr Media Inc. noted today that it will publish a Macintosh version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Although the game won’t hit store shelves until April, Aspyr’s announcement coincides with the movie’s release in the United States.

Like the book and movie, the game puts players in the events depicted in the third and final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” Billed as “the only video game based” on the story, The Return of the King enables you to take the role of eight playable characters from the story, including Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Sam and Frodo.

Return of the King features voice-overs provided by the films’ actors and uses the movie’s digital assets as well. You become the heroes who determine the fate of middle-Earth as you traverse locations depicted in the movie and book (and some spots and events that exercise some creative license on the game designers’ part, too.)

The game features more than twelve environments and third-person action/adventure gameplay. You can also participate in a cooperative Multiplayer mode as you fight the minions of Sauron as you battle to win the War of the Ring.

Details about the game’s actual development progress on the Macintosh were scarce as MacCentral posted this news, though Aspyr noted that the game is currently in development at Beenox, with whom Aspyr has previously collaborated on to bring games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 to the Mac.