Five games based on movies to consider playing (even if they sucked)
Big movies sell games. They may not necessarily be good games, but they sell. Some have chosen to avoid the genre altogether, choosing to stop buying video games based on movies. It spares them of potential heartache, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
Which of course begs the question: What movies have come and gone without getting themselves a video game?
Video games based on movies have a long history of receiving lukewarm reception, and yet somewhere out there, a producer still believes that the next big movie would have enough gamers that loved it enough to make a profit out of a video game based on that movie.
And they’re right. Big movies sell games. They may not necessarily be good games, but they sell. Sometimes there are movies that are just too good that people don’t even bother reading game reviews for the video game counterpart of that movie.
That begs the question: What movies have come and gone without getting themselves a video game? Here are some candidates for you to consider…
Hannibal – Here’s an entry for an action/survival game in the manner of Condemned. It won’t be in the same kind of genre of course (the Doc’s not supernatural no matter how creepy he is) but a video game of the cannibal doctor would make a good psychological-horror, crime-solving game.
Among the three movies in the franchise, it would be interesting to have a video game that picks up the storyline after the final events in the story’s timeline (which would be “Hannibal,” when the good doctor escapes on a plane, eating some delicious fried brain).
Minority Report – Although the movie ended with all the loose ends tied up (or did it?) the world that the movie’s producing team – led by Steven Spielberg – created is rich with solid elements. Some of those elements weren’t explored that much in the movie, and what better way to explore it than in a video game?
Aside from the setting, the movie has a good foundation (based on Philip K. Dick’s short story of the same name) that game designers could make a good RPG or action title out of. It has everything it needs: an internal battle between good and evil and a choice between following fate as decreed by destiny or walking your own path.
I, Robot – If the appeal of Minority Report was the world it was set in, the appeal of I, Robot being translated into a video game is it’s premise. The world the movie ended with was on the brink of a major change: the birth of sentient robots.
If we follow the line of thinking of The Matrix, and fast forward into the future (the further future than the movie is set in at least), robots and humans have a war. There’s always a war between humans and sentient robots. It’s like a tradition.
A video game with that human-robot-war premise going for it would be interesting, whether it’s a morality-action game or an MMORPG (it could work, with some liberties to the story).
Happy Gilmore – Adam Sandler (as Happy Gilmore) playing golf. That in itself is a good idea for a sports game. This game would be interesting in the Wii, and could be imagined as featuring various minigolf-like courses.
It’d be fun to have an opportunity to plat minigolf courses from hell. And if it gets really frustrating you can wave your Wiimote around in frustration and swear loudly (and likewise, your Mii on screen would wave around the club and have tiny “$#@!” thought balloons.)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – A good candidate for an RPG because of the humongous world of Douglas Adams’ books. The movie only focused on the first book of the saga, but there’s a lot that happened after that which could be the premise for the video games.
The world of HHGG is massive (across-time-and-space massive) and the plot is epic in proportion, in its own comedic nonsensical fashion. What’s great about this movie as a game is not only the variety the world offers but also the humor, which video games could also benefit from.
Those are the five candidates of video games based on movies that could have sold on the market based on the movie’s own success. What movies have you watched that you wouldn’t have been able to resist buying a video game adaptation?
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