There's a lot of disappointment surrounding video game movies, to a point where there's a fairly high expectation that they're bound to be terrible. However, the quality tends to be surprisingly higher in video game TV shows, which often feature more unique genres and a wider variety of forms from live-action to animation.
There are still plenty of awful game franchise TV shows out there, but the best shows are remarkably stronger than the worst. Ten shows, in particular, stand out, either because of their remarkable quality or from incredibly creative uses of their game franchise's source material.
10 Carmen Sandiego - Know Where To Find Her
Netflix has been home to a lot of recent TV shows based on video games, but Carmen Sandiego was definitely one of the least expected ones to be as good as it was. The educational mystery series has seen plenty of TV interpretations from a PBS game show to another animated series on Fox, but this stylish 2019 series hit bigger than anything before it.
It fully captured the world-trotting adventure, and thanks to a slick animated style they made Carmen Sandiego feel more like a talented thief and super spy than ever before. The show ran quite fast with four seasons over the course of two years, but the series would be very welcome to make a return.
9 Castlevania - The Ultimate Ending
Speaking of animated Netflix series, Castlevania takes the action-horror franchise and puts a spectacular anime aesthetic over it. That said, despite these beautiful visuals and the original game's Japanese origin, it might surprise you to learn this was produced by American animation studios Frederator and Powerhouse Animation Studios, though with some team members that had previously worked on various anime productions in Japan.
This series is fantastic, running for four seasons and building off of several pieces of lore from the series. It's great for fans of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and even Castlevania 3, but more than anything else its horror aesthetic is just unlike most other video game TV shows, and it uses this aesthetic in tons of creative ways that give it a remarkably unique identity.
8 Persona - Beautifully Executed
Most of the shows on this list are generally famous for taking a game franchise and building something completely new with it, but this is hardly true of the anime series for Persona 4 and Persona 5, which essentially retell the stories of the games in a more detailed and animated matter.
This might seem redundant and boring, but in reality, it gives a lot more character to certain scenes that the game featured as text-based dialogue cutscenes. It also gives the protagonists far more personality since they're no longer your self-insert character, making the same stories feel interestingly different from your playthrough of the game.
7 Rabbids - Yes, Really
With their separation from the Rayman series, Ubisoft's Rabbids brand is much better suited to TV than any of these other game franchises. Their wacky antics made for mediocre minigame collections, but ended up being significantly more fun as an animated comedy show.
It's not anything exceptional, but the quality of its animation is on par with the games, and the TV show format lets them get into more interesting situations. Their non-verbal and physical comedy is certainly entertaining while shaking a Wii Remote for them, but it turns out they're just as fun for kids as a TV series.
6 Digimon - A Kid's Show With Some Heavy Plot Points
It would be easy to put Pokemon on this list, particularly since the series is still going on today after multiple decades. That said, it's hard to really argue that the Pokemon TV show is doing too much interesting for non-fans, and this is where the various Digimon series ended up being far more fascinating as a TV show based on a game franchise.
These anime shows were based on far less source material than Pokemon, building off of virtual pets instead of a full video game. The series was so successful that the most popular Digimon video games are more based on the anime, a transition that's extremely rare in the world of gaming.
5 Viva Pinata - Again, Yes REALLY
Easily the strangest member of the video game TV show club is Viva Pinata, a series so unusual in its visuals that some fans don't know that its video game came before the show. The show itself is significantly different, being less of a casual adventure game and more of a friendly animated comedy.
No game series tends to have this confusion, as it's usually easy to tell when a TV show is based on a video game. Its ability to deceive its viewers in what came first is notable on its own, and the comedy antics make for a surprisingly solid kids show that blurs the line between being different and familiar to the Viva Pinata games.
4 Megaman Battle Network - An Outlier In The Series
The original Mega Man games for the NES and SNES haven't had many great animated versions. One older 90s show is only remembered for a scene where Proto Man tries to destroy the Lincoln Memorial. That said, the Battle Network series that started on the Game Boy Advance took Mega Man into a whole new style, and with it came an amazing Mega Man NT Warrior series that holds up years later.
It's a pretty straightforward monster-of-the-week series, but it's made more fun for Mega Man fans thanks to unique interpretations of many famous robot masters. It also gives Mega Man a unique realistic sci-fi setting instead of its futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, giving it a unique look that's especially memorable.
3 Sonic The Hedgehog - There's So Many Series
Even forgetting the popular 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, it's almost alarming just how many Sonic TV shows there are. It's seen a 90s cartoon featuring Sonic Says segments giving safety advice to kids, a weird cyberpunk interpretation called Sonic Underground, the long-running Sonic X anime series, and even a meme-heavy series based on the disastrous Sonic Boom series.
Sonic just can't quit TV, and it's an excellent home for the blue blur. He's a cool and charismatic character that usually comes across as cheesy and tacky in many 3D sonic games, but these traits end up making him fun and relatable when placed in a scripted series.
2 Kirby - A Short-Lived Classic
Kirby: Right Back At Ya is the best TV series that fans never got enough of. It only lasted four seasons and ran during the early 2000s, but it's one of the only times we've gotten to see gaming's lovable pink orb as a character instead of a blank playable character. Its cute face got a cuter voice and a cute town that brought many stories to
This series is still immensely admired by fans, with one episode being fully reanimated by a collaborative group of animators who miss the charm of this show. The show even appeared as bonus content in the Kirby's Dream Collection for the Wii, showing that Nintendo recognizes how lovable this short series was.
1 The Witcher - Setting The Standard For Live-Action
It's impossible to mention video game series without talking about Netflix's The Witcher, a series that may have reignited people's interest in video games given live-action interpretations. This often fails in movies, but The Witcher managed to take the game's story and build a spectacular drama from it without the animation that the other best video game TV shows rely on.
It's an especially short series, but from its great cast of Henry Cavill and Freya Allan to its dark fantasy setting, it works as a unique show that feels just reminiscent enough of its source material. The other shows on this list are great interpretations of their games, but The Witcher feels unlike anything else on this list, and fans are plenty hungry for more video game TV shows just like it.