Turning video games into movies and TV shows is very much in vogue right now. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 just hit theaters, Mass Effect and Fallout are coming to Amazon Prime, and if all goes to plan, we'll know what Mario sounds like with Chris Pratt's voice before the end of 2022. Granted, some of those things are more appealing than others. The point is, video game adaptations are big business right now, and studios are jumping on the bandwagon while the getting is good.
An influx of as many of these projects as possible as soon as possible makes a lot of sense. For a very long time, turning games into movies simply didn't work. The original Mario movie, the attempt to bring Assassin's Creed to the big screen, even the Resident Evil movies, some of which I actually quite like, served as evidence that most of the time, games as movies don't work. Then suddenly, it did. Whether it was someone cracking the code or the world's taste collectively changing, projects like Detective Pikachu, the first Sonic movie, and even Uncharted have performed incredibly well.
Simply put, there's a lot of money in this particular banana stand right now, and everyone in video games and Hollywood is intent on bleeding it dry and hoping it lasts for as long as possible. While I'd like to complain at this point, I find it difficult to hide my excitement for some of the irons currently in the fire. Pedro Pascal as Joel in HBO's The Last Of Us appears to be inspired casting, and I'm very excited to see what showrunners do with God Of War if the rumors Kratos is getting a TV show turn out to be true.
My only real hang-up right now is that the video game movie boom hasn't led to a movie video game boom. The '90s and early '00s were littered with movies that really should have resulted in no one trying to adapt a game ever again. However, at that very same time, games were launching alongside movies as a part of their marketing. After you went to see something at the cinema, you could come home and play that movie on your Mega Drive, or your PS1 a little while later. For some reason, that trend dried up about 20 years ago, and I would very much like to see it return.
Disney was arguably the master at creating games to go along with its blockbusters. To this day, two of my favorite Mega Drive games are Aladdin and The Lion King. Even though I was reminded of how short the former is and difficult the latter is when the two were re-released as a package a few years ago, they were go-tos for me as a kid and enhanced my enjoyment of the movies they were connected to exponentially. The same goes for Toy Story, Hercules, and Tarzan, all of which were paired with terrific games. I was afforded the opportunity to learn more about the worlds in which the movies were based, and I loved every second of it.
Disney might have been the best at movie games, but it certainly wasn't alone. The first two Harry Potter movies' games on PS1 were absolutely fantastic. Long before JK Rowling discovered Twitter and quickly started to dismantle her legacy, 11-year-old me would consume everything and anything connected to the wizarding world she created. The movies were fine, the books were great, but neither was able to make me feel the way the games did. Being tasked with quelling a sentient washing machine in Ron Weasley's back garden is a gaming memory that will live with me forever.
The same goes for the PS2 games that launched alongside the Lord Of The Rings movies. Nothing annoyed me more than my dad revealing as I quizzed why the credits had rolled on Fellowship off the Ring before Frodo's mission was complete that there were two more movies, and I had to wait a full year until the next one. Not wanting to wait that length of time again, I picked up a copy of The Two Towers after seeing its accompanying movie and filled some of that time by playing what is still one of my favorite games of all time. Switching between Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as I tackled various foes from the films and the books.
The list goes on. I lost so many hours to what was an incredibly basic Casper game on PS1. The demo of the Die Hard game alone had me hooked even though in that instance, I hadn't seen the movies yet, I swear. The original Spider-Man games were one of the reasons why I was so excited Insomniac was bringing the web-slinger back to consoles. Hell, I've gone this many words without mentioning GoldenEye, possibly the greatest game based on a movie ever made. That final example might well confirm a fear I still have as I write this. That these games, or most of them at least, were actually really good. It's not just nostalgia taking the wheel and convincing me things were better in the good old days. GoldenEye was good. Aladdin was good. Damn it, Casper was good too. Just trust me on that one until I can find a copy and be certain of it.
My childhood was filled with so many of these games that to this day, I can't help but watch a movie or show I love and wish I had the ability to play through it. The Mandalorian is basically a show built on a guy doing side quests. Tell me it wouldn't make an amazing game in the right hands. Matt Reeves' very different take on The Batman had me craving a Batman game less like the Arkham trilogy, despite my love for it, and more like the movie. Yes, some combat and car chases, but more brooding as you solve riddles and unfurl a mystery. The Saw game from 2009 really didn't cut it.
Speaking of the Saw game, Konami's attempt to turn a movie into a game is one of a few examples that might explain why movie games aren't really a thing anymore. It just didn't work. There are probably a number of reasons why the genre doesn't really exist today. Perhaps the developers who were good at it aren't around anymore, or the art of turning a game into a movie has been lost. More likely games have advanced so much, it probably isn't possible to create a good one and have it arrive alongside the movie. See that weird Space Jam game for evidence that an idea needs to be a really simple one to make that happen. There will always be games based on movies. The Skywalker Saga is almost here and I have no doubt I'll love every second of it. It's not the same though, and the days of being able to play through a movie right after I've seen it at the cinema will probably be something I talk to my kids about as they scroll through whatever social media site replaces the one that replaces TikTok.