Most of us have grown up playing video games and I am sure every one of us has at least one game at home that’s based on some sort of movie. Be it ‘Golden Eye 007’, ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ or ‘Disney’s Aladdin’… There are many great video game adaptations out there. But who decides which movies turn into a game and which don’t? Let’s take a closer look at how movies get turned into games and what makes them successful.
Hollywood & The Game Industry
Most of the video games that are based on movies originally stem from Hollywood productions. One of the first games that came out alongside a movie was Ataris ‘Superman’ back in 1978. After that more and more movies decided to produce a video game adaptation alongside their show, both to increase their revenue and as a marketing strategy. They came out for various different platforms, from computers to portable consoles like the Game Boy Color. To this day a lot of movies get turned into video games or make a playable spin-off of their franchise.
The Action Hero Stereotype
When movies first turned into video games, most of the protagonists were overly male stars that corresponded to the traditional role of an actor. This meant well-built action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movies or Vin Diesel from the Fast & Furious franchise were filling in the role of the hero. So, of course most game adaptations also featured the main cast from the original movie as the playable characters. While a lot of them were rather well-made and fine for their time, the market got overflown by super soldier type of protagonists.
This wasn’t only because of the time period but because most movies that got game adaptations came from action movies or similar genres. Even some of the few female stars that took over a role were many heroines in action-heavy shows like Sigourney Weaver as Elen Ripley from Alien or Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu from Charlie’s Angels. Nowadays the palette of movie games has become a lot more diversified & colorful and while some of them might not have aged well… A lot of those games still count as classics.
The Disney Revolution
While a lot of action hero movies excited thousands of people on their consoles, there was another type of movie adaptation quickly rising through the ranks: Disney. While action-hero games often were dark and full of explosions, Disney took a more colorful and child-friendly approach to their products.
Disney movies and shows have always been popular, from the early days of ‘Snow White’ to the newest additions of the likes of ‘Encanto’, especially with the younger audience. Being a pioneer in animation and its beautiful soundtracks, Disney managed to create quite a lot of magical game adaptations. From the Disney classics like ‘Aladdin’, ‘The Lion King’ and ‘The Jungle Book’ to the celebrated rpg series ‘Kingdom Hearts’.
Play As The Superhero
Another very popular type of game adaptation is comic heroes that made the jump onto the big screen. While one might think that it would be easier to make a game straight from the comic, the most popular superhero games came out alongside their movie counterparts.
Let’s take for example everyone’s favorite, Spiderman. Our friendly neighborhood spider has received dozens of game adaptations over the years. They either released alongside one of the movies or were adaptations of one of the comic shows on TV. Even the most recent Spiderman games that have gotten very popular like Spider-Man: Miles Morales have done so on the back of their movie counterparts.
Games As A Marketing Tool
So now we can start answering the question of why people even made game adaptations in the first place. Companies are always looking for the next big thing to make their productions even more popular than the last one and video games are one of the perfect mediums to do just that.
The Target Audience Of Video Game Adaptations
Most video game adaptations target a rather young audience, ranging from children to teenagers and young adults. They have a lot of spare time at hand and are always looking for a way to have fun. Video games are getting more and more popular nowadays and even back in the 80s they were getting more and more attention with every new game that hit the market.
If a popular movie got a game adaptation, a lot of kids used either their pocket money to grab it or put it on their wishlist for any of the major holidays. If you leave kids alone, they would often slip into the role of their favorite character and pretend but with the help of a video game. They can actually BE their favorite character.
Expanding Their Franchise
Using video games as a medium to expand their franchise is also a very popular practice for movies. Games can do things movies can’t and vice-versa, so why not use this to create an even more immersive experience for their fans? VR-Games where you can fly your own spaceships or fight epic lightsaber battles against your enemies are something you can’t really experience in a movie… Or how about an interactive movie where you decide how the story progresses?
The possibilities are endless. There are many successful movies who have branched out their universe into the gaming section like James Camerons ‘Avatar’ or George Lucas ‘Star Wars’. Those games are less based on a movie than based on a whole franchise with a unique story that gets told.
Gaining A New & Bigger Audience
Last but not least, they of course try to reach out to a multitude of people in hopes of getting them on board the hype train. People who play games most of the time also love to watch movies. So they are the ideal target to expand and grow their audience. So, let’s take ‘Dune: Awaking’ as an example.
After the recent success of the ‘Dune’ movies, game developer Funcom has taken it upon themselves to create an epic MMO where the sands are ever-shifting and you can explore Arrakis to your heart’s content. So far the game looks very promising and I am sure even people who haven’t seen ‘Dune’ in the theaters are going to give this game a try.
Successful Movie Games
Like with everything in life there are good and bad examples of game adaptations but for the sake of this article, let’s focus on some of the successful ones over the last decades.
Alien: Isolation
Alien: Isolation takes place 15 years after the events of the classic sci-fi horror film it was based on. You play as Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, investigating the disappearance of her mother which leads her back to the space station Sevastopol where she’ll encounter various deadly threats… Including the famous Xenomorph alien.
When it was first released, its AI was under a lot of criticism because the Alien was generally seen as rather dumb and annoying. After hearing out their fans and taking the feedback in, they made quite a lot of changes and now the Xenomorphs AI has
Kingdom Hearts Franchise
This series follows a boy called Sora, who wields a magical weapon called the Keyblade. He travels across various Disney worlds, interacting with iconic characters. Together, they fight off the darkness and restore the balance. Its plot gets rather complex and spans over multiple games and spin-offs.
Kingdom Hearts perfectly combines the classic Disney films with Square Enix’s Final Fantasy based action RPG gameplay which has a very dedicated fanbase. While it might be tough for newcomers to get into the complex story, it is definitely worth a try.
Shadow Of Mordor (The Lord Of The Rings)
Another very successful game was ‘Shadows Of Mordor’ which takes place in Middle-earth. You play as Talion, a ranger captain who witnesses his family’s murder by Saruon’s forces. He gets bound to a wraith and together with his unexpected ally, they uncover Celebrimbors’s past and seek revenge for Talions lost family.
The Nemesis System they had introduced in this game was a groundbreaking innovation that created a unique experience for each player. The combat was praised for being very smooth and engaging with a wide-open world to explore.
Those were just a few of the very successful game adaptations that have come out over the years. With games becoming a bigger and bigger part of society, it is no wonder that movie productions often invest in studios to bring their universe to life. The interactive storytelling and endless options give their fans a whole new way of experiencing their beloved franchise which is exactly why many of those games got as popular as they are now.
A lot of movies or books that have been turned into games haven’t been well received in the past and if you want to read more about game adaptations gone bad, this article is perfect for you:
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum – The Fall Of Daedalic Entertainment
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