It's a fairly well-known fact that movies that are based on video games are terrible. I was going to write on how the conversion going the other way is equally terrible, but after doing some research, I'm not quite sure that's true. I already knew a bunch of examples of games based on licenses (but no particular movie) that were successes (Transformers: War for Cybertron, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Ghostbusters, and countless Star Wars and Indiana Jones based games). So I figured I'd narrow it down to tie-in movies - video games that are required to come out at the same time as a movie that are known for being rushed and given too many publisher requirements to be a fun and creative experience. But after looking into that, I found out there are more decent to good movie tie-ins than I thought.
I knew from personal experience that I enjoyed a few myself. But since the critics didn't always agree with me (I liked the Iron Man game personally), I did a search that was less biased (or rather the bias is based on multiple peoples' opinions and not just my own). The following games received 75+ Metacritic scores: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Toy Story 3, Kung Fu Panda, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. So what this tells me is that it is possible to have a video game based on a movie and release at the same time with the chance that it's not terrible, but I think that unless the IP is something for typically nerdy people (comic book fans and high fantasy fans) or for their children, you're going to have a rough time of it. And even that isn't a guarantee of quality. I think just like the movies themselves, the creativity required to make a truly amazing gaming experience cannot be stifled by the movie's deadlines or limiting the game to the movie's content.
I was glad to find in my search that movie tie-ins seem to be few and far between recently (the only ones released I could find this summer have been Battleship, Brave, and The Amazing Spider-Man), so maybe someone is getting the message that rushed games just aren't worth it? I am all for bringing movies into the video game realm, but the source needs to be treated with respect just like any other translation. Also, unless the movie feels like a video game (e.g. you can distinguish levels, bosses, action sequences that would be fun to play, etc), the video game adaptation should expand on the movie, not just rehash it.
Also, during my research, I was very intrigued to discover that one of my favorite movies growing up, Darkman, had an apparently successful tie-in game associated with it.
That Star Wars: Pod Racer game was pretty good too. It was basically a weaker F-Zero but with upgrades and much prettier tracks.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Two Towers? Great game. It's even cooler when you (a) unlock slow motion mode and (b) mute the game and turn on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The game becomes MAJESTIC.
There were a bunch more games I wanted to include in this list that turned out well, but I realized none of them were direct tie-ins with a movie that had to come out at the same time. I think those are usually the biggest problem.
DeletePlaying Two Towers like that sounds awesome. I like to do similar things with Burnout Paradise and Godfather where I drive around with classical music playing. For some reason it just makes the horrible crashes or chase sequences much funnier.
As I recall, the Phantom Menace and Pod Racer games were required to be released the day of the movie release. I can't remember if the Pod Racer folks got them to push the date or not though.
ReplyDeleteHuh...you're quite right, but neither game has a Metacritic score, which is the closest to statistical data we can get (even though I don't like numbered reviews myself).
DeleteNo. Video games based movies are not bad. Based on video games, new ideas will included in movies. So it is not bad..
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