Video games can be original ideas, but sometimes it’s easier to base them on a book, comic, TV show or even a movie. There are some absolute shockers out there, conversely there are some really great finds.
We’re talking about video games that have been inspired by a movie. Here are our staffs thoughts; if you agree are disagree let us know in the comments below.
Senior Stiv:
I think I’ll save the best for last for this week’s theme. I would have to say the worst movie game would have to be the first Toy Story game. Granted, I was young, but I remember having trouble even trying to complete the game.
The controls were difficult to understand and it could barely hold my interest. But by far the best one I’ve played was The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth.
It isn’t brilliant by usual RTS standards, but the combat brought the movies’ large epic battles to life. Helm’s Deep, Pelenor Fields and even a few areas not explored in the movies or the books. It’s an absolute blast to play should you get the chance.
Matty D:
Great movie-to-video adaptations are a rare breed. So rare, in fact, that if one was to compile list of all such games that failed to meet the mark of acceptability, it would require enough paper to fit around Casey Hudson’s fat head.
Still, there are exceptions. Both of the Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth titles were surprisingly enjoyable for me and still make an appearance at the occasional LAN… even if it is just to re-enact the battle at Minas Tirith. Again.
The real gem however, has to be Enter the Matrix: The Path of Neo (TPoN) which was released in the mid 2000’s. TPoN, which now looks suspiciously like “tampon”, pushed the limits on how far a “movie game” could deviate from the original script with many sequences and lore, absent in the films, being playable.
Set over the course of the Matrix trilogy, the player goes about doing various Keanu Reeves-y type things like punching albinos and wearing sunglasses indoors. The combat was solid and the storyline remarkably entertaining which served to expand on the story in a way I didn’t think possible.
I’m still waiting for a My Little Pony MMO though. Lives will be changed.
Mr Port:
Best I would have to say, is Goldeneye, mainly due to the fact that it was NOT released to coincide with the movie as to capitalise upon money, but released quite a while afterward.
Worst? Superman 64. Need to ask; go and check it out, you’ll understand.
Sheriff Dan
While we have mentioned in the past the terrible Street Fighter movie(s) that have come from the game series, did you know there was a game based on the Van Damn movie?
Street Fighter The Movie The Game tried to use real images of the actors from the film to make a tie-in Street Fighter title. Making a bad game based on a bad movie based on a decent fighting game has sent such a ripple through time that we still can’t get the Large Hadron Collider to work properly. Mortal Kombat had some success with the motion capture of fighters but is it really what anyone wanted from a Street Fighter game?
Instead of stealing fighting game fans from the Mortal Kombat franchise, they seem to have put video game and film equality back by 50 years.
As for a good game tie-in of a film franchise, you can’t really go past some good ol’ fashioned Star Wars Episode I: Racer for the Nintendo 64.
This Pod Racing game took the only thing that was interesting about Star Wars Episode One that wasn’t Liam Neeson related and created a racing game. The game weeds out the weaklings by forcing you to play as a shrill voiced child to begin with, yet luckily you can turn off the sound and work on getting new lap records.
Race in underwater levels, among the clouds and even dodge sand people shooting at your engines. Many an hour has been spend going into the dodgy dealership of the big nosed salesman looking for the next upgrade for my Pod. Work your way up enough and you can be that ass-hole with the flame shooting from his engines.
A few weeks ago we looked at what movies have been based on video game and discovered some terrible things, check out what films the staff loved/hated that were based on video games. Daniel takes a look at why movies based on video games just don’t seem to work, check it out here.
No clue how old this post is, but dude, Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo are 2 different, separate games – it sounds from your review like you meant EtM, which I agree is a great game.