There are thousands of films over the years fans have been clamouring to get a video game adaptation for, but unfortunately other than the odd movie tie-in that ends up being atrocious, it’s actually a rarity to get many films turned into great video games. All that aside, we wanted to take a look at five film properties that are ripe for being turned into fantastic gaming properties.
John Wick
Thankfully, this first entry looks as if it’s going to become a reality with Lionsgate announcing during their last earnings call that they’ve started development on a AAA John Wick video game meaning this may be a bit of a wasted entry, however it cannot be understated just how transferable the film franchise would be into a video game.
Related: John Wick Universe Continues to Expand with Huge AAA Video Game Confirmed to be in Development
From the first film’s release it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world to develop a video game on what has become an incredibly deep and well thought out universe. With tv and film spin-offs arriving on our screens, the next logical step has to be a couple of great video games. Or at least one, if we’re not being greedy. Not much is known so far, but we’re hoping for something between Hitman and Sifu. Give the players a fantastic third-person shooter with some amazing martial arts to fully immerse and replicate the experience we get when watching Wick pull apart groups of enemies.
Whether players would get to play out the franchise’s story, or if it’d be a fresh, completely new story set in the same universe is again, unknown, but we look forward to more news regardless, and even more so, we look forward to booting this bad boy up on our consoles come launch day.
Malignant
Writer and director James Wan has crafted himself somewhat of a large niche within the horror genre, and beyond that, he’s helmed some of the biggest action films of recent years with multiple Fast and Furious films under his belt. However out of all his artistic endeavours in the horror genre, none fits quite as well into the video game dynamic as Malignant.
If you’ve not seen the film then you may not understand, but for those who have, they’ll know. The game adaptation could follow the same sort of tone, with it starting off as a survival-horror in the same vein as perhaps Amnesia, Outlast etc, before adding gameplay mechanics and morphing into an action survival a la Resident Evil. The property even lends itself to the Dead by Daylight, asymmetrical horror genre as well. In short, what I’m saying is. Give me a Malignant video game. It’s one of those great films that’d make great video games, that’s right, I want multiple.
Se7en
An odd choice for many, I’m sure, and not an entry you’d have expected to see here before opening the article. However, let me explain. How many games are out there where you play the detective, determined to catch the serial killer responsible for multiple grisly murders in your city? Admittedly, not many if you ignore the CSI-like games.
Now, imagine a detective mystery set in the Se7en universe, perhaps even with licensed, official characters returning, in a Heavy Rain style game that follows the player as they work their way through a copycat case, each murder more disturbing and warped than the last? Sound good? Get it done.
The Fast and the Furious
Yes, there’s been some video games based on this already, except they were all mindless movie-cashins with no real heart and quickly thrown together to make a quick buck. They also forgot the central lesson to the franchise. Family.
In all seriousness, the high octane, high stakes nature of the franchise should lead to an easy transition to a video game, after all on the base of it, these are somewhat decent films that’d make great video games, but it’s just not happened yet. Whether it was purely a racing game like old-school Need for Speed, or something involving the odd bit of driving with multiple fights and missions showcasing the superspies they are these days is up to the developer, but it does need to happen again. Or just give me a Pokemon Go style game where I walk around and collect cars. That’ll do.
Avengers Endgame and the Larger MCU
The total lack of Marvel Cinematic Universe-based films is astounding when you think of the total domination the franchise has had in the cinema, but over than a few LEGO games, the cupboard is extremely bare for those of us who want to face down Thanos, or smash Loki into the floor of Stark Tower.
This might be a bit of an unfair entry due to the size of the MCU (and it continues to grow), but there’s a glut of content for a developer to take and make their own. Marvel’s Avengers was the closest we’ve gotten to taking the reigns of our favourite heroes as a team, but the far superior Guardians of the Galaxy and of course Marvel’s Spider-Man shows exactly how good it could – and should – have been.
A couple of terrible movie tie-ins aside, we need more MCU content on our consoles, and it certainly seems to be a licence to print money for anyone taking it on, as long as they get it right.
Those are our five films that’d make great video games, but what others can you think of? What films do you think would make a great game? Let us know!
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