There have been many video game adaptations of films over the years, and the majority of them have been suitably disappointing.
Nonetheless, the following games have largely been overlooked by the gaming industry, when they are undoubtedly filled with content that would allow for an easy transition from cinema to home console.
Here are 5 movies that should have their own video game.
5 Movies That Really Should Have Their Own Video Game
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Battle Royale
Ideal Developer: Telltale Games
In the hands of another developer a Battle Royale game could quite easily wind up being little more than torture porn. For western viewers who have not yet seen this Japanese classic, it is most easily comparable with the Hunger Games series, in that it features a group of unwilling "contestants" pit against one another in a fight to the death, with only one survivor permitted.
However, unlike The Hunger Games, it is also ultra-violent and every contestant is a high-schooler, meaning that if it were to be pitched as a straight-up action game it would likely court a great deal of controversy, and not the good kind. This is why the best developer to helm a game adaptation of Battle Royale would be The Wolf Among Us/The Walking Dead developer Telltale Games, who could really sell the emotional and political undercurrents of the film's narrative with superbly crafted dialogue, along with giving players some really tough decisions to make along the way.
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Trollhunter
Ideal Developer: Blue Isle Studios
Norwegian breakout film Trollhunter might not seem like the most obvious film to be made into a video game, but when imagined as a Slender-esque survival horror game wherein you're running from a herd of these gargantuan beasts, it becomes clear that this would be a great idea.
The best choice of developer for a Trollhunter game would be Slender: The Arrival creators Blue Isle Studios, as the kind of simply-yet-terrifying horror implemented in Slender is exactly the sort of horror a Trollhunter game should be shooting for.
Rather than placing players in the control of someone like Hans, the film's heroic "troll maintenance man" of sorts, who controls the trolls and keeps them away from humanity, they should instead be placed in the shoes of one of the helpless student sorts who encounter the trolls for the first time in the film - young, terrified and doomed.
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Akira
Ideal Developer: Platinum Games
There's already been a terrible Akira game on the Amiga, but fans of the film should forget that ever existed and instead imagine what it would be like if Bayonetta and Vanquish creators Platinum Games ever got their hands on the rights to the animated classic.
Platinum Games specialise in over-the-top action in similarly over-the-top settings, and Akira's apocalyptic showdown in a dystopian Tokyo would be perfect fodder for the studio.
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Escape From New York
Ideal Developer: Rocksteady/Rockstar
It's weird to think that a movie of Escape From New York hasn't already been made. Perhaps it's due to the film's protagonist Snake Plissken looking too much like Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake (which isn't surprising, considering MGS creator Hideo Kojima based Solid Snake's appearance on Plissken's).
Escape From New York's premise was simple - the anti-heroic US soldier-turned-criminal Snake Plissken is sent into New York, which has been turned into a maximum-security prison in the wake of a huge wave of crime. in order to retrieve the President. Along the way it's essentially wall-to-wall action, with Snake maneouvering his way through the now even meaner streets of NY and trying not to get himself killed before he can secure his target.
It doesn't require much imagination to see how this plot could translate to a video game, and the most obvious choices to bring it to life would be either Batman: Arkham City developers Rocksteady or Grand Theft Auto creators Rockstar. Arkham City's open-world shares many similarities with Escape From New York, and Rockstar are arguably the masters at creating sandbox settings (and already have experience with handling a movie license in the form of their underrated The Warriors adaptation), so both devs could certainly make something great out of this 80's classic.
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The Mist
Ideal Developer: The Fullbright Company
The underrated The Mist is arguably one of the best film adaptations of a Stephen King novel. Featuring a bunch of townsfolk trapped in a grocery store after a strange mist engulfs the town, a game of the movie wouldn't necessarily have to take place within the same setting, but rather in the apocalyptic world that the mist creates in its wake.
Gone Home creators The Fullbright Company may not seem like the first choice to develop a project like this, but those who played Gone Home will know that the game masterfully reproduced the threat of a horror game without actually being one, along with delivering an excellent narrative that skillfully touched upon prevalent social issues.
The Mist was more about the effects of religious zealotism in the wake of a tragedy than it was the monsters lurking in the unknown, and therefore The Fullbright Company would be an ideal candidate to cohesively bring together both the social commentary and the horror of the film.
