At the beginning of a journey with many ups and downs were “Super Mario” and “E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial”. One of the most famous game characters in the world, the plumber Mario from the universe of the Japanese Nintendo corporation, was also one of the first video game heroes to make it to the big screen. In 1993, Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo competed as Mario and Luigi, respectively, to save Princess Daisy. It was the first film adaptation of a computer game with real characters.
A flop from another world
Much earlier, namely in 1982, it went in the other direction, namely from film to computer game. With unbelievable marketing effort, Atari launched the implementation of “E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial” on its game console Atari 2600. The game is remembered because in retrospective reception it is described as one of the worst games of all time. The manufacturer was left sitting on a large number of unsold copies, with several thousand surplus modules of the game buried in the New Mexico desert in 1983. In the 90s, the title was recalled because the almost intact copies of the games were dug up again.
A lot has happened since that time. While in the early 1980s the focus had clearly been on game adaptations of cinematic originals, from the mid-1990s onwards there was more thinking in the other direction. However, with moderate success.
The beginning was made by rather undemanding action films, such as “Double Dragon”, “Street Fighter” or “Mortal Kombat”, which recently came back in a new version in theaters and was quite successful. This was followed by an attempt to adapt a classic video game with a plot for the cinema, “Wing Commander”. This, too, was rather average. Once again, it became clear that not only commercial success is needed on the market, but also a well thought-out storyline and, above all, good graphics and fun to play. This mixture then actually managed to hit the big screen, especially when it came to female main characters, which had also established themselves over the years as computer games including sequels – for one, Lara Croft with Angelina Jolie and the “Resident Evil” series with leading actress Milla Jovovich. Both in the computer game version as well as in the film, one could fall back on a good and more exciting story here, which also made the pixels fight respectably on the screen.
Birds, Monsters and Hedgehogs
This was followed by adaptations of “Pokemon”, “Prince of Persia”, “Angry Birds” and “Sonic the Hedgehog”. A new, promising approach can be seen on Netflix – “Arcane”, the title of the animated series, is based on the characters of the successful computer game “League of Legends” by Riot Games and is intended to address not only passionate gamers and fans of the series. After the first few episodes, this seems to be a success. It cannot be ruled out that this could usher in a new wave of movies based on successful games. After all, providers like Netflix, who urgently need content, meet financially strong game producers here, who long for a broader public. A corresponding attempt at a conversion of the well-known “World of Warcraft” years ago did not bring great success, but with a billion-dollar corporation like the developer studio Blizzard, “Arcane” could certainly whet the appetite for more.
Even though “E.T.” is considered a negative example, fortunately they haven’t stopped publishing games based on movies. A classic in this regard is “GoldenEye 007” for Nintendo’s N64, which is still considered a reference title on that platform. Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4 and its follow-up adventures on newer consoles are also successful – the implementation of “Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series” for a wide variety of platforms. The adaptations of “RoboCop” and “Die Hard” enjoy legendary status with several editions. Next year will also see the release of another game based on James Cameron’s “Avatar,” which is currently the talk of the town and the subject of much discussion. The movie itself is largely based on computer-animated sequences, so a computer game adaptation has always seemed logical.
Whether it’s a good idea to make movies out of video games, or vice versa, can’t really be said even after almost four decades – the differences in quality are too great. Or in other words: it’s complicated.
Follow us and check out our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook & YouTube ►
● on Twitter ► esport.directory
● Facebook ► esport.directory
● Youtube ► esport.directory
LoLtips, LoLtricks, LoLcheats, LoLhacks, LoLhacks2022, LoLtipspro, LoLpaidcheats, LoL, LoLtipsandtricks, LoLtipsandtricks2022, LoLtipsandtricksforbeginners, LoLtips, LoLtricks, LoLtrickshots, LoLhacks, LoLhacksfree, LoLhacksfree2022,