By Emmanuel Gundran
Filmmakers have been making video game-based films like Super Mario Bros. (Morton & Jenkel 1993) and Warcraft (Jones 2016) that try to condense the story of the game into an hour and a half to two hour film. However, to turn things around, game designers have been making movie-based video games out of movies like Spider-Man 2 (Activision 2004) that expand the world and story of the movie out into a multiple level experience. It's a challenge to adapt films into video games as much as it is to adapt video games into films, as one is taking a form of non-interactive media and allowing players to interact with its story and characters. There also is the fact that in order to give the player a more substantial experience the game needs to last more than two hours. Therefore, game designers will extend a scene from the film with more level content or add a new scene entirely that still contributes to the story. These attempts to bring films into gaming have had varying amounts of success over the years.
Though Mysterio didn't appear in Spider-Man 2 (Raimi 2004), he made a prominent appearance in the video game of the same name. One of the most respected movie-based games these days is the video game adaptation of Spider-Man 2 (Activision 2004). The game, according to players, perfected the superhero's trademark web-slinging action more than any other Spider-Man game before or after it. The game sticks mostly to the plot of Spider-Man 2 (Raimi 2004): Peter Parker, after the events of Spider-Man (Raimi 2001), continues his ongoing struggle with his powers while Dr. Otto Octavius is builds four mechanical arms that can harness high concentrations of solar energy. However, when an experiment goes haywire, causes damage to the mechanical arms, and kills his wife Rosy, Dr. Octavius goes on a crime spree to steal money to repair his machine and it's up to Spider-Man to stop him before his invention destroys all of New York. The plot of the film is concise and straight-forward, so the video game adaptation needs to expand the film's story and add extra events to give the player a more substantial experience. Spider-Man villains present in the comics but not in the original film such as Mysterio, a former magician turned bad guy, and Black Cat, a Catwoman-like thief, fill in as end-level bosses for original levels in the game.
The Lego version of Darth Vader and Luke's epic battle in Cloud City. A more modern example of movie-based games that have proven quite successful are the Lego series of games headed by Traveller's Tales. The Lego games have covered many different themes including but not limited to Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Avengers. Because of the audience of Lego toys being for children, these adaptations of these famous movie franchises, some of them including more mature themes, were toned down to suit children's interests. More comedy, like visual gags and slapstick humor, is included to lighten the mood of the films from which the games are based on. For example, the climactic confrontation between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner 1980) where Vader reveals he is Luke's father is made a little more kid-friendly, with Darth Vader pulling out a photograph of himself (as Anakin Skywalker) and his wife Padme posing as if they were in a family photo. Of course, like the case with Spider-Man 2 (Activision 2004), the Lego games utilize creative methods of expanding the stories of the original films with more levels and/or more villains to fight. Lego Marvel's The Avengers (Traveller's Tales 2015) puts together scenes from not only the two Avengers films by Joss Whedon but also compiles some sequences from Iron Man 3 (Black 2013), Thor: The Dark World (Taylor 2013), and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Russo 2014).
While there are designers that take the time and patience to craft video games that are not only overall similar to the movies that they are trying to evoke but also unique experiences with their own content, there are also those who rush games into production to cash in on the success of the films. Though there are plenty of video games based on movies ranging from Charlie's Angels (MCG 2000) to Iron Man (Favreau 2007), perhaps the most infamous example of a bad movie-based game is E.T. for the Atari 2600. From the stiff controls, to the confusing and repetitive gameplay, and to the game's thin resemblance to the film, this game is so infamous that it's widely considered to be a main factor in the Video Game Crash of 1983. According to IGN, "about four million copies of the E.T. video game were shipped, and according to Atari's then-CEO Ray Kassar, about 3.5 million of those copies were returned to Atari." The game was a huge loss for Atari, as they spent so many millions of dollars on the property rights alone and rushed the game out without any quality testing to sell it during the holiday season of 1982.
A screenshot of E.T. running away from the detective trying to capture him.
Even with the failures that come with movie-based video games, there are still a number of successes that demonstrate the unique experiences that these games are from their respective movies. These kinds of games follow the main story of their films while also adding their own twists to not only make the gaming experience more substantial but also to allow game designers to write their own subplots to make the pre-established world seem just a little bigger to the player.
Sources Cited:
Oxford, Nadia. "Ten Facts About The Great Video Game Crash of '83." IGN. 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/09/21/ten-facts-about-the-great-video-game-crash-of-83
Oxford, Nadia. "Ten Facts About The Great Video Game Crash of '83." IGN. 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/09/21/ten-facts-about-the-great-video-game-crash-of-83
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