Friday, September 12, 2008

More Games that Might Work as Films

Back in the infancy of this blog in 2006, I wrote a post about ways to make video game based movies that weren't terrible, and since then, I've played a lot more games, and seen a few more awful video game-to-movie translations (how they messed up Hitman still boggles my mind).

Now I know that not every fun game has the potential to be an entertaining movie, so a lot of my favorite games won't appear here. I mean, I love Bully, the Ace Combat series and SOCOM, but none of those would make a great movie.

Sly Cooper series: Raccoon Sly Cooper is a lovably suave master thief and the descendant of a long line of thieves going back all the way to the Egyptians. In the games, which tells his story in a beautiful cell shaded style, Sly's family was killed by a gang called the Fiendish Five, and at the orphanage, he meets his life-long friends, Bentley, a brainy and inventive turtle, and Murray, a loveably loyal hippo who represents the muscle of the gang(not in a violent way mind you). They are interesting characters and I think they would be wonderful to watch in an traditionally-animated feature. After all, I love a good theft, and they are exceptionally cunning (and well-justified) criminal masterminds.

Urban Chaos: Riot Response: I already discussed ways in which this game could be successfully brought to the screen in my Remembering column about it. The trailer for the game should explain some of its appeal to me as a potential piece of cinema.

Red Faction: What makes this just seem to click as a movie? A small cast of interesting characters? Check. A short, focused narrative? Check. A lot of possible gunplay? Check. Red Faction tells the story of miner's revolution on Mars against the corporate giant, Ultor. The company treats their workers like slaves (along with engaging in rather unethical biomedical experimentation), until finally a single spark of violence sets off a revolution which could potentially change the very face of Mars itself.

Destroy All Humans: You know all those campy B-movies from the 1950's where Humanity is assailed by an alien race that is bent on destroying us. Well, Destroy All Humans takes a loving look at that era through the eyes of the alien invaders, after the US Army accidentally blew an alien spacecraft out of the sky while test firing a rocket in the desert. Well, that is an act of war in most places, and well, the aliens respond in kind by sending someone with the attitude of Jack Nicholson down to 1950's America a lesson or two... with a huge dose of black comedy and satire. It would be a great R-rated comedy (because of the anal probes and the exploding heads and such)

Now, I am sure there are plenty of games that I haven't played that could work as movies, and a few video games that are being adapted to the screen that shouldn't (I have a feeling that by 2011, there will be a feature film based around Guitar Hero or Rock Band... mark my words).

So, is there a game that you've played that you think would make a good feature film?

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