You’ve no doubt played the Sam Raimi Spider-Man video-game adaptations and you may have delved into the James Bond or the Godfather titles, but there’s been a lot of games based on films over the years.
Some are obscure, some will leave you thinking, “why did they ever think that this would work in gaming?” and some are just outright hilarious. It’s less common to see these kinds of adaptations now, but in gaming’s heyday, there were a lot, and here are ten that you may not have heard of.
10 Antz Extreme Racing
If you haven’t heard of Antz or if you’ve forgotten about the 1998 film entirely, you’d be forgiven. It was fairly mediocre and wasn’t quite a cult hit in the same way that A Bug’s Life was. Nonetheless, it was successful enough to garner a video-game adaptation.
It not only got its own game but it also got its very own racer in 2002 for the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Xbox and PC. It only scored a measly 31% on Metacritic so it’s safe to say that it wasn’t exactly as beloved as Mario’s ventures into the racing genre.
9 Megamind: Ultimate Showdown
Megamind is quite easily one of the most underrated superhero/animated films of all-time, but, like Antz, it was clearly popular enough to warrant a video-game. The graphics are decent, seeing as it released on the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and DS, but it also garnered a fairly low 33% Metacritic score.
The entire game revolves around the player, who is in control of Megamind himself, vaporizing enemies whilst also, potentially, playing alongside a friend in co-op where they can control the little flying android, Brainbot.
8 Saw
Saw was a decent horror film that had a low-budget and a lot of passion put into it, but it became a monumental hit for the studio and spawned a gigantic franchise with plenty of sequels, a spin-off and a soon-to-release soft reboot under Chris Rock’s direction.
However, along the way, in 2009, it also garnered itself a video-game from Zombie Studios for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. It didn’t do fantastically, but it got a much better score than the previous two with 55% on Metacritic.
7 Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Keanu Reeves lent his face to a Matrix game and a John Wick game, but before both of those franchises picked up and thrust him into the limelight as an action god, he was in Bill & Ted which got its very own game in 1991 for the NES.
It’s an action-adventure title but rather than directly adapting the film, it continues the story. If you want more Bill & Ted lore, deep-dive into the video-game and give it a spin, as it has an impressive 8.6 user score on Metacritic, although the critics themselves (all 7 of them), gave it a measly 44%.
6 Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail
Of all the movies to be turned into games, Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail is perhaps the least fitting. A comedy that’s all about timing and performances doesn’t seem exactly a perfect fit unless of course, it’s a Lego title.
It’s also so obscure, in fact, that it hasn’t gotten itself a Metacritic score, so you’d best delve into blogs and YouTube to find out whether it’s worth a play. It’s an adventure game for the PC and it’s one of three Monty Python video-games.
5 Austin Powers Operation: Trivia
Austin Powers is an action film that parodies James Bond, so the natural conclusion is to make a trivia game based on the movies, right? Well, that’s what happened under Berkeley Systems in 1999, with a surprisingly positive response as IGN gave it an 8/10.
Again, there’s no Metacritic score from users or players, but obscure games are a niche for many and if you like a head-scratcher with some comedy behind it, perhaps it’ll be worth a try.
4 High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut!
High School Musical, which is quite obviously inferior to Camp Rock, was so popular that it garnered a lot of video-game adaptations, and Makin’ the Cut was one of these many attempts, releasing on the DS in 2007 to a score of 66% on Metacritic - high praise in comparison to the others on this list.
The gameplay is based on a Japanese rhythm titled known as Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan but obviously, the songs are lifted from the High School Musical films, if the box art and name didn’t give that away. However, the songs are covers and not from the original artists.
3 Army of Darkness: Defense
Army of Darkness released in 1992 and two whole decades later, in 2011, it was given the mobile game treatment in the form of a tower defense game from Backflip Studios. It got a 10/10 from Softonic and a 5/5 from Zwodnik, with an impressive 74% on Metacritic.
In the game, you play as Bruce Campbell against a horde of the undead skeletal army in a tug-of-war fashion that has you blasting with a shotgun and mowing with a chainsaw. Bruce actually lent his voice to the game but the title was pulled from the App Store and Google Play in 2018.
2 The Goonies II
Goonies was a classic 80s film starring Thanos himself and it has, since, inspired a plethora of films and television striving to encapsulate that old 80s charm. In 1987, for the NES, it even got its own video-game, titled The Goonies II.
It was developed by Konami themselves and it is an adventure game that screams Zelda but it does have first-person sections which is a somewhat wacky choice for a platformer.
1 Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
In 2007, Jim Carrey’s Grinch got its very own video-game from Black Lantern Studios and it wasn’t the first adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s book as there was another game simply titled TheGrinch.
IGN gave it a 3.5 whilst GameZone gave it a 7.5 and it sits on 55% on Metacritic, so it’s probably best to give it a spin for yourself it this title interests you. It’s an adventure game for the DS, and it hasn’t had too much coverage.
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