Top Movie Inspired Games

A list of video games adapted from movies
On
May 14, 2008

Through out the years of Video Game industry, its become almost a tradition to produce games that are based on a popular movie or television show. Sure, its easy to say that alot of these games are terrible. Bad Game reviews, have become something of a popular fad. But pointing out terrible games is the easy part of this genre of games ( E.T. for the Atari 2600 immediately comes to mind ). But within the thousands of releases there are a handful of gems. So without any further a do, this is my list of the good games based on films, In No Particular Order:

Jurrassic Park ( Sega Genesis, 1993 )




This game came out just a few months prior to the film's theatrical release,it was distributed officially by Sega. There were 3 versions of the game: the NES version, Gameboy, and the Sega Genesis version. Between the Three, the Genesis sticks out the most. The NES and Gameboy had their own format, you were Paleontologist Dr.Grant, going around collecting Dino-Eggs, once you reached a certain number the level was over, While that premise was decent for the 8-bit versions, The genesis had a more of a Unique version of a game. Though it was just a standard side scroller, it followed the movie just as loosely, but it was a bit more atmospheric and had better gameplay, with no music within its levels, it was just the accompaniment of the sound effects of prehistoric birds and animals chirping and growling and behind waterfalls and trees blowing in the wind. What makes this version unique, was you at beginning of the Game, you could choose to take the Grant version of the game, through the human's perspective, fighting the escaped dinosaurs with various weapons, OR you could play as the Raptor, and have it through the dinosaur's perspective clawing, attacking, and biting the humans who are shooting you with tranquilizers and other items, this feature made this game pretty worthwhile title.

Graphics:8 Gameplay: 8 Sound: 7 Overall: 8



Robocop (Nintendo, 1988)



Robocop the film was released in 1987, its blockbuster status was noticed by the video game industry, so Data East produced a slew of versions on C64, Atari, and a few others, a year prior. But the NES version, was the best of the platforms ( of course ). It was a pretty standard side scroller, it wasn't great, but it wasn't all that bad either. It was fun to play, not too easy and not too difficult, had some really neat cut scenes in Classic NES style. But most of all, it featured an 8-bit version of the Robocop theme.

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 8 Sound: 7 Overall : 7



Beetlejuice (Nintendo, 1990)



Beetlejuice was a big hit in the late 80s, so ofcourse Nintendo just had to release a game based on the blockbuster. Though, the thought of a Beetlejuice game sounds nauseating and stomach cringing, this is actually a pretty fun and decent game. Loosely based on the movie, of course, I don't really understand the plot of the game, but the premise is to collect bugs which you can exchange for ghostly powers to defeat enemies. very unique and strange game.

Graphics: 8 Gameplay: 7 Sound: 6 Overall:6.5



Jaws ( Nintendo, 1987)





This game didn't follow a particular story line of any of the Jaws films, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a fun game, It had its own uniqueness. Published by JLN, you played the role of an anonymous character who had to patrol the bay, you would start off on a Map screen, then as soon as your radar hit something, you would dive underwater, and collect seashells and shoot various sea creatures, the more seashells that you collected, you could exchange for upgrades, such as better radar and weapons, when you would go from port to port. But Jaws, was certainly hard to kill, still the gameplay was just fine. and it featured John Williams haunting score.

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 8 Sound: 9 Overall: 9



Terminator 2 ( Nintendo, 1991 )



The NES version of the Terminator franchise, was probably the most fun out of its Arcade game, Genesis, and SNES versions. Developed by JLN, it followed the movie pretty closely, starting off in the Biker Bar, then meeting Edward Furlong at the mall and you stop him from completely shaving his head and joining the neo-nazis.But Then a highway pursuit on your motorcycle, etc. Features, some unique cut scenes, you could also upgrade your weapons as the game progressed and choose your gun/rifle before the start of level.

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 9 Sound: 5 Overall: 8



Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures ( Super Nintendo, 1994 )




Indiana Jones never had got any justice in the video game area, until Nintendo and Lucas Film Games released Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures. The game was basically the Indiana Jones trilogy in 2D side scrolling form. Starting out with the SNES game version beginning Rolling Boulder scenes of Raiders Of the Lost Ark all the way to the Bridge fight scene in Temple of Doom to the final Holy Grail drinking scenes of Last Crusade. The cut scenes in between levels, are a slideshow of screenshots taken from the exactly movies, and they are pretty top notch, even include soundbytes of dialogue take from the films. This is a great example of a good movie-game, the music featured is the entire John Williams score from all three movies.
Gameplay: 10 Graphics: 10 Sound: 9 Overall: 10



Dick Tracy (Nintendo.1991)




Though the movie, Dick Tracy, wasn't that much of a cinematic achievement, though the acting and set design was something to notice, but its blockbuster status inspired several pieces of merchandise, such as this BanDai developed game. The gameplay, involved you driving around the city, collecting clues, and interrogating and fighting famous Dick Tracy villains. For an NES game, its a very neat Cop-Life Simulation.

Graphics: 6 Gameplay: 9 Sound: 7 Overall: 8



Super Empire Strikes Back ( Super Nintendo, 1993 )



The past Star Wars based games were just plain terrible, from the polygon Atari version, to the terrible controls of the NES games, the Star Wars never had a good chance in Video Games, until Super Nintendo released the whole trilogy based games. All three game pretty much had the same formula, with the exception of Luke gaining Force powers in Empire and Jedi, but Empire is a personal favorite of the Trilogy, and features more interesting levels, such as the Battle of Hoth, where you control one of the Snow Speeders and shoot down the Imperial Walkers. A neat feature to the game, was a character selection screen before each level ( consisting of Luke, Han, Lea, and Chewie ), with the exception of the Space Battle levels Degobah stages, where you only play as Luke collecting tokens to gain Force powers such as Freezing, Mind tricks, etc. Decent 16-bit music of the Star Wars theme.

Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 7 Sound: 9 Overall: 8



Ghostbusters ( Sega Genesis,1990)




Most of the Ghostbusters games were terrible, with a few exceptions, such as the upcoming anticipated Xbox 360 game being released this Fall, and a Ghostbusters 2 PC Game, the UK's New Ghostbusters 2 for NES, but that wasn't discovered until the days of the internet and Emulators. In the midst of all the terrible slime-busting games, Sega Genesis released it own officially licensed Ghostbusters game, which is surprising since the 2nd film was released the year before. Instead of following the story of either film, it had its own story focusing around a certain Tablet, your job was to find each piece of the Tablet which was located at each house, in which you could choose on a map screen, or go to the Headquarters screen, where you could either get new items, or choose to go on Bust. At the beginning of the game you could choose either Egon, Ray, or Peter, and an absence of Winstone Zeddemore for some reason. You would go through the levels zapping and trapping various ghosts and monsters each with an end boss,even including Stay Puft, only according to the game, Stay Puft was a boy who ate too many marshmallows not a spawn of Gozer.

Graphics: 9 Gameplay: 10 Sound: 7 Overall: 9



Gremlins 2 (Nintendo, 1990)




The first Gremlins had a release as a mediocre Atari 2600 game. A solid 6 years later, Sunsoft released Gremlins 2, prior to the release of the sequel, Gremlins 2: the New Batch. The Game was platformer, and you take on the role of Gizmo exploring through the Clemp Building, saving the Building from the madness caused by the green menace. Other than avoiding Water and Bright Light and eating after Midnight, Along the way you fight Killer Tomatoes, Bats,find special rest spots that feature Mr.Wing who supplies you with powerups and weapons. Cute cutscenes that mostly star Gizmo. and some upbeat Music.

Graphics: 8 Gameplay: 8 Sound: 9 Overall: 8



Batman (Nintendo. 1989)




The late 80s saw the emergence of 'Batmania' with the release of the first Tim Burton Batman film. This of course, influenced the release of SunSoft's NES title, 'Batman'. The game closely follows the movie, starting out with the streets of Gotham City, then all the way up to Axis Chemicals to the final showdown atop the Chapel. The gameplay involves, your standard platform with pretty fluid controls, and using various Bat-equipment to fight the enemies along with a few driving levels, controlling the Batmobile, and Batwing. Some very nice cut scenes that are classic NES, and some very odd music, unfortunately not adapted from the epic Danny Elfman score

Graphics: 8 Gameplay: 8 Sound: 6 Overall: 9



Goldeneye (N64, 1996)




When people think of the days of Nintendo 64, 3 games come to mind, Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and of course, Goldeneye. Based on the seventeenth 007 film starring Peirce Brosnan. Rareware published the title, and it was instantly horded from the shelves within days. The game was the best first-person shooter since Doom, followed the movie very well,( which was a bomb compared to the game), You ofcourse played the role of James Bond, trying to stop fellow Agent 006, from planting some sort of bomb, but the use of unique bond gadgets and weapons and interesting missions and character interaction made this game the first of its kind. The greatest feature was the Multiplayer levels ( Halo wouldn't exist without the influence of Goldeneye).

Graphics: 10 Gameplay: 10 Sound: 9 Overall 10



This concludes my list of some of the better Movies to Games. As a fan equally of movies and games, i think one of the most interesting thing in gaming, is portraying digitized versions of your favorite film characters, and is one of the fondest memories of mine as a young gamer through the years of past and present.
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