Our Top 5 Best Video Games Based On Movies
Cinema is strewn with a litany of bad game to movie adaptations, from more recent ones like ‘Warcraft’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’, to 1993’s ‘Super Mario Bros’ and 1994’s ‘Street Fighter’. However, when going the other way, things seem to fair much better. Sure, there have been some terrible games… Take 1982’s ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ video game, which was so bad, Atari actually buried the unsold copies and encased them in concrete to stop people raiding the site! Thankfully, there are many more which fair much better! Here is our list of the top 5 video games based on movies.
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars has spawned a ridiculous number of video games over the years. From the brilliant X-Wing/TIE Fighter series, the much-missed ‘Star Wars Galaxies’, right up to the ‘Star Wars Battlefront’, and last years ‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’. However, one of the most enduring versions which you can play right now is the MMORPG, ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic‘. The game isn’t set directly in the film’s timeline, but thousands of year before the events of the movies, in The Old Republic. This period was first visited by Bioware in critically acclaimed 2003’s RPG ‘Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’. The company went on to expand the universe, launching the MMORPG in 2011, which made a solid attempt to maintain the single-player RPG feel of the original, whilst also letting you play online with friends. The game, of course, lets you play as a Jedi, but also their dark counterparts, the Sith. If you’re more of a Han Solo type, you can play as a Smuggler, or if Boba Fett is your guy, try out a Bounty Hunter build. Once you’ve picked a class, there are plenty of stories to play through across the galaxy, from dealing with the Hutts on the planet Makeb, to Starfighter battles out in space. You can even deck out your own personal stronghold, or spend some time gambling on Nar Shaddaa. Of course, if you want to try out gambling in real life, you can find some Betfred promotional codes here.
4. Alien: Isolation
If you’ve listened to the Geektown Radio podcast recently, we have been talking about ‘Alien: Isolation‘ quite a lot. Although the game came out in 2014, co-host Bex (who is a big wuss when it comes to horror games) has been scaring herself silly by streaming a playthrough of the title on her Twitch channel as she runs screaming from “Fluffy the xenomorph”. The game sees you play as Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, who learns that the flight recorder of her mother’s ship, the Nostromo, has been located. This sends her on a trip to retrieve the recorder, and hopefully discover the fate of her missing mother. However, when the team reach the station they find it damaged, with communications offline, and they appear to have an Alien visitor… It’s dark. It’s scary, and has lots of cupboards for you to hide in, which you will probably need!
3. Jurassic World Evolution
Welcome to your own Jurassic Park. ‘Jurassic World Evolution‘ lets you test if you succeed where the original park owners failed, or will you make the same mistakes? The tycoon-style game allows you to take control of multiple islands which you can populate with dinosaurs of all different shapes and sizes – from the relatively harmless herbivores to the rather more deadly Velociraptors and T-Rex. Along with growing and feeding the animals, you also need to make sure they are happy and content, so they don’t decide to escape and eat the guests. You do have “help” in the form of Dr. Ian Malcolm and the department heads of Entertainment, Security, and Science… although, if you upset them, they will also sabotage the park… To quote Dr. Malcolm “Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming.”
2. Blade Runner
Developed by Westwood Studios, this 1997 point-and-click adventure game take on ‘Blade Runner’ drew critical acclaim and picked up multiple awards. Rather than copying the film directly, the player takes control of a new character, Ray McCoy, a rookie Blade Runner for the LAPD. Running parallel to the timeline of the movie, Ray encounters a number of the film’s characters, and hears stories of Deckard, but allowed the developers much more freedom to tell their own story. The original game is currently available on GOG, however, there is a new completely rebuilt Enhanced Edition currently in the works for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One due at some point in the not too distant future!
1. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Another point-and-click adventure game, this time from masters of the genre, LucasArts, and based on beloved character Indiana Jones. Again, this wasn’t an exact translation of the movie, but a new adventure which saw Indy searching for the legendary sunken city of Atlantis. Originally released in 1992, it was then re-released in 1993 with enhanced sound and voiceover. It had all the trademark humour we had come to expect from the films, and also the LucasArts point-and-click games, and still stands up today. You can find the game on both GoG and Steam.
