10: Tron 2.0
Developer: Monolith Productions
Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox 360
Year: 2003
Arriving almost 21 years after the film that it was based on, Monolith’s videogame sequel seemed to come a bit out of nowhere when it was released in 2003. There was no tie-in movie alongside it, no revival of the franchise (and the upcoming Tron Legacy is still a long way off), nothing. It just appeared on shelves – a game based on the Tron series, from the developers of No One Lives Forever.
With no console version available until a year later and a reliance on the geek street-cred that the Tron series holds, it was no surprise that Tron 2.0 was a bit of a flop despite the positive reviews. It was a good game though, even though it sold poorly.
Set a good few years after the film, Tron 2.0 focuses on the adventures of Alan Bradley’s son, Jet, who is pulled into the neon computer world just like his father was in the film. Jet is taken on a rip-roaring ride that sees him fending off evil corporations, searching desperately for his father and battling all sorts of chalk-outlined baddies.
A shooter and RPG hybrid somewhat similar to Monolith’s No One Lives Forever 2, Tron 2.0 lets you upgrade your weapons and abilities as you go along, which gives the game plenty to recommend it, despite the headache-inducing graphical style. One of the highlights of the game though is the way it irreverently mocks and references all sorts of computer and gaming conventions – something that manifests clearly in the levelling up mechanic that sees you collecting version numbers in order to unlock skills such as ‘Megahurt’.
The Thing
Developer: Computer Artworks Platform: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2
Year: 2003
Like
Tron 2.0,
The Thing was a 2003 game based on a cult movie from 1982. Also like
Tron 2.0 it failed to really make a big dent in the market and has been unfortunately forgotten by a lot of gamers, despite getting a lot of press and hype in the run-up to launch. Ah well.
The game of
The Thing follows on from John Carpenter’s classic horror film pretty directly, depicting the adventures of two separate military teams who are dropped off in the Antarctic and told to find out what’s happened to the science outpost there, which has fallen quiet recently.
The early stages of the game are thus spent re-telling the plot of the film for those who might have missed it. By searching the outpost and the surrounding area you’re quickly able to piece together that the scientists were slaughtered by a shape-changing alien. You even get a chance to examine the UFO up-close before you’re called away from the outpost and the plot starts to go in an entirely new and somewhat unexpected direction.
Kill it with fire!
What helped make The Thing stand out at the time though was the unique trust/fear system that affected your squad as you went through the game. NPCs would react differently to their surroundings as you explored the outpost, possibly freaking out if they got pushed past their threshold or started to suspect that you were actually an alien shape-changer.
At the same time though, just because they might freak out doesn’t mean that they are shape-changers – that meant you constantly had to watch them and try to discern who you could trust. Kill the wrong person though and the whole team might turn on you, which gives the game an interesting and paranoid edge.
Die Hard Trilogy
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Platform: PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Year: 1996
Truly a game from another era, back before games were expected to have cohesive plots that tied together every element of the design, Die Hard Trilogy is an all-in-one package that brings all the Die Hard movies together into one place. The result is essentially three games in one, each with a completely different genre and setup.
The first game in the pack, Die Hard is a fairly standard third-person shooter that has John McClane running around killing criminals and saving hostages in a huge skyscraper packed with extra challenges and secrets. The second game, Die Harder shifted the action to first-person and strapped McClane to rails for a light-gun romp through Dulles Airport. The third game, With a Vengence, changed things around again – to a Crazy Taxi clone that had you running around defusing bombs as fast as you could.
Anywhere else the mish-mash of genres and plots would have been a bad thing. This was Die Hard though and, as the fourth film proved, John McClane rarely needs to make sense. All that really mattered was that each of the individual games was fun-filled and action-packed – which they were. Die Hard Trilogy went on to be one of the games which helped make the PlayStation a hit and, while it’s definitely not aged very well, we still have many fond memories of playing it as youngsters, even despite the frenzied switching between controllers and play-styles.
Dune
Developer: Cryo Interactive Platform: PC, Amiga, Sega CD
Year: 1992
Dune is a bit of an iffy title to include in this list admittedly because it isn’t strictly based on the film and more closely follows the novel which was also made into a film...but whatever, it’s still a great game. It’s a lot closer to the plot of either Frank Herbert’s story or David Lynch’s film than
Dune II: Battle for Arrakis at least.
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, which is the only place where the valuable space-bending spice melange can be found, players are dropped into the boots of Paul Artreides. House Artreides has come to manage Arrakis and is completely unaware that it’s being plotted against by both the rival House Harkonnen and the Emperor of the Universe.
In gameplay terms
Dune is a unique mix of adventure game and RTS conventions, with the start of the game focusing on the former and the closing acts moving towards the latter. As the story opens, Paul explores areas surrounding the palace, getting slowly introduced to groups of the Fremen who are native to the hostile planet and acting as an ambassador for his family. As the gameplay goes on though more and more elements of economic management and battle planning start to enter into the game and before you know it you’ll be launching raids, trading with smugglers and negotiating tribute with the Emperor.
Yes. That's me. The one.
Judged on its own merits Dune may not seem a stand-out title, but it’s worth comparing it to virtually every other attempt to adapt Frank Herbert’s epic series to another medium. Films, TV shows, spin-off books and a glut of other games; none of them have as close to realising the world of Dune as this has.
Blade Runner
Developer: Westwood Studios
Platform: PC exclusive
Year: 1997
Much like Dune, Blade Runner (which is based on Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) is one of those much-loved franchises which has had difficult time of breaking into other mediums. While Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is undoubtedly a classic it’s schismed into so many different cuts and interpretations about whether or not the android-hunting Deckard is a replicant himself that the series has become strangely entangled in itself.
It’s probably for that reason that Westwood’s interpretation of the series starts afresh, with a new character. Players instead step into the shoes of Ray McCoy, a blade runner who’s assigned the case of hunting down a group of replicants who’ve come to the heavily polluted and grossly industrialised LA.
While some combat does creep into the game at certain points, Blade Runner is mostly a point and click adventure game set around the various crime scenes and interviews that McCoy has to cross-examine in order to track down his quarry.
Really though, the gameplay isn’t the standout feature of Blade Runner. It’s the mood, which is magnificently handled and presents the world for what it is – a dark, dirty and depressing mirror of modern life. Everything feels manufactured, false and shallow – but in a way that strengthens the game as a whole and makes it worth playing through again and again in order to reach each of the 13 different endings.
Disney’s Aladdin
Developer: Virgin Interactive Platform: Retro, Amiga, PC, Gameboy
Year: 1993
Disney’s Aladdin might seem out of place in this list, especially since it follows on from
Dune and
Blade Runner, but trust us.
Disney’s Aladdin was as pixel-perfect as platform gaming can possibly get.
Unsurprisingly,
Aladdin pretty much follows the plot of the film. Opening with an escape scene based around the ‘
One Jump’ sequence of the film, Aladdin later progresses through the cave of wonders and the Sultan’s dungeon before finally defeating Jafar in the palace and declaring victory.
It’s not the plot that makes
Aladdin such a memorable highpoint in the world of film-based games though – it’s the gorgeous art, catchy music and finely tuned gameplay.
Aladdin is a fantastically difficult game (especially for the audience it was pitched to), but it never really feels unfair. It just feels fun – much of which probably comes from the fact that you can run and jump so freely.
Aladdin and Jasmine were surprised they made the list too
There’s almost no delay in the thought-keypress-action chain, which makes Aladdin deliciously fastpaced, even if it does borrow heavily from the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. Virtually everything in the game from collecting apples for extra lives to the bonus rounds that you can trigger by getting certain power-ups had appeared in earlier games – but Disney still used them to create one of the best old-school platformers ever.
Alien versus Predator
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Platform: PC, Mac
Year: 1999
Again, we’re cheating a bit. Alien versus Predator isn’t really based on a single film, though it does share a title with one. Instead, Rebellion’s seminal and super-scary stealth shooter traces it’s lineage back to the Alien versus Predator comic crossover, which in turn is based on the previously separate Alien and Predator films.
So, really we’re not cheating. In fact, because AvP is actually based on two films then we’re being doubly-good. Alright then.
Incorporating three entirely different campaigns, Alien versus Predator gives players a chance to play as both an alien, predator and human marine – which really means that the title is a classic under-sell. Those marketing people are devious.
Though there are a few areas of overlap in the original game, the three campaigns really stand apart as separate adventures with entirely different mechanics. As the alien you’re a stealthy melee warrior who climbs ceilings and noms skulls, while as the predator you’re a juggernaut of technology and gadgets perfectly suited to combat. It’s the marine campaign that most people remember though, for the simple reason that it’s the possibly the single scariest experience you can have with a computer without visiting the demotivational thread in the bit-tech forums.
Seriously. The thought of moving down those dimly lit corridors and a limited field of vision, spinning on the spot constantly and listening for the tell-tale blip of your motion tracker telling you that you’re about to be buried in acidic blood…No wonder we still have nightmares!
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Developer: Starbreeze Platform: PC, Xbox
Year: 2004
Here’s a real exception in the list – a game which actually turned out to be far, far better than the film it was actually spun-off of. While
Pitch Black was a decent and sci-fi horror the ego-driven sequel was unapologetically awful. Thankfully, Vin Diesel’s game studio managed to salvage enough from the film to make a decent game.
The plot of
Escape from Butcher Bay doesn’t really run that close to either of the films though; it’s actually a prequel that tells the story of Riddick’s most impressive escape ever – from ultra-max prison, Butcher Bay. The sci-fi equivalent of Alcatraz, nobody has ever escaped from Butcher Bay. It’s up to you to change that, which you mainly do by sneaking through airducts and backstabbing or pulverising people whenever you can.
It’s this kinetic melee action that forms the backbone of
Riddick’s appeal and, though there are a lot of other things to like in the game, our minds usually circle back to the awesomely delivered sense of power communicated by the fluid first person brawling. It honestly feels like you’ve stepped into the skin of something sleek and predatory and lethal. It’s quite intoxicating.
Wham!...and we don't mean the band
It’s also worth mentioning that Butcher Bay was so well received by gamers that it eventually bred an expanded remake. Title Assault on Dark Athena, it included an entirely new singleplayer campaign that followed on from the first game and a new multiplayer segment. We didn’t like Dark Athena quite as much as Butcher Bay when we reviewed it back in April, but it’s still worth picking up if you missed the original. At the very least it’ll give you a chance to play the game on newer consoles and with enhanced graphics.
Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
Developer: Totally Games Platform: PC Exclusive
Year: 1997
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter might not be based around specific Star Wars film, but as an expansion of the Star Wars universe it’s almost unrivalled if you take the
Balance of Power expansion into account. While
Jedi Knight,
KOTOR and
Battlefront II were all other competitors for this slot, it’s
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter that really stands out as the game that made you feel like a part of the
Star Wars universe.
Designed mainly for multiplayer,
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is such an enduring classic that it still has a fairly active community around it today, even though it was scorned for a lack of coherent singleplayer when it was first released. That’s where the
Balance of Power expansion steps in, padding things out a bit and adding some Lucas-worthy plot to the mix.
Even judged just on its multiplayer,
X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is still a fantastic game though and was remarkably sophisticated for the time. Not only was it one of the first flight sims to really push the idea of using a joystick as standard, but it also delved for the first time into pre-flight prep before missions. For the first time you were able to choose what part of a squad you wanted to be in and how exactly you wanted to rig your ship – creating a much deeper, replayable and more unique experience.
True, the graphics have aged badly, but for those truly looking to immerse themselves in the Star Wars mythos
X-wing vs. TIE Fighter is a classic.
GoldenEye 007
Developer: Rare Platform: Nintendo 64 exclusive
Year: 1997
GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 really is the only game that can sit at the top of this list, claiming the title of the best film-to-game conversion ever. Not only are there few movie inspired games that can match it in quality, but there are few games which can match it at all!
The spiritual predecessor to
Perfect Dark,
GoldenEye was possibly the biggest single reason to own a Nintendo 64 if you were a youngster at the time. Nowhere else was it possible to feel that much like James Bond in both an expansive singleplayer and thrilling multiplayer mode. In fact, it’s not been possible since then either, with both Activision and Electronic Arts struggling to do the franchise justice after Rare lost the rights.
The singleplayer portion of the game is a fairly faithful to the film, taking full advantage of the fast pace and capturing all of the most memorable scenes perfectly, from the bunker infiltration at the start to the fight above the radar dish at the climax.
GoldenEye may look dated now, but it was a classic at the time What distinguishes
GoldenEye from any other James Bond game before or since though is that it was faithful to the
mood of the film as well as the set pieces. Players weren’t always forced to just run and gun through hordes of indenti-kit enemies, but were encouraged (nay,
forced) to use stealth tactics to defeat the game.
The multiplayer portion of
GoldenEye is where the lasting appeal of the game is though, with some fans still going to extraordinary efforts in order to unlock hidden and unfinished content included in the retail release. As recently as 2004 new beta levels were being unlocked, provided you were willing and able to link your Nintendo 64 to a PC and run the 10,000 lines of code that assembled the required file fragments. Few other games have inspired such fanatical loyalty.
Strangely though, the multiplayer game doesn’t sound all that great when you try to explain it. The selection of available modes and tweaks, while incredibly innovative at the time, are fairly commonplace nowadays. Likewise, the way that Rare designed the interface and control system to make the FPS genre accessible on the Nintendo 64 may not sound like much now, but actually laid the foundations for modern console shooters.
That’s just the start too – GoldenEye 007 introduced so many things to computer games that it’s really hard to overestimate its legacy. It’s often credited as being one of the first games to introduce the concept of a zoomable sniper rifle, for example. It was one of the first games to feature a hit-sensitive damage model for enemies too, with enemies being more vulnerable to head or torso shots. Rudimentary material physics were worked into the game as well, with some weapons capable of penetrating doors and walls – yet there are some games nowadays which don’t have that feature!
GoldenEye’s legacy has caused a number of spiritual successors too, such as Perfect Dark and the Timesplitters franchise, which was developed by a group that separated from Rare to form the ill-fated Free Radical Design. It’s just a shame that the most recent of these doesn’t really have the lasting appeal of GoldenEye. Likewise, it’s a shame that a remake or retro re-release of the game is unlikely to arrive any time soon as the rights are currently shared between original publisher Nintendo and the now Microsoft-owned Rare – each of whom want a release for their own platform.
Still, until Nintendo and Microsoft work out their differences, there’s always the Source Engine-powered GoldenEye: Source to give you a taste of why GoldenEye 007 was such a classic.
Five of the Worst
Now it’s time for the flip-side of the coin – the five
worst games based on films, ever. Creating the first list was a chore because we couldn’t immediately think of ten really decent film-based games. This one wasn’t. If anything, it was difficult to narrow it down to
just five.
Still, we’ve done our best. Take a gander at the selection below and let us know what you would have changed in the forums – while we wish you had been spared some of the games below, the simple fact is that licensed games usually sell really well. It’s actually statistically
likely that you’ve played some of the games below.
5. Fight Club Developer: Genuine Games
While the film-version of
Fight Club has gone down in history as one of the best films of recent years for its bleak but ultimately redemptive and freeing tone, the game based on it has been mercifully forgotten. Released almost five years after the film and book,
Fight Club is nothing but a lame cash-in that uses a weak side-story to try and excuse the awful and generic gameplay.
Not only does the game suffer from boring gameplay and design, but the cut scenes and graphics for the game are bland beyond belief. The developer tried to hide the mediocrity under a veneer of hardcore violence, but failed completely.
Not even Halle Berry in a leather catsuit could redeem Catwoman Electronic Arts
It was obvious that someone would try and do an awful, rushed game based on Halle Berry’s equally atrocious
Catwoman movie. It wasn’t obvious that it would be
this awful though – perhaps one of the most random and infuriatingly assembled works ever.
To its credit,
Catwoman does at least disregard the plot of the film and try to go in a new direction with the franchise. It’s got a very detailed virtual likeness to Halle Berry too, which does lend it some appeal – but it isn’t enough. The camera feels like it’s tied to a seizure victim during an earthquake and the combat centres around kicking people into wardrobes, for some bizarre reason.
3. Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game Developer: Capcom
Street Fighter was a good game before Jean Claude Van Damme came along and spoiled it all by starring in the movie, so you would have thought that all Capcom would have to do is do a slightly padded out release. But it didn’t.
Instead, Capcom tried to emulate the style of the increasingly popular
Mortal Kombat, using digitally captured versions of the actors and awfully compressed voice snippets. It was still
Street Fighter underneath, but layer on top of it was the most clunky and ugly beat-em-up since
Rise of the Robots.
Whoever thought a GTA-clone based on Jaws was a good idea deserves to be shot Appaloosa Interactive
Trying to base a game on the Jaws films, where the whole thrill is the one-on-one nature of...erm, fishing...was always going to be difficult. Appaloosa’s attempt however was purely ludicrous, essentially trying to create a
GTA clone in an underwater environment populated mainly by glitches and bugs.
Even when you can get the game working though, it’s not really worth the effort – not unless you enjoy using Jaws to lob explosive barrels at ships. Trust us, it’s nowhere near as awesome as it sounds.
1. E.T the Extra-Terrestrial Developer: Atari
Often labelled as the worst game ever made,
E.T. was so massively hyped up that, when it turned out to be little more than a turd in a box, thousands of extra copies were eventually buried in a New Mexico landfill. Not only that, but it nearly put Atari out of business for good and contributed heavily to
the game crash of 1983. The game was so bad it nearly buried the entire industry.
Almost unplayable thanks to poor game design, uninformative graphics and nonsense game mechanics,
E.T. really is the worst game ever made.
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