(Photo: Marvel
Studios/Netflix)

Adaptation, a
story as old as time (quite literally if you look at the
definition). When it comes to the entertainment industry,
adaptations have been an incredibly popular way for creators to
tell a story in their own voice with characters not their own,
whether it be an adaptation of a novel, a TV show to film (and
vice-versa), comic book adaptations, and, over the last several
years, a boatload of video game adaptations. For years, video game
adaptations to film and television were the brunt of all jokes
about how rarely they hit the mark quality-wise. However, that
reputation has changed over the past couple of years with projects
like “The Last of Us”, “Arcane”, “Fallout”, the Sonic the
Hedgehog movies, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and too
many more to count on the leaderboards for high score.

Now that the
scales for good video game movies/TV shows have been balanced,
let’s play an Uno reverse card and look at it the other way around.
What are some movies/TV shows that deserve a really good video game
to their name? And let’s make things clear, we’re not talking about
the type of game adaptations that are developed under crunch time
to make the release of the movie (if they’re lucky, maybe the game
is playable… we’re looking at you E.T… you know what you
did). No, we’re thinking game adaptations on the level of
Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, the terrifying Alien:
Isolation, the beat-em-up inspired Scott Pilgrim game, the iconic Goldeneye, and the upcoming Indiana
Jones and the Great Circle game from Bethesda. There are a
bevy of good movies/TV shows to choose from, so this list will
barely scratch the surface of what’s possible here. So let’s turn
on the console and press play with our first adaptation in…

1. Marcel the Shell with Shoes
On

There are
times in life when one looks upon someone — in this case, a tiny
talking shell voiced by Jenny Slate — and they say
to themselves, “Wow, there really are humble kings out there in the
world.” Is the world truly ready for a game of such epic
wholesomeness? The answer to that question is a deep query, yet the
potential of a game based on Marcel the Shell with Shoes
On speaks for itself. During scenes in the movie where you see
Marcel with his entire Shell community, I kept on thinking back to
the Pikmin games, where you control characters at a
similar size to Marcel. With that as a point of inspiration, you
can have Marcel or an original player character lead a massive
group of Shells (I think it would be capitalized since Shell is a
species of sort) to complete whatever tasks they have on hand for
the day. You could have enemies to face, or you could not. Either
way, if I saw this on the shelf, I would pick up and play this game
quicker than you can sing “Peaceful, Easy Feeling”.

2. “The Twilight
Zone”

The theme
song alone would make this a worthwhile game to develop. Even
outside of that, the endless possibilities that can come from a
game based on “The Twilight Zone” give me goosebumps. For as long
as the show’s been around, “The Twilight Zone” has been a textbook
reference point for anything out of the ordinary that twists our
perception of reality. With that amount of legacy, there’d be a lot
of pressure for this game to succeed, but I only see the positives
of how this could turn out. You could have either a series of games
based on individual scenarios that occur within “The Twilight Zone”
or, alternatively, you could have one game embrace the anthology
nature of the show with multiple chapters. Each story can be
different, the gameplay for each section can be unique — the only
negative I see here is not having enough time in the day to play
this game it could be that good!

3. Onward

“Long ago,
the world was filled with magic!” Those are the opening lines to
Pixar’s Onward, a story about two elf brothers going on a
quest to bring their dad back to life for one day only. Set in a
fantastical world where magical creatures adjusted to contemporary
lifestyle, the world of Onward would make for such a fun
video game setting. Fantasy is such a beloved genre to gamers
across the globe, so to have something that embraces a magical
realism world would be an interesting change of pace. On top of
that, the dynamic of Ian and Barley going on a literal quest in the
movie just lends itself perfectly to the structure of a video game.
Since the story of the film already works so well, you could easily
make this game a sequel story where Ian and Barley are on a quest
throughout the world with an action-adventure flare à la The
Legend of Zelda. There’s only one question left to answer:
does Chris Pratt voice Barley again? He already
voiced a video game character in a movie, but could he voice a
movie character in a video game?! Mamma Mia!

4. Mission:
Impossible

Whenever
people think of spy movies or any spy story, their minds always
drift to Bond, James Bond. As we mentioned earlier, Bond already
has quite the legacy in video games with Goldeneye being a
revolutionary first-person-shooter for the N64 era. If Bond can see
his spotlight in gaming, it only makes sense that the Mission:
Impossible franchise could be next in line. The set pieces
from the iconic film franchise seem like the perfect type of
adrenaline-pumping energy you would want in action video game. The Uncharted series feels like a perfect example for the type
of action you could get with a Mission: Impossible game,
with an emphasis on some good stealth sequences (akin to Hitman or Metal Gear Solid) here and there to
keep the player on their toes. This is a mission I would absolutely
choose to accept!

5. Moana

We head back
to the realm of animation, this time focusing on Disney Animation
proper with Moana. The 2016 movie of the same name has
quicjly become one of the most popular Disney Princess stories of
the 21st century. It already has a sequel set to release later this
year. With a character so beloved and a world that is quite
literally an endless ocean to explore, it would be a shame if
Disney did not see the potential Moana could have in video
game form. The likely genre of choice would be a platformer in the
same vein as so many Disney video game adaptations that have come
before, albeit with a massive emphasis on sailing. Whether the
sailing works more singular like Windwaker or on a grander
scale à la Sea of Thieves, getting the chance to explore
the seas as Moana herself would make the kid inside anyone burst
with joy. Oh, and if you get to play as Maui at any point, his
shapeshifting abilities could lend to plenty of gameplay variety.
In case Disney didn’t have this idea in mind already, all I can say
is… You’re Welcome!

6. A Nightmare on Elm
Street

Uhhh, there’s
no easy way to transition from the bright and colorful Moana to the dark, horror vibes that A Nightmare on
Elm Street entails. With that said, it’s quite surprising that
there has not been a modern reimagining of A Nightmare on Elm
Street in gaming. There was an NES game released in 1990, and
Freddy Krueger is a featured character in the game Dead by
Daylight, but there has yet to be a recent entry for the
franchise for any of the major gaming systems. Other horror series
like Alien and Friday the 13th have gotten
their fair shake with a modern horror game, so it only makes sense
that the Wes Craven classic could have a game
similar to those and other horror games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. The nightmare worlds open the door to so
many different possibilities with some inventive game design,
making the horror feel so palpable and personal for the player.
Above all else, if Robert Englund can reprise his
role as Freddy Krueger for “The Goldbergs” of all things, surely he
can return for something like this!

7. “Peanuts”/Charlie
Brown

Heading back
to a much more family-friendly franchise, we’ve got Charlie Brown,
Snoopy, and all of your other favorite characters from the world of Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts”! Although there have
been games released for the beloved series previously, nearly all
of them revolve around Snoopy and most of them likely did not have
enough resources to go all out. With a modern developer that has
enough funding and creative minds behind it, I imagine A
Charlie Brown Video Game (which needs to be the title btw)
could be something akin to Animal Crossing and many other
life sims. The world of “Peanuts” does not need to have the biggest
action or the highest stakes imaginable. It could be something as
simple as Charlie Brown needing to garner enough help with a local
fundraiser, or Linus forcing Lucy to help him find his blanket
which has gone missing. Scenarios like this give you the chance to
interact with the characters from “Peanuts” in a way which you
never could before. And for when you’re in the mood for more
action, there’s always Snoopy and his Red Barron. What could go
wrong? (To any Charle Brown types reading this, don’t answer
that!)

8. “Daredevil”

Lastly, but
certainly not least, is another iconic Marvel superhero who has yet
to receive his own video game: the Man Without Fear himself,
Daredevil! Of course, Daredevil (like many other Marvel heroes) has
been a featured character in plenty of Marvel games over the years
— notably the Ultimate Alliance series. And yet, no game
has featured Daredevil in the title role. With the success of
Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham series and Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, the foundation for a Daredevil game is
already there and then some. Make combat and exploration similar to
the aforementioned superhero games while finding unique ways to
incorporate Daredevil’s powers into the gameplay, like his bully
sticks or sections where you need to rely on his heightened senses
to detect enemies. Narratively, you could have a unique story that
pits Matt Murdock against any number of the villains in his rogues
gallery, and with the pacing a video game story allows for, there’s
no way it wouldn’t be awesome. So come on Marvel, get it done!
Every disc you print is just more money out of mine and everyone
else’s wallets!

Now if you’ll
excuse me, I’m going to play Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 for
the bajillionth time…