Online Games Based on Films

If you are old enough, life experience has taught not you develop high hopes, or any hopes at all, on films based on video games, but what can you expect of video games based on films? Counting on brighter lights, the answer would be even more hopeless, or in their words: "Games based on movies suck."

So, is it really that bad or does the analogue between the game and its source of inspiration fails them over and over again? And if all the games made after films do suck, is an unavoidable side effect of the genre or can the potential game developers of, mmm, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, can pick a few hinters?

Video Games as an Accessory

On one hand, turning a successful movie into an online game is not such a bad idea. If the movie did well on the box offices, it means that people could relate and that they might still be, giving them the possibility. In other words, if they bought the T-shirt   they might as well acquire the video game version.

Yet on the other hand, the concept seems illogical. Movies, with some exception, have a definitive end, therefore, the gamer (assuming not more than a few would be drawn toward a video game based on film they haven't seen), has to step in a rather predictable path toward the unsurprising end. Let's take Voltaire Games recreation of Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, which allows you to follow any of the misters' steps, and even hum along with the original Mr. Blonde as you cut off the police officer's ear. Yet, won't you feel like a total idiot still not knowing who the rat was?

If You Liked the Movie You'll Love the Game

Well, not necessarily. Another failed assumption is the one that supposes that a film's enthusiastic supporters would be automatically flooded with warm feelings toward its video game interpretation. In fact, the more valued the film, the grosser the disappointment. Good movies, where you identified with the protagonists and aspire to relive those joyful moments by playing the video game, will break your heart more brutally.

E.T. for example, billions of children were sobbing real tears when they had to say goodbye of the cute little Extra-Terrestrial and step out of the comforting dark of the film theatre to the blinding daylight. Those of them who have purchased Game Boy Advance version of Spielberg's box-office buster, looking forward to help E.T. phone home, have eventually stopped caring. On the good side, the game developers did try, and succeed to some extent, to reproduce some of the movies scenes, yet the game was too monotonous, especially when considering its natural audience.