Just because Max Payne let us down doesn’t mean that videogames shouldn’t be made into movies, but which new titles really deserve to make the move to the big screen?
“Videogame movies suck” is almost axiomatic these days, but that doesn’t mean that ever-optimistic movie studios won’t keep banging that drum until something musical comes out. But which games should be made into movies? SpoutBlog has picked out a few recent releases that fit the bill, some choices quite obvious and some, not so much.
LittleBigPlanet, for instance, with its open-ended, collaborative gameplay, may not seem like a prime candidate for the silver screen at first glance, but as author Kevin Kelly points out, the “compelling adorability” of Sackboy goes a long way. “He’s mute, cute, and would be the perfect star of a Miyazaki-esque film, following him as he explores his new world and meets new friends,” Kelly wrote. “British comedian Stephen Fry narrates the game beautifully, so when you play it you already feel like you’re part of a movie… or a documentary about a newly discovered race of tiny, animated stuffed animals.”
In a similar vein is Braid, the independent platform/puzzle game for the Xbox 360. “A man who loves a woman so much that he can channel that energy and turn back the clock? Sounds like a movie to me,” Kelly wrote. “Think The Fountain meets Back to the Future.”
More conventional “moviefication” choices are found in games like Dead Space, Gears of War and, of course, Fallout 3, each of which offers a heavy dose of guns, guts and action which should, the Max Payne experience notwithstanding, translate easily and well to a movie-house experience. The Force Unleashed also gets a nod, an opinion shared by project lead Haden Blackman, who said in September that a Force Unleashed movie is “not impossible.”
Spout’s complete list of “Videogames That Should Be Movies” can be read here, but what about your list? Got some better ideas?
