Nicky Hill put a lot of thought into this article...a lot! I hope featuring it for an 'End of Day' thought will give you guys plenty of time to check it out. He went into a ton of detail, so make sure to read the entire piece!

Everyone has their own idea on how to make a worthwhile game adaptation of a film, and even though not everyone is going to like them, but they are still valid opinions, and there is no harm in sharing. Clearly the people who are actually making these film influenced games are not entirely paying attention to the onslaught of said opinions that continue to flood the internet when they should be taking advantage of the vast amount of criticism/comments aimed at any of their previously developed games.

I’ve already shared these suggestions with my closest friends, but now would like to offer to a larger community the short list of films that I think could make incredible transitions into the gaming realm. These are films that I have enjoyed on more than one occasion and for some time have yearned for more of an interactive experience within their separate universes. Hopefully this will help me clear my mind some as well as give my friends a break from my banter. Honestly, nothing would make me happier than to see more well crafted and respected games coming to us, from already respected universes of the silver screen.

Notice: If any game developers end up reading this and feel so inclined to take some of these ideas to heart, feel free to take and use any concepts mentioned. All I ask is that you do consider some of these examples and get back to me in some way to let me know that my attempt was not in vain.

The Crazies

George A. Romero

This is the only film from the list that I have only seen once, however, the impact it had on me as lending itself to game form had practically slapped me across the face.

Plot: The United States military is trying to quarantine a small Pennsylvania town after a plane carrying biological weapons has crashed and polluted a near by river. The virus has two effects on the people exposed; it either kills them or causes them to go insane. The playable character is an ex-Green Beret (how convenient) who uses his training in trying to escape the town along with his fiancé, best friend and some complete strangers. Threats come from both the military and the revolting, infected crazy townsfolk as their journey takes them closer to salvation.

Gameplay: The majority of the game deals with concealment of a group, and trying to keep from getting attacked or infected. Most infection is through consumption and each infected person transforms into their own unique form of crazy. Ultimately, the psychological strain from watching neighbors and people you were close friends with going crazy is an internal battle that would need to be fought as well, which is where things can get much more interesting.

The buildings would be fully accessible and interactive, giving countless places to hide while trying to avoid military raids. With a constant need for hiding and being able to know where and how to hide would help, I feel a third person perspective would suit the this style of gameplay very well.

The most interesting thing about the story in the film is how the military doesn’t even know what they are dealing with. It is very satirical in that regard and that commentary is just as poignant now as it was in the early 70’s. Plus I think having a game that maintains a retro look and feel would be somewhat refreshing. A game version of this film could end up being an interesting survival horror type game, where instead of running from monsters, beasts or zombies, you need to escape from humans with psychologically emerging demons.

Apparently someone will be re-making the film, but I am still not sure how I feel about that. If nothing more, try to get a hold of the original. Just remember that it was made on a small budget. The effects, appearance, and acting may be underwhelming (or maybe laughable) at times, but I think it is a loaded film with a lot to say. And I had never heard of it till recently. And while watching it, just imagine being put in that position…

Point Break

Kathryn Bigelow

This is a favorite film among my friends. Parts of the story get so incredibly far-fetched and crazy that it’s difficult not to enjoy it.

Plot: “The Ex-Presidents are surfers.” I hope I didn’t ruin anything for anyone with that. The film follows an FBI agent (Johnny Utah) whose assignment is to stop a group of bank robbers who wear masks of former US Presidents. In the meantime, he learns to surf and skydive. How can this NOT make a fun game?

Gameplay: The difficulty for this game is which character the player would control. There is a chance of flipping between the Keanu and Swayze characters, but I’m not sure it would really work in this situation. Either way, there is a chance for some amazing brawls on the beach, as well as bonfires, surfing, skydiving, police busts or bank robberies (during which you’d use controls similar to military game to manipulate your “squad”).

My personal favorite element would be lengthy foot chases. The paths are either random or open to the player and can lead through houses and yards or even public locations. During the chase, the player either creates obstacles for the pursuing computer character by knocking over furniture or stacks of somethings, or avoids obstacles caused by the evading computer character (of course this all depends on how the game is made and who the playable character is). Either way, you either get to throw a dog at someone or have it thrown at you.

I think the story and scenario in the film really open up a lot of possibilities for added content. (Maybe a meatball sub eating contest with Agent Angelo Pappas. Or a whole section on pealing the skin off chicken.) I think you all see how fun a Point Break game could turn out; especially if it were to include a “Killer Rush” Mode where you surf during the 50 year storm, do extra skydiving stunts, or torch a car at a gas station. Think about it. You know you want to play that game.

They Live

John Carpenter

After not having seen this movie in years, I rented it from Netflix. I instantly re-fell in love with it and think it would be awesome for it to ship with chewing gum in the game case.

Plot: Rowdy Roddy Piper plays a loner who strolls into a city looking for work. He stumbles across a box of magical sunglasses and his life changes forever. Simple enough, right? You don’t think magical glasses can change someone’s life that easily? Well if they were to unveil to you that a large percentage of the country’s politicians and bureaucrats are all aliens and are subliminally controlling our society, wouldn’t you feel at least slightly obligated to fight back? Using witty one-liners and some serious weaponry, he reminds these aliens in human clothing that “Momma don’t like tattle tails.”

Gameplay: I could see how a game like this would be incredibly fun. There’s the manual labor portion before the glasses are found, but then the all out butt kicking that ensues thereafter.(I’m not really serious about the labor, but it could be used to gain strength) I think the game could work really well with escalating objectives, while interacting with people in the big city. When the glasses are donned, view would enter a skewed vision of the world through the glasses in first person, and would continue as a First Person Shooter. The aliens would not react until you make the first move. Then of course there is the gratuitous fight with Frank, only because he won’t put the glasses on.

Perhaps the story can be expanded a bit to include a larger scale revolution, rather than just two men working their way up to the head of the alien movement. Either way, I think there are a lot of options when fleshing out a near apocalyptic experience like this one.

An interesting observation: This year marks the 20th Anniversary for the movie. I say five years would be plenty of time to get in touch with Carpenter and convince him to retell his classic “body snatchers” tale in time for a 25th Anniversary celebration. What do you think?

The Rock

Michael Bay

This is one of my favorite action films. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I can’t stop loving it.

The closest I’ve ever gotten to a game version of this game was with Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: 3’s Alcatraz mission. Honestly, it wasn’t enough.

Plot: A modern day Robin Hood takes a group of marines, some VX Gas Warheads and a bunch of bad ideas to Alcatraz and threatens to launch the missiles towards populated areas of San Francisco. The only ones who can apparently stop them are a Chemical Weapons Specialist and an old fart. Supposedly the old man was the only person in history to break out of the prison while it was still active and now the FBI wants him to get a team of agents back in to save the day. It’s EPIC… Honestly.

Gameplay: I don’t remember how many missiles were actually obtained before the one ball of gas got away, but for the game’s sake, why not give them all fifteen? Playing as either Goodspeed, the goal would be to get to each missile and disarm it all while fighting off enemies. On occasion, the Mason character would join in the fight, whether it be from a distance, in the background, or alongside you. With each missile there would be fairly detailed sequence in opening the missile, removing the gas, destroying the homing chip, and returning all to a normal position, all while avoiding breaking the glass balls open.

Of course for all of this to take place, we need to start with a pistol training session involving a small dart gun and Rube Goldberg machine, a chemical weapons training session with a baby doll in a wooden crate, a fight and high speed car chase through San Francisco, underwater deployment, several puzzles of breaking into The Rock, a shower room ambush and navigating the tunnels. Spoiler alert… Sorry about that. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this how this film could be adapted into a game and I think it lends itself to a lot of different options and variations in gameplay. There are just too many elements for it not work.

So anyway, that’s it. We’ll not entirely… you don’t think I would give away ALL my ideas, do you? Seriously though, these are four titles that I feel very strongly about being made into games, and I think the timing is perfect for each of them. I know it’s been mentioned to me before how no one would care about games adapted from films that have been long since released and are forgotten, but I think it’s time to resurrect these stories to tell them in a way that they have yet to be told. And yes, these stories may be similar to experiences already made available in game form, but I feel that each are different enough, and can draw from those previous titles in order to really make some incredible and memorable games.

With all the movie licensed titles being released these days, I think one major problem is the games don’t always make sense. They are being forced through a gaming mold just to shove the story into the faces of audiences who might not see the film otherwise. Instead I think we need to look back to some classics, just like how many motion pictures are adapted from classical literature. These developers need to take their time thinking about what they really want to do, rather than jumping into something they don’t really like working on. Of course, I do know that there are legal issues and agreements that would have to be handled first, but we all know that the game industry is now a billion dollar industry. I’m sure things can get settled very quickly with dollars that size.

I may only be one person, and I don’t know how people will respond to these suggestions, but I really do feel that looking at films like these four would be a great start for a revolution in film to game adaptations.