10 Movies that Were Also NES Games

Almost every big movie release is paired with a video game based on the movie. The video game is usually rushed to meet the movie's release date and it often results in a poor video game. The idea to release a video game with a popular movie is one that has taken off in the last five years or so. There were many video games for the NES that were based on movies; they just did not debut at the same time as a movie. In those days the developers would adapt a movie that had already been released. In some cases this led to a much better game, but sometimes it didn't.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
If the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is considered a B movie then the video game is something like J video game. So there is a tomato missile of some kind and the villain sends his six most trusted tomatoes to stop the player from saving the day. I was willing to accept a story where a plumber gets sucked down a pipe and fights evil mushrooms ad turtles but this game is just too farfetched.

Back to the Future
Back to the Future is often regarded as one of the worst video games of all-time. This attempt at making a classic like Back to the Future is similar to drawing a copy of Mona Lisa as a stick figure. There are often levels in Back to the Future where some kind of mini-game takes place but the game does not even say what to do. By the time the player has figured out he is dead and since the penalty of dying is starting the entire game over the player will pretty much have to start from the beginning repeatedly just to figure out how to play the game.

The Blues Brothers
Why a Blues Brothers game was even made I don't know. The Blues Brothers is not exactly the easiest movie to adapt to a video game and this video game was made 11 years after the movie. That would be like somebody deciding today that the Sixth Sense is a movie that must be a video game.

Die Hard
Die Hard on the NES was a pretty simple concept but it was pretty fun to play. Die Hard did follow the story of the first Bruce Willis movie so the player is searching through the Nakatomi Plaza to find his wife. The building is being held up by a group of terrorists and John McClane must fight the terrorists while he ventures through the building.

Karate Kid
The Karate Kid is known for being one of the most frustrating NES games of all-time. The Karate Kid was a difficult game although it was largely due to the control of the main character. The Karate Kid is based on the movie but deviates a little bit.

Platoon
One nice aspect of Platoon is that the player doesn't do the same thing over and over again like most NES games. There are different levels with different goals. On one level the player will be asked to fight the Viet Cong soldiers but on another level the player will find a friendly village and has to keep his morale bar up by not frightening the villagers.

Rambo
Rambo is a very complicated NES game. The player will almost certainly get lost a million times and the game is not as action packed as the movie it was based on (First Blood Part II). That being said I enjoyed the Rambo and the gameplay was pretty good. The company that developed Rambo also made Zelda II so they used much of the same code for Rambo.

Robocop
Robocop was a disappointing attempt to recreate one of my favorite movies. First, Robocop is a indestructible machine that went head-to-head with robots bigger than him. On the early levels why do dogs and petty criminals do damage to him? Second, Robocop is so slow! Okay, he's slow in the movie so I guess it's accurate, but slow characters don't make for a good video game. This is particularly a problem when Robocop puts his gun away and decides to only use his fists. Robocop isn't fast enough to punch all of his much faster opponents and almost always takes damage.

The Terminator
The nice thing about the Terminator NES game is that a portion of the game is about Kyle Reese in the future trying to get to Sarah Connor in the past. Setting the game in the future was a nice touch because we didn't get to see as much in the movie. The not so nice thing about the Terminator is that the game is awful. The AI of the enemies has to be one of the worst in video game history. Were the Terminators programmed using Windows Vista?

Willow
Willow was an underrated RPG on the NES. Willow wasn't quite Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior but could definitely compete with any other RPG on the NES. The downside of Willow was that the story was nothing like the movie. Creating a new story is not a horribly bad idea but it was a little disappointing to not play through the same story.