Movie and TV to Video Game Translations: Change We Must Believe In

Ever since games like The Godfather, The Warriors and the most recent Ghostbusters the Video Game came out, we've been enjoying a superior model of the above genre... the Classic Movie to Video Game Translation (as of yet no TV Series of old has received such a treatment, only classic movie franchises).

A second sub-genre, also tying into Ghostbusters the Video Game but also to another well known translation (Chronicles of Riddick : Escape From Butcher's Bay and the recent Dark Athena for the XBox/XBox360 respectively) is the Movie to Video Game Adaptation (as in titles which are based on movie property but NOT a pure tie-in, as Escape From Butcher's Bay is from the same series but not a tie-in the Chronicles of Riddick movie per se).

But neither of those really need to be tampered with. For the most part they are solid and without fault or evil to really complain about. The real evil is the pure money grubbing Translation genre. But then again it could be nothing less as, after all, it is made only to squeeze every last dollar or money unit out of a Movie/TV Series and nothing more. Sure, occasionally you get a gem like the Lord of the Rings trilogy games (as in the Peter Jackson era games and not the few attempts of past gen gaming before the epic trilogy of theatrical movies), the seldom spoken of Clint Eastwood versus the Soviets action yarn Firefox arcade shooter, and lest we forget the classic Star Wars arcade machines of old. But those games are rare (and with the exception of the Lord of the Rings movies mind you how I only seem to wax poetic about movie based games from the old school era of gaming, very little about today's crackerjack, shovelware slapped together for a quick buck and nothing more).

Best way to do this (so we don't go on forever) is to simply bring up what's wrong and cite a few examples each as to why this so needs to be fixed... quicker that way actually.

First Step: The Game Should HONOR the Series It's Tied To, Not Shame It!
Right now the best case in point of this is Grey's Anatomy : The Video Game. Lord knows I am probably going to tick off a great deal of the series' fanbase, but no matter how much everyone crows over the series and how wonderful it is the simple matter of fact is THIS - GAME - IS - HORRIBLE!!

For a game series that only has to just learn the lessons taught by popular medical franchise Trauma Center : Under The Knife, and ply it towards the popular series you'd think such a game would actually be exceedingly simple. I mean the game mechanics of a successful medical video game is right there for the taking, by simply mixing in addictive surgical mini games with a strong character driven storyline and (I'd hope considering this series is such a fan fave) strong vibrant lovable characters you could have made this a perfect game.

Apparently however nobody actually thought to tell that to the people who released this bad train wreck of a game as it seemed to do anything BUT be good. Mediocre half arsed surgical mini games that are almost completely swallowed whole by a relentless barrage of pointless mini games that check the player's emotions, nice or naughty meter, ability to ask or question or say whatever's on their mind, their steadfastness and... dear god... a mini game just for battling the character's doubt levels!! DOUBT LEVELS!! Where you chase away evil little doubt clouds with your face on it to reveal your goal (amongst the many other lame ways to express what a simple dramatic cut scene with a simple Q&A sequence could have done).

Ideally this should have been child's play, follow the preset pattern of quality (and touch it up here and there to maximise the Grey's Anatomy "charm" while keeping quality gameplay) yet whoever made this burdened it with too much ridikulus (cast that on your wand three times fast) to be believed, shaming a otherwise good franchise with a disposable lame game that should never have seen the light of day.

Second Step: If You Build It (Right) They Will Come.
Nothing worst than slapping together an alsorun follow the leader lacking in innovation game to spoil an already bad translation (and I don't mean Grey's Anatomy because it may be horrible but it's game mechanics are at least abit on the fresh and innovative side... even if the side shown is boring and lame at least the game maker to his credit did do something new and original at times in the emotional/confrontational mini games that did speak of at least trying to be fresh and new). I'm speaking of course of the thousand and one platformers out there disguised as movie/tv video games. Pirates of the Caribbean (though I did like how Johnny Depp did show up to voice act for Legend of Jack Sparrow), Batman Beyond or Superman Returns (can a game about a man who flies really be called a platformer though), and a host of many animated movie to game translations (except for the rather innovatively fun Kung Fu Panda game). Games that mostly have you going from point A to B, usually finding ways around obstacles while beating up enemies and gathering items to complete a level.

Of course of late movie translations have been dipping into more adult realm.
For instance though I loved it, Kung Fu Panda is a new era of translation that is tapping into the success of a rather adult game (mainly God of War) in it's game mechanics (the platforming slash fighting have some echoes of the classic hard core button masher in it's style if you pay attention). Some translations, like the recent 007 game Quantum of Solace, has a new gunplay technique of taking cover and shooting enemies from said cover (a game mechanic you might reconginzed lifted from another adult series, Gears of War). Then there's movie translations like (back to Pirates) Pirates of the Caribbean : At World's End which has the split second button or control tapping mini games that you might remember from yet another more adult franchise... yes, Resident Evil 4 and it's little button tapping mini games (though you usually ended up gruesomely dead if you missed those).

Sometimes it works, if built right. Kung Fu Panda works because it was actually put together to be a solidly fun game. Alot of the LEGO translations of movie games also are made surprisingly well and are most addictive to play (though only the upcoming Fall 2009 release of LEGO Indiana Jones 2 fits the topic since the rest are all translations of classic movies... until LEGO Indy 2 which translates the most recent "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" movie). Alot of the games made however seem as if very little actual thought was put into making the game good, just into making the game quckily and without much thought to content or gameplay. That's when a potentially good game goes wrong.

Third Step: Did I Mention Stop Making Shovelware?
If the game is so boring even the game's own developers won't play it? It's bad.
If the game is so pointless or uninteresting it's not even worth rental? It's bad.
If the game is too glitchy (Spider-Man 3 was burdened with much glitches), or it just seems as if the game was made more to insult you than entertain you by trying to ride the coattails of a better game, yet failing (I heard the Incredible Hulk video game is a poor lame attempt to capitolize on the success of Incredible Hulk : Ultimate Destruction) then it's a total fail.
Basically if they can't spend the time to make a good game then why should we be expected to spend our time (and not to mention our hard earned money) on their lackluster attempts at gaming? Honestly.

Actually this was only supposed to be one change, but let's face it this genre needs a complete overhaul. Not going to happen as long as the bottom line is your money and not quality... so appeal to their bottom line. Buy only GOOD translations. Games like Chronicles of Riddck, Ghostbusters the Video Game, the Traveler's Tales LEGO franchise, and even Kung Fu Panda (I liked it, it was fun and entertaining and yet totally geared to be quick pick up playable short gaming to tie into the movie... still fun though). Don't spend your hard earned money on games that don't deserve your money, no matter how much of a fan you are (because, really, your just encouraging them... stop it).

BTW Summer is usually that time of year for the translations of movies/tv to come out, so hang in there because summer is almost over and the drought of gaming ends with the fresh new good games hitting the shelves again come September... unless it's past September already then happy gaming.