Twitch-O-Meter: This Film’s Got a Game in It

Posted by Ard Vijn at 5:21pm.

Posted in Twitch-O-Meter .

As a Twitch-O-Meter, this post will remain up on top of the page for one day. There might be newer posts below this, so don’t forget to take a look!

Recent computer troubles had me buying a new one, and as always I was amazed at the huge leaps in (affordable) information technology which happened in the past few years. My old model had a single CPU with a speed I could fathom (or at least judge), the internal memory was less than a ten-year-old hard disc, and the videocard didn’t eerily glow yet. But the new one… woohoo!

Of course I tried some visually impressive games from a few years back, to see if they still ran as ‘choppy’ as I remembered. Two of the games that still managed to enthrall me (and ran silky smooth on the new machine!) were actually movie licensed games. Normally a movie license would mean certified damnation, cursing a videogame with a not-to-be-missed deadline and making sure the end result was buggy coupled with bad gameplay.

But not so with these: the ”The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay” game was very good and looks impressive to this day, and the same goes for “Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game Of The Movie”.

Maybe insanely long titles lift the movie licensing jinx on videogames? Nah, even before those, “Goldeneye” on the N64 proved that a license didn’t need to be the kiss of death.

Anyway, this got me thinking a bit. What sort of game based on a movie would I like to see but hasn’t been released yet?
Hmmmm....

Read on for five of my silly ponderings on this subject…

Here are some of my ideas.

5:

The Big Lebowsky Bowling League

By winning bowling tournaments, help “Dude” Lebowsky and his team earn enough money to be able to buy that ever elusive new rug.

The opposing teams consist of (amongst others) flamboyant pedophiles, nihilistic Germans, pornstars and a mercenary team of professionals hired by a vengeful paraplegic billionaire.

4:

Memento Madness

A first person shooter in which you have to cluelessly shoot your way out of the current level.

Achievements in the NEXT level will earn you clues about what you should have done in the PREVIOUS level. These clues take the form of tattoos on your body, and remain even when you restart the game. This should finally make it possible for you to get all the way to the eh… beginning to fight the start-of-game Boss.

3:

The Blues Brothers Dance Dance Revolution

If I have to explain this one you obviously haven’t seen the light.

Repent!
Repent, sinners!

2:

My Best Fiend Dating Sim

Play as either Werner Herzog or Klaus Kinski as you consecutively try to befriend, work with, irritate, infuriate and finally murder the other character.

As a sidequest, try to achieve enough “art points” to get to the “reconciliation” bonus level!

1:

Grand Theft Motorcycle: Neo Tokyo!

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to play this? A sandbox game where the events in the background are so massive that they turn a megacity into an actual sandbox?

Steal any ridiculously souped-up hog and battle opposing gangs like the Clowns, while whole sections of the city disappear, skyscrapers get thrown at you from great heights, schoolmates turn into gods, the Japanese civil war starts and the complete American navy arrives to nuke the shit out of you.

Did I miss any?
Please add your ideas in the comments!

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Reader Comments

jessekale 08/20/2008 @ 9:02pm

I see your not taken this serious. Even though The Big Lebowsky would work.
Ard Vijn 08/21/2008 @ 1:01am

It actually might!
CheechWizz 08/21/2008 @ 2:01am

It does: http://mobile.gamezone.com/gamesell/p32522.htm
Ard Vijn 08/21/2008 @ 3:46am

Oh for crying out loud…

I really didn’t expect that.

Don’t tell me they did the Kinski Dating Sim as well??!
Collin Armstrong 08/21/2008 @ 5:13am

Another one Ard - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blues_Brothers_(video_game)

Doesn’t sound like any car chases, tho. Someone should do THE BLUES BROTHERS GTA-style - you travel around Chicago, making friends, avoiding the cops, acquiring instruments and band members in order to put on a benefit. Boss battles with Carrie Fisher and The Good Old Boys!

I believe there was also an SNES game for BLUES BROTHERS 2000, but it’s better if we all forget about that, right?
Kurt Halfyard 08/21/2008 @ 8:35am

The Ghostbusters game out there that seems to be lacking a distrubtor at the moment looked pretty cool. I’d love to see it for the wii, whose remotes would make for fun proton-pack action.

I’d love to see a video game based on the puzzle softing antics of Natali’s “CUBE”

going the other direction from this Twitch-O-Meter, I’d love to see a film adaptation of the game of “PORTAL”, complete with dead-pan sarcastic narrator.
Kurt Halfyard 08/21/2008 @ 9:03am

The phrase ‘developers cut’ is amusing.
VonDoom 08/21/2008 @ 9:57am

Memento & Akira sound quite interesting… Playable even!

I would have preferred that they make a Deathmatch game, comprised of the great ideas found in racing/shooter/GTA type games. With 9 million dollars (half the budgert of the film), imagine how INTENSE they could have made the game.
Tealord 08/21/2008 @ 10:40am

Big Trouble In Little China

Now that would be some game. Truck chasing, alley fighting, five demon bag! Egg Chen Lazer Samurai fighting Lo Pan.

A whole block explodes in a ball of green flame, GREEN FLAME!!
Ard Vijn 08/21/2008 @ 1:20pm

Tealord, there actually WAS a lackluster “Big Trouble in Little China” action-adventure game, back in the days… But I agree it would kick ass to have that license properly re-done today!

Kurt, that “developers cut” was because this game premiered on the X-Box, so when a few months later it arrived on the PC they had extended some of the more popular bits of the “original cut”.
The DVD-puns didn’t stop there: this was probably the first game with an optional commentary track, an idea followed by Valve on all their titles (including our beloved “Portal”...).

Collin, indeed, do NOT mention Blues Brothers 2000 when I’m around, worst movie I ever saw in a cinema.

CheechWizz, half a day onward and I’m STILL reeling from the fact that someone really made a Lebowsky bowling game…
Saltoner 08/21/2008 @ 1:30pm

How about an Oldboy RPG or Carpenter’s The Thing, you try to fight your way not only out of the creature invested base, but also off of Antarctica, never fully knowing if you yourself are The Thing!
Collin Armstrong 08/21/2008 @ 1:50pm

Actually is a THING video game for the PS2 / Xbox. Not bad, either. Departs from Carpenter’s film in its gameplay but pays considerable homage.
Tealord 08/21/2008 @ 1:59pm

I remember there was a C64 game of BTLC. Pretty much any of the carpenter films would make decent games. They Live would be perfect, the world with and without the hoffman lens.

I’d also propose - Buckaroo Banzai and Eliminators.

In this day and age though i’d like any games to do what the warriors did and go beyond the bounds of the film to tell more stories as in some cases it’s the only way we could get more of the film we love without too much compromise.

Most 80s films would fit into games quite easily as they are in a lot of cases quite tongue in cheek. I dunno how i’d feel about someone messing with the Long Good Friday for example.

Lost Boys!
TheOrientalNightfish 08/25/2008 @ 5:05pm

Nintendo 64, not SNES. Though there was still a Super Famicom game released in Japan in 2000, they had long since dried up anywhere else.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/n64/blues-brothers-2000