Video games have seemingly been notoriously hard to adapt to both the big and small screen for the longest time, with some of the worst offenders including Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Mortal Kombat (1995). But with video game adaptations that look to be very promising in the near future with HBO's version of The Last of Us series and the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie, we wonder if the perception of adapting video games will change for the better.
But not every video game to screen has been a complete failure and many of them have actually more than stuck the landing. Here's eight video game adaptations that were actually good, despite a market full of inauthentic and lackluster attempts.
8 Uncharted (2022)
Playstation's Uncharted, an action adventure franchise about treasure hunters, is one of the best video game series of all time and one of the best-selling as well. No matter how the games were tackled, many fans would never be satisfied due to how beloved the series is in their minds. And when the Uncharted film came out in 2022 starring Tom Holland in the leading role of Nathan Drake alongside Mark Wahlberg, many fans were left disappointed.
While the film changed much of the story and made characters younger versions those in the games, the film was a fun time on its own. It didn't do the best at adapting what fans loved of Uncharted, but it was one of the better films to come from adapting a video game. It also made history by becoming the fifth-highest grossing film based off of a game.
7 Mortal Kombat (2021)
It seems Hollywood truly wants to make Mortal Kombat work as a movie franchise, despite all the failed attempts in the past. With 2021's Mortal Kombat, they finally came the closest to actually serving any justice to the video game franchise that began back in 1992.
While it wasn't well received critically, the film's premiere on HBO Max was the most successful of the platform's up to that point, making plans for a future sequel much more of a reality. Fans loved the violence portrayed that the series was known for as well as the appearance of some of the game's most iconic heroes and foes, but the storyline is where things got a bit bogged down with the introduction of a new, unnecessary protagonist.
6 The Angry Birds Franchise (2016 & 2019)
There have been plenty of console video games adapted, but few films have taken inspiration from mobile apps. While The Angry Birds franchise exploded with merchandise and eventually ended up on video game consoles, a iOS app about launching birds at green pigs doesn't seem like it would translate well to the big screen.
However, the first film was fairly entertaining with an all-star cast and gross worldwide around $352 million, leading to a desire followup. The Angry Birds Movie 2 came in 2019, with fans and critics enjoying improvements to the animation and story even though it underperformed compared to the first.
5 Sonic the Hedgehog Franchise (2020 & 2022)
With one of the more troubling production histories, it was impressive that the first Sonic film managed to be any good and even more so that it was a huge success with a successful sequel with plans for more as well as spinoffs. Fans were upset with original design for Sonic and due to the criticism, it was announced Sonic would be redesigned, and the film would be pushed back a year - a move that saved that seemed to have truly saved the film, though caused distress behind the scenes.
Becoming one of the highest grossing films centered on a video game franchise, critics and fans enjoyed the blend of nostalgic elements from the games mixed with new ideas. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 then went onto become an even bigger success financially and critically, with massive praise going largely towards Jim Carrey's portrayal of Doctor Ivo Robotnik.
4 The Witcher (2019 - present)
The first entry centered around a television show and is barely considered a video game adaptation, but there's a lot that The Witcher gets right. While the series doesn't draw too much inspiration from the games and favors adapting the books they were based on, it still gets compared to the games even though it takes many liberties with the story. But the show has proven to be one of Netflix's most successful, with the first season receiving an 81% critic rating and a second season critical rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and quickly becoming of the most in demand and watched series on the platform.
However, after recent news broke of star Henry Cavill, who plays the titular witcher Geralt of Rivia, leaving the series before season three premieres and that Liam Hemsworth will take on the role for season four we wonder what kind of future The Witcher has, if any.
3 Arcane: League of Legends (2021 - present)
Another show that takes liberty with adapting a video game, Arcane is a series that pays homage to both the fictional universe of the online game League of Legends and creating a new story centered around two sisters named Vi and Jinx for audiences to enjoy regardless whether they've played the source material. Its first season premiered in 2021 to universal acclaim for the story, characters, animation, and how the exploration of the game was explored.
Season two is already on the way for a planned 2023 release after the first season did so incredibly well, with a 100% critical and 96% audience pair of ratings from Rotten Tomatoes to boot. IGN writer Rafael Motamayor has even go on to say that Arcane is a "classic in the making, and the nail in the coffin of the so-called video game curse."
2 Castlevania (2017-2021)
Based on the Castlevania Japanese series by Konami, Netflix's Castlevania joins the platform's catalog of impressive video game adaptations, particularly those that are animated. Inspiration was heavily taken from the games, following a monster hunter, magician, and dhampir who face off against a vengeful Count Dracula and his army.
The Japanese animation concluded with its fourth season in 2021 with a spinoff series already in the works due to the popularity of the original. After the second season in 2018, it had gained around thirty million viewers across the globe, making it one of Netflix's most successful projects.
1 Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
The Pokémon franchise is one of the biggest and highest-grossing in the world, with video games, the anime series that became the most successful in the world at the time, a trading card game, films, books, and more, director Rob Letterman and star Ryan Reynolds decided to take the franchise and its iconic characters in a new direction that worked in their favor big time. The Detective Pikachu film follows a former Pokémon trainer whose detective father goes missing, which forces him to team up with his father's former partner, Detective Pikachu, to find him.
While the story was criticized by some, the animation and visual effects combined with the wise-cracking portrayal of Pikachu by Reynolds made the film the second highest-grossing adaptation of a video game of all time. The film became another prime example of how you can make a successful video game adaptation by combining nostalgia and new ideas to make a beloved property recognizable yet fresh.
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