Top 5 Game-Based Movies and/or TV Shows

Exactly what it says on the tin. Now, I know most video game tie-ins suck ass, so if nothing else, which tie-ins sucked the least amount of ass?

My Top 5:

1. Wreck-It Ralph. This movie actually did not suck. It was like the Who Framed Roger Rabbit of video game characters, right from the support group for video game bad guys like Clyde, Zangief, and Kano.

2. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. For what it was, this movie wasn't really bad, and it's really the movie they should have made instead of The Spirits Within.

3. Mortal Kombat (1995): They actually stayed reasonably close to the source material in terms of characters and in terms of the backstory Ed Boon and John Tobias already had. Plus, Trevor Goddard was such a great Kano that they retconned him as Australian in the games.

4. Super Mario Bros. Super Show/The Legend of Zelda: I'm not ashamed to say that I liked Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells as the Bros, and I genuinely wanted to tune in to the Zelda cartoon on Fridays where Link says "Well excuuuuuuse me, Princess."

5. Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike. Anime movies based on games seem to do a bit better than live-action or Western animated stuff, and since Tales of Vesperia had characters designed by Kosuke Fujishima anyway, it was hard for Namco and Bandai to screw this one up. And they didn't. Cool prequel with Yuri and Flynn serving in the Imperial Knights and constantly getting demerits for beating the shit out of each other.

Honorable Mention: Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel. This was an anime series based on Dragon Quest III (Dragon Warrior III in the US) which ran for 43 episodes from 1989-1991. The first 13 episodes got brought to the US and dubbed into English by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, the guys who brought us the Might Morphin Power Rangers. I played the Dragon Warrior games on NES at that time and recognized all the stuff from the games. I thought it was really cool that Dragon Warrior had its own TV show. Unfortunately, only 13 episodes made it over here. From what I understand, Saban apparently pissed Enix off somehow. I think it had to do with him not crediting Akira Toriyama or Enix in the US credits. Also, like all anime back in that time, they always ran it at 5:30 Sunday Morning on one of the high UHF channels.

I completely forgot there's a Tales of Vesperia anime movie and I think I need to watch that as soon as possible now.

The pickings felt slim but here we go:

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (loaded with game references, fighting and RPG genre conventions; also simply because its a far greater film than anything else on this list)
2. Portal: Beyond Aperture (fantastic short film; check it out on Youtube)
3. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (about as good a movie one could make from the game; great fight scenes, Chun-Li's bewbs nice soundtrack usage of Korn, Alice In Chains and.....Silverchair?)
4. Wreck-It Ralph
5. Silent Hill (I'm a big fan of Christophe Gans - after Brotherhood of the Wolf, who wouldn't be? - but it just saddens me that this film seemed to be the last thing he got made for 8 years, assuming his adaptation of Beauty & the Beast gets released here this year. Gans had genuine affection for the game series and got a lot of things right visually and plot-wise. Plenty of disgusting, unnerving moments too. I love how the first game's title music plays over the Tristar logo. Chills....)

Yeah, forgot about Scott Pilgrim. The SF animated movie wasn't too bad. I also like the Sakura Wars anime series and movies.

Pokemon- because who else around my age doesn't remember running home after school so they could watch Pokemon?

Sonic SatAM- I thought this was a pretty awesome 90's cartoon and loved it as a kid. I even collected the comic books that had the same characters in it, I really loved Sonic back then.

Persona 3 Spring of Birth- It's nothing amazing but it's a nice adaptation for fans of the game and I'm sure the movies will only get better as they get further into the story.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children- I don't care for the story but it's a good dumb action movie with beautiful animation. And beautiful Final Fantasy characters

Silent Hill- I still think this movie sucks but for some reason I put it on every time it's on tv. The atmosphere of Silent Hill was done perfectly and I love that most of the music was directly from the games. It makes me mad that so much was done so well but it still didn't turn out any good.

I still need to watch Wreck it Ralph ;_;

I've watched Advent Children a couple of times and have no idea what's going on with that story. Why couldn't they just relate it to the game? Hell, just take the story from the game and make a movie.

1. Scott Pilgrim- Just a great movie. Few out there like this
2. Wreck it Ralph- Another really good movie. Not perfect, but a lot of fun.
3. Super Mario Bros Z- If Avid can count Youtube series, I'm throwing this in. Even though it ended on a cliffhanger, this series was an awesome callback to Mario and Sonic fans.
4. Pokemon- Like Choco, I have to admit how much I loved it. Too bad Ash ruined it with giving away or leaving behind all his cool Pokemon so he could start his character arc from scratch every time there's a new game.
5. Earthworm Jim- I loved this cartoon as a kid.

I really like the Resident Evil movies. They are what they are and never really try and be much more than that. I put them on whenever I'm doing mindless, boring work and they're pretty effective at keeping me from going insane or getting frustrated. I guess it can be considered a guilty pleasure.

SFII won me over with the soundtrack.

Wreck It Ralph is hands down the best.

Scot Pilgrim is strange in that it's a movie about a comic that is about games. I still really liked it but the whole thing is so meta it hurts my tiny brain.

I used to watch the FF movies a lot in college for inspiration. Gorgeous stuff. Especially the lighting effects.

Is Lego considered a game movie? If so it is the absolute best.

And you guys just reminded me about the Pokemon anime. When my nephew was a toddler I'd watch the Pokemon series with him. By the time he was three he could name almost any of the original 151 Pokemon.

The Resident Evil movies seem to have been good in relative terms, since they did well enough to keep making them.