Top 10 Video Game Adaptations No One Asked For
Top 10 Video Game Tie-Ins No One Asked For
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Some things have no reason to exist. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Video Game Tie-Ins No One Asked For. For this list, we’ll be looking at gaming-related tie-ins that nobody wanted but everyone got anyway.
#10: “Hitman Agent 47” (2015)
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In theory, "Hitman" is not the strangest gaming property to adapt into a movie; in practice, Agent 47 has had a torrid time on the big screen. While there was some pre-release excitement for 2007's critically-panned "Hitman," "Agent 47" kind of just got announced out of nowhere, which was about as close to the franchise's stealth roots as the film would get. Marketed as a generic action film, "Hitman: Agent 47" was a completely baffling adaptation that came out at a time when the games were also in somewhat of a low point after 2012's divisive "Absolution."
#9: “Shaq Fu” (1994)
Even though the world would be a much worse place without "Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style," celebrity tie-in games rarely lead to anywhere good. During the '90s, Shaq was incredibly popular, so much so, the basketball player starred in a superhero film and his own game. Rather than going down the sports game route because – you know – Shaquille O'Neal; "Shaq Fu" was a fighting game that allowed Shaq to live out his dream of being a martial arts master. The game ended up being the opposite of good, which did not stop "Shaq Fu" from getting a sequel in 2018.
#8: “Little Britain: The Video Game” (2007)
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Over the years, many great TV shows have been adapted into mediocre games, but the chosen licenses are usually either action-oriented or for kids. A mini-game collection based on a British sketch show that is anything but family-friendly was a particularly strange idea for a tie-in, especially since "Little Britain" had already finished its UK run by 2007. "Little Britain's" anti-culture satire was a terrible match for a video game, which maintained the source material's abhorrence for good taste but failed to preserve any of its comedic value. While "Little Britain's" struck a chord with a wider audience, "Little Britain: The Video Game" only managed to face plant into the floor repeatedly.
#7: “Worlds of Power: Metal Gear” (1990)
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Spanning 10 novelizations, "Worlds of Power" tried to motivate kids to read by splashing "Ninja Gaiden" or "Bionic Commando" on the cover. Some of the novels were pretty decent, all things considered, but then there was "Metal Gear." Released in 1990 and based on the NES's "Snake's Revenge," "Metal Gear" tried its absolute best to remove any of the mystique surrounding the franchise and Solid Snake, who was given the name of Justin Halley because of reasons. Rather than create a stand-alone story, "Metal Gear" tried to incorporate nearly all the game's levels into the story, resulting in a book that comes across as a fever dream.
#6: “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” (2001)
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Considering "Final Fantasy's" entries usually do their own thing, the series is a decent candidate for an original film. Despite boasting some impressive animation for the time, "The Spirits Within" bombed at the box office and failed to impress critics. Even with the "Final Fantasy" trademark stamped on the film, "The Spirits Within's" setting and aesthetic had very little in common with Square Enix's JRPG franchise. With the film coming across more like a space opera than something reminiscent of "Final Fantasy," "The Spirits Within" seemed like it was just using the license to try and attract an established audience.
#5: “Resident Evil: Extinction” (2007)
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By the time "Extinction" rolled out, any pretense that the "Resident Evil" films were accurately adapting the games had completely evaporated. Despite some characters sharing the same names and the occasional appearance by a Tyrant, by 2007, "Resident Evil" existed as a video game and movie series that had practically nothing to do with each other. "Extinction" and its three sequels did fine at the box office, but the film series became something to be ignored by fans of the main games. It also did not help that the games were also becoming more action-oriented during this period, so any association with the movies would have been seen as a negative.
#4: “Mass Effect: Deception” (2012)
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Designed to expand on the games' established universe, the "Mass Effect" novels are generally regarded as canon. As the fourth novel and the first not penned by the lead writer of the original two "Mass Effect" games, "Deception" was immediately greeted with a huge uproar from the fanbase. Littered with so many canonical errors that BioWare had to issue an apology and promise to patch these errors in future revisions of the novel, "Deception" served as the worst possible advertisement for "Mass Effect 3," which dropped just a bit more than a month after the book.
#3: “Bubsy” (1993)
Bubsy could only have been born in a post-"Sonic the Hedgehog" world, and the bobcat tried his absolute darndest to become the next big gaming mascot. Not happy to just take the video game world by storm, during his debut year, Bubsy also tried his paws at show business by starring in a TV pilot that was surely going to be a smash hit. For some reason that had absolutely nothing to do with the episode's quality, the TV series was not picked up, and Bubsy had to be satisfied with just releasing video games that almost nobody wanted.
#2: “Street Fighter: The Movie” (1995)
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Without the benefit of hindsight, "Street Fighter's" popularity in the early '90s justified a movie adaptation. Rather than cut its losses after the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie failed to impress, Capcom adapted "Street Fighter: The Movie" into a game, with two rather different versions being released on consoles and in arcades. Despite the franchise spending millions of dollars to end up in the same place that it started, "Street Fighter: The Movie" was a far worse version of "Super Street Fighter II Turbo." The fantastic "Street Fighter Alpha" was also released in 1995, which did little to make "The Movie" seem more appealing. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. “Fight Club” (2004) “Catwoman” (2004) "StarCraft: Ghost: Nova" (2006)
#1: Uwe Boll Video Game Movies
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During the 2000s, Uwe Boll made it his mission to create as many video game movies as possible. Starting with 2003's "House of the Dead," "BloodRayne," "Dungeon Siege," "Alone in the Dark," "Postal," and "Far Cry" all got the Boll treatment; in other words, the movies were universally awful, barely made anything at the box office, and rarely respected the source material. Even though they seemed to have no audience besides the morbidly curious, Boll somehow made more than 10 of these films, only stopping occasionally to go on a fun "Rampage."
