While video games based on movies have enjoyed a terrible and not entirely unwarranted reputation for years, the fact of the matter is that many of those adaptations are actually surprisingly good. For the most part, it sucked but at this day of age—we remember it by choice with the nostalgia it actually brings.
1. FIGHT CLUB
Fight Club is one of the most misinterpreted pieces of popular culture in the last 25 years, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone decided to turn the popular film about toxic masculinity and consumerism into a video game. Yet, there’s a lot about this game that is genuinely surprising. While the 2004 Fight Club video game is really just a pretty standard 3D fighter, it still made its way into a comeback as the game liked by tons of people.
2. THE GREAT ESCAPE
1963’s The Great Escape is quite simply one of the greatest war movies ever made. Based on a true story, the film follows a group of WW II soldiers who work together to escape a high-security POW camp. it’s easy enough to see the potential for that concept. Luckily, this game does a fairly decent job of realizing that possibility.
3. BRAVEHEART
While there are many aspects of 1995’s Braveheart, this 1999 adaptation at least tried to turn it into a grand strategy game. the game itself is pretty bad. Even if you’re willing to look past its various technical problems, it soon becomes clear that the developers just weren’t capable of making a game this big and this mechanically ambitious into something that is actually fun to play.
4. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre holds a special place in the world gaming and in movies. Not only was it one of the few horror games available for a popular platform in 1982, but it actually lets you control Leatherface and hunt down victims rather than try to stop the slasher.
This game is unspeakably bad and pretty much irredeemable from any critical standpoint. However, it does deserve some credit for presenting a bold and visceral vision for the future of horror games at that time.
5. RESERVOIR DOGS
It’s a Tarantino thing. While this game isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, it’s ultimately an especially forgettable action game released at the arguable height of especially forgettable action games. If anything, this game works best as a collection of a lot of the bad and half-hearted gameplay, writing, and design ideas that were popular at the time.
6. FANTASIA
While there were actually quite a few games based on Disney movies released through the ‘90s, most of those games were based on more modern Disney movies, and most of them were actually pretty good. This 1991 Sega Genesis exclusive lacks the charm, visual flair, and tight gameplay that elevated so many other Disney titles of that era. This game had to be rushed out the door due to its shady listening agreement and it shows.
