![]() Anderson) were two of the earliest adaptations made by Hollywood, with each having different effects on this wonderfully eccentric sub-genre. (directed by Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel) and Mortal Kombat (directed by a recurring figure in this story, Paul W. ![]() Mortal Kombat (1995)ġ9 saw the release of two prime examples of the problem with video game adaptations. To illustrate my point on exactly why video games are difficult to adapt, here are some examples… Mortal Kombat & Super Mario Bros. We are rapidly heading towards a day when games are the predominant form of entertainment and movies are a thing of the past. With every AAA game release, the word ‘cinematic’ is bandied about. The point is this: once you take away that all-important aspect, you’re left with sometimes a great story and pretty graphics, but not much else.Īnother problem with video games is that more and more they are using the tricks of Hollywood. These are moments that will forever be ingrained in my memory until something more powerful comes along. Or when the main character, Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2, gets a true hero’s death (spoilers!). ![]() I can remember the first time playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and the moment Kojima pulled the rug out from under all the players by having Colonel Campbell address us directly. The way a player controls the character creates a bond between the Game Creators and the player. Whether it’s an FPS like Doom or Half-Life, a JRPG such as any of the Final Fantasy games, or an epic 3rd Person Shooter in the vein of Gears of War, a stealth adventure game like Assassin’s Creed, or those lovely open-world sandbox games that hit their pinnacle with Red Dead Redemption, the way the player works their way through the story, making choices that affect the outcomes and giving each player a unique experience makes video games a singularly personal experience that movies or tv shows just cannot offer. Unlike a book, movie, or piece of theatre video games make the player themselves part of the story. Every time an adaptation happens, it doesn’t matter if it’s a work of fiction, non-fiction, historical events or biography, there is always a loss of detail or medium-specific aspects.īut there is one difference that makes video games a million times harder to translate to the big screen than any other medium, and it happens to be the thing that draws people to games in the first place. The same happens with adaptations of musicals or plays to the silver screen. Look at Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings and Th e Hobbit movies as prime examples of this happening. For example, adapting a book to cinema or TV requires losing a lot of information: character thoughts, sub-plots, descriptions, and even entire characters. There is an inherent problem with adapting any medium into another, and that is you lose certain elements from that original medium. With amazing characters and incredible set-pieces, why hasn’t any Hollywood adaptation been able to replicate this? The Problem With Video Games It’s a simple question, right? Games are wildly successful, interactive, with some of the greatest plot twists and pure story moments that are ever written. Hollywood has never been able to successfully adapt any video games to the silver screen. A single inescapable concept that, to date, has never been cracked. One thing still eludes the Gods of Video Games. Not only have graphics reached a point where the ‘Uncanny Valley’ is no longer a worry, but the intricacies of storytelling have flown to heights beyond what people thought when the original Super Mario Bros. Since the first Silent Hill came out in 1999 and Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid showed us the future of the medium, video games have developed in ways nobody ever thought possible. Whether you are new to playing them or grew up with a Playstation or Xbox, one thing is clear, video games are an amazing vehicle for telling engaging stories. With the recent release of Monster Hunter and the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie, are video games headed for greatness? We here at PHASR dive into the question why are video games difficult to adapt?
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