It is no secret that video games are a very inconvenient material. It is difficult to write a good book or make a quality film based on them. The point, of course, is in the specifics: most of the interesting details are presented by the creators in the gameplay, while the script part is often given much less time and effort. With rare exceptions, it turns out either weak or strange. But that is cinema. In our beloved entertainment industry, there is a slightly different direction that has long taken video games under its wing and, albeit rarely, pleases gamers with high-quality film adaptations. Of course, we are talking about animation. In this material, the editors of VGTimes have selected for you the seven best cartoons whose plot and universe were based on popular games. Make yourself comfortable, it will be interesting.
But first, let me say a few words about the format of the selection. Firstly, in this material you will not find any mention of animated series: neither Castlevania from Netflix, nor any even more ancient examples. The fact is that episodic animation is a separate world even by the standards of animation in general, which we will certainly tell you about, but another time. Secondly, we did not take very ancient examples, like the full-length film based on SIN that was released in the early 2000s. And finally, keep in mind that even the best cartoons based on games cannot be compared with films produced by Disney or Dreamworks — simply because the source material leaves too much of an imprint on the work created based on it. Well, now that all the i's have been dotted, let's begin.
First in line is a cartoon, the announcement of which caused a stormy reaction on our site. They say that they touched a popular brand with dirty hands again, what kind of drawing technique is this, and all that stuff. Surprisingly, despite such a reaction, and hateful reviews could be found not only on our site, Scorpion's Revenge managed to become the best Mortal Kombat adaptation ever created.
The plot is simple. Scorpion in human form returns home with his son. There he discovers that his entire clan is dead, his beloved wife lies in a pool of blood, and the Linkway ninjas led by Sub-Zero are roaming the streets. The rest is history: the death of his offspring, his own death, a walk to the local Hell with a wild desire to take revenge on the ice ninja, a deal with Quan-Chi, and an appearance at the first tournament. Everything is classic.
The main advantage of Scorpion's Revenge is the authenticity of the film. The authors were not afraid to turn on the most brutal visuals — blood, guts and dismemberment appear from the very first minutes of the cartoon. Scorpion breaks heads, dismembers opponents, literally wipes them into dust. In parallel with this, the authors diligently retell the events from the perspective of Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade and generously wink over the shoulder at the fans of the brand. No joke, there was even room for strength tests, which appeared in the very first Mortal Kombat. The result is a gem — an ideal film adaptation.
If you remember, in the mid-2000s, fans of Resident Evil were wildly «pissed off» by the fact that the producers of the official film adaptation of «Resident Evil» had finally given up on the canon in favor of a sprawling cranberry. New heroes, inadequate plots, bad acting, but expensive special effects — it seemed that we would never see a real zombie horror again, but would continue to eat a blockbuster mush of cool visuals, multiplied by the Umbrella Corporation logo.
In fact, this is what happened in the case of cinema. Paul Anderson's tame directors, of course, introduced Ada Wong, Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy into the story, but this did not really improve the situation. At the same time, on the other side of the world, in Japan, Asian directors were working on a completely different — animated — adaptation of a famous brand. And, you know what? The cartoon «Resident» turned out much better than its on-screen counterpart.
The first film, subtitled Degeneration, was released on big and small screens in 2008 and received rave reviews from fans of the franchise. The two sequels that followed only strengthened the fame of the original. The reason is simple: the authors did not reinvent the wheel and showed the universe from the game. Familiar characters behaved appropriately, a gloomy B-movie unfolded on the screen, zombies ate people — in short, everything was correct. Perhaps the only mistake of the trilogy is the use of computer animation, and not the most expensive one. I think you understand what this threatens: ten years will pass, and the cartoon trilogy will become technologically obsolete.
In the late 2000s, Electronic Arts decided to go all in and launched several openly experimental series at once. At that time, Electronics was considered a family corporation: it had the popular Need for Speed series, the The Sims series, and a ton of sports simulators to its credit. And then, suddenly, the first Dead Space appeared in a series of releases — an interactive story inspired by the Alien franchise, telling about the terrible events that happened on the Ishimura ship.
The necromorphs are to blame for everything — ruthless, ferocious and strong. We suppose you know the rest. The first part of «Dead Space» turned out to be quite successful, followed by a sequel and a threequel, comics based on it and even two full-fledged animated films. The coolest thing is that their creators did not take the path of least resistance, and based on the well-known universe they created two independent works that can be watched separately from the original video games.
Downfall tells about the events preceding the first part. Aftermath — throws a plot bridge between the original Dead Space and its sequel. The first film tells about the fight of the Ishimura crew with extraterrestrial creatures. The second cartoon consists of fragments of memories of people who survived the encounter with necromorphs. Both films carefully treat the original source, while using the entire rich legacy of space horrors of the last century.
After Rocksteady Studios announced that their version of Suicide Squad takes place in the Arkham universe, many gamers were surprised by this fact. They said, how is that possible: the comic book seriously differs in atmosphere from the story of the Dark Knight (as well as the film). There is a lot of fun, buffoonery, cheeky jokes — sometimes on the verge of foul play. The most surprising thing in this whole story is the following: Suicide Squad has long been firmly integrated into the Arkham universe.
This happened on the wave of the creation of the media universe, which Warner Bros. together with DC Comics began to build back in the early «100s». There were comics published there, revealing the backstory of Arkham City, and even full-fledged novelizations. One of these works, expanding the context of the English game, was the animated film Batman: Assault on Arkham. Despite the presence of the title hero in the title, this cartoon was dedicated to the Suicide Squad, and its composition partially repeats the one that appeared in the debut trailer Kill the Justice League. The plot of the cartoon appeared: Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot and King Shark. Amazing is close, isn't it?
According to the plot, the four antiheroes must attack the Arkham Asylum in order to knock some information out of the Riddler's hands. Then everything is as usual: action, humor, the right references. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that in terms of script, presentation, and atmosphere, the animated version of «Squad» is head and shoulders above its film sister. The answer is simple: Assault on Arkham was created by the Warner Bros. animation unit, which has long been churning out masterpiece after masterpiece, from the excellent Year One to Batman: Hush.
And finally, our selection is completed by a cartoon that you almost certainly did not expect to see here. No joke, in Russia there are still plenty of people who sincerely believe that the Pokemon games were created based on the anime series that was once shown on ORT. In fact, of course, no: both the anime series and a bunch of full-length films based on it were drawn for one purpose — to promote the brand in Western countries.
Mewtwo Strikes Back — Evolution is an extremely interesting example in this sense. The fact is that this animated feature is essentially a remake of the very first cartoon about pocket monsters. According to the plot, scientists create an artificial Pokemon named Mewtwo. They create it not just like that, but to use it as a superweapon. However, Mewtwo himself has a slightly different opinion on this matter: the Pokemon escapes and comes up with a plan for revenge on humanity. And then Ash, Brock, Misty and Pikachu intervene in the plot.
Unlike its predecessor, which was drawn in a classic technique, the remake boasts a fully three-dimensional picture. And this was not done anyhow — it is clear that the creators invested a lot of money in the development of the film. The result is a very solid full-length film. Of course, it suffers from a frankly childish plot, but at the same time it is watched in one breath. If you liked «Detective Pikachu», then you should definitely check out Strikes Back. Moreover, the cartoon is available in the Netflix library.
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At this point, we will probably put an end to it and pass the floor to you, dear readers. Which of the cartoons based on the games did you personally like? Write about it in the comments to the material.