Video game adaptations have become the modern book adaptations: it’s something every studio wants to do, but it hardly ever works. From Arcane to A Minecraft Movie, the realm of adaptations is filled with questionable quality and seemingly random financial success. These games come with a huge pre-sold audience, so why doesn’t that guarantee a hit film?
Half of the Answer
A few years ago, popular YouTuber, Ted Nivison, took a look at this phenomenon. He suggested that a lot of these movies are actually pretty good films, but were not necessarily good adaptations. A pre-sold audience only matters if the studio can deliver on what the audience has already bought into.
However, this still leaves one important question unanswered: Why is it so hard to adapt video games and live up to audience expectations?
The answer is simple. Video games and movies are different media forms. Although they may both tell stories, that’s about where the similarities end. Just like with books, the differences can completely make or break the audience’s experience.
What’s the Difference?
The biggest difference between video games and films is that films aren’t interactive. Whatever is written and filmed is what you get. There is no changing the story. The audience experience is relatively passive. The audience does not get to play a part in the events unfolding, so for any video game adaptation to live up to the original, it must be based on a game with an engaging story.
The Last of Us Season 2
The Last of Us is a great example of a game with a story that lends itself to adaptation. Even if the audience is no longer able to be in the scene with the zombies as a player, they can just as easily get invested in seeing the characters go through the events. It doesn’t feel like it is lacking a story or having to make one up.
While there were some changes from the game, The Last of Us stayed pretty true to the original. Audiences largely felt like they got exactly what was promised to them, but that was contingent on the studio choosing to adapt a game that had a solid story in the first place.
The Witcher Season 1
In the case of The Witcher series, the video games were already adaptations themselves. While books, games, and movies can’t necessarily be changed out for each other, it did help the creators that they had both a more traditional version of the story and a visual medium to pull from. When they stayed true to the story, fans embraced the adaptation. This pattern has largely held true for all video game adaptations.
The Make or Break
Of course, The Last of Us and The Witcher were made into shows and not films. In this case, the original game had enough of a story that a film wouldn’t cut it. This says something about the importance of choosing how to adapt a game.
For the Super Mario franchise, the game has been adapted for the big screen more than once. The live action movie, Super Mario Bros., did not do well with fans. Given the appearance of Bowser alone, it’s not hard to see why.
Super Mario Bros. live action Bowser
It’s gathering a following now with modern audiences who love to appreciate bad movies. Even still, it’s not loved for being a good adaptation.
Aside from deviating from the story, the live action film lacked the visual charm that is synonymous with the Nintendo game. While it is hard to say if the story changes influenced the visual changes or vice versa, it isn’t hard to imagine that the cartoon design of warp pipes and talking mushrooms would not have translated well, especially given the technology at the time.
Sonic before his makeover
This is a major reason why the animated title performed much better. By sticking to animation, the film was able to essentially look just like the game. There was no worry about an Ugly Toad, and the story was able to pull much more influence from the games. It captured the feeling of excitement and wonder that comes from playing the games. That is exactly what the audience needs to feel like the movie and game are from the same world.
Some Games Shouldn’t Be Adapted
While some games just require the right choices to make for good adaptations, not every game should be adapted at all. The worlds of Borderlands and Fortnite are fun to play around in, but they aren’t always fun to watch in of themselves. Once the interactive element is taken out of it and nothing is spontaneous or unscripted, they just become…boring.
That is when the writers are forced to deviate from the story to make it fit the structure of a film, bringing the conversation full circle. If adapting a game means having to change it beyond fan recognition, then it was probably never a good idea to adapt it in the first place.
