Video games that are based on blockbuster films should be awesome. After all you get to be in control, you get the chance to re-enact the actions of your hero. You are the hero! The sad truth is though, most movie tie-ins suck! Very often it feels like the game was rushed out with very little thought and care going into the finished article. One of the earliest examples of this is the awful ET game that was released for the Atari 2600 console back in 1982. The game was so bad that Atari actually dumped a large number of the cartridges into a large landfill in New Mexico. Finding a top-notch game based on a movie is pretty tricky but I’ve racked my brain, dusted off a few old cartridges and took a jog down memory lane to bring you my 3 favourite old school games based on films.
Spider-Man 2
Who has never wished they were Spiderman? Saturday mornings used to be all about your ‘Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man’. When the first Spiderman game was released it was terrible! It suffered from poor controls, camera angles that defied logic and bad voice acting from Tobey Maguire. So, when the second instalment was released, I like many others, had very low expectations, but wow!
Spiderman 2 was great. It was one of the first truly open games and the thrill of web-slinging from one building to the next was simply awesome. Its non-linear storyline allowed you to explore a huge cityscape and as an added bonus you got to beat up bad guys.
Tron
The arcade version of Tron is based on the 1982 science fiction movie starring Jeff Bridges. In the film Kevin Flynn, who is played by Bridges, is transported into a digital world and becomes a freedom fighter. The film was one of the first feature films to really embrace new digital technology.
The video game is not one game but rather a collection of four mini-games. In the I/O tower game you fight against spiders to get to the core. The MCP cone saw you shooting your way through deadly coloured blocks. Battle tanks saw you competing in a shoot-out with other tanks and the infamous Light Cycles game was like ‘snake on steroids’. Each game individually wasn’t anything special but combined it created an immersive experience.
Goldeneye
To me, Goldeneye was the turning point in video games. It looked simply stunning. When this game was released for the Nintendo 64, it just blew me away. The game had everything, beautiful graphics, top notch sound and its arrival heralded a new generation of first person shooters.
Perhaps the best feature of this game was multiplayer. Inviting friends round, hiding behind a wall and then unloading your Walther PPK into the back of your mates head never gets old. A true classic that paved the way for future blockbusters such as Call of Duty and the Battlefield series of games.