There was a point in time when movie video games, video games based on films, were pretty common. Years ago we had games like the “Disney’s The Lion King”, “Disney’s Aladdin” and “Toy Story” that used the movie to make a video game adaptation and expand on the movie’s story. As years went on, video games took longer to develop and they would be forced to be made in the same production window as the movie. This time constraint meant that the games would not always be great, while others are amazing.
Spiderman 2 is often listed as one of the best movie video games of all time. Some even list it as one of the best video games period, movie tie in or not. It was the first game that had an open world New York to swing around in. You had a combination of original elements as well as the movie plot tied in nicely together. Die hard fans of Spiderman and video game players in general loved it.
The “Superman Returns” video game had an interesting take on the movie, but even though it shared a name with the movie, it had very little to do with the movie. The game had you fighting robots and saving the city from tornadoes. Probably the most interesting aspect of that game was that you couldn’t actually die, instead Metropolis had a health bar and you had to ensure that the city didn’t take too much damage.
Some games go a different route when trying to make movie franchise games work. In “Enter the Matrix” it takes place during Matrix Reloaded and expands on the story using other characters and ships, while not changing the movie’s story at all. The game was produced alongside “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions” and features original footage written and directed by the Wachowskis. “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” did the same thing with James Cameron’s universe, though created separately, the game world and the movie world are one in the same. Tron Evolution was used as a prequel to Tron Legacy, using it to fill in some backstory and bridge the gap between movies.
Tron Evolution filled in backstory and events that happen between Tron and Tron Legacy
Games like “DC League of Super-pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace” and “Mad Max” tie into the movie’s franchise, but are not directly connected at all. These games may never be officially canon and the events may never be referenced in the movies and they don’t need to be. Not everything needs a giant universe that ties together all sorts of different media. It works for the MCU, it works for King Kong and Godzilla, but some things can just be standalone.
Speaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is another type of movie game that is often not considered to be movie games. They are Lego games. Warner Bros has made Lego games out of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and more. Star Wars had multiple games, there were prequel games, sequel games, a game with the whole saga. With Lego characters you could play from the Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi to Rise of Skywalker. The Lego Marvel Avengers games took sound clips from Iron Man to the Avengers movies and tied it all in together. The Lego games are now branching out to make games based on video games with Horizon Zero Dawn.
Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga is a Lego game where you play through all the Star Wars movies
Personally, I find movie games to be a lot of fun. I love when franchises continue on and with these games I can keep playing even if a series is done. A few weeks ago I played Robocop Rogue City and absolutely loved it. I even went back and rewatched the movies after (I couldn’t get through Prime Directives though) and saw details that the game had that I didn’t even remember from the movies. I think movie games can be a great way to experience a movie again for the first time. There’s just something great about playing Lego Return of the Jedi for the first time, no matter how many times you saw the movies.
