A lot of very good films have been made into video games. Unfortunately, the great films didn’t receive a great video game adaptation. Whether the gameplay was poor or the storyline didn’t translate to the gaming world, these video games based on films didn’t work at all. While some video games based on films have been busts, there have been a number of great slots games inspired films like The Mask or Planet of the Apes.
The following games may have been inspired by blockbuster films, but they just didn’t play well when adapted to the small screen.
5. Total Recall (1990)
Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s short story “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale”, Total Recall was a futuristic blockbuster that wowed audiences. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and grossing over $261 million, Total Recall was a massive success. The 1990 video game based on the film, however, was not. Created for the NES, Schwarzenegger’s character was clad in grey on a grey background, making visibility difficult. The bad guys received a bit of colour, but still looked like lame henchmen wandering around in their tracksuits. Due to the limitations of technology, the game struggled and came off as generic.
4. Top Gun (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isWOzih7TEc
Thousands of Nintendo controllers must have been slammed and broken in anger due to Top Gun. The game was practically impossible to play as landing Maverick’s plane onto an aircraft carrier was far too difficult. In the game, players had to complete four missions to win. However, landing the plane successfully prevented many players from continuing on in the missions. The difficulty of the game made it much loathed by NES players of the late 1980s. The disappointment players felt from the gameplay was made even worse by the lack of music in the game.
3. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is one of the most remembered games for all the wrong reasons. The graphics were awful and the objective of falling into holes was pointless. E.T. was rushed through productions by Atari for the Christmas season in 1982. Sales were poor once it hit shelves and due to producing more copies that were needed, Atari buried much of its inventory in the New Mexico desert. In 2013, a group of gamers excavated the site and found nearly 750,000 video game cartridges Atari buried in the desert.
2. Surf Ninjas (1993)
Surf Ninjas the film starred Rob Schneider, Tone Loc, and Leslie Nielsen, and it featured surfers during kung fu. Released for Sega’s Game Gear, Surf Ninjas the video game had a very similar gameplay to Double Dragon. Sega made the Surf Ninjas game after the Game Gear was seen throughout the film thanks to product placement. The game was created and released before the film was actually finished, which resulted in different storylines and missions.
1. Jaws (1987)
Jaws was an early video game adaptation of a mega-blockbuster film. The game featured the main player as a scuba diver swimming back and forth in the ocean. Killing various fish and small sharks provide players with energy, bonus points, and a random submarine that appeared from nowhere. Eventually, players encounter jaws and had to kill the big, bad great white shark. Players had to launching depth charges from their boat to kill the evil shark.