Tony Stark needs to escape from the captivity of terrorists because his captors want him to assemble a missile for them but instead he creates an armored suit and a means to prevent his death from the shrapnel left in his chest by the attack. He comes out of the prison and finds that he is surrounded by many more terrorists. Terrorists keep shooting at him and once they have stopped shooting, Tony says “Now it’s my turn!”and KABOOM!!! Lots of explosions, fire blowing, and jaw dropping actions scenes. I was glued to the screen while watching the comic-turned-movie Iron Man. I was truly overwhelmed by the visual effects in this double Academy Award nominated film. While I was walking out of the theatre, I honestly wished this movie would be made into a video game in PlayStation2. One of my friends told me that Sega made a game based on the film Iron Man. Iron Man is made into a game for PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 and Wii.
I was delighted to check out the game trailer of Iron Man and finally bought the game. I was taken aback by the game play. Though the game is based on the story from the movie, I was disappointed with poor and confusing action-cuts.
C’mon! Is this some kind of a lame and insipid practical joke or just another business trend? I didn’t want to be judgmental so I decided to play another game from my hot favorite film ‘Underworld: Rise of Lycans’. This is an action game where you play as Vampire or Werewolf battling through the streets with your fellow clan warriors. The game was addictive because all I had to do is aim and shoot.
Likewise, I checked out a glut of movie-turned-games like Transformers 1 &2, Spiderman, Kung-fu Panda, Terminator, Matrix: Path of Neo, etc. Some of them are very enthralling as I knew the story and I was just amused of how the story manifests in the game. Undeniably there is a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment because I wanted to watch the cut-scenes after beating each level and contrast them with the movies. But others are very disappointing because of the same reason that I knew the story. However, I certainly sensed a compensation of this disappointment with immersive game play. I wondered what parameters make a successful movie-turned-game.
As movies and video games are major entertaining channels, if a movie grosses well at the box-office, some gaming companies want to uphold and extend the excitement by making a game out of it and Hollywood is not an exception. This is subjected to the fact that the game must contain proper game play, good visuals and most of all, a gripping storyline based on the movie. Action-adventure movie-turned-games like Transformers and Matrix convince the player to ignore sleep and hunger to check out the 3D world of the film thanks to the media for the hype. The movie counterparts of these games made huge profits worldwide: Transformers grossing $706,471,251 worldwide and Matrix grossing $374,983,253 worldwide. Being the protagonist of the movie in the game and unraveling mysteries, shooting villains, and solving puzzles depicted in movies is a completely unique and enthralling experience. Such games often share the same background music, voiceovers, puzzles and traps, 3D ambience, and storyline as that of the movie. This helps in reliving the movie experience for an extended period of time.
On the other hand, even gamers want to have gaming experience of blockbusters like Terminator. Usually, such games will be launched within a year of release of the movie. Gaming companies prefer to release movie-turned-games in multiple platforms like PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, and Wii to have high sales figures. Terminator 3: Rise of Machines, though didn’t have any new elements than its predecessors, did pretty well at the box office. Atari was probably in a hurry to finish the game and release it with the DVD release of the film in Christmas 2003. Though the game has intriguing cut-scenes and impressionable action sequences, it failed because of multitude of badly designed levels and uninspiring game play.
But what about movies based on games?
I played Hitman on PS2 a year ago. It was highly enjoyable for its elegant atmosphere, slowly rising tension and increasingly compelling environments that permitted ever complex strategy of seeking and killing the underworld mafia. I literally sensed a kind of urgency to finish the game as each level is very challenging and immersive. After I switched off the console, for a while my house looked like an underworld basement shown in the game. Then I watched Hitman movie and was quite disappointed. The film was not only a humdrum but also failed to instill that suspense in the game. My experience might have been different if I wouldn’t have played the game in the first place (but thank god, I did!). Again, the movie of Super Mario Brothers was a disaster. On the contrary, movies like Mortal Kombat, which is based on an award winning game, grossed very high at the box office. Similarly, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time grossed over $90 million in United States.
Surely a unique gaming experience can be made from a movie but developers must be conscious about game play, level design, and game flow. High level graphics in cut-scenes and effective simulation of game characters from the movie doesn’t necessarily ensure a game’s success. However, when we talk about success of the game, we need to be more specific. For instance, Mummy game did well on PC but floundered on PS2. Success in games is often platform-dependent.
Tomb Raider game sales
In Indian context, the scenario is unpredictable as Gaming is still in its nascent stage and the number of gamers in India is also increasing gradually. As things stand, the movie Gajini was made into a PC game by FX Labs. Though the movie was a box office success, the game couldn’t do well (though it didn’t disappoint the fans).
Apparently, Hollywood as well as gaming giants must not get carried away by the success of any game or movie. Gaming experience and movie experience are quite different. The factors that contributed to a game’s success might not work for the success of a commercial film. Recreating a gaming experience from a movie or vice versa needs to be done in a way that balances undeniable ‘wow’ factor and fame.
Thanks for reading...
Written by Anirudh
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