How video game adaptations can work as TV shows

Video game movies have a history of flopping. Lately, there’s been a rush to make video game TV shows. Will they fare better?

We’re witnessing a boom in TV adaptations of video games. HBO is moving ahead with a show based on Naughty Dog’s action-adventure game The Last of Us, Showtime is readying a series based on Halo, Amazon Prime Video has a Fallout show on the way, Netflix is adapting Resident Evil, and more. Given the always-growing popularity of video games and the need for these streaming services to have content with built-in audiences, It’s surprising this kind of thing hasn’t happened sooner. We’re excited, but it does beg the question: If video game adaptations didn’t work for film, will it be different for the silver screen?

Writers and directors have done their best in the past to adapt beloved video games for the big screen, but it’s often ended in disaster (Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, House of the Dead) or mediocrity (Doom, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Tomb Raider), with a few films fighting their way through and finding a fan base (the original Mortal Kombat movie, the Resident Evil series). Still, after so much crap over the years, gamers are often skeptical about newly announced game adaptations.

Admittedly, things do seem to be improving, with Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu earning praise and admiration from the fans and critics. Even though Netflix’s The Witcher is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s original novels, there is no denying the show benefits from CD Projekt Red’s game adaptations.

These three could set the standard for video game adaptations to come, with The Witcher in particular being a bit of a trailblazer, since so many studios are shifting their focus to long-form streaming projects right now. Television offers an exciting new opportunity for live-action video game adaptations. TV shows aren’t restricted to the two-to-three-hour run times. If viewers stick around for several years, they’ll grow attached to the show’s characters and story.

And there are a lot of games with rich stories ripe for adaptation. Halo’s story would greatly benefit from a season-to-season format that allowed the showrunners to explore the games’ elaborate world, factions and characters. Resident Evil isn’t any different with its complex conflict involving the sinister Umbrella corporation and the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (trust me, it’s a long story). Exploring the intricacies of these stories across multiple seasons may be the only way to do them justice.

A television structure would also give characters time to grow and develop at a leisurely pace. How many times have you watched a movie where the character’s development was rushed or felt forced? But on TV, characters like Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us can can the time they need to grow into interesting characters.

One last thing: showrunners and filmmakers should be careful about what games they adapt. Grounded, cinematic games Like The Last of Us or Uncharted already feel like movies, the only difference being that you can play them. So, adapting these shouldn’t be difficult. Other games, most notably role-playing games like Fallout, present bigger problems. That game’s selling point is exploring the post-apocalyptic wasteland and altering the story’s outcome with your actions. A TV show set in this universe just doesn’t sit right with me. But a decent script and a team who is passionate about the games could very well change my mind. That’s how we ended up with last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog.

Video games, much like television shows, are a form of long-form storytelling. With talented people passionate about the source material on the job, we could be entering a golden age of video game adaptations.

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