Why Movie Games Suck Less Now

Just a quick note, I wrote this about a month ago for something else. It wasn't used so I figured I'd post it here. I only mention this in case any of you are paying close enough attention to notice the games I mention in my GameFly queue have already cycled through my currently played list.

I pulled up my GameFly queue the other day and noticed something rather strange. The game I currently had out was the movie tie-in game Wanted: Weapons of Fate. The next two games on my queue were the new Riddick game, Assault on Dark Athena, and the Wolverine tie-in I heard good things about. Anyone who has played video games for any length of time knows that games based on movies are horrid and movies based on games might even be worse. So why are my next three rentals movie tie-ins? When did they start becoming worth our time?

Fundamentally it makes sense that neither movie nor game can make the transition to the other well. Games generally have pretty bare bones stories, if you take out all the gameplay, you aren’t left with a lot to work with. Action scenes can only make up so much before a movie gets ridiculous. Games based on movies suffer from the opposite problem in that they can’t find enough material to create a complete game. The developers resort to making up anything they can in order to give their protagonist another reason to run through yet another soulless warehouse killing hundreds of goons. There biggest problem however is they are rarely given sufficient time to be made. Release dates are generally tied to the movie, but development starts later and can be affected by unplanned changes in the movie. This has been a problem for ages with one of the most famous cases dating as far back as 1982 when Atari pumped out E.T. in six weeks and expected to cash in on name recognition alone.

Clearly, good or bad, these games are selling otherwise every movie under the sun wouldn’t have a licensed game attached to it, but why do they have to suck? No one wants to work on a game that they know is crap and a good game that sells to the hardcore could generate a whole lot more revenue.

Well it seems like some people are finally starting to take the hint. Last generation there were at least a few tie-ins I can remember that were worth playing. One was Spiderman 2, which used the popularity of GTA’s sandbox style, while nailing the web swing mechanics as an incredibly fun mode of transportation and combat.

Another two dealt with several of the traditional movie-game problems head on and fully benefitted from the effort. First, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was developed in correlation with Vin Diesel and the movies writers. From the beginning it was clear they cared about the direction the game went, maybe even more so than the movie. ;) The game was made as a prequel to the entire series, so the developers were not bound by the movies plot. Most important of all however was the game had over 18 months in development. It astonished its audience upon release who were rightfully jaded, but pleasantly surprised and was just recently updated and re-released as a bonus with Assault on Dark Athena that I mentioned in my queue up there.

The other game, Enter the Matrix was written as a side story to Matrix Reloaded by the creators of the series. The Wachowski brothers had the story laid out ahead of time and even had all the cut scenes filmed in live action on the set of Matrix Reloaded. Sadly Enter the Matrix was still plagued with the problems of being rushed to coincide with the movie release, but it was a step in the right direction.

Fast forward to this gen, more specifically this year, and there seems to be a slew of half decent tie-ins. Games like the ones in my queue, among others, are all getting fairly positive reviews. Most of them seem to be fixing their content inspiration problems by making their games shorter. This isn’t exactly the most elegant solution, but like I’ve said before, I’d rather have quality over quantity. Hell, too much quality even starts to get tedious after the 30 hour mark. (I’m looking at you GTA4.) Another thing tie-ins seem to be successfully employing more and more is capturing the feel of the movies they represent. That has always been the goal and now it’s becoming a reality. Afro Samurai for instance, while taking some liberties with the story, still feature several parts of the movie shot for shot. Bosses have several the same moves, set pieces are the same, and it really feels like playing the movie.

Probably the most significant change to happen recently however is just an increased interest in games. With the advent of the Wii, gaming is reaching millions of new people and new exploitations of the powerful HD consoles are allowing games to tell stories in ways like never before. People are taking notice including several big movie producers and directors like Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. Many have expressed interest in or have already made games. With such support backing the narrative potential of games coming from Hollywood, wouldn’t the first logical step be to improve the games already closely associated with movies? With the interest there, developers are now being given the proper time and resources to make quality tie-ins. They’ve always had the talent, it’s nice to see them finally able to put it to good use.