Comments: 4 Comments (Go to Comments)
Categories: Commentary
Tags: battle royale, movies, rennaisance, texas chainsaw massacre, the crazies, yojimbo
Last week Silvercube decried “The Generic Game based on a Movie.” I agree. Typically games based on movies are soulless hack jobs, intellectual rail shooters, quickly, cheaply, and poorly rushed out to the shelves in order to hit target dates set by accountants, not programmers. However, here are five movies, which I think would be pretty good games.
Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)
In near-future Japan, the government selects a middle school class to compete in the Program, a last man standing death match on an island. Each student is randomly assigned a piece of equipment — some useful (a tracking device showing the other kids’ locations), some not (a pot lid) — and each student is wearing a metal collar. The metal collar is used to track the students and it also contains a detonator. The island has been divided into a grid and as the game progresses, more areas become explosively off-limits.
This game would work on a few different levels. You could treat it as a death match and just have at it, or you could team up with other players and attempt to hack the game – disable the collars, seize control of the government building, engineer an escape. It would be a unique multiplayer experience and would be a terrific tie-in to a growing franchise.
The Crazies (George A. Romero, 1973)
Something is turning the citizens of a small Pennsylvania town into murderous lunatics. The army has been called in to quarantine the area and is considering a scorched earth policy. Better to lose one town than see the infection spread. However a few townsfolk are unaffected and are on the run. Can they avoid the army and the crazies? And are all the members of their group really immune?
It’s a great premise, specifically since the possibility of infection injects paranoia into the mix. As a single-player game, I think structured gameplay would work over the open-world, free roaming model. I think of a few great opportunities where the player would have to decide whether to hide in a house (which could have infected people) or take to the streets where they’d be more visible.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
At least as far back as Jonathan Harker ringing Dracula’s doorbell, showing up at the wrong house has been a horror staple. Of course Chainsaw ups the ante, showing what happens when hippies meet cannibals in Texas. A game has been made, but it was on the Atari 2600 and it made the ridiculous decision to place the player in the role of Leatherface. Imagine being in the role of a dumb, stoned teen and suddenly chainsaw dude and his family are after you.
Instead of being “survival horror,” where you need to conserve rockets to fight mutant zombies, this game would through the player into a true horror experience. Don’t expect any green herbs here, Leatherface and family would pursue the player until sunrise. Bonus points for keeping your friends alive.
Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
A ronin comes to town and is greeting by a dog playing with a severed hand. This begins Yojimbo, part of the web which connects Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest, Sergio Leone’s A Fist Full of Dollars, and Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing. Finding the town is split between two warring factions, the ronin decides to play them against each other – which works for a while.
This would build on the trust system seen in Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The player would receive missions from each side and would have to decide to accept or decline – and then whether or not to complete them. Leaving it up to the player, the game could be Won by completely aligning with one side (two versions of the evil path), refusing to align with either and beating them both (the good path), or playing them against each other for as long as possible (the amoral path).
Renaissance (Christian Volckman, 2006)
In the future, Paris is home to Avalon, a corporation working on longevity. When their lead researcher is kidnapped, Office Karas is called on to the scene. From the towering corporate buildings to the seedy underbelly of the city, Karas is searching for answers and invisible assassins are out to stop him.
Renaissance has a distinctive look which begs to be explored in a game. The story is compelling and while the setting resembles Blade Runner, it has a cleaner, more believable look. Personally, I’d love to see the stark, black and white world rife with anti-corporate terrorists, hovercar chases, and gun fights against cloaked opponents brought to my 360.
What movies would you want to play?
On March 4th, 2008 at 4:23 pm, Chris wrote:
It sounds like The Crazies would make an excellent board game!
On March 5th, 2008 at 1:18 pm, anon wrote:
I’d like to play Memento. You begin the game with all items and all puzzles solved, but you can’t remember what the quest was or why you’re playing.
On March 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm, Terry wrote:
@Chris — by Aramis’ beard, that would be cool!
@anon — so when you won the last thing you’d see would be “press start”?
On March 7th, 2008 at 9:18 am, Silvercube wrote:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
Scary! lol
Very nice article.
Thanks for the mention. *blush* :)
lol the captcha words says migraine and some other word i can’t read. i’mgetting one trying to figure it out. lol ^_^