It’s not a shocker, almost every video game based off of a movie is developed poorly. Most movie games leave us unsatisfied, distressed, and regretful that we picked up the game to begin with. I started to raise some questions as to why this could be, when a friend of mine brought over SAW: The Video Game, the newly released game based on the hit horror film series. The game started off surprisingly well and gave all of us that were watching him play high hopes for the game. What started off to be intriguing soon became the same sloppy movie game we have seen over and over again.
The trend of bad movie games is not something new, but If you were to ask me 10 years ago why I believed movie games were disappointing I would have responded with “technology.” Video games were not as up to par as cinematic film back then. It could have been difficult to take a movie filmed with real actors and transition it well to a home gaming platform. Of course, even with the power of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, technology does not seem to be the case.
One of the major problems of making a successful movie game is stretching out a 2 hour movie to be a 6 hour or more video game. There are a lot of things that will be in the video game that developers have to throw in to fill in the gaps between. For example, Spider-Man for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Gamecube had the player fighting against villains such as Shocker, despite him not being in the actual movie. Things like this can cause continuity issues, and can distress the gamer from enjoying the game. It’s just one of the reasons movie based games are extremely difficult to create.
Another major problem might be the deadline or budget for the game. Games based on movies are usually rushed projects that are due out around the time the movie is released. This does not allow developers enough time with the game to actually put a solid amount of effort into it. Movie games are generally not made to be great, but rather to be profited off of fans coming out of the movie theater hyped and looking for more. Although there have been exceptions, such as the Batman Begins game which did pretty well for a movie game. Generally, though, movie games are rushed and usually contain the same amount of content in it causing extreme repetition. In the case of SAW: The Video Game, it comes in the mini puzzles the player is confronted with every so often. There are about four different puzzles, and they never change, they only get harder as the game goes on.
Will movie based games ever actually be up to par with the games of today? Probably not. There are too many problems that effect the development and outcome of movie based games that, in my opinion, will doom them forever. What do you guys think? Will we ever see a rise of better movie based games? Let us know down below.