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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Top 10 Best Movie/Video Game Combos--Part I: Dishonorable Mentions

I have been on a mission to find the greatest Movie and Video Game Combination of All-Time.

The criteria was simple:

1. The Movie and the Video Game Must Be Directly Related.

We can call this THE WIZARD rule.
When I asked for submissions, many people said THE WIZARD and "Super Mario Brothers 3".
Of course I would love to count THE WIZARD!
It is one of my seminal films and I truly love it.
I've seen it well over fifty times.
Lucas Barton was my hero and idol. 



However, THE WIZARD is NOT eligible for this title.
If they had made an NES game based on the film, where you travel the country side with you brother on a skateboard, no doubt it would have been included in the Top 10. 
Alas, we were deprived of a Jimmy Woods side-scroller.

Same thing for THE KING OF KONG and "Donkey Kong" are both great, but are not eligible.

2. The Movie and the Video Game Do Not Have To Be Identical.

Meaning, any game and film combination from the same franchise counts.
For example, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN as the movie and "Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets" as the game. 
The game does not have to be the exact iteration of the film.
It's a franchise wide combination.

3. Pinball Machines Don't Count

It's a whole different discussion.
There are tons of great pinball machines based on movies.
In fact, you name a big movie and it probably has a decent pinball machine.
So sadly, The Adams Family Pinball, which is truly great, was ineligible.

4. The Movie Must Have Gotten A Theatrical Release.


Click Below To See Which Combos Did Not Make THE TOP 10 in our Dishonorable Mentions




DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:

Great Game(s), Horrible Film

Super Mario Brothers 1,2, 3 and SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

Street Fighter II and STREET FIGHTER

Double Dragon II: The Revenge and DOUBLE DRAGON

Doom and DOOM

Alas, none of these classic games could overcome their horrible film counterparts.
Even if you rated all of these games as perfect (and I would), they are crippled by the awful scores of the movies.

SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, STREET FIGHTER, DOUBLE DRAGON and DOOM are different from most the combinations that made Top 10 because they are movies based on video games, not the reverse. You would think it would be easy to take a game franchise that sold millions of copies and has tons of fans and translate it to big screen success. It can be done, but not often. These films all failed on so many levels and unlike the games, none of them got sequels.
Just take a peek at this ultra 90s trailer and relive the horror:




Great Movie(s), Horrible Game(s)

I could name hundreds of horrible games based on great movies.
It seems that this is the most common combination.
When you have a blockbuster movie, you stamp the image on anything that can be sold in stores.
Video games are perfect fit because you can basically reenact the film, right?
Wrong!
All too often the games are rushed out there and no real thought is ever put into them.
One of the most famous cases is E.T. for the Atari 2600.
It was so bad, that Atari reportedly buried thousand of copies of the unsold game.

One of my favorite series of youtube videos is The Angry Video Game Nerd.
He rips apart awful video games and points out just how poorly they are constructed.
Deftly, he has hit on all the major entries in the great movie, horrible game category.
So if you want to see just how bad the games are, watch these video.

(Warning: the videos contain very salty language)

E.T. 



JAWS and JURASSIC PARK




BACK TO THE FUTURE



INDIANA JONES




There are many more games that fit this category, but it would take years to list them all.
None of these combinations were able to make the Top 10.
In order to be on the list, you had to get everything right, twice.




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