Summary
Video game adaptations are still a fairly new phenomenon in the grand scheme of things, with the majority of them dating back to the early 90s or later. However, what works for a video game may not necessarily translate to another medium. It is for this reason, and many others, that adaptations may not always be 100% accurate to the games that they are based off.
These less-accurate adaptations are largely live-action films, in part due to the limitations concerning runtime as well as what can be portrayed in live-action. Here are some adaptations that significantly change the narrative of the video game. Whether altering basic facts about a character’s backstory, or changing the entire premise of the series, some adaptations tend not to stick too closely to the script.
Director: Uwe Boll
Bloodrayne
In a story spanning five years, Rayne must stop a madman bent on using occult relics to bring about a new age of domination for the Third Reich.In the years between the World Wars, Agent BloodRayne works as a killing machine for The Brimstone Society – a top secret fraternity that hunts down and destroys supernatural threats. Two missions, five years apart, turn out to be connected by one man. For years, this man has been searching the world for powerful occult relics to bring about a new age of domination for the Third Reich. In this frenetic and bloody third-person shooter that unleashed the iconic red-headed femme fatale on the world, the dhampir Rayne faces horrific creatures, hordes of soldiers with an array of tools and firepower, and every Nazi officer that stands between her and the one she must stop.
German-born filmmaker Uwe Boll remains a controversial figure for gamers and film nerds alike.BloodRayneis one of many video games he has attempted to translate to film.The hack-and-slash seriesfollows a dhampir: a half-vampire, half-human, by the name of Rayne. With the aid of the Brimstone Society, Rayne takes on enemies including nazis, monsters, and her own father, Kagan, a powerful vampire.
Uwe Boll’s trilogy plays around with the timeline a lot, with the first film being set before the events of the original game. It documents Rayne (played by Kristanna Loken) fighting her father, Kagan (played by Ben Kingsley) and his forces, alongside movie-original members of the Brimstone Society (played by Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez, and Matthew Davis.) Other notable cast members include Meat Loafand Billy Zane.
The sequel,Deliverance, takes place in the wild west, and features Rayne (played instead by Natassia Malthe) fighting against a vampiric Billy the Kid (played by Zack Ward.) The final film,The Third Reich, takes place closer to the original game, finally featuring Rayne fighting against the nazis. All three films were received poorly. Despite this, Boll credited the films for increasing the game’s visibility.
Boll largely stepped away from video game adaptations after the release ofIn the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission(2014), a loose adaptation ofDungeon Siege. In a recent interview conducted for Fiction Horizon, Boll claimed he would have approached his video game adaptations differently in hindsight, claiming he would’ve focused more on the original stories, and attempted to work with developers to better communicate the original narratives to film.
Director: Various
Mortal Kombat (2011)
The newest chapter of the iconic fighting franchise is now available! Experience the deadliest tournament with all the kombatants and their unique fatalities. Players enter the realm to face the Kombatants in Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, delivering all of the downloadable content (DLC), including intrepid warriors Skarlet, Kenshi and Rain, as well as the notorious dream stalker Freddy Krueger. Additionally, the game offers 15 Klassic Mortal Kombat Skins and three Klassic Fatalities (Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile).
Mortal Kombatis a series with numerous adaptations. The first film based on it remains one of the highest scored film adaptations of a video game on Metacritic. This television show serves as a prequel of sorts to the initial events ofMortal Kombat.It focuses primarily on The Great Kung Lao (played Paolo Montalban), an ancestor tothe playable fighter of the same name.
The series focuses on Lao’s efforts to prepare for the next tournament, after receiving eternal youth as a champion of the previous one, andsparing his final opponent, Shang Tsung. The series, despite focusing on largely untapped space in the timeline, introduced versions of contemporary characters, albeit some in ways that could contradict the greater story. In fairness, certain lore was decided after the adaptation aired, making the various inaccuracies a bit more forgivable.
The main diverging point was the finale, originally intended as a cliffhanger.Shao Khan (played by Jeffrey Meek) summons his shadow priests to kill off a majority of the cast, including Kung Lao,as he proceeds to duel with Raiden (also played by Meek), earthrealm’s sworn protector. Other characters killed off in this massacre include Kitana, Shang Tsung, and Quan-Chi, all of whom appeared as playable characters in variousMortal Kombatgames, which would all take place after the show.
The ending was originally planned to be retconned in the second season, with Kung Lao instead meeting his end against the Shokan, Goro, like he did in the original timeline. However, TNT gutted the series before the second season could be made, ending it in a significantly different manner than the game’s timeline established.
6Rampage (2018)
Rampage World Tour
THEY CAN’T BE SIOPPED!A WILD SMASH ‘EM UP ROMP WITH UNIVERSAL APPEAL! SIMPLE ENOUGH FOR ANY PLAYER! PLENTY OF DEPTH AND CHALLENGE TO APPEAL TO SERIOUS GAMERS AS WELL!BRING A FRIEND OR TWO ON A NON-STOP RAMPAGE WHILE YOU INFLICT SOME MAJOR DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION!DEMOLISH BUILDINGS, SWAT DOWN AIRCRAFT, EAT PEOPLE AND RACK UP POINTS, WHILE DESTROYING ENTIRE CITIES!MORE THAN 130 STANDARD LEVELS, 14 BONUS LEVELS, 4 GRUDGE MATCH LEVELS AND MANY HIDDEN LEVELS!SPECIAL BONUSES AND SOME TASTY HUMANS GIVE LIZZY, GEORGE OR RALPH A MAJOR HEALTH BOOST!USE THE COOL SECRET MOVES TO FEND OFF THE BULLETS, FIRE AND EXPLOSIVES COMING FROM THE CITIZENS, ARMY AND POLICE FORCE!AWESOME HIDDEN SURPRISES…LIKE HOVERCRAFTS, CHEESEHEADS, A USED ELEPHANT LOT AND MORE!
TheRampageseries is fairly simple in premise.Humans are mutated into gigantic monsters and destroy everything in sight, all the while being mildly inconvenienced by the military, police, and anyone else crazy enough to stop them. The games primarily revolve around George, a gorilla; Lizzie, a reptile; and Ralph, a wolf. The series released six games between 1986 and 2006. Its first movie debuted 12 years later.
The adaptation modifies the premise, but also the point of view. The mutants in theRampagegames were all humans, whilst in the film they originate as animals. The film also focuses on a human cast in addition to the monsters, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the main character, an ex-soldier who trained George, now an albino western lowland Gorilla, prior to his mutation. Aspects of the mutations themselves are changed, with each of the three mutants looking far different than they did in the games.
Humans in theRampageare typically treated with little significance and not displayed in significant visual detail. This is meant to make their destruction at the hands of the mutants more palatable, keeping in line with a comedic tone the games try to maintain amidst the carnage.However, the film visually communicates a much darker tone, beyond even the hues chosen to color the scene, with the deaths onscreen treated as tragic rather than wacky with the humans much more visually defined.
Director: Gordon Chan
The King of Fighters XIII: Global Match
Relive the pinnacle of 2D sprite-based fighting! Enhanced for online play! Complete with rollback netcode and overhauled online functionality!KOF XIII, the final chapter in the Ash Saga—and one of the series’ most acclaimed entries—is back! This enhanced version comes with rollback netcode for exhilarating online play, as well as brand-new online lobbies that allow you to join/spectate matches with multiple players at once. Also features a packed roster of 36 playable characters, including NESTS Style Kyo, Classic Iori, and Mr. Karate! KOF’s greatest-ever 2D graphics come to life as you face off against players online and around the world!
King of Fightersis a very character-driven series. This is in part due to being a team fighter, where part of the fun is putting together a combination of playable characters from the default teams. Character dynamics and how they change across the various entries, add a dimension to the various storylines that is not as present in other fighting games.
However, when considering other changes this straight-to-video film made, the characters appear less affected by comparison.This adaptation makes the decision to hold the fights in an alternate dimension, which can be connected to via bluetooth technology.While the game itself occasionally involves alternate dimensions in certain fights, the majority of it takes place around the known world.
Other differences include making Terry Bogard (played by David Leitch) and Mai Shiranui (played by Maggie Q) CIA agents, as well as making Mai (a character largely defined by her affection for Andy Bogard in the games) a love interest to Iori Yagami (played by Will Yun Lee.) Certain other characters, with some level of story importance, are omitted altogether or changed significantly (it is worth noting Terry and Mai arguably have little-to-no relevance to the central KOF lore.) Sean Faris, a Caucasian actor, was also criticized for portraying Kyo Kusanagi, a Japanese character.
Various elements of the initial series are there, with Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru teaming up, and Rugal Bernstein being a major antagonist.Ultimately, the scripting was criticized by some for being too mired in the complex story rather than focusing on the fight scenes.
Director: Jeff Fowler
Sonic the Hedgehog
It’s Super SonicSuper Speed!Bust the video game speed barrier wide open with Sonic The Hedgehog. Blaze by in a blur using the super sonic spin attack. Loop the loop by defying gravity. Plummet down tunnels. Then dash to safety with Sonic’s power sneakers. All at a frenzied pace.Super Graphics!Help Sonic escape bubbling molten lava. Swim through turbulent waterfalls. Scale glistening green mountains. And soar past shimmering city lights. There’s even a 360 [degree] rotating maze. You’ve never seen anything like it!
Super Attitude!Sonic has an attitude that just won’t quit. He’s flip and funny, yet tough as nails as he fights to free his friends from evil. So just wait. Sonic may be the world’s next SUPER hero…
Sonic the Hedgehog,in addition to being a video game character, has had multiple incarnations, including television and comics. These tend to differ widely in terms of story lines and prevalent characters.This makes the significant alterations to the film a much less controversial choice than it may have been otherwise, as it simply now exists as one of many takes on the character.
The film presents a largely new take on the character, with Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), now an immigrant to earth, being adopted by a human family, and taking on Dr. Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey), now in employment of the US Government. Despite some initial backlash to the original design of Sonic revealed in the trailer, the film was a commercial success upon release.It exists as a rare Sonic adaptation where humans outnumber the animals as principal characters, and makes direct contemporary pop-culture references to communicate the fact that this film takes place on planet Earth.
The sequel, also directed by Fowler, was similarly successful, with a third film currently in production, and a spin-off series revolving around Knuckles the Echidna currently streaming on Paramount+,albeit with a far less warm reception.
Director: Dwight Little
Tekken 3
An ancient evil force has reawakened, attacking in secret and feeding on the souls of mighty warriors. To lure it out of hiding will take the greatest fighting contest the world has ever seen… Tekken 3! Some are fighting for revenge, some for honor. Ultimately, all are fighting for their lives and the fate of all mankind.
Tekkenis a fairly grim series as far as fighting games go.It focuses on a cruel, corporate, and corrupt family, thematically revolving around a cycle of generational trauma and often the tragedy resulting from it.This tends to wrap around the devil gene, a hereditary abnormality known to be gifted to the Hachijo clan of assassins. Kazumi Mishima (née Hachijo) passed it onto her son, Kazuya, who in turn gave it to his son, Jin Kazama. Kazuya’s father, Heihachi, threw him off of a cliff in part to test if he possessed the devil gene, kicking the events of the series into gear.
Eventually, Jin and Heihachi find a common enemy in Kazuya (played by Ian Anthony Dale), their respective father and son, who secretly plots against Heihachi. After defeating Kazuya, Jin becomes CEO of the Tekken Corporation and returns home. A prequel, misleadingly namedKazuya’s Revenge,was later released in 2014.
Despite being praised by some for emulating aspects of the games,Tekkendirector Katsuhiro Harada, spoke quite negatively about it, calling it “terrible” and claiming the film’s contract prevented them from supervising it. After the initial film, more acclaimed adaptations, likeTekken Blood Vengeance(2011) andTekken: Bloodline(2022) released.
Director: Rocky Morton & Annabel Jankel
Super Mario Bros.
Do you have what it takes to save the Mushroom Princess?You’ll have to think fast and move even faster to complete this quest! The Mushroom Princess is being held captive by the evil Koopa tribe of turtles. It’s up to you to rescue her from the clutches of the Koopa King before time runs out. But it won’t be easy. To get to the Princess, you’ll have to climb mountains, cross seas, avoid bottomless pits, fight off turtle soldiers and a host of black magic traps that only Bowser, the Koopa King, can devise. It’s another non-stop adventure as the Mario Bros. become “Super”!
The first feature-length live action movie based on a video game remains infamous even now.Some praise it for its unique visual style, effects, and entertaining performances. Others criticize it for the writing and lack of faithfulness to the game. The film starred Bob Hoskins as Mario and a young John Leguizamo as his brother, Luigi. Like the game, the pair are Italian plumber brothers from New York, who end up traveling into a fantastical land.
However, the film adds bizarre dimensions to this plotline,turning the land into a dimension of dinosaurswith characters such as Daisy (played by Samantha Mathis) and Koopa (essentially Bowser, played by Dennis Hopper) descended from them. The film’s use of sci-fi and dystopian elements is a significant contrast from the more typically fantasy-themed scenario of the games.
Ultimately, despite the film’s poor reception upon launch, it has been lauded as a cult classic in recent years. In 2023, roughly 30 years after the original film’s release, a subsequent animated take on theSuper Marioseries was released. This adaptation was closer in tone to the games, loved by audiences, and commercially successful.
Director: Steven E. de Souza
Street Fighter 2
Eight fighters from around the world compete to get the chance to take on the evil dictator M. Bison. Choose a character and engage your opponents in one-on-one close-quarter street combat in a series of best-two-out-of-three matches.
Street Fighterhas had multiple adaptations, including an animated movie also released in 1994. Yet this one is particularly notable, in how it sticks out as being so different from its narrative.This film swaps the game’s premise of one-on-one combat for an all-out war,in which the greaterStreet Fighter 2cast (Fei Long and Akuma exempt) are involved. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays the role of Guile, leading his forces against M. Bison (the final role of Raúl Juliá) and his evil organization, Shadaloo.
Dhalsim, in the games a heroic yogi, is turned into a scientist who is an unwilling pawn of Bison, forced to corrupt Guile’s friend Charlie into a violent mutant (this film’s version of Blanka.) Balrog and Dee Jay both make appearances, but with significant changes in character, as the dirty boxer we know in the games is aligned with the heroes, and the happy-go-lucky Jamaican kickboxer is one of the villains.Ryu and Ken, in addition to being martial artists, are also con artists, who scam Shadaloo before joining up with the other heroes. These are just a few of the many changes that resulted in this film being so far removed from its source material.
Nonetheless, the film was a commercial success and even received a video game adaptation (despite already being based on a video game.)Unfortunately, the subsequent live actionStreet Fighterfilm,The Legend of Chun-Li(2009) was a commercial flop, making back roughly a third of its budget.Assassin’s Fist(2014), a live-action web series rather than a movie, remains the most acclaimed live-action adaptation of the property to date. Legendary Entertainment is currently planning another live-action film, having acquired the movie rights to multiple Street Fighter games.
