In 1990, my brother and I watched 1989’s “The Wizard” about thirty times a day and loved the movie every single time we popped it in to the VCR. When I was seven, I dreamed of two things. I dreamed of entering a video game competition and playing Super Mario 3, and travelling around the country with the gorgeous Jenny Lewis. Mostly I wanted the second, but playing Super Mario 3 was also a great prospect. There’s no way to discuss “The Wizard” without seeing it through nostalgia tinted glasses, but while most people claim “The Wizard” is nothing but a ninety minute commercial for Nintendo, I wouldn’t so much call it a commercial so much as a mirror on the culture in the eighties. In the late eighties and most of the nineties, Nintendo simply dominated the world.
Tag Archives: video games
Top Ten Video Games Based on Movies
Hollywood keeps trying to tap the video game market to concoct the next hit movie or movie series for audiences, while movie based video games are all but extinct these days. For a while they were huge, while in the late eighties and the entire decade of the nineties were filled with video games based on movies. From “Dirty Harry,” and “Lethal Weapon,” to “Robocop,” “Robocop 2,” “Robocop 3,” “Robocop vs. Terminator,” The Entire “Terminator” series, the “Die Hard” trilogy, “No Escape,” “Congo,” “Stargate,” “Independence Day,” the list can go on. There was even “Street Fighter” the game based on the movie, which was based on a game. There are still games based on movies that I never knew existed.
In honor of the dying breed of good movie based video games, here are ten of our favorite video games based on movies. What are your favorite games based on movies?
Pac-Man: The Movie (2012)
It’s rare that fan films can present a premise for a simple concept that can be stretched in to a feature length film. It’s also rare that a fan film that can pay tribute to a beloved icon while also adding a creative twist to it that gives it a special flair that fans would love. “Pac-Man: The Movie” by James Farr changes the concept of Pac-Man while also adding a new flavor to it that works wonders. Pac-Man is, of course, the iconic video game from the eighties about a yellow disc eating pegs and avoiding various colored ghosts. What director Farr and Steelhouse Digital do is add a science fiction twist to it that’s not only incredibly entertaining but pretty damn brilliant.
Megaman X (2012)
My main weakness ever since I acquired the internet in 2000 is fan films. I can’t get enough of them, no matter how good or bad they are. The good thing about them is that if they’re good, they show us that some properties have potential to really shine as great movies. Director Olan Rogers proves that with his fantastic adaptation of “Megaman X.”
We are Cinema Crazed and We're Here to Talk about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Stuff! One! Two! Three! Four!
NOT SO LONG AGO IN THE MYSTERIOUS LAND OF NEW YORK, FELIX VASQUEZ JR. WROTE A SCOTT PILGRIM ARTICLE…
At this time I’m still trying to decide if I love or hate “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” for what it is. I am convinced years from now young kids will be declaring that Edgar Wright’s film is something of a cheer for their culture, a love letter to the nostalgia obsessed Canadian hipster society, but many will fail to realize or even admit that in reality this movie is a practical joke. Deep down while it looks like a celebration of our nostalgia obsessed technology based generation, Edgar Wright actually makes fun of people he purportedly appeals to with his 2010 action romance movie. While many have described it as a bright and colorful movie, it is actually the most cynical statement about our culture in years. Many won’t accept that or be willing to even admit it’s a possibility since Edgar Wright is a pop culture fanatic and has always hung around pop culture fanatics in his early years.
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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)
“Scott, if your life had a face, I’d punch it.” – Kim Pine
The stellar Edgar Wright has finally made it to the American shores by way of a cult series of graphic novels and in typical Wright-fashion, he’s not prone to just making any movie that would appeal to an audience of the PG-13 sector. “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is self aware. It’s so self-aware it’s aware that it’s self-aware and makes its audience aware of its self-awareness by reminding us of its self-awareness with an often self-aware sense of humor that very few will get. Leave it up to Wright to make a broad mainstream teen film that will only appeal to a cult audience as “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is basically about the modern generation. It’s pure unadulterated pop culture overload with ideals that are simplified and set to the tune of classic video games.