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| source// Atari |
Video game tie-ins with movies are nothing new, though it feels like there have been less of them lately. This is a good thing, because on the whole they tend to be a bit, well, crap. That’s usually a result of a rushed development period, where the game has to be built from the ground up to hit a certain release date, and it’ll get kicked out of the house on that date regardless of quality.
There have been some notable exceptions of course, like GoldenEye, Aladdin or Spider-Man 2, but as a rule it’s wise to avoid them. One of the rarer genres of video game tie-ins are the games that directly follow on from the movies story, taking the characters into new adventures.
They avoid doing this because if a movie sequel ends up happening – and they usually do – then the game’s plot will just get wiped from continuity; just look at the case of poor Tron 2.0.
In even rarer cases however, these follow-up games end up being the only direct continuation the movie gets. This can happen for any number of reasons, like a series dying at the box-office or being rebooted, leaving it up to the video game to provide one last hurrah for the series.
8. Scarface: The World Is Yours
AKA: Scarface II
Tony Montana is conclusively dead by the end of Scarface, with the whole being shot hundred times thing. That put a crimp on any sequel being made, but crafty game developers weren’t going to let that detail stand in their way.
So the video game sequel Scarface: The World Is Yours retcons the hell out of the original ending, and instead features Tony shooting his way out of the mansion at the start of the game and then trying to rebuilt his fallen empire. What follows is a decent GTA clone, following Tony as he shoots, drives and generally destroys the world around him.
The game even got some of the original cast to return, though sadly Al Pacino wasn’t among them, who turned it down when he discovered he couldn’t do the voice anymore. The story does undermine the movie’s whole “crime doesn’t pay” message – by showing that crime totally pays – but it was an entertaining alternate universe continuation of the story.
7. From Dusk Till Dawn
AKA: From Dusk Till Dawn IV
From Dusk Till Dawn received a couple of straight to video sequels, which George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino – of course – had no involvement with. While Seth Gecko didn’t reappear in the movies, he did return for a video game, where he’s sentenced to death for the chaos in the first movie and left to rot in a tanker prison; then the vampires return to get revenge.
The game is a survival horror effort where the player guides Seth through the ship, and occasionally shoot some vamps with a vanilla variety of weapons. It’s fairly unremarkable stuff, and lacks the humour that made the movie work. Clooney is a no show, and his replacement voice actor fails to capture Seth’s badass spirit.
The game is a functional but badly dated shooter, but nobody outside of hardcore fans of the original will get much out of it; and even that’s questionable.
6. Wanted: Weapons Of Fate
AKA: Wanted II
While the studio spent years following the success of Wanted trying to mount a sequel, they kept coming up against the same insurmountable issue; Angelina Jolie’s character died in the original, and they really didn’t want to make it without her. While they tried to contrive a reason to explain away her bullet to the head, the other issue was Jolie didn’t want to come back.
A reboot is more likely at this stage, but if fans are eager to see where the story went next the tie-in game – Weapons Of Fate – is the only way to go. The story follows Wesley a few hours after the events of the film, where he fights another branch of The Fraternity and discovers some secrets of his past; there’s also flashback levels with his father Cross that set things in motion.
Weapons Of Fate is a perfectly serviceable – if forgettable – third person shooter, that also connects to the comic by having Wesley (not voiced by James McAvoy sadly) wear the Killer suit. There’s cover shooting, slo-mo action and bullet curving but outside of the name, there’s not much here to make it stand out.
5. The Punisher
AKA: The Punisher II
The 2004 take on The Punisher was a modest hit, and while Tom Jane himself made for a fine Frank Castle the movie itself was messy; it was a grim-faced revenge thriller one second, then a wacky neighbour subplot would intrude.
A direct sequel never happened and the next film – War Zone – rebooted the character. Fans of Jane’s take can console themselves with the gory 2005 game, where he returned to voice the character in a story that mixes together the movie and comics. Jigsaw is now the son of John Travolta’s villain, who was left hideously scarred following the end of the movie, and returns to seek revenge.
The game is a third person blaster, where Castle uses all manner of weapons to commit one man genocide, and uses the environment to torture enemies for information; he can also execute them with methods like feeding them to sharks. During the story he also occasionally teams up with characters like Nick Fury and Iron Man, and there are plenty of other easter eggs for the hardcore fan out there.
4. The Thing
AKA: The Thing II
John Carpenter’s The Thing met a frosty (I make no apologies for that pun) reception at the box office, which meant a sequel was pretty much out of the question. That might have been for the best, since it has one of the best ambiguous endings in cinema, and it’s hard to imagine a sequel living up to the original.
It still received one in the form of The Thing in 2002, a survival horror/action game where a gruff soldier investigates the aftermath of the movie. The story is fairly ropey, and sees the hero getting caught up in government conspiracies straight out of The X-Files; the Cigarette Smoking Man himself Willam Davis even voices the villain.
Still, the game is a faithful recreation of the original, and has a unique (for the time) fear/trust meter while you work with NPCs. There’s also some cool monsters and set-pieces, though it has annoying spikes in difficulty and other bugs. The game bravely resolves the ending of the film too; Childs froze to death in the snow, and MacReady appears at the end to help the player kill the final boss.
3. Stranglehold
AKA: Hard Boiled II
Hard Boiled was John Woo’s love letter to men leaping over objects in slow motion with a gun in each hand, and it was a beautiful letter. It cemented Woo’s rep as the king of action, and it’s only become more iconic with the passing of time. Woo’s exodus to Hollywood ruled out a direct sequel, but since gamers also love shooting things in slo-mo a marriage between his movies and games was predestined.
Hence Strangehold, a 2007 effort developed by Woo and featuring his favourite leading man Chow Yun-fat, reprising the role of Inspector Tequila. The flimsy plot has Tequila tracking down the daughter he never knew he had, while causing untold millions in property damage with a fully destructible environment.
The game did a great job of capturing Woo’s stylised action and set-pieces, and it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to him directing another Heroic Bloodshed movie. On a side note the game also spawned a sequel called Gun Runner, which would have teamed Tequila with Vin Diesel for a co-op shooter, but Midway’s bankruptcy killed that potential franchise before it even got started.
2. Ghostbusters: The Video Game
AKA: Ghostbusters III
The world is eagerly dreading the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot, which takes the beloved series in an exciting new direction by stripping it of the jokes and charm. A planed third instalment of the original series never came together, mostly because Bill Murray had less than zero interest in making it, and when Harold Ramis sadly passed away any hope of it happening was dashed.
That said, a third instalment technically did happen with Ghostbusters: The Video Game in 2009, when most of the cast – even Murray – reunited for a story set a couple of years after Ghostbusters II. The player takes control of a rookie while he fights alongside the original crew, and the plot connects directly to the original.
The game itself is gorgeous to look at, and is packed with more fanboy easter eggs than some kind of really large easter egg factory. The gameplay itself is a bit clunky; wrestling ghosts into the trap can be a needlessly drawn out ordeal, and the AI partners constantly need to be revived. The comedy is also stale compared to the movies, but as a final instalment of the original series fans owe it to themselves to give it a try.
1. Jaws: Unleashed
AKA: Jaws V
Jaws: The Revenge did a thorough job of killing the franchise, because a roaring shark that actively seeks revenge against a family is a step too for most right thinking audiences. Occasionally a sequel or remake is threatened, but thankfully nothing has come of it; yet.
In 2006 Jaws fans could content themselves with Jaw: Unleashed, where the player takes the role of Bruce himself in a game that can only be described as Grand Shark Auto. The story is set thirty years after the end of the original, with Amity making ties with an oil refinery that happens to attract a very hungry Great White; Chief Brody’s son sets out to stop his snacking.
Getting to play as the shark and creating all sorts of havoc is the unique selling point, and it can be a lot of fun chomping hapless swimmers and jumping on boats to destroy them. The game can be a bit repetitive and the boss fights – against whales and squids – are a bit silly. Not a great game overall but if the choice comes down to playing it, or watching Jaws 3, the winner is obvious.
Can you think of any other movies that received videogame only follow-ups? Share your favourites in the comments below.
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