Movies and games undoubtedly have a huge influence upon each other, with game developers frequently targeting fans of a film when they develop a spin-off game, and Hollywood returning the compliment. Examples of these crossovers include the likes of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Super Mario Bros. The two industries boost each others’ popularity, proving natural companions, with these being some of our favourite examples.
Friday the 13th: The Game
Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, spawning a string of sequels. The original movie was released in 1980 and was one of the first horror films to target a specifically teenage audience – making a spin-off game a natural next step. Released in 1989 for the Nintendo Console, this single-player survival horror was aimed at the same age group and proved to be a smash hit – leading to as many sequels as the film franchise.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
This is based on the massively successful Jurassic Park movie franchise and again – like the films themselves – primarily targets a teenage audience. It is an on-rail shooter arcade game where the player is cast as a park ranger required to protect his vehicle – and himself – from marauding dinosaurs. Featuring great graphics, it has proven another smash hit movie game.
Mad Max
After a thirty-year gap, George Miller revived his Mad Max movie franchise last year with the stunningly successful Fury Road. This subsequently led to the launch of a spin-off game involving Max trying to get revenge on raiders who stole from him, while also aiming to construct the Magnum Opus ultimate vehicle. The plot is different from that of Fury Road, but this Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Windows game has still matched its success.
X-Men: The Official Game
This 2006 game is the official spin-off from the hugely popular Marvel X-Men film series. This franchise helped define the intelligent comic-book movie and appealed to both younger and older fans – ensuring the game had a similarly widespread appeal. It features Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman performing voices and was a smash hit. Marvel has further capitalised on its movie world dominance with the successful Marvel Casino Slots series which can be found Jackpot City which has promotions from Casinoonline.co.nz.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1991’s Judgement Day is considered by most to be the high watermark of the Terminator movie franchise and thus the spin-off arcade game from the same year had a built-in audience. Fairly simple plot-wise, it just sees the player assume the role of a T-800 Terminator and fight models from the opposing side – but the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger made voice appearances, helping to increase its appeal.
These are all fine, successful games and we are likely to see ones based on characters like Deadpool in the coming months.
This post contains sponsored content. Opinions and other statements made in the article are not necessarily the views of Eggplante or its contributors.