by Terrell Newbill

Created on: April 09, 2009

Video games based on movies have a bad reputation and it's easy to see why. Every movie that has any chance that it could be fun to play is half baked into a video game. This is done to make a quick buck and it floods the market with mediocre games that could have been so much better. This weakens both the movie and video game industry and is just not a good strategy.

Video games based on movies shouldn't just be the movie in video game form but a new story set in the universe of the movie. A good example of this is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The designers saw a rich, vibrant universe and created a game set in the history of this amazing reality. It was well designed, had great storytelling, and (above all) was fun. It showed just how exploring other parts of a movie world could make for a very interesting story. Its sequel was just as innovative and fun and was even more proof of how exploring a games universe could yield plentiful rewards.

But the story's foray into other parts of the Star Wars universe wasn't the only thing that made Knights of the Old Republic a success. It was also well made, something a lot of movie based games have trouble grasping. It's not the developer's fault but the movie studio's. They try to rush a game to meet the release date of the movie and as a result a mediocre product is produced. Movie studios need to give game designers time too create a superior product if they want it to sell well.

Designers are going to have to look into these universes for new stories they can tell. I'm sure universes like The Fast and the Furious, Friday the 13th,and The Bourne Conspiracy along with many others have entire facets that have yet to be explored and have tremendous storytelling potential.

I have to say even though it has been negatively received by a lot of critics, I think Wanted Weapons of Fateis a very strong step in the right direction. It's a competently built third person shooter that introduces a new aspect of game play rarely seen. That aspect is the ability to slow time and curve your bullets. This game does the bare minimum that a movie based game should. It is built competently, presents another aspect of the movie story, and has something to make its gameplay unique. On a scale of what is acceptable for a movie game, this is on the lower end of the spectrum while games like Knights of the Old Republic are on the higher end. But I would be perfectly content if every movie game released was as good as Wanted Weapons of Fate cause that would mean a large influx of slightly above average (as opposed to horrible) games in the market. And that's good for the movie studios, the developers, and most importantly, us.

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