by Wayne Reeves

Created on: April 06, 2010

Game designers are now producing interactive games bordering on movie-quality production values with a budget to match.  The ‘GTA: IV’ game reportedly had an estimated 100-million dollar budget - the time and effort to make a game can be as labour intensive as any Hollywood blockbuster.

Not just the preserve of children anymore, games have grown-up and many are aimed at a more mature player than ever before.  The very best games probably do not need a big-screen version as they exist successfully as a single game-related product.  If the cinema is hungry to see what they have been missing, the following are a few of the games where a decent movie could be derived from.

Eternal Darkness - Nintendo.

Could be deemed one of the most unsettling games ever released.  Nintendo published one of its most mature-themed games in 2002, which received acclaim from all who played it although not a commercial success worldwide.

Centred around a female heroine (Alexandra Roivas) who suffers the loss of her Uncle (Edward Roivas).  At his mansion she is gradually draw into his past life and the stories of the ‘Tome of Darkness’.  As you discover more the game-player experiences different chapters concerning other characters whom have been in contact with the Tome.

The game is a scary and tense adventure, at times you really do wonder for you own sanity as things do get strange indeed.  Keeping a character sane is a key mechanism throughout and would work extremely well in a film environment.

‘Eternal Darkness’ is a grim, foreboding and horrific story and if done with as much effort as the game has been, then it would find an audience easily.

Project Zero (aka Fatal Frame) - Tecmo.

Playing in total darkness will ramp the scare-factor up in what can only be described as a  photo-’em up.  Armed only with a light and a ghost-seeing camera, Miku Hinasaki must enter the Himuro Mansion and find her missing brother Mafuyu.

Released in 2001, relying on sounds and atmosphere, the game is tense every step of the way - ghosts are scattered around the mansion and you never know what is around the next corner.  Flashbacks are jump-inducing and permeate a sense of dread as the full-story is revealed.

‘Project Zero’ has all the content to produce an equally good movie in the right director’s hands.

Resident Evil 4 - Capcom.

There is already a growing franchise of ‘Resident Evil’ films

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