After the success of The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. what videogames should be adapted next?

     

    Videogame adaptions are always hit or miss. There have been box office bombs like Super Mario Bros. and high earning adaptions like Super Mario Bros. I am of course talking about the 1993 and 2023 adaptions respectively. What makes a video game adaption good? Well, that's hard to say, not every videogame is well transferred into movie or TV form. Certainly, the direction of the movie and the performances of the actors play a big part in whether or not an adaption will be successful. Avoiding the mistakes of the soulless Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and the painfully forgettable Assassin's Creed movie is a good start. However, with the popularity of HBO's The Last of Us series and the new Super Mario Bros. movie, I'm sure that there will soon be a surge of videogame adaptions for us to either enjoy or make fun of. 

The Legend of Zelda

    The Legend of Zelda feels like the logical next step for the Nintendo Cinematic Universe after Super Mario Bros. The Breath of the Wild is one of the most critically acclaimed videogames of all time, which means lots of money for Nintendo and whatever animation studio they choose to produce the movie (probably Illumination again). One thing that I can say for the new Super Mario Bros. movie is that visually it was stunning, I definitely think that the only way The Legend of Zelda will work is if it is animated. I've heard from many fans that they would rather have a Legend of Zelda series instead of a movie, so that the characters can be more fleshed out. I do like that idea but I just have a gut feeling that if they do anything with it then it will probably be a movie. After The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo can continue with Metroid, Kirby, Super Mario Bros. 2, and eventually Super Smash Bros. If Nintendo plays their cards right they can create a cinematic universe that rivals both DC and Marvel's.

 Disco Elysium

    This is definitely a game that not everyone knows about, but it is one that really deserves more recognition. It is innovative, hilarious, and so much fun to play. You take on the role of a detective who wakes up with memory loss due to a night of heavy drinking. Disco Elysium is an RPG and it's dialogue encourages you to say the weirdest things which lead to scenarios that will have you laughing out loud while playing. It's something that not very many other games have achieved for me, the other characters are also great with straight man Detective Kim and the manipulative union boss Evrart Claire. The main character also talks to his inner voices like his logic and his authority which each have their own unique ways of speaking. It would make the perfect detective show and I think it's something that just hasn't been done before so HBO Max executives, if you're reading this, here's your next video game adaption series. 

Skyrim

    The story of Skyrim is very complicated with so many different branching stories and side quests but that gives the writers so many different directions to go with the story. Of course, they can't include everything but I di think that they could make a pretty epic story out of it. Skyrim could easily be the next Game of Thrones with it's dense world and potential for different characters. One of the reason's that Amazon's the Rings of Power didn't become the next Game of Thrones is because they took a beloved franchise and they changed it. With Skyrim there isn't any other movies established so writers practically have free reign as long as they work within the rules of the world that Bethesda has already built. 

Overwatch

    I've always been a big fan of Overwatch but the more gamers I talk to the more I find out how controversial it is to be an Overwatch fan. For some reason it gets a lot of hate from the people I talk to. However, it's usually not for any good reason and Overwatch does still have plenty of fans. The game itself doesn't make for a very good story but the lore behind it is deep enough for an adaption. I do know people that don't even play Overwatch but still love the characters because of the lore that has been built through comic books and videos from the developers. Blizzard makes character intro videos for all their new characters and the animation is frankly gorgeous. I'd love to see those animators create a full length series that brings the lore of Overwatch to the masses and expands on it. 

God of War

    For the next PlayStation exclusive adaption, it was between God of War and Horizon for me. God of War is the more popular one and even though The Last of Us worked great for streaming, I think that God of War belongs on the big screen. I see a God of War adaption as a gritty, live-action, R- rated, action movie. The first movie could chronicle the first three games and then the sequel could be based on the two newer games set in Norse mythology. Kratos is a force to be reckoned with and to see him get his own movie would be incredible. 

Hades

    The next entry on this list is also based on mythology, Hades was a great game not only from a gameplay perspective but also just because of how fleshed out the characters were and how fun it was just to talk to them. Each of the characters from Greek mythology are incredibly adapted with stylish new looks and big personalities. It would make for a great animated series as long as they kept the same animation style from the game and all the same voice actors. The first season could be about Zagreus escaping Hades but the rest of the series could veer off into other storylines.

Gears of War

    The yin to Halo's yang, Gears of War is one of the best third person shooters out there and one of the two most popular Xbox exclusive franchises. Halo has already been adapted as a series on Paramount Plus but it wasn't exactly well received.  I didn't watch the show so I don't know exactly what the problem was with it but I always preferred Gears of War anyways. Marcus Fenix is the perfect action movie protagonist and the world of Gears of War is gritty and gory. I could see it as series similar to The Last of Us but I could also see it as a movie similar to the God of War movie I described. The soft reboot of the game with Gears of War 4 is also great so whether they start with that or the first one, I think it's a win either way.