10 Iconic Film Franchises That Have Never Spawned A Great Video Game
You can make all the money at the box office, but you can't make a video game?
Great video games do not make for good movies, and the same can be said of the reverse. While it can be almost impossible to condense a 12+ hour video game into a two hour movie, it's just as hairy stretching a two hour movie into a full-blown interactive experience.
Licensed video games have a rough history, too. Games based on popular movies have been a thing for as long as the industry has been around. Throughout the decades we've gotten some crackers like The Godfather, GoldenEye 007, Mad Max and Spider-Man 2, and we've gotten some stinkers like Superman 64, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the infamous E.T.
Truth be told, the ratio of good to bad is more like 1:10.
With that in mind, all of the following franchises have tried their hands at gaming but never found much success, for a variety of reasons. Some of the franchises on this list have been turned into fun Lego games by the good folks at TT Games, so those are certainly the best way to play some of your favourite franchises, however we're looking at the lack of AAA console experiences in regards to these franchises.
Onward and - hopefully someday - upward.
10. Mission: Impossible
Who would ever have guessed that the Mission: Impossible franchise would go from decent spy flicks, to critically acclaimed thrillers? Kudos to Tom Cruise and the gang for not giving up on the series and making it what it is today. Where we can throw shade at Cruise and co. however, is in the video game department.
There has been four Mission: Impossible games, with the most recent being a 2000 Gameboy Colour title. Mission: Impossible II released in the year 2000, which means we've had four movies since then and nary a game to be seen!
When you take a step back and look at the games industry, you'll notice that there isn't a lot of spy games out there. Of course you have the staples of the genre like Hitman, James Bond, Metal Gear, and Splinter Cell, but only one of those series is in active development (Hitman).
The Mission Impossible franchise blends high-octane action with story and stealth in a way that would translate perfectly to video games. It's time Cruise came back to the gaming world and put his mark down.