9 Brilliant Video Games Based On TV Shows That You Totally Missed

Sometimes, playing them is better than watching them.

SpongeBob Flying Dutchman
THQ

We all know how video game adaptations usually work. Seen as little more than an easy cash-in on the success of a movie or TV show, there are countless sub-par titles with the names of truly great shows plastered across their cases, and fans have learned to expect the worst.

There's The Simpsons Wrestling, the Little Britain game, even Mr. Bean had his own outing but time and time again we get little more than a handful of pitiful likenesses of our favourite TV characters and we're expected to stomach the absolute slop within.

Every now and then, however, an adaptation is made that is truly brilliant. South Park: The Stick of Truth, The Simpsons: Hit and Run, and DuckTales are just a few games based on TV shows that are remembered as great in their own right, and that's the way it should be.

After all, if you're making a game based on a show, surely - on some level at least - it's a labour of love? Among all the stinkers, it's easy to lose sight of some of the good ones, so here are 9 video games based on TV shows that you may not have played.

9. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds

SpongeBob Flying Dutchman
EngineX

Released in 2003 for Xbox, PS2 and GameCube, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is the fourth title in the Buffy video game series, and the only to be release on multiple platforms.

Chaos Bleeds marked the first time that fans of the series could take control of characters other than the titular Slayer, and also featured a fully developed multiplayer mode, in which players compete in combat, in a game of "Bunny Catcher" (yes, it is exactly as it sounds), or to take control of pentagrams in a game of Domination.

Chaos Bleeds offered a story which takes place at some point during the fifth season of the TV show, although using some alternate reality voodoo, the game resurrects a few of Buffy's long-dead enemies.

Chaos Bleeds was a brilliant adaptation of a brilliant TV show, although despite favourable reviews, faded quite quickly into obscurity.

Fans of the Buffyverse will always remember it fondly, if not for its varied gameplay and well-written story, then simply because it allowed them to take control of all of their favourite characters.

Contributor
Contributor

Antisocial nerd that spends a lot of time stringing words together. Once tried unsuccessfully to tame a crow.