The good, the bad, and the awful – the best and worst videogame inspired TV series
Video games seem like they should easily make the leap across to a series-format screen adaptation, with their beloved established characters, episodic narrative structures, and almost infinite wells of lore and worldbuilding to mine stories from. While some games have seamlessly made the jump, others have stumbled, and some have fallen flat on their faces with their trousers round their ankles, much to the dismay of fans of the original games.
In anticipation of the upcoming The Last of Us series, which looks set to blow our socks off for the right reasons, we’ll be looking at some video game universes that did it the right way, and some that left us with our heads in our hands wondering what went so wrong.
Contents:
- Halo
- The Witcher
- Witcher: Blood Origin
- Resident Evil
- Pokémon
- Arcane: League of Legends
Halo
One of the greatest, if not the greatest FPS franchises ever to grace consoles, with an extensive universe of high-stakes storylines, large-scale sci-fi worldbuilding, plus a god-tier gaming badass as the main character – was it even possible for a series based on Halo not to be a hit?
Well, apparently, Paramount Plus set out to find out, and the answer was… absolutely. The story is bland, the characters wholly uninspiring, and even the music fails to impress – especially egregious given the games’ iconic score. The series upset fans further by first showing Master Chief’s face repeatedly, and then decided to go all in and show viewers his bare butt. Now that really is rock bottom.
The Witcher
The creators of the Witcher series had almost endless material to draw from, as well as the expectations of millions of hardcore fans to satisfy. And, armed with respect for the source material and superfan Henry Cavill in the leading role, they did a pretty good job.
It’s not winning any Oscars, but the show nails the gritty-yet-darkly funny tone of the books and games and brings fans all the brutal monster hunting action they expect, while also chucking a few interesting new things to the mix, most memorable of which was the epic “Toss a Coin to your Witcher” song we were treated to in episode two of the first season.
The Witcher: Blood Origin
Hot on the heels of the successful and popular Witcher series came 2022’s 4-episode prequel series, Blood Origin. The creators of this show saw what worked well in the original two series, threw it out the window, and doubled down hard on everything that sucked about it – terrible acting, cringe-inducing dialog, and a bizarre introduction featuring Minnie Driver effectively telling the audience how innovative, unique, and epic this story is going to be (spoiler alert: it’s not).
Special mention goes to Lenny Henry for appearing in both of 2022’s epic fantasy flops (this and Amazon’s Rings of Power).
Resident Evil
The Resident Evil video game series has never had much luck in its attempted breaks onto the big screen, with most movie outings based on the games being panned by more or less everyone. Last year, however, someone had a bright idea: why not see how the franchise would fare as a series? Netflix bravely took up the reins and the result was… about the same, if not worse. Whoopsie!
The reasons for the series’ underwhelming reception are fairly standard – very loose ties with the source material, boring and badly written characters, and almost nothing new or interesting to speak of. Plus, half of the runtime takes place before the zombie apocalypse, which means we spend several hours just watching everyday life for a mundane American family. Next!
Pokémon
Pokémon is the game that defined a generation, and with the games and cards taking primary school playgrounds the world over by storm, the decision was made to drop even more content in the form of an anime series following the adventures of Ash Ketchum on his journey from Pallet Town to become a Pokémon Master.
The series featured all the loveable monsters that kids already knew and loved, as well as some great characters in the form of Ash and his friends Misty and Brock, and of course the nefarious Team Rocket. It also elevated Pikachu from low-level electric Pokémon to one of the most recognizable faces on the planet and established Pokémon as a franchise that would remain iconic to this day.
Arcane: League of Legends
League of Legends may not seem the likeliest candidate on this list for a great series, but you’d be a fool to miss this one whether you’re a League fan or not. The show features slick visuals with a unique animation style, a completely original soundtrack featuring none other than Imagine Dragons, and a whole set of cool characters with real depth and some fantastic dialog.
Landing on our screens amid a whole cavalcade of lacklustre adaptations of video games, Arcane serves as a shining beacon that should light the way for every future attempt to recreate the magic of the interactive medium. More like this please!