The Video Game Adaptation Conundrum

You might have heard something about HBO's latest show "The Last of Us". You are probably hearing how it is a wonderful attempt at adapting a video game to live-action format. You are probably hearing that it is doing a good job of telling the story from the video game that was a major success within the gaming industry WAY back in twenty thirteen. Only a handful of games have been given the award by the community in the gaming industry and the industry itself in having a masterfully told story with a brilliant cast of characters with a brilliant cast of actors. Troy Baker and Ashely Johnson as Joel and Ellie in the Last of Us rose to fame and would forever be remembered as one of the best gaming duos since Master Chief and Cortana. Heart strings would be tugged in ways that would leave an indelible mark on gamers for years to come. 

It was also a clear indication that the format of narrative based games in the industry were changing. Games were becoming so cinematic that the line between movie and video game were being blurred and if anything games were becoming movies but the players were participating in the story instead of being spectators. Games like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and a few titles like Modern Warfare now tell the sort of cinematic stories we would normally see on a big screen in local cinemas or through network and streaming television, but now we play out these stories and are front and center to a cinematic experience on a small screen. 

So of course at some point these stories that gamers played, loved and raved about online would get the attention of some big shot Hollywood producer that would walk in with a pitch about how to adapt something like Last of Us or God of War to a movie or a television series. 

Enter HBO with "The Last of Us" a show adapted for television in association with Neil Druckmann who wrote and directed the original Last of Us video game back in 2013. Audiences who probably aren't too familiar with the video game world are loving the show and now for the first time in a long time, folks are eagerly waiting for the next episode of a television show that is an adaptation of a video game. This is a pretty big deal because us gamers who have often wanted to go to the theater and see our video games played out in live action on the big or small screen finally can see it play out and be well regarded by many people who have never touched The Last of Us let alone a Dualshock controller.

So why is this the moment gamers are finally rejoicing? Why is this the moment where we go "Yes! They didn't mess it up!"

Rewind to the year of 1993. What has coming to theaters all around the world? A movie based on of the most iconic video game characters in all of video game history. 

Super Mario Bros. 

Mario was getting a live-action big screen adaptation and of course kids all over the world wanted to see this movie. There were kids lined up around corners waiting eagerly to watch Mario take on Bowser and save Princess Peach from his evil grasp. Watch him use power ups like the fire flower to go through Koopas, Goombas and maybe tread through haunted mansions filled with Boo ghosts. 

They didn't get that, at all. 

You might have noticed that does not look like ANY single of the Mario games, especially the games that were out at that time. It clearly is this cyberpunk industrial age story with dinosaurs and futuristic weapons but nothing like the games the kids were playing on their Nintendo. Needless to say it was a flop both critically and commercially. Fast forward to two years later and we would get a big screen of adaptation with Mortal Kombat.

Now hold up here. This was different. This seems to reflect the games pretty well with many of the characters being recognizable and of course that awesome theme song to go with it. Yet with a quick google search you can see that this video game adaptation was a huge success. On a budget of 20 million, Mortal Kombat turned a profit with 122.2 million dollars (Source: ScreenRant). 

So where did Mortal Kombat succeed where Super Mario Bros. failed and how does it connect to why Last of Us is doing so good?

Adaptations of books, games, comic books and anime will have a common thread to how well those adaptations are regarded. Quality adaptations are ones that stick close to the original theme or story of the piece of literature or media being adapted while sometimes not always being 1:1 adaptations. Poorly regarded adaptations are usually adaptations that tried to do their own thing or changed so much of the original story that the adaptation, while having a familiar name, will not have a familiar story. 

Part of the Super Mario Bros. story was that there was a group of dinosaurs that survived when the infamous meteor that came crashing down to Earth eliminating most of the dinosaurs while some of those dinosaurs were not destroyed, but instead were thrown into an alternate dimension where they lived free and continued to evolve. Would you be surprised to know that none of that is in the Super Mario games? On top of that, the "Mushroom Kingdom" isn't this magical kingdom with a sort of fairy tale charm, instead the alternate dimension is probably best described as this dystopian world of industrial pipes, smoke and smog. 

Mortal Kombat on the other hand followed the story that was established in the game. Earth is one of many realms that exist in this universe, Shang Tsung is sent by his Emperor Shao Khan in order for his realm, Outworld to come in and take over the Earth. Mortal Kombat is a tournament that is being overlooked by Shang Tsugn and should Outworld win this tournament, Shao Khan invades and Earth is taken over but should Liu Kang, Sony Blade or Johnny Cage win the tournament than Earth Realm is safe and Outworld does not get to take over Earth Realm. 

The look of Mortal Kombat is this combination of exotic locations with a hint of mysticism to it. A lot of the set pieces in the movie are exotic island locations, large banquet halls, catacombs etc etc. You get the idea. 

Mortal Kombat was a more successful adaptation compared to Mario Bros. because it stuck close to the material and story that the movie was based on. While yes it did take some liberties in how the story was presented and made it easier for main stream audiences to digest. Even for those that didn't play the Mortal Kombat arcade cabinets and the parents that KNEW Mortal Kombat was a very violent video game, could still get behind the film, you could boil the film down to it's super basic components of being a film that had various forms of martial arts and fighting styles that was exciting to watch like a Jackie Chan movie without the blood and gore. 

The Last of Us is doing what Mortal Kombat did and not what Super Mario Bros. did. 

While you may think that it's such a simple solution to simply study what Mortal Kombat did for the video game adaptation and what Super Mario Bros. did for the video game adaptation. We have had an incredibly long line of poor game adaptation after poor game adaptation in Hollywood's history. 

Mortal Kombat Annihilation, the obvious sequel made because the first MK made so much money, was terrible and was the reason why we never saw MK movies for a very long time. We had the Resident Evil movies directed by Paul W.S. Anderson that made six films that had next to nothing in common with the Reisdent Evil games  that Resident Evil fans have never gotten a single quality Resident Evil movie adaptation since 2002. Even when Paul W.S. Anderson did not make the most recent film adaptation with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, it was a disaster that had awful CGI and tried to squeeze two games into one movie and re-wrote the characters that we knew and loved into characters that shared the same name but none of the attributes of said characters. Netflix even tried their hand at a Resident Evil series and that show failed by trying to be both a young adult melo-drama and the Walking Dead at the same time.  

We had Uwe Boll, a German film director that made notoriously terrible video game adaptation films that were made with terrible special effects, terrible dialogue and terrible casting choices. We haven't seen a Silent Hill movie in a long time because while the first film was okay and a decent adaptation, the sequel was terrible and ruined any momentum that a live action Silent Hill franchise could have had. Finally, the Halo series on Paramount + is a show that the showrunner admitted saying "We didn't look at the game. We didn't talk about the game. We talked about the characters and the world. So I never felt it being limited by it being a game." (Source: TheGamer). The result being a show more about the politics of the world of Halo and not finding the Halo rings themselves to stop the covenant from using them against humanity. 

The Last of Us is a breath of fresh air and will hopefully serve as both a message and blueprint to future video game adaptation projects. Stick to the material, stay true to the themes of the story, bring us the characters we know to life in a respectful way and please, for the love of god. 

Do not mess it up.