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In Raycevick's excellent video on Ghost in the Shell video games, Shirow Masamune's quote struck me.

The manga of The Ghost In The Shell did not place importance on its sustainability as a series because it is faithful to the idea that works in different media, be it film, TV series, manga or novel, should each be optimized to its own art form.

I feel like this captures the reason why most movie-licensed games suck.

Ghostbusters is about some ordinary guys establishing the business of ghost huntings, making their own equipment, hiring guys, and taking requests from people whose home is infested with ghosts. But the game they made was just a Gears of War clone when XCOM style game would have worked wonderfully.

Harry Potter is about a mystery set in the magic school with the heavy emphasis on the social interactions with various factions with different motives. The games were just Zelda clones and later, Gears of War clones when something like Bully with the roleplaying mechanics would be appropriate.

Mad Max is basically Shane (1953) set in the nuclear apocalyptic wasteland with the heavy emphasis on the car action and the survival theme. The game got the car action right, but there was zero survival element. There was no game equivalent of Max desperately trying to find a tiny amount of gasoline from the crashed car right after the exciting car chase. but only adding the awkward attempt at mimicking the combat of Arkham games when it should have been S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout with cars.

All these games followed the trend in the gaming industry of its time with the added surface level of visual and story flavor of the source material instead of truly optimizing the spirit into the interactive art form. It is similar to how video game movies suffer from the same problem.

So I wanted to share my thoughts about fixing them and what would be the ideal movie-licensed video game for each movie franchise. All these franchises had some sort of video games, some were good but mostly bad.

• Star Wars

EA era Star Wars games have been not so good, and among all the canceled projects, only AAA Star Wars games they have published so far is Battlefront. Such a shame because as Lucasarts era Star Wars proved, Star Wars is capable of more.

Canceling Boba Fett movie was a wise decision, but the idea could work beautifully as a third person bounty hunter open-world game set in the darkest corners of Coruscant. I know Star Wars 1313 was going to be just that, but it was unfortunately canceled.

My hope is them buying the assets of similarly canceled Prey 2 and repurpose it as a Star Wars game. Prey 2 was already pretty much a Boba Fett game as the player plays a role of the bounty hunter in the underground metropolis full of exotic aliens and crime syndicates colored by vibrant neon aesthetics.

Also, it is unfortunate that there has been no proper Clone Wars game except for Republic Commando since the setting is perfect for the high octane character action game. You slaughter countless droids, cutting them into tiny pieces on the battlefield. The violence would be no problem as all the enemies are droids.

Metal Gear Rising's sword combat lands perfectly for the lightsaber gameplay with the ability to slice everything including the enemies. Ridiculous scripted events that defy the laws of reality fit right into the Jedi's power. If you do not get what I mean, watch Gendy Tarkovski's Clone Wars series, which is essentially Metal Gear Rising: The Movie.

Even the Dynasty Warrior style Clone Wars game is fitting with the sense of scale, the battle dynamic, and picking different heroes with different abilities.

• James Bond

The biggest problem of post-Goldeneye James Bond games is the developers are just trying to make an action shooter with a few gimmicky gadgets and vehicles sections thrown in.

At least EA Bond games were somewhat unique and trying to incorporate James Bond elements, but Activision Bond games were horrible, probably due to the Craig Bond's realistic approach. It is ironic that the Craig films actually introduced more campy Bond icons such as fantastical gadgets, tone, and supercars in Skyfall and Spectre when the video games did not. Activision Bond just chased what was popular in gaming. Quantum of Solace, Goldeneye Wii, Legends were a shoddy COD reskin, and Blood Stone was an Uncharted reskin.

Bond films are not just action blockbuster films. The novels and the best movies in the series have been closer to a hardboiled detective genre, and Fleming was inspired by the classic noir: Talking, investigating, interrogating, etc. Of course, the action, car chase, and gadgets are cool and should be there, but they should not be the core of a Bond game.

Super Bunnyhop pointed out that Hitman is the best Bond game for the aforementioned reasons, but personally, that crown goes to Alpha Protocol. Alpha Protocol, despite its flaws and glitches, is the only game I felt like playing as James Bond. My ideal would be Activision buying Alpha Protocol right from SEGA and remake it as a Bond game with Daniel Craig model, a few script changes, bug fixing, John Barry score (or David Arnold score), and the functional combat system.

Another James Bond game I would like to see is Goldfinger in the style of Goldeneye N64. If you do not know, there is a Goldeneye 64 mod called Goldfinger 64. This actually exits and I, myself, have played via the emulator. Basically, the mod is an attempt to adapt Goldfinger (1964) film into the FPS like how Goldeneye 64 adapted Goldeneye (1995), expanding the story and detailing events in the film.

While the visual, music and level designs are absolutely amateurish in some sections, it is surprisingly faithful to the film, a hundred times better than any Activision Bond game and feels like an authentic game Rare would have made in the 90s as an expansion.

My dream is Activision hiring these mod devs and make it into the full game with the modern engine, graphics, controls, and fixing some flaws of the mod. The same objective-based structure and the gameplay of Goldeneye 64. Using the real footage of Goldfinger movie in cutscenes, blending them into the real-time cinematic like how EA's Lord of the Rings games did with their cinematic.

Making a 60s Sean Connery Bond game is not that far-fetched idea you think it would. EA has made From Russia With Love video game with Sean Connery returning as James Bond. And considering how gigantic Activision has become and the recent revival spy flicks in Hollywood, they absolutely could pull it off.

• Blade Runner

Both Blade Runner films and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? were moody detective stories deeply rooted in the hardboiled genre (I know I'm repeating this word multiple times but...) with the action bits being rare so Deus Ex approach would not be a good decision. I also do not think a fully open world game where you drive spinners and go around every area of the city like Cyberpunk 2077 would bode well.

While the point and click adventure Blade Runner game developed by Westwood in 1997 was great, I would like to see something like the detective gameplay of L.A. Noire, collecting clues, and cross-examining people that lead to different paths, combined with Yakuza's smaller world but highly detailed and quest design. It should avoid a mini-map or point marker to educate the player where to go which would undermine the detective work.

Example: you found the Moscow ballet wooden figure in the crime scene. You can either 1) Visit Moscow ballet organization and ask about it or 2) contact a wood expert and analyze the figure. They all lead to different paths and may lead to the different conclusion, making the game replayable.

Since the films' actions are brief but realistic and hard-hitting, the combat can work like The Last of Us, which depicted the incredibly gritty and raw fight that every shot the player fired was crucial to the battle dynamic. Also, the automatic machine guns were almost entirely absent and the focus was on the close quarter fighting and the semi-automatic firearms just like Blade Runner movies.

On the story, setting in 2023, bridging the original film to 2049, and exploring days right after the Blackout in 2022 when the whole country went full chaos and under martial laws due to the EMP strike would be interesting. The player playing the Blade Runner tasked to chase who caused and planned the whole Black Out incident and Tyrell Corporation trying to cover it can create a compelling narrative. Side quests consisted of hunting down Nexus-8 due to the complete Replicant abolition. The player gets to witness how the Blackout impacted the society, how the government responded, how Tyrell fell, the social phobia against the Replicants, and the rise of the Wallace Corporation.

• Ghost in the Shell

I know Ghost in the Shell is essentially Blade Runner in the anime form, but unlike Blade Runner, this series is easier to adapt in the video games because of more actions and cyberpunk elements to it.

With that said, the core of GITS is still a detective mystery heavily inspired by Blade Runner with the protagonists being the futuristic police force investigating diverse cyber crimes and terrorism.

There have been many different interpretations of GITS ranging from the original manga to Mamoru Oshii films, Stand Alone Complex, and Arise, all have their own styles, canon, atmospheres, and themes. It should set in either the Oshii universe or the SAC universe as they are the most famous and fleshed out. The manga is not well known and Arise is the easily the worst in the franchise. On aesthetic, I'd want to see the anime-inspired cel-shaded visual like Guilty Gear and Kenji Kawai and Yoko Kano soundtracks are a must.

The game can borrow from Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human's investigation gameplay like discovering evidences and the reconstructing a crime scene using the high tech equipment fitting for the cyberpunk setting.

Despite Major Kusanagi having some acrobatic physical abilities enhanced by augments, the way they portrayed them in the films and the TV series was somewhat tactical and grounded to immerse the viewer into the world. Splinter Cell: Blacklist's fast-paced gadget oriented combat/stealth gameplay is a great template to use.

• Starship Troopers

Based on Paul Verhoeven's 1997 film, not Robert A. Heinlein's novel, and ignoring the movie's sequels including 2, 3, Invasion, Traitor of Mars. The movie was not only a satire of fascism but was also a warning on the internet culture and how it may be used as propaganda. Why not elevate that theme into the meta-commentary of online streaming such as video game streaming?

The game starts and the menu screen is the off-air message, "Please Stand By" like the streaming is not started yet. Options menu looks like a Smart TV options menu. The player HUD consists of the helmet display and the TV feedback.

Set two decades after the film, the bug war continues similar to how the Afghan war is prolonging. The opening which is the Federation propaganda introduces Rico and Carmen who have honorary discharged and live a happy life as heroes and citizens of the Federation, and encourage young men and women to join the military. It implies that Starship Troopers film was a movie-within-a-movie, propaganda produced by the Federation. It introduces how the researchers of the Federation have invented the powered armor, which was the novel's iconic sci-fi concept that inspired countless sci-fis Halo and Metroid's armor but missing from the film, and how it can live stream the combat 24 hr for the entertainment and the propaganda.

You fight in Klendathu and Tango Urilla. The funny advertisements and the propaganda clips famous in the film occasionally interrupt your gameplay.

Like Bulletstorm, it is the first person shooter and the player's objective is not just defeating enemies, it is about how cool and creative you can kill, which is incentivized by the rating. The citizens of the federation watch your 'playthrough' and every time you do a cool thing, show off, save your comrades, order your teammates (as the player is the squad leader), accomplish the secondary objectives, creating combos, slaughter bugs as fast as possible, the applaud sounds from viewers supplement it, and you earn a bonus from the broadcasting company or the government to buy your new moves or gears for your powered armor. Basically, war as a game to boost the troop's moral and citizens' patriotism.

However, anytime you do friendly fire, see your comrade getting killed by the bugs, or die, they lower the ratings. If the rating is at the bottom of the barrel, the stream is abolished thus game over.

• Ghostbusters

Speaking of Ghostbusters, which I mentioned earlier, the reason why I said XCOM should be the template for the Ghostbusters game instead of the obvious candidate that is Luigi Mansion, is because Ghostbusters is not just about catching ghosts.

Despite NES Ghostbusters' notoriety, the concept was pretty cool. The game makes the player feel like you are managing the small firm: Buying equipment, receiving a request, driving there, and catching a ghost. The modern Ghostbusters games only adapt catching ghosts part despite the movies equally focused on the formers. Hell, one of the major obstacles in the first movie was Ghostbusters fighting the government official regarding the safety of the equipment.

XCOM formula is so perfect for Ghostbusters to the point where Firaxis could buy the right and reskin XCOM with the Ghostbusters theme and it would not feel off. You establish the organization to combat the 'out of this world' forces, recruit the manpower, research techs and create equipment, respond to the call, send the manpower to missions, gain the XP and customize your characters while playing the political game with the government.

All they should do is adapt the combat system to incorporate the ways how the characters fought ghosts in the movies.

• Kill Bill

There have been a failed attempt at adapting a Quentin Tarantino movie in 2006 with Reservoir Dogs so I am not sure if any publisher would want to make a Tarantino video game. But if there is one Tarantino work to make a video game out of, it is Kill Bill since it is the most fantastical, action-packed, and less talkie movie in Tarantino's career.

I have two story ideas for this:

The first is the prequel about how Kiddo became Black Mamba. Set right after the training with Pai Mei, acquainted with the deadly techniques, Kiddo returns to the US and continues to serve as the assassin at Bill's service. As she is working with the Deadly Vipers, which comprises the majority of the game, Kiddo gets pregnant with Bill's baby. The story ends with her faking her death and disappearing from Bill's life, which is resolved in the movie.

The second scenario is Kill Bride. You probably are familiar with the news surrounding Kill Bill: Vol. 3 a few years ago. Tarantino wanted the sequel to center around Nikki Bell, Vernita Green's girl from the intro of Vol. 1 who witnessed her mother killed by the Bride. The girl vows her revenge and trains many years by Sofie, who also have a vendetta against the Bride. The player plays as her becoming the assassin to fulfill her vengeance like the Bride did in her movies. So, instead of naming the game Kill Bill which would not make sense, it should be Kill Bride.

On gameplay, Red Steel 2 is the perfect template for Kill Bill game. The sword combat mixed with the gunplay, a blend of samurai and western genres, the revenge theme, RPG progression that you get to learn new moves, the bounty jobs you complete to get money and experience points. It would be incredible if Ubisoft buys the Kill Bill IP and remakes Red Steel 2 with the Kill Bill paint job, and no one will notice it because, unfortunately, nobody bought Red Steel 2.

Or give the IP to Grasshopper Manufacture and let Suda51 make it since Suda51 is Tarantino of video games and No More Heroes was pretty much a Kill Bill game too.

Any idea about what could make an interesting movie licensed game?

Submitted December 22, 2018 at 05:33PM by onex7805 http://bit.ly/2Rg8Vjm