The 10 Best Video Games Based on Movies

Video games based on movies tend to have a very bad reputation. They’re often seen as soulless cash-grabs that have no artistic or gameplay merits. However, some of these tie-in games are actually phenomenal. Here are the ten best of them!

Aladdin (x2)

Interestingly enough, the video game adaptation of the beloved animated Disney movie Aladdin isn’t just one game. Through some publisher weirdness, there are two distinct Aladdin tie-in games. One was developed by Capcom and released on the NES, while the other was created by Virgin Games USA and released on the Sega Genesis. Weirder still, they’re both excellent platforming games.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Lucasfilm Games’ Star Wars: TIE Fighter was a perfect sequel to X-Wing, offering PC gamers another fantastic flight simulator in the Star Wars universe. While there have been dozens of tie-in Star Wars video games, this one stands out as the one that added the most to the universe of the films by showing players action beyond the lightsaber duels and ground battles of the films.

GoldenEye 007

Rare didn’t need to go as hard on GoldenEye 007, a licensed James Bond game, as they did. For whatever reason, the studio decided his N64 game was going to bring the then-new first-person shooter genre to home consoles in a way no one had done before. It was fast, frenetic, and undeniably awesome.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong

In a rare case of a direct video game adaptation being just as good as its source material, Peter Jackson’s King Kong aimed for photorealism and immersive gameplay. The game was so dedicated to this, in fact, that it has no heads-up display or other “game-y” properties like enemy health bars. It also features the voice talent of the actors from the film, giving everything an A-list sheen.

Spider-Man 2

Weirdly, Spider-Man 2 also saw the film and game adaptation hitting the same heights. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 film is one of the best superhero movies ever, and the video game that accompanied it gave players the tightest, most realistic Spider-Man simulator ever made up to that point.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

Here’s a rare one: sometimes, the game adaptation is even better than the movie it’s meant to be promoting. That was the case with The Chronicles of Riddick, a passable sci-fi Vin Diesel vehicle backed by a genuinely awesome video game. It was, at the time, a visually stunning game with immersive graphics and gameplay that sold the atmosphere of the daunting prison setting.

Scarface: The World is Yours

In an interesting twist, Scarface: The World is Yours acts as a video game version of an alternate ending cut for the original film. In this version of events, Tony Montana survives the final shootout of the movie and goes on to rebuild his criminal empire—which is the playable portion of the game. It’s a great riff on the tried-and-true Grand Theft Auto formula.

Mad Max

Forgive us for this one, as it’s stretching a bit. The 2015 game Mad Max isn’t necessarily an adaptation of Fury Road, though it was released close to that cult-classic action blockbuster. The game instead covers the whole of the wasteland and has been described as a tribute to the entire film franchise, not to just one of its entries. Oh, and, importantly, it’s a phenomenal game.

Alien: Isolation

There have been several video games based on the Alien film franchise, but Alien: Isolation stands as one of the best in the series. It’s a thrilling horror game in its own right and tells an original story in the setting established in the first Alien movie.

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Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The genuinely excellent Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor title adapts the Lord of the Rings films into a compelling third-person action game. The title’s unique Nemesis system remains one of its best innovations. In fact, WB Games copyrighting the system is one of the game’s most enduring legacies.