A reader suggests five TV shows ripe for adaptation, from obvious picks like Game of Thrones to… Downton Abbey?
The inspiration for video games comes from far and wide these days: books, films, artwork, and of course television. There have been some great adaptations of television shows, from Telltale’s The Walking Dead series and Obsidian’s South Park: The Stick Of Truth and then there have been some games that even the fiery pits of hell would reject, like Dark Angel or even worse gulp the game based on Australian soap Neighbours… yes, that happened.
We are in a golden age of television with Netflix and other streaming platforms locking us into a cycle of never-ending binge-worthy entertainment that goes on forever. Yes, Netflix I am still watching The Witcher – stop shaming me for my couch potato habits! TV’s long-form storytelling lends itself to the arcs that video games often do, so it’s a wonder that the AAA video game space hasn’t dedicated more games to telling stories within these fantastic worlds.
Here’s my top 5 TV shows that should be made into video games!
5. Game of Thrones
This one is pretty obvious, isn’t it? A sprawling fantasy, featuring murder, ice zombies, nudity and dragons. So basically Skyrim… it’s a glorious world though, populated by honourable heroes and villains that make the kiddie snatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang look like Mickey Mouse. It’s dark, it’s violent and in the earlier seasons had an incredibly nuanced approach to political espionage. It’s a shame the show ended with a thud rather than a bang, as the thirst for more Thrones seems to have waned somewhat.
But it’s a game that I would love to see get made, I want to visit Winterfell and call John Snow a ‘bastard’, I want to urinate off The Wall, I want my skull to squeezed into rice pudding by The Mountain, and more than anything I want to ride a dragon with long blonde hair that miraculously stays perfect despite the heavy wind resistance. In fact, let’s have Game of Thrones branded hair spray that comes free with every copy of the game.
An open world role-playing game would be perfect in this world and maybe a game could do the story justice where the TV show fell down.
4. Downton Abbey
OK, hear me out on this one. I know that your mum likes Downton Abbey and the series is generally a very by-the-numbers period drama, but there’s one area AAA games will rarely dare venture and that’s by NOT killing things. What if a game were given a big budget to create a murder mystery game where the village of Downton is your playground and utilising the detective style gameplay of the Batman: Arkham games?
Add in some Resident Evil style puzzles, Mass Effect style dialogue trees, and we could be onto something. I mean, I doubt it would ever actually happen and if it did it might be utterly awful, but don’t forget someone made Fast & Furious Crossroads… if there’s room for that there’s room for a Lady Elizabeth Crawley hair brushing mini-challenge.
3. Stranger Things
So this one is pretty obvious, combine a killer ‘80s soundtrack, mutants from another dimension, telekinesis, and weird occurrences happening in a small town and what do you get? Remedy’s Control, which was excellent. So why not give us a proper Stranger Things game?
I want to tear through Hawkins as Eleven and break into a government building armed only with a slingshot! Let me peddle through the woods on a bicycle hunting a demogorgon with Material Girl playing on my Walkman. In fact, let’s dot cassette tapes around the world so I can collect the ultimate ‘80s playlist. Actually, forget the rest, an ‘80s music collect-a-thon as a game sounds pretty amazing on its own!
2. The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale has bought the book to life brilliantly and created a world unlike any other, a world of subservient women, of violence, of intolerance with reprehensible people that harm the innocent for their own gain. The great thing about the Handmaid’s Tale is that this world is so vast that you could take the story of any woman (or man to a lesser extent) and still make a compelling story.
What about a stealth action game where you take on the role of a female solider trying to get back to find the rebels? A game where you can utilise various disguises, whether that’s the red robes of the titular Handmaids or dowdy green ensemble of the Marthas. There’s small uprisings in this world, there are spies, there’s public executions and there’s fear. This is a world that in the hands of master storytellers like Naughty Dog could really be something special.
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender has been abused! A film adaption so bad fans were ready to gouge their own eyes out rather than sit through another second of that abomination, it almost killed a franchise that defined children’s storytelling. Here we are awaiting another live action adaptation from Netflix when there is the perfect opportunity to use this world in a much better way! Like the Handmaid’s Tale this world is vast and historic, you could be an Avatar from any time period of your choosing, learning the ways of the elements in whatever order you like, as an enemy rises from the darkest corners of this world.
Previous video games in this series haven’t lived up to the potential of this phenomenal cartoon series and who doesn’t want the ability to bend fire, water, earth, and air at will with cute animal companions? Come on game developers and publishers, we’ve had enough Call Of Duty and Assassin’s Creed to last us till the dolphins rise up against us, so until then if you won’t make new IPs, make these – I’d buy them.
By reader Jay Johnson
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.
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