Every year major blockbusters open into theatres that seem to instantly capture the limelight. And if it is an action oriented film, than you can almost guarantee a video game not too far behind. And no matter how well the film is reviewed and accepted by critics and the audience, the video game that follows it usually receives overwhelmingly negative reviews.



Every now and then there is a game based on a film that is actually good and manages to capture the spirit of the film and bring gamers back again and again, but most of the time the game falls flat. This usually leads to gamers asking why can't they make a good movie game? The answer is a little more complicated than one may think.

One thing that creates a hindrance to the ability of creating a good movie game is that there is only so much time to produce the game. After the script of the movie is produced, that does not mean the game can rush immediately into production. The cast must be announced, the visual design team must work with the game developers in order for the audience to recognize where the game came from. However, this does not always mean that the game will be terrible.

For instance, the video game based off of the 2004 blockbuster Spider-Man 2 went on to receive great reviews from critics and fans. However, other games based off films which have plenty of time to be perfected fall flat.

A good case in point would be the Superman Returns game, which was not considered terrible, but was merely repetitive and had uninspired game play. Another example of a movie game that fell flat is Minority Report: Everybody Runs, where the characters did not even resemble their film counterparts, and the game suffers further from dull game play.

It has come to pass that the standard used for movie games is not very high at all. In fact, the games are almost entirely ignored, but reviewed simply for tradition's sake (and possibly in the hope that they will be good).

Bad games based on movies are just like bad movies themselves. They are over marketed as good games in the hopes of receiving some form of audience. But, as previously stated, sometimes a good one does emerge, and that makes them occasionally worth the wait.