Game of the Year 2024 – Best Video Game Adaptation
by Tuffcub · tsaIt definitely feels like Hollywood and TV companies have figured out video games in the last few years. No, they don’t always get it right, but between huge, blockbusting animated films for Sonic and Mario, and TV and streaming series like Castlevania, The Last of Us and the following selection of shows, we’re a world away from the bad times of Doom, Prince of Persia and Mario… the live action one.
The Last of Us changed gaming in 2013 with its unparalleled story telling and, a decade later, HBO’s The Last of Us rewrote the script on how to make a TV adaptation of a video game. The team behind Amazon’s Fallout TV show were clearly taking notes, as it does exactly what The Last of Us did, taking the world of the game for your setting but make sure to focus on the characters. We follow a trio of protagonists, all of which were created for the show but are based on archetypes found in the games, with their stories crossing over at various points as the mystery of a vault is gradually revealed.
The show also has a strong emotional centre which unexpectedly comes from Walton Goggins’s character, the Ghoul. The radioactive gunslinger is the star of the show, his tragic story from television star to reviled outcast is spread across the episodes and neatly dovetails in the story of Lucy, played by Yellowjackets’ Ella Purnell. Rounding out the trio is Aaron Moten who manages to bring to life the weakest of the three, Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel who steals a set of Power Armour after Knight Titus exits stage left, killed by a bear.
Everything you love from the franchise is on screen, even down to the smallest detail like the door handles being the same as in the game, it is extraordinarily faithful to the games but is careful to keep the fan service to background details. The show doesn’t shy away from some spectacularly gory sequences which like the game are mostly played for laughs but there are some very real moments of danger, the psychotic Snip Snip, a Mr. Handy turned organ harvester is the stuff of nightmares.
Series 2 was confirmed by Amazon just nine days after the show premiered but with filming only just starting it’s going to be a while before we settle down with a Nuka Cola and enjoy it.
Arcane: League of Legends – Runner-up
The two series of Arcane on Amazon’s Prime video service cost more than a live action Marvel movie and for once it actually shows – every single shot in the series could be framed and hung in an art gallery. The first series was slightly laboured and took a while to set up things up, but that’s allowed series two to race ahead, barely taking time for breath as it throws in multiple plot lines with witches, bio tech experiments and an awful lot of trippy dream sequences.
Clearly influenced by the Spiderverse movies, the show changes art style to emphasise character moments, switching in an instant from lush, almost water coloured paintings to frantic neon scribbles and, just like the first season, the needle drops are perfect. If you haven’t caught up with Arcane then you really should, you don’t need to know a thing about the game, and it’s genuinely good.
Secret Level – Runner-up
Amazon nailed the video game adaptation with Fallout, but Secret Level had more mixed reviews. That’s almost purely because there are so many different games and styles covered.
Some of the episodes stick slavishly to the lore of the games and wider universes, notable the Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K stories, but I personally found the more obtuse reimaginings to be the highlights. Two really stood out for me, the Pac-Man episode takes the little gold disc and turns them in to evil AI who encourages a humanoid clone to kill and eat everything in his way, and with shots of the clone devouring gore and intestines so they can grown bigger and stronger for the body horror finale.
In a complete change of pace, the PlayStation episode is an family friendly original story which just happens to feature a few characters from famous Sony franchises. The Helldivers are a hoot, speaking just like they do in the game: “What is that?”, “I don’t know…. SHOOT IT!”
Those are our highlights from the various film and TV game adaptations this year, but what were you watching?