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The curse of the videogame-to-movie conversion - SciFiNow

The curse of the videogame-to-movie conversion

Unveiling the videogame adaptations that have well and truly played us over the years.

Uh oh, it looks like Warner Bros. is ignoring a yet-to-be-bucked trend and is powering ahead with a remake/reboot of Mortal Kombat. This trend is, of course, that of videogame adaptations being a bit naff, and in order to apply the finishing death move to this point we have rounded up the very worst game-related movies.

ign-presents-the-history-of-street-fighter-20090216084319852Street Fighter

With such a popular fighting franchise to source from, it’s quite beguiling how badly this one got messed up. There’s so much to criticise in this movie – Jean-Claude Van Damme as all-American brawler Guile, and Kylie Minogue as Cammy remain standout faux pas – but for us the biggest insult has to be Blanka’s back story re-vamp. Skip this and watch Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie instead.

far-cry-20ifnilne5_1199926897Far Cry

There’s a number of decent videogames that Uwe Boll has mangled into films over the years, but by far the worst of these has to be Far Cry. This straight-to-DVD stinker has pretty much nothing going for it, and features a brooding Til Schweiger getting up to all kinds of low budget mischief in the jungle. Avoid this one at all costs.

1Super Mario Bros.

In all honesty, Super Mario Bros. never really was the stuff ripe for a cinematic outing. Who wants to see a fat plumber climbing around pipes, munching on flowers and stomping on lizards? Well actually, we did. Because what Hollywood actually delivered with this adaptation was some kind of alternate dimension romp that didn’t make any sense.

Picture 1Max Payne

This dark neo-noir made for a pretty damn thrilling gaming experience. Giving players the chance to control one moody son of a gun in the game’s titular character, this offering from 3D Realms featured a slow-motion gimmick that bolstered the already addictive gunplay. The film, however, wasn’t so fun and featured a grumpy Mark Wahlberg trudging through a plot without any focus.

doubledragon7Double Dragon

For pure camp laughs and ridiculous casting look no further than this version of the popular co-op fighting series. Brothers in arms Scott Wolf and Mark Dacascos are just plain bad, so too is Alyssa Milano in an early role, but we can’t help but tip our hats to Robert Patrick for his weird role as the film’s main baddie.

If you disagree with this list, or have a couple of video game adaptations that deserve to be named and shamed, let yourself be heard on the comments thread below.