Time to level up.
It’s fair to say that video game adaptations over the years haven’t been… that great, but recently it seems like Hollywood has finally cracked the code.
With successful translations like The Last of Us, Fallout, Minecraft and, most recently, Resident Evil and Street Fighter (depending on who you ask), a definite pattern seems to be emerging. So how exactly do you go about making a good video game adaptation?
Find a story worth watching
Long gone are the days of video games being simple, pixellated platformers with about as much narrative as a packet of crisps. These days, the majority of major video games commit to telling stories worthy of the blockbuster movie treatment.
Take a look at The Last of Us Parts I and II, Naughty Dog’s masterful duology about the survivors of a fungal zombie apocalypse. These games explore meaty themes like parenthood, grief, guilt and, of course, revenge, and feature sequences which force the player to make impossible decisions and perform unforgivable actions.
They also tell a cracking story in two parts, following a pair of epic journeys across a ravaged United States populated by hideous monsters and survivors who are somehow even worse. It’s perfect subject matter for a TV series, and wouldn’t you know it HBO released a critically acclaimed adaptation in 2023.
The key to the show’s success? They barely changed the story at all, keeping the core in place and only expanding in a few interesting ways – that wonderful Bill and Frank episode for example. Hollywood take note: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Give the player character a personality
For every Joel and Ellie – The Last of Us’ beautifully crafted main characters – there are a dozen video game protagonists with no personality at all. They’re designed that way, to be avatars for the player, even to the point that the player can change the way they look and sound.
So how do you make that work on the screen? Invent your own characters, of course! And, crucially, make them interesting.
Take Fallout for example, Amazon’s hugely popular series based on the even more hugely popular post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. The show takes plenty of elements from the games – settings, items, even characters – but does its own thing with the protagonists. And they’re all great characters that you actually want to follow for multiple seasons.
Be loyal to the source material
Video games have some very passionate – and vocal – fans, especially in the age of the Internet, so it’s usually a pretty big mistake to move too far away from your source material. Take Super Mario Bros (1993) for example.
Given full creative license by Nintendo, the writers transformed a delightfully silly platformer with cute characters and buckets of charm into a cynical, dystopian fantasy about a pair of Brooklyn plumbers who are transported to a universe where mankind evolved from dinosaurs. It’s… a bit different.
And it was so badly received that it’s commonly thought of as one of the worst films ever made. Nintendo didn’t allow Hollywood to touch Mario again for 30 years, but 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie – which sticks much more closely to the established franchise – was a huge success.
Who’d have thought?
Go easy on the lore
On the other hand, it’s definitely possible to be a bit too beholden to the source material. It’s one thing to wade through an encyclopedia of lore while playing a video game, but you can’t expect cinema audiences to do the same thing.
Nothing kills the action like an extended exposition dump. Take Assassin’s Creed (2016) for example – the movie tries to insert as much of the games’ deep, convoluted lore as possible, and the end result is just a bit… boring.
If you’re going to dip into a deep well of beloved lore, take a light touch. Include enough to please the long-time fans without boring the rest of the audience to tears.
It’s all about the vibes
Have all of these rules got you feeling daunted? Confused? Maybe even a little scared? Well, rather than a straight adaptation of the story – with all of its complicated lore and beloved characters – why not try adapting the feel of a video game?
Zach Cregger’s recent Resident Evil (2026) movie jettisons all of the convoluted franchise history, instead telling a completely new story set in a rough approximation of the Resi universe. It’s everything you love about Resident Evil – secret labs, genetic experiments gone wrong, insane monsters galore – with none of the baggage.
Just a stripped-back speed-run of the Resident Evil experience. The main character progresses through unique environments (levels), faces new, more deadly threats at each turn and even upgrades his weapons and skills as he goes. It’s classic video game storytelling, played out on the big screen.
And it’s the highest-grossing Resident Evil movie ever. So it must be doing something right.
