8 More Video Games Better Than The Movie They're Based On
Welcome to Tues Your Own Adventure! Join Jules and James as they take a look at more video games better than the movie they're based on! Avoid the movie, play the game!
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00:00 *gibberish*
00:02 One more time, one more time, one more time.
00:04 Hello all of you little demons, Jules here for WhatCulture.com
00:06 back again with another episode of the
00:08 awesomely named and awfully hosted
00:10 Choose Your Own Adventure, the weekly
00:12 medieval format where I, the crown jewels
00:14 of WhatCulture.com take a list chosen by you
00:16 yes, you, the person who has
00:18 unfortunately got a rather nasty ingrown hair
00:20 on the side of my head. I've said this before
00:22 I'm bold. God, why?
00:24 You've made me bold, why do you also give me
00:26 ingrown hairs? That's not fair. That is not
00:28 fair, and yes, it is as painful as it looks
00:30 so apologies, you're just going to have to put up with staring
00:32 at my third eye over here.
00:34 Right, yes, you get to decide
00:36 what list I dole out to you each and every
00:38 week, and this week we have *ba ba ba ba ba ba*
00:40 my drum trumpets, as
00:42 somebody pointed out in the previous episode.
00:44 Big Gran, and their suggestion of
00:46 video games better than the movie
00:48 that they're based on. Now here's the thing,
00:50 Jess actually did a video very recently
00:52 that covered this exact topic. It was
00:54 very confusing to see this suggestion come up and then be
00:56 told by my boss we've actually already had this one in the works
00:58 so what I've done is I've done a
01:00 sequel to this already. We're doing
01:02 8 more, baby, you can't
01:04 stop this train rolling, so let's get on
01:06 with this lovely list, shall we? As I'm
01:08 Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are
01:10 8 more video games better
01:12 than the movie they're based on, and you
01:14 know the drill by now. Say hi to me
01:16 here over in the live chat and pop your suggestions
01:18 for next week's episode down in the comment
01:20 section below. Now with that in mind, let's get
01:22 on with this list, shall we?
01:24 Number 8, Ratchet & Clank for the PS4
01:26 Now I know what you're probably thinking
01:28 to yourself, James, that you're probably thinking
01:30 Jules, you absolute pebble-headed
01:32 idiot, what are you doing, smoking the asbestos
01:34 again? Get down from the roof, mate.
01:36 I'm pretty sure that Ratchet & Clank was a
01:38 game for the PS2 and not a
01:40 movie to begin with. Well, you know what, mate?
01:42 I know that's what you were thinking, but why don't you
01:44 suck on some of this? That's right,
01:46 it's the Evil Finger Temple.
01:48 It's back, baby, because I've got a scheme.
01:50 That's right, you've fallen
01:52 into my trap. For you see, my dear
01:54 friend, the Ratchet & Clank video game that
01:56 dropped on the PS4 wasn't actually
01:58 a remake of the beloved first game
02:00 in the series, it was actually a video game
02:02 based on a movie of the same name, which itself
02:04 was based on the original game.
02:06 And what an experience
02:08 it was, offering up beautiful graphics,
02:10 an astounding dollop of nostalgia,
02:12 and some cutscenes ripped from the movie
02:14 tying things together. It's just a
02:16 shame, really, that the movie itself felt
02:18 rather flat, as despite all of its flash,
02:20 never felt like it was really firing on all
02:22 cylinders. Thankfully, the movie's
02:24 splices were kept to a minimum so the gameplay
02:26 could speak for itself, and reminded
02:28 the world why this pair of platforming pals
02:30 are as well regarded as they are.
02:32 I always feel like we've got a kind of
02:34 Ratchet & Clank vibe going on here, James.
02:36 You know what I'm saying? I'm the wisecracking
02:38 superhero, main star of the show,
02:40 good looking and all, and you're just this, uh,
02:42 this backpack that I wear.
02:44 You know?
02:46 Number 7 - Alien 3
02:48 Now, it's no secret that the third Alien
02:50 film had something of a troubled production,
02:52 with massive changes to its directorial
02:54 team, a desire for the central cast
02:56 to exit the franchise permanently,
02:58 and of course, the fact that shooting
03:00 began without an official script in place.
03:02 Therefore, it is something of a
03:04 miracle that Alien 3 was as
03:06 watchable as it was. Don't get me wrong,
03:08 it's still a pretty awful movie,
03:10 but you know what? I don't think I could do any better
03:12 without any script
03:14 in place, although I do know that my
03:16 version of Alien 3 would have actually included
03:18 a lot more Xenomorph Dog,
03:20 and if you don't know what that is, check it out, I'm sure that James
03:22 has put a picture of it up right here right now.
03:24 Look at that! That is adorably
03:26 deadly. Therefore, when it came to the obligatory
03:28 movie tie-in video game,
03:30 the bar was set pretty low, meaning
03:32 that this project could have just been squirted out
03:34 with little care and been considered better
03:36 by the fanbase. Yet Alien 3
03:38 actually went one step beyond and delivered
03:40 two amazing games with completely
03:42 different vibes for the Genesis
03:44 and the Schneers. For those of you
03:46 looking for a highly polished action game with
03:48 an utterly banging soundtrack,
03:50 then the Genesis version was for you.
03:52 Yet, if you were looking for more suspense
03:54 and scares, then the Schneers
03:56 version capitalised on minimalistic
03:58 horror. It's actually impossible to
04:00 compare these two games as they really did
04:02 strike different chords, but when
04:04 combined, they made that sweet cacophony
04:06 of screams that I've been told in space
04:08 nobody can hear. Number 6.
04:10 Cars the video game. Right, okay,
04:12 so let's face facts here. Cars
04:14 as a movie property is a
04:16 very, well, greasy one
04:18 indeed. In fact, I'm pretty sure that
04:20 somebody just slapped down a volume
04:22 of "How to market to dummies for
04:24 dummies, ya dummy" and then just
04:26 slapped a picture of Lightning McQueen on the top saying
04:28 "Ka-cha-ka-chow!" Whatever it is
04:30 he says. "Ka-pow! Ka-bing!
04:32 Bazinga-bean! Big bang bazinga-beans!"
04:34 I don't know,
04:36 it's a piece of sh*t film.
04:38 Because boy howdy, this film is just
04:40 the worst. It doesn't matter if you thought
04:42 that the story about a pompous car learning
04:44 some humility was a good one, the fact
04:46 of the matter is that this was the most blatant
04:48 Disney has ever been when it came to their
04:50 desire to unload toys, and lest we
04:52 not forget, they made an entire franchise
04:54 based around toys themselves.
04:56 I think it was called like a capitalist
04:58 story or something like that? I forget.
05:00 Everything from the ground up was designed
05:02 around an item or a playset to be
05:04 portioned off and sold to the public.
05:06 And when coupled with a three act tale so
05:08 thin on material, a ghost looked more
05:10 substantial, made for one of the weakest
05:12 Pixar films in years. And
05:14 yet, the game released alongside this
05:16 film was actually really decent.
05:18 This was down to the fact that with such a
05:20 generic film to go off and such an easy
05:22 adaptation to work with... Because let me just
05:24 run the numbers on that one. James,
05:26 let's go to the lab for a second, shall we?
05:28 So we've got cars,
05:30 plus game,
05:32 carry the one, equals...
05:34 Cargo Broom Broom Game!
05:36 So yeah, the devs were basically handed a home
05:38 run. The fact that they went above
05:40 and beyond to make the drifting feel responsive
05:42 and the AI challenging enough to demand
05:44 your attention, really was the icing
05:46 on a rather oily cake.
05:48 Number 5 - The Mummy Demastered
05:50 Okay, so let's face facts.
05:52 The 2017 Tom
05:54 Cruise starring The Mummy was
05:56 a bit of a bomb.
05:58 In fact, to call it a bomb would actually
06:00 imply that it had any sort of impact
06:02 whatsoever, as this was kind of like a drab
06:04 sprinkling of confetti. Wet
06:06 confetti at that, in the back alley of a Tesco's.
06:08 And on each part of the confetti,
06:10 it just had a smad cr- smad?
06:12 A smad? I'm smad!
06:14 I've gone smad, James!
06:16 On each part of the confetti, it just had a
06:18 sad emoji face on it.
06:20 It was a piece of trash.
06:22 Things started off poorly
06:24 with a trailer being released online with a
06:26 missing audio track, meaning that all we could
06:28 hear was Cruise's grunts and groans, something
06:30 that would indeed be echoed by the audiences
06:32 upon watching the final product.
06:34 As this was utterly woeful.
06:36 It was clear that, much like DC
06:38 had found out prior, that rushing towards
06:40 an ensemble movie in order to launch a cinematic
06:42 universe was only ever going to end
06:44 in disaster. Yet, unlike DC
06:46 who had the strength of their characters to pull
06:48 things back into place, this horror cinematic
06:50 universe had, uh...
06:52 Tom Cruise
06:54 chewing scenery and running away from badly
06:56 animated ghosts?
06:58 Yay! Oh, the two-thumb seal's
07:00 back! Yay! Oaf, oaf!
07:02 However, while things were looking pretty dire
07:04 on the film front, the Mummy Demastered
07:06 which was released alongside the film, was
07:08 truly excellent. A Metroidvania
07:10 experience through and through, this game
07:12 looked as beautiful as it was brutal.
07:14 But the best feature by
07:16 far was that when you died, your body would
07:18 become possessed, meaning that you'd need to dispatch
07:20 this shambling corpse in order to get
07:22 back your loot. This, coupled with
07:24 some exceptional level design, meant that while
07:26 the film equivalent was drowning, the Mummy
07:28 Demastered was riding a huge wave
07:30 of critical and commercial acclaim.
07:32 Number 4, The Warriors
07:34 Oh, I absolutely
07:36 love The Warriors film, I absolutely
07:38 love it, my friends. It is a
07:40 cult classic that most definitely
07:42 lives up to the second part of that label,
07:44 offering up vibrant and over-the-top
07:46 gangs, a ruthlessly simple plot
07:48 of 'get home without being battered',
07:50 something that people who live in Gateshead can feel
07:52 very seen by, and yes, I can say that because
07:54 I live there, and of course, the endlessly
07:56 quotable lines of dialogue.
07:58 It is ridiculous, and I love
08:00 it. Therefore I, alongside
08:02 so many others, were sent into an absolute
08:04 spin when it was announced that Rockstar of
08:06 all people was going to be making a video game
08:08 adaptation of The Warriors decades
08:10 after the film's release, and you know what?
08:12 It was absolutely
08:14 stunning. It captured the magic
08:16 of the film immediately, presenting a rough
08:18 and gritty aesthetic that was backed up with
08:20 hard-hitting and tooth-rattling combat.
08:22 Yet, its most surprising
08:24 touch of brilliance was that the game actually gave
08:26 us a prequel tale informing players
08:28 on how The Warriors got started as
08:30 they split from, and then defeated,
08:32 the Destroyers. It could have been a
08:34 throwaway prologue, but the devs went above
08:36 and beyond here, elevating
08:38 the entire IP and expanding
08:40 upon the characters that we knew
08:42 and loved. And when you add in all of the
08:44 hard-hitting combat and a fantastic
08:46 two-player offering, this game,
08:48 oh, it absolutely smacks!
08:50 Smacks, mate!
08:52 Number 3 - Toy Story 2 - Buzz Lightyear
08:54 to the Rescue. Right, okay.
08:56 I have got something very,
08:58 very special for you today.
09:00 I am bringing back
09:02 the Wumper List, alright?
09:04 I'm letting you know in advance,
09:06 okay? All I'm saying is,
09:08 Toy Story,
09:10 Andy's Mum's Bedside Drawer,
09:12 these two are on a collision
09:14 course, but they are being
09:16 intercepted by the true Wumper List,
09:18 which is me giving an entire entry
09:20 to James Dowse. Oh, yeah,
09:22 baby! Hit it! What?
09:24 Number 3 - Toy Story 2 - Buzz
09:26 Lightyear to the Rescue. Right, so this game
09:28 is absolutely fantastic. I played
09:30 so much of it as a kid, and when you've
09:32 got the film, which is a 10 out of 10 film
09:34 in itself, from beginning to end, you cry,
09:36 you laugh, you cry again, because Jesse gets,
09:38 you know, abandoned in that box.
09:40 That's not the point. The game
09:42 is just even,
09:44 that little tiny bit better, because you play
09:46 as Buzz, and you go around all of the locations
09:48 that were in the film, you fight
09:50 the old prospector, you race
09:52 against Arcee, you do everything
09:54 that you always wanted to do in
09:56 a Toy Story game, and then some?
09:58 It's just absolutely outstanding.
10:00 And that's all I've gotta say.
10:02 Brilliant game.
10:04 Well done. Well done, James. Well done. Fantastic
10:06 performance.
10:08 Number 2 - Dragon Ball Evolution.
10:10 So, IGN
10:12 once called Dragon Ball Evolution
10:14 for the PSP, "a piece
10:16 of trash, a disaster
10:18 burned to UMD." And that
10:20 is some pretty serious accolades,
10:22 let me tell ya.
10:24 And yet, and
10:26 yet, it is still
10:28 a better, a better project
10:30 than the goddamn silver
10:32 screen version. Because I say this
10:34 with ultimate peace and love, despite
10:36 this game not being fit to blow my
10:38 arse on, it is still better than the
10:40 abomination that was the DBZ-E
10:42 film. Seriously, if you have never seen it,
10:44 do yourself a favor and continue
10:46 to live with the serenity such a choice has
10:48 befitted you with. It is genuinely stunning
10:50 that a project with this amount of content
10:52 to draw on, and with this amount of good
10:54 will, failed so spectacularly.
10:56 Butchering beloved characters,
10:58 botching what should have been climactic fights,
11:00 and setting up for a sequel that thankfully
11:02 never came. And so,
11:04 when your fighting game barely works,
11:06 looks like it was made using assets from the
11:08 PS2 game A Dog's Life, and
11:10 is about as deep as a shallow
11:12 grave, it is still
11:14 better than Dragon Ball
11:16 Evolution that came
11:18 out in cinemas.
11:20 Goddamnit. And number one,
11:22 World War Z. Now to say
11:24 that some were hyped for the release of the World
11:26 War Z movie was a bit of an
11:28 understatement, what with the fanbase themselves
11:30 forming a towering mass of bodies that were
11:32 clambering over one another to see how Max
11:34 Brooks' phenomenally granular survival
11:36 guide would be adapted for the big screen.
11:38 However, those groans and cries
11:40 dulled significantly when it turned out
11:42 that Brad Pitt would helm the project
11:44 as its lead, thus confirming that it would be yet
11:46 another by-the-numbers zombie flick
11:48 for the popcorn-munching masses.
11:50 And lo and behold, upon hitting cinemas, it was
11:52 clear as day that all the edges had been
11:54 smoothed off this film, and an upbeat
11:56 Deus Ex Machina moment was included
11:58 so as not to ever challenge the audience
12:00 in the slightest. Therefore, it was a bit
12:02 strange to see this lukewarm pool of
12:04 piss be used to baptise a game of the
12:06 same name in 2019,
12:08 six years after the film's release.
12:10 And even more shocking was the fact that this game was bloody
12:12 excellent. Now, to be fair, the game did struggle
12:14 a bit out of the gate, being compared
12:16 a lot to Left 4 Dead 2.5,
12:18 but then again, that is not exactly what I'd call
12:20 a criticism, and thanks to the continued
12:22 support from the devs and the modding
12:24 community at large, they basically kept the game
12:26 alive and then elevated it again and again
12:28 and again, to the point now where if you go back
12:30 and play it today, there's still players online
12:32 and they're having a great time.
12:34 It's so varied, there's so much to do,
12:36 there's so many relentless enemies to kill
12:38 and survive, it's just... it's a very fun
12:40 game. And seeing as Back 4 Blood
12:42 kind of pulled its own kegs
12:44 down a little bit, still waiting for that
12:46 to be rebalanced to be good enough to play,
12:48 and recommend at least, I'm
12:50 actually finding myself tempted to go back.
12:52 So yeah, it's a good game,
12:54 based on a pretty, hoo-hoo-hoo, not
12:56 so good movie. And there we go my friends, those were
12:58 eight more video games better than the movie
13:00 they were based on. I hope that you enjoyed that
13:02 and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments
13:04 section below, as well as your suggestions for next
13:06 week's episode. As always, if you
13:08 want to chat to me further, you can do so over on Twitter
13:10 @RetroJWithA0, or you can
13:12 swing by Liv and Let's Dice, where I do all
13:14 of my streaming outside of work, and it'd be great
13:16 to see you over there. At the moment I'm going through
13:18 WWE2K22, and we've built a
13:20 character who is a Jacobean
13:22 ghost, called Spooky Ghost,
13:24 and he is haunting his way to the top
13:26 in style. Oh yes.
13:28 Yes, but before I go,
13:30 I do just want to say one more thing.
13:32 Hope you're treating yourself with love and respect
13:34 my friend, because you deserve all of the best things
13:36 in life, and do not let anything or anyone else
13:38 tell you otherwise, alright? You're a massive
13:40 ledge, now go out there and utterly smash
13:42 it. Big love to ya.
13:44 See you next time. Bye.