Video games based on movies used to be everywhere years ago, but they've been on a bit of a hiatus as of late. That's changing a little bit, with MachineGames taking on the responsibilities of an Indiana Jones video game, while IO Interactive tackles a new James Bond game with Project 007.
If video game movies are having a comeback and this isn't just a flash in the pan, there are a few movies that have some really solid game potential that needs to be explored in the future. (Fair warning, this will contain slight spoilers for the mentioned movies.)
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Christopher Nolan's Tenet has an incredibly unique premise. There's time travel, but instead of jumping into some kind of machine (like a DeLorean), characters have to, essentially, walk it back. To go backward in time, characters still have to be present, but everything around them is, from their perspective, moving backward. Those moving backward through time need their own air supply. Hot becomes cold, meaning those caught on fire would get hypothermia, along a slew of other opposite effects. There's more to it than just that, but that is the basic gist of it all. Characters can then go through "loops", where they're present at the same time multiple different times, moving either forward or backward. This allows them to influence things in multiple different ways at the same time.
One developer that comes to mind that should be able to handle a concept like this perfectly is Arkane, the developer behind Dishonored, Prey, and the upcoming Deathloop. Arkane is, perhaps, the most talented developer at taking high-concept ideas and turning it into impressive gameplay, which is absolutely what would be needed here. Arkane creates massively detailed levels that have a breadth of player-choice available; it could do some exciting things creating levels where the player has to create multiple loops in order to complete it. It could, essentially, turn it into a co-op game, where the other players are actually the same player, just working together on a different loop.
While it's understandable a Hunger Games video game hasn't been made yet due to the subject matter (especially not as a straight-up Battle Royale), this is a property that could end up creating a really cool single-player, narrative game. It could be a difficult game to make, as games usually steer clear of the whole killing-children thing, but if there was no glorification of it and the subject matter was handled in a way that develops the narrative and tells an important story, then it would be no different than the books/movies.
A developer that has the storytelling chops to pull this off would be Naughty Dog. It's proven time and time again to be able to handle tough stories that handle challenging subject matter, but it always manages to pull it off and tell an incredible story. Aside from that, combat in Naughty Dog games, especially people vs. people combat in The Last of Us series, always feels like it has a bit of weight to it. In most games it's satisfying, feels good even, to take down an enemy. But in The Last of Us, it kind of feels like a bummer. It might have been necessary, but in a lot of cases, the weight of what just happened hits harder than it does in a lot of different games. Handling combat this way would be crucial in a Hunger Games video game, especially when in the actual Hunger Game itself.
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2008's Speed Racer movie is criminally underrated, and there hasn't been a video game adaptation of the property, based on any iteration of it, ever since the game released around that same time. While that game was a solid interpretation of the Car Fu in Speed Racer, the time has come for a new iteration. With the gaming hardware available now, so much could be done with this game; absolutely insane tracks could be built, sacrificing nothing. The Car Fu could also be a million times more in-depth this time around, even going so far as allowing car customization that drastically changes both the driving and fighting capabilities of a vehicle.
A developer that has the potential to knock this out of the park is Rockstar. Rockstar has a knack for the more extreme ideas, and already has a solid foundation when it comes to driving mechanics, as evidenced by GTA 5. GTA Online has some absolutely wild courses made by both developers and players alike, showing Rockstar also has the skillset to create fantastically outlandish courses.
There have been plenty of Lord of the Rings games, and a lot of them don't quite hit the mark. There are some gems here and there, though it's been quite a long time since there's been a Lord of the Rings game that's an open-world, chill, single-player, classic RPG. A Lord of the Rings RPG with a frankly ludicrous-sized open-world, where players can make the trek from the Shire to Mount Doom, seeing everything in-between.
It doesn't necessarily have to take place during the time period of the books or movies; in fact, it might be better if it didn't. Let players make a character of their own choosing, and set out into the huge open-world, taking on quests and doing what matters to them. Make the world big enough that it truly takes quite a while to get from Point A to Point B, and put enough interesting and beautiful stuff along the way that players are cool with that.
Bethesda is the obvious choice to accomplish this. It's capable of creating a big and varied open-world, although ideally, the world in this Lord of the Rings game would be bigger than anything Bethesda's created yet. Bethesda does a great job in creating a world that is just a nice time to be in, especially when it comes to the Elder Scrolls franchise. Tamriel is a world where it can be legitimately nice to stop and look at the view, which would be absolutely crucial in recreating Tolkien's Middle Earth.
