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Do you cringe at the memories of Double Dragon and the Mario Bros. films? Did you clamor to the theater to see Max Payne and/or Doom? Well, that means you are aware that video game movies are about as hit or miss as comic book movies. Personally, I feel like there is a great deal of potential in the video game universe for some really great movies. After giving it some thought, the following are five games that I think would make for excellent films, in no particular order.

The Halo series

Let’s face it, I’m preaching to the choir with this one. Peter Jackson was already campaigning for the rights to do this movie, and I personally think they should let him. The Halo series is bolstered by novels that expand the universe and give the story depth. The only real issue is that Master Chief, the star of the core games, doesn’t have much to say over the course of two whole games, and even in the third he’s never a chatty Cathy. Sure, the special effects and such will cost a pretty penny, but I think sci-fi fans will be drawn to the elaborate set up of the galaxy according to Bungie.

Punch-Out!!

Hold on; before you stop reading hear me out. What if they made a Punch-Out!! movie with effects similar to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World? I’m not talking about Mike Tyson’s version of the game, but the original game. Wouldn’t it be cool to see a tongue-in-cheek boxing movie full of all those colorful characters with freaky abilities like Soda Popinsky and Piston Honda? What can make a movie is the characters, much in the same way characters can make a game. If Punch-Out!! didn’t have such a colorful cast of boxers to face off against, it wouldn’t be such a classic. Ask yourself, who talks about Ring King?

The Mass Effect series

Mass Effect is damn near a movie in and of itself. I’m thinking they could do a CGI film a la Spirits Within or Beowulf and kill at the box office. They didn’t vote Mass Effect 2 as a game of the year because it sucked, people! If done right, John Sheppard could be a box office darling. The story of Mass Effect is more than just homage to Star Trek; it’s a deeply involved space odyssey that takes a fresh look at that age-old question, “are we truly alone in the universe?” If they stick with the CGI, then all the voice actors for the game can come over to make the film... I smell perfection!

Left 4 Dead

I know, I know, it's zombies, and zombies have been done. But what if this story focused on four badass zombie survivors that ran amok? We’ve seen slow-moving zombies and fast-moving zombies. We’ve seen zombie comedies, but have we seen zombie fighting action heroes? The Left 4 Dead series would finally show us people who aren’t afraid to face the zombie apocalypse.

Castlevania

Much like Left 4 Dead, vampires aren’t exactly groundbreaking territory. But we’re talking about making a good film, and I think that Castlevania has tremendous depth. Simon Belmont suffers from the same issue as Master Chief - he doesn’t really say much (in all fairness, no character did back then). However, people love vampires, and I honestly feel like people will get a kick out of seeing the first family of vampire hunters go to work. There are plenty of games to draw material from, and again the vampire genre never seems to get old. It’s an idea...

Well, what do you think? If the video game industry is interested in striking while the iron is hot, they could do much worse as far as breaking into new markets. Here’s hoping that at least one of these films gets made. I know I’ll be in line for a ticket…will you? 

Dante' R. Maddox

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