I've always been thinking the game industry should also mine comics more like Hollywood studios do... instead of mostly mining Hollywood.

TC

We need less comic book anything, and more original I.P.

raiseplease

I would play The Goon: The Game. Most likely.

Koontz

@TheNexusRebound: Do you read The Darkness? How well did the game fare in capturing the comic book? I don't really read comics but The Darkness was so kickass that I have thought about checking it out.

liquid_kore

What's wrong with the Hellboy movies?

TheGuilty1

They made a video game out of The Darkness and it was awesome. I've also read they're making a sequel to it.

igpx407

I still want a Blade of the Immortal video game, I was pretty mad when the first inkling of Manji in a game was taken away (Way of the Samurai, PS2, 2002, he was a hidden costume). Still, there's a lot of properties I've read throughout the years I'd like to see made into a good game that hasn't had any film or animation adapatation. But heck, I think about how *everything* could be a game, it's just my primary mode of thinking.

Great article though, I'd hope it does some good in maybe getting some developer cooking up their next project to lay it on the line and create a comic book game that hasn't been realized in another medium already. But I wonder how the transition will work, comic fans are very sensitive about their favorite stories. Even when a film is successful in adapting it the first looks always get bad attention because it's just different, regardless of the end product. Since games are typically so much longer and can explore so much at once is anyone going to take the liberty they do in a movie when adapting a comic? It could be a good thing after all, straight adaptations can be pedantic and boring.

Absent Blue

@dead_red_eyes:

You know, I gave a bit of thought to a Walking Dead Game, as a mod developer, a few months ago-and quickly decided it'd be a pretty bad idea. The reason people read the Walking Dead isn't for action or even shooting zombies, it's all about character development. The comic is also about Terror-and the kind of terror they're feeling in the comics-what is the world like, where is everyone, is anyone else alive-isn't really something that can be conveyed in a game. There's been 52 Walking Dead issues and maybe only 2 of them have scenes that could be converted to game format.
I mean, unless you want to play through the 4 months they were in the prison farming (Harvest Moon?) or when they eat a lot of beans (Major League Eating), maybe a minigame where you cut off the Governor's "little governor". (Cooking Mama!)
A lot of comics are like that. They're comics because they can't be TV shows, they can't be movies and they can't be books. And they sure can't be games.

Though I didn't forsake the idea completely. I looked up at my bookshelf and saw World War Z-containing plenty of chapters that could be turned into a great zombie game.

Mascott

I will say it once I will say it again. I need a true X-men game to harken back to those past greats no more movie tie ins. A Hunter-Killer, Witchblade and a true to the story Darkness in a 3rd person would be nice.

TheNexusRebound

Astro City would make a great sandbox GTA kind of game.

Human Bomb

@DonnieWod: Frank Miller/ Geoff Darrow HardBoiled not the John Woo Hardboiled.

coyote12

@theuglyteradon:

Having both Hellboy games for PS1 and 3 I can say you are wrong. The PS1 was waaaaayyyyy worse. The PS3 had simple game mechanics (smash everything) but it looked cool and it did have the Kriegaffe fights and other elements from the comic book series.

And the Hellboy films were not shitty unless you are one of those tools who goes to movies and hates everything they see. Guillermo did a great job on both.

And yeah they already made the HardBoiled game. It was pretty lackluster. All you did was drive the Jesus H Crysler around on rails and shoot things.

coyote12

@Takamoto:

Oh hell yeah, Comix Zone was ahead of its time.

LittleBigPlaneteer

Ooh yes! Gimme Hard Boiled!

Sin City is coming I guess, with emphasis on the graphic novels rather than the movie, which is nice. Marvel and DC seem to get their heroes in videogames too, but their stories and worlds we have seen and heard a zillion times.

Names that could do well even in mainstream come to mind: Moore, Gaiman, Gibbons, etc.. The potential is indeed there!

kryo

@DreadPirateRobots: In your preacher game would there be a part where you get your eye bitten out by God and the later meet a creepy guy with a giant woman made of meat???

I think I've said before.... as awesome as it is, we never need to talk about Preacher ever again.

Although..... A Sandman game??? Impossible. You'd journey between the worlds of waking and dreaming and venture into Hell itself to find your stuff. Then you have to convince Shakespeare to become awesome and interact with the rest of the Endless while destroying various skerries that have escaped your realm.

Actually a Myst-like game involving the Endless might be pretty sweet.

Human Bomb

From the opinion of a huge Bone fan, the telltale games were SHIT. They focused way too much on the childness of the series, but in my opinion Bone is like Lord of the Rings if all the characters were from Calvin and Hobbes. It is much more epic than they let on.

I'd love to see...a V for Vendetta game.

And a Watchmen game that isn't tied to the movie. Do it right.

spoonytrain

I want a Blame! game but that level of awesome... It would destroy the universe... but its just so tempting that it seems like its worth it...

But decent people would have to intentionaly make it suck but that would also destroy the universe...

SEE WHAT YOUVE DONE!!!

SaanZ

Also, I can't think of what type of game "Fables" could translate into. Too many awesome characters. Maybe a 2D fighter?

The_Last_Skunk

A Comix Zone remake would be good :D

Takamoto

@buddhaman510: I agree, 100 Bullets is the first comic I think of when I hear this idea. It could be like a more coherent but still varied version of Killer 7.

@unknownoliver: If there were such a game in development I would be elated.

Another property worth exploring would be Concrete. I could see a lot of potential in that one, though getting across the nuances of the character would be pretty difficult. They could do a Indigo Prophecy-style treatment of Powers, too, or a Phoenix Wright take on Top 10. Or Scott Pilgrim, with XX/XY minigames and rhythm based ex-boyfriend boss battles!

dukerayburn

@Nesagwa:

He's in Australia. I think everything is delayed 6 months over there (at least!).

LittleBigPlaneteer

A video game based on the "Lore" or "Popbot" series would be awesome if only for the Ashley Wood art direction

The_Last_Skunk

@dead_red_eyes: Seconded.

Human Bomb

@sinister6000: you'll have to settle for stranglehold

DonnieWod

@LittleBigPlaneteer:

Okay, so they're probablyy not like the comics but still!

LittleBigPlaneteer

@buddhaman510:
@unknownoliver:
@DreadPirateRobots:

"Acclaim announced in 2004 that they were developing a video game based on 100 Bullets. That game had a distinct film noir style, with some people comparing it to Max Payne. The project was canceled shortly after Acclaim went bankrupt. A PAL version was released but the game was unfinished, having a small number of missions and features. The game project announced by D3 Publisher is not related to the Acclaim project."

[en.wikipedia.org])

dead_red_eyes

Hard Boiled would be such a kick ass game (or for that matter the comic Kick Ass! would be a good game too). Bone could have been phenomenal if it had picked up more steam, and had something a little more unique to it.

Any Hellboy game that is firmly rooted in the awesome comic needs to have a part where he drinks rum.... with skeletons.

Human Bomb

Although I would like to see Killy again, turning Blame! into a videogame would be very hard :/

Garo

Nice article Luke, until you said Hellboy was shitty. The movies (both I and II) were great. The second being superior to the first. See it!

LittleBigPlaneteer

@87th:

HOLY SHIT! I never knew there was a Hard Boiled game! Japan only eh? Looks craptastic tho.

dead_red_eyes

@DreadPirateRobots: Didn't they have a 100 Bullets game in development? I remember hearing about some studio going under and it being scrapped.

unknownoliver

Weren't they trying to make 100 Bullets into a game? Are they still doing that?

buddhaman510

I would like to see "The Walking Dead" be made into a game.

dead_red_eyes

[uk]

+ Watch video

87th

Bioware + Comics FTW.

DreadPirateRobots

For a quarter of a second there, I was bubbling with excitement when I saw the (unfortunately) fake box art for Hard Boiled. That would be such a great game....

ActualSimulation

Earthboy Jacobus plz!

The_Atomic_Pod

I think a Lobo the duck game should be made. Or even a straight up Lobo game would be cool.

liquid_kore

Hellboy wasn't a shitty movie :(

wicko

calvin and hobbes platform game would be AMAZING. i mean they could just do SO MANY AMAZING LEVELS

amaroth

I think the problem right now is that video games, as a medium to tell a narrative, is still in its infancy. For as long as the player is in control, the story is never really advanced. The player only participates in a simple scenario with a simple objective, and the narrative only really advances during the cutscenes.

We're getting better at it, but we're not there yet.

Raian1

i would kill for a "Hard Boiled" game.

KILL.

sinister6000

100 Bullets would be badass. A Preacher game would be phenomenal.
Of course a Sin City game would be sweet...but we'll see if Mad World does the trick.

But yeah...seems like only Marvel and DC get love from the gaming industry.

DreadPirateRobots

I do this all the time... Sometimes with movies, sometimes with comics, usually on the john, sometimes in the shower. And I highly recommend DMZ, excellent taste you got there Mr. Plunkett.

art_zombie

There was a Hellboy game on the PS1... it was probably better than the new game.

theuglyteradon

Was this written 6 months ago?

Hellboy 2 has been out since June...

And Science of Evil has been out on PSP for a good long while.

Nesagwa

Ya Blame! would make a sick movie live action. They are making an animated movie of Blame! though and i know this for sure.

tom1000

I would like an Invincible 3rd-person sandbox game please.

Morithain

Probably should have picked out the images better. There's been games of Hard Boiled and Bone.

87th

I agree, a comic book turned into a movie turned into a videogame is usually the only way that the process is handled. We need more Red Stars.

Fazuzzu

I was just thinking about how awesome a Goon game would be. You've got zombies, mobsters, dragons and giant spiders. What more do you need? You could even play as Franky and use the "Knife to the Eye" special move! Man, that would be sweet...

savagenapkin

Where's my Button Man game?

aphexmalus

@Quilt: Yeah, I was going to say Sam & Max is a comic book game, a hilarious, probably under-read comic book at that. Pick up Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway and be amused.

justinslot

@BryanH: I would eat a live baby just for Warren Ellis to finish the last damn issue. It's been on the back-burner for YEARS. He could release it on a table napkin and I'd buy the damn thing. Just so long as it's finally DONE.

Quilt

Luke, you just won my complete agreement by just mentioning Blame, I could not bleive my eyes when I saw it on the main page. I have given some thought about how a Blame game can look like and I can say.. there is a lot of room for Blame to become a really intense game.. I think if you take Mirror Edge, combine it with Bioshock, sprinkle some Gears of War and add a hint of Shadow of the Colossus Colossus will get yourself a Blame game. Huge architecture, long travels (relativly to human time), Cyborgs, Gravity beam emiiter, Net beings.. it all adds up.

nothing beats a 3 km death blast from killy, what made the Comic so intresting for me is that Killy doesn't have to win.. he finds characters that can make him piss in his pants and focuses on running away. A lot of potential..

Plsk1n

Planetary: the Game?

I just came. Napkin, please?

Roudi

I'd love to see games based on Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Hack/Slash and Sandman (the Neil Gaiman graphic novel series), but I'm admittedly not sure how you could transfer those comics to the video game format without having the games ending up as massive suckfests.

@TheGuilty1:
There's nothing wrong with them. The first one was pretty damn good, and the second one was, although not as good as the first one (I missed that mechanical Nazi guy), a decent enough movie.

Combichristoffersen

Man! I've always dreamt of a 'Fables' video game, or at least a lovingly animated series.

Skitch01

When Hollywood continually adapts and remakes everything, we call them creatively bankrupt. So why then do we ask for more of that in games?

brianewing

And imagine what games like Crysis could have been with a good story behind them... hmmm yeah!

Zentac

I would eat a live baby for a Planetary game. Still my favorite comic next to Starman. The last issue cannot get here soon enough. Any day now...

BryanH

Just a side note, both 300 and Sin City are Frank Miller comics, it might be the man just draws incredible story boards for directors... I mean, the new badman films are largely based on the Frank Miller badman comics as well.

Zentac

"And Telltale took a crack at crafting an episodic series based on Jeff Smith's classic Bone series, before leaving it in the lurch to go make more money from Sam & Max."

Here's an interesting note. Sam & Max is originally a comicbook! It would be included as an insert in LucasArts games back in the day. Y'know, back when LucasArts kicked all kinds of ass with non-Star Wars games.

Quilt

I'd love some R-rated, hardcore fun games of Lobo and the Authority. Hell, even Authority's supporting character Kev would make an awesome game.

But regarding comic games I'd say the exactly same thing I say for movies: you need people who understand the comic, the characters, the setting and what makes it special. You need fans.

Poison

@Raian1: I understand what you´re trying to say, most of the games lack depth in terms of story telling, mostly because they prefer to focus on gameplay instead of story, which leave us with games like Gears of War or Halo, which are excellent games but their story is so-so. I think that when publishers start worrying more about the story instead of budgets, we´ll see better quality overall in the games, because we all know it can be done. Someone already highlighted Chrono Trigger, but what about Metal Gear Solid 4 or GTA IV, which have a truly excellent development in story and characters (I can´t recall how many times i was about to cry in MGS4, or how bad i felt when Roman cries while his cab business is burning) and there are a lot of other excellent examples who can be a living proof that gaming can get to that point and let´s hope it does...

Daisuash

@theuglyteradon: That game was supposed to be one ofthe most awful games ever.

Bernard McGraw

@Quilt: It's been finished for a while now. John Cassaday just started drawing it, however, a couple of months ago, I do believe due to his contractual obligations with Marvel with Astonishing X-Men and such.

As for comics that would make good games: Savage Dragon, Body Bags, Black Summer (HAHA), Lone Wolf and Cub, Blade of the Immortal (I've wanted a 2D fighter of this game since it first started being published stateside), Invincible, Wolfskin, WetWorks, Strange Kiss/Stranger Kisses/Gravel, and Monkey Man & O'Brien are all games I would buy, or pay copious amounts of cash to develop as games if I were a billionare.

madpowerbomber

@Raian1: Did you ever play Chrono Trigger???

iam.gmo

@Mascott:

Well, I think it would be nice to have something similar. To where there's a hefty amount of combat, but also character involvement ... so you end up bonding with them, only to be killed seconds later. It would have to be a sort of long game for that too. I think Left 4 Dead will be the closest thing we'll ever get to a super suspenseful Zombie game, with a good amount of character interaction.

dead_red_eyes

The Hellboy movies were excellent, but the second one had better pacing.

Science of Evil was close in terms of story, but it wasn't varying enough to hold my attention.

a SANDMAN GAME!!?!?!?
That WOULD be weird. unless you just followed the first volume and used a weird art style to try and come close to the art of the source material.
Amazing Screw on Head would make a game with enormous potential, with the body swapping integrated into the gameplay, that would be interesting.

Ragna Rock

There actually WAS a Hard-Boiled game on the PS1. It was never released, but I do have a copy of it and it was not all that bad. I mean, it was a driving combat game of sorts, and not really polished because it was never officially finished, but you can see were it was going, and would have been a great game.

misterdna

Dayvie:

EDIT:

I understand that I have made the mistake in that Rorschach and (the second) Night Owl were not in the original Minutemen. What I meant to say was that they could expand on the original Minutemen and move onto the antics of the reformed NEWER Minutemen.

END.

Dayvie

DMZ is awesome I recommend it to anyone does like super heroes comics and want something grounded in the real world.

laxdjames

@87th: BZZZZT. no Hard Boiled game, unless you are talking about John Woo's Stranglehold, which is related to the movie Hard Boiled, which has nothing to do with the Frank Miller comic.

riffleraffle

@spoonytrain:

I was just thinking about a Watchmen game. As sad as it is, I image that there will be a movie tie-in game when the movie hits next year. I shudder at the thought of what that might include.

The only way I can think of a Watchmen game working and being any fun, without destroying the storyline completely, is if they set the game in the 50's and based the storyline around the original Minutemen. That way you could get some backstory in the game from the novel that might not be in the movie, and still have an enjoyable experience prowling the streets of 50's New York taking out Underboss and many other of the tales Rorschach and Night Owl recall in the Watchmen novel.

I wouldnt mind playing that at all.

Dayvie

@wicko: Thank you. Someone need to say that! I agree completely with what the article had to say up until exactly that point. That was a near perfect comic book movie to me, they recreated the world and the characters believably but without losing the over the top nature of it. Del Toro is proving to be one of the only directors with a real head for adapting these things. In fact I believe he's the only guy who's achieved a reasonably good representation of what the post was expressing. A complete take on reproducing the feel of someone else's universe while adapting it to another medium.

Actually Kotaku posted earlier about him being an avid gamer with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus being his all time favorite games. There's no way to fault that!

jacksonmc

Ahhh... The philosophical crap...

DarkHavoc99

Don't toy with my emotions like that. I almost fell over seeing Blame! box art.

Psudonym

Dear lord, a Planetary game would be awesome, if for no other reason than seeing some of John Cassaday's are realized in 3D. It would be amazing.

drifter13

Mmm. Blame.

Insomnia Bob

The Amazing Screw-On Head got his own TV series already too so you can't count him. Okay, maybe it was just a pilot, but it was aired on the Sci-fi channel at least once and it was freakin' amazing.

fearing

Ahhh. Apologies to Luke. Somehow I missed his parenthetical. In that case, let me suggest that the Jimmy Olsen comics of the mid 20th century would be prime material for a game. As would the adventures of Plastic Man.

StephenTotilo

The Walking Dead, for sure would be a pretty crazy story driven zombie game. I also would suggest maybe Hack/Slash.

Kounji

Yeah! Someone should make a Superman game. Or a Batman game. Maybe a Watchmen game too, if they can find the time.

StephenTotilo

Hey, last week I took a crap too !

Musoka

Watchmen Game Proposal:

Level 1 - Snap as many criminals fingers with Rorschach within 2 minutes

Level 2 - Tap A while playing as the Second Nite Owl to maintain an erection

Level 3 - Play as Doctor Manhattan, Hit Y to destory the universe.

Game Over.

Golem29

@DreadPirateRobots: Preacher is my favorite comic series of all time, but I gotta draw the line at speculating that it would be a "phenomenal" videogame. I think it would be a terrible game. What about Preacher could be translated into any type of fun in a videogame? Nothing.

Just leave that one as a comic classic.

GlassAdam?

For the kids who don't know. "Hard Boiled" as a game would be = GTA IV x 100. imagine every cool visceral scene in GTA on one screen n real time. your head would explode.

dadeisvenm

@drifter13: Planetary, most anything by Warren Ellis, would make an interesting game.
I remember someone was working on a 100 Bullets game once but it got canceled.

Shinryoma

There's a Genesis comic book game if I recall correctly.

Glare

I would love to see a Transmetropolitan game. You play one of Spider's assistants and missions consist of finding drugs for Spider, talking him down when he goes insane, helping him operate after losing his journalism insurance, and making sure the two-faced piss-happy cat is fed and cared for. Now, that could be a fun sandbox game.

Sasquatch

Well I really dig the X-Men Legend games, they were the first games (besides X-men 2 on the Genisis & the X-men Apocolypse game on the SNES) that really gave me that comic book feel.

Wasn't really into the Marvel Ultimate Alliance, although the new one looks grand.

Actually Spider Man: Total Carnage was one of the best comic book games I'VE EVER played... Activision needs to bring that one out on the VC! That game was great and hard as sh!t.

Whatever happened to the 100 Bullets game? I have no clue how they could transfer the awesomeness of that comic to the game b/c it's a lot more than just shooting and f'ing things up.

The DMZ a game? Eh... the comic is okay but as a game what would you do take pics the whole time (if you play as the main character)?

Comics I'd like to see make the jump to games

Planetary - if the story could match the gameplay this would be EPIC

Battle Chasers - failed comic would make great beat em up

Blade of the Immortal - if you read the comic imagine this running on the DEAD RISING 360 engine. Shit would be wowsers

FunKrusher

dude, one thing i think would be cool to come along with a lot of comic book related games would be the rebirth of the beat em up. im sure a lot of publishers wouldnt want to risk losing millions by making some epic mgs4 calibur game on an unknown franchise, so they could test them by making beat em ups for xbla, wiiware, or psn. besides.. theyre just so fun..

shouryuuken

Fun Fact: Brian Wood, the writer of DMZ, used to do design for Rockstar. So that's why they're hip.

I don't know about a DMZ game, but others.... sure. Fables, Bone (Jeff Smith's art style in a 3D world?! fuck yes), Godland, Lone Wolf and Cub, Jack Kirby's Fourth World.... the list goes on.

Or how about the reverse? I would love to see a graphic novel featuring those cut-scenes (with more, of course) from Max Payne, the best part of that series.

turkish101

Rogue Trooper was a comic book game, and pretty good to boot. Also, need I remind of the Darkness? It's a great idea, Luke, but I think we're still some ways off it becoming a common thing just yet.

Although, a few games now have reversed the idea and released comics about games, so stranger things have happened.

Capt_Billy

@FunKrusher: Battlechasers wasn't a failed comic. Joe Mad gave up on a sucessful comic to fail at a video game (Dragonkind for the first Xbox the concept art was great though.)

Immortal Iron Fist - beat'em up
Green Lantern/Lantern corps - RPG
Walking Dead - RPG
Battle Royale - FPS

Final

Just give me GTA in Akira's Neo-Tokyo and I'll never have to leave the house again.

CheechWizz

Ugh...

Interesting article.. but if Blame! was ever made into a video game.. or Abara or BioMega for that matter, it would spoil the entire feel and style of the whole story/world.

Keep them in their darkened, broken world for the masses to enjoy... Some things are just not meant to be video games, more original idea's plens! Say no to Licensed titles!

Spooty75

I think you may have nearly pulled an elvis on the Toilet. Somehow you survived the blood clot in your brain but next time take a stool softenter that shit can kill you.

onepoker

Oh, man. A Blame! game could make such an awesome game. Travel around this giant megastructure, alone, with very few NPCs, and massive Silicon Creatures, with a high-powered gravity gun that can literally blow craters into walls. It would be sort of like Shadow of the Colossus mixed with Resident Evil 3, I imagine.

@tom1000: There's already a six episode OVA loosely based on the series. It's very abstract, and was done as a sort of animation test for a possible full adaptation of the manga, but as I understand it, Nihei didn't like it and nixed the project. Now a full feature CGI film is in the works.

Suzaku

I like this article, but I think that there are comics even within DC and Marvel that would make great games. "No Man's Land" comes to mind--could do a cool open-ended world where you (as Batman) have to go into the different villains' territories, which would all have different visual thematics and level designs. I don't know--there's a lot of untapped potential even within the bigger comic houses.

peAr nectAr

lol at the Hard Boiled fake cover. I would buy that out of sheer ridiculousness

hitokirimaru

@sinister6000: If you need a wingman...let me know..

Cerif27

Yeah, where's my Comix Zone game!

Ultrasinc

There are plenty of Naruto's and Bleach's and other Japanese "comic book" games, you're just not counting them :) If those don't count, and traditional American comic books don't count, then... well, I can't help you, because you're then limiting your definition to "Why aren't there more games about these lesser known comics?" which is pretty much a tautological question. There aren't more, because they're lesser known - the money goes where the fame is.

Saxboy

Heres my thing and this applies to comic book movies too: they dont have to be word for fucking word like the comic book. It's called an interpretation people. If we go comparing things to each other and trying to nit pick we would never get any enjoyment out of anything. People have to enjoy these things for what they are. I mean with movies you have around 2 hours to introduce the characters, get the ball rolling and have a decent finish.

Look at the hellboy universe. The new video game, the animated films, and Hellboy II are all in the hellboyverse, but they arnt trying to remake any of the comics. They are all independent from each other and all adding to the mythos.

ArmyofJuan

I'd like a Scott Pilgrim game. I mean, the setting itself is practically a video game anyway!

ila

I haven't read many of those comics, (just the first 2 volumes Bone and League of Extraodinary Gentlemen) but I recently read some of Ben Templesmith's Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse. If they could keep the amazing art style intact, it would make a pretty badass adventure game.

Placentasaurus

Screw-on head is amazing, whatever happened to that?

Snake726

@Skitch01: See, now there's a notion I can agree with! A Fables animated movie/series could be absolutely fantastic.
I also wouldn't mind seeing the Marvel Zombies story adapted to a videogame, or perhaps an online play mode to an Ultimate Alliance sort of game.

All in all, though, I would most like a well-done adaptation of either Zombie Powder or Battlechasers, neither of which were completed, and both of which were excellent stories. I'd call BC more likely, since JoeMad is already working on Darksiders. Mmmm, Darksiders..

AntiheroKing

@liquid_kore: There was a Lobo game in development and was shown at E3 2003, but was never released it seems. Though Amazon still remains hopeful:

[www.amazon.com]

jelloman581

Man blame could be awesome with that gravity gun that he has in it. Shooting through walls would be sweet. Too bad the story is hard as hell to follow and I don't think it is very well suited for game conversion.

nitromic

@Saxboy: These "lesser known" comics are getting turned into $100 million + movies. Which aren't being made because the comics are popular, they're being made because the comics are awesome.

Luke Plunkett

Hrm. There are certain ways an Invincible game could work. (I love throwing around gameplay ideas for fake games.) Though it'd have to be much much different from things like Superman Returns. I'm thinking a massive-absolutely just disgustingly huge open world environment, because I mean Invincible can fly REALLY fast-Metropolis never seemed quite big enough for Superman in the Superman Returns game. Other more closed environments could serve as more story based places (Africa, the Sequid Ship....Mars.) and it'd be very Mission based, GTA style encounters, or even Mercenaries when you think about it. Once you're far enough along in the story, fighting people for Cecil is your main idea-and patrolling would be a big element too, as you see Mark doing it so much, ala Spider Man 2.

And here's what's better. We shouldn't have this game for another 2 or 3 years-the stories of 50 issues could fit into one game, and it could be ongoing. Either another 50 issues to another game (assuming Kirkman leaves us with another dramatic change like this at the end of issue 100) or Monthly DLC. Eh? Eh? (Though the DLC could be disappointing. There are issues that have little to no superhero action. How about an Amber dating sim?! Yay!)

Mascott

Do we really need more cel-shaded games? Because that is the first, and largest, potential consequence.

behemoth01

quite a rant, you forgot The Sandman, Lucifer, The Authority, The new Dark Tower Adaptation and a couple more but aside from that I agree with wholeheartedly

Fenian

@Saxboy: these comics arnt "lesser known" if you know, are actually INTO comic books. And for the record, i think personally think it's common knowledge that when people say "comic books" they are reffering to american made comics and sometimes european like XIII. If they are reffering to japanse comic books then everyone just says "manga".

ArmyofJuan

Didn't Sega have a go at this on the Genesis? Chakan the Foreverman was based on a little-known comic, and Greendog (developed around the same time) was based on a never-happened franchise apparently revolving around a real-life surf celebrity. They also did a game based on Dinosaurs for Hire. In all three cases, the Genesis games have, at least in their presence in Google searches today, completely overshadowed their source material.

I don't know if that says more about the success(?) of any of those games or more about the obscurity of the franchises they were based on.

I guess the Red Star game for PS2 also falls into this category? There's no movie based on that property, or wasn't at the time, right?

gsilverfish

What about The Darkness? That was a comic book game.

DreamoftheEndless

@Luke Plunkett: Do you think Sin City would have been made if Rodriguez wasn't a fan of the comic book, and didn't have the name, skill and money he does? Do you think Iron Man would have been as great if Favreau didn't fight tooth and nail against the studio's changes?

Remember, there have been far more bad comic book movies than there have been good ones. Howard the Duck, Cat Woman, Electra, Supergirl... all of which were STUDIO driven projects and given shitty budgets and not to mention second rate directors.

It is the studio interfering with the director's vision that creates bad film, and small budgets that make it worse...

Also Mike Mignola had input on the latest Hellboy game, and he specifically said he wanted it to be different from the comic and movies, so don't blame the game makers for the game lacking the comics visual style, thanks.

FunkyJ

@TheNexusRebound: Darkness was an awesome example of comic to video game conversion done right. I'm as much of a fan of the first series, it was due for a re-launch anyway.

I believe this is why developers stay away from comic book titles- Rabid fans who hate because of small flaws in canon or simply because the game uses an interface/view that the fan doesn't like (Ie: First Person. If I where a game developer, fans would certainly keep me away from IPs.

Poor Alan Moore, he must be dreading the day when some the gaming industry gets there paws on his work. If he even knows or accepts the fact that there are new media(As in more then one art medium) of expression.

Wii-Tard

I thought the Punisher game was well done (aside from the violence censoring). The new Batman game is also looking good, and if they can make one that is open world, or any other one that is not based on a movie, the results could be great.

kylo4

Nice manifesto, Luke. I totally agree that the licensing fees would be a lot cheaper if there's no big budget film with the same property. That leaves a lot more money to actually make a good game.

Glad to see Godland mentioned here, would like to see the look of that world in playable form. Also a big fan of Paul Pope's Heavy Liquid, color palette alone may even make the project intriguing. And since Brian Wood is front and center in this article, it's worth mentioning Jennie One of Channel Zero fame, with it's gritty black and white look included.

Also happy to see a commenter mentioning Green Lantern. I've had entire conversations with people about the possibilities of this game. As you gain more experience, you gain the ability to do more things with your ring. There's a lot of potential there.

larzini

oh God oh God oh GOD I would give so much money for a Planetary videogame.

Gunhaver

There were also one or two Cadillacs and Dinosaurs games back in the day...

Mav

I got a little light-head there for a second when I saw that Planetary boxart and didn't realize it was only a mock-up. Cheeses Kotaku, do you want me to have a brain aneurysm?

@LittleBigPlaneteer: Same here, I was enjoying the article and then he threw up some flamebait and I turned.

Mr.Bates

Wow, I just reread Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow, and was thinking I would want to play a video game based on it.

However if it was actually produced, most likely it would be a shovelware Wii shooter. :(

magilacudy

I have been thinking for a while at what a Blame! game could be like, as it would be VERY hard to convey the atmosphere and weird/innovative storytelling. Also, what gameplay could be created around a gun that blows holes as big as cities?
Still, there is some potential there...sure there could be a lot of action, the enemies are like a big list of bosses, graphics could work if they were mostly B/W and maybe rendered in some sort of weird cel shading (see Okami). Still, so many things could go wrong.
As for the article, yeah, sure.

aeonzero

For what is worth: XIII is a wonderful game. Great action design, beautiful graphics, good adaptation of the original comic, bad-ass kick-ass bosses, varied levels, wonderful music.
It's actually one of the best FPSs I've ever played, but then I think Half-Life 2 sucks. I may not be your average gamer.

EloraHRanma

I would play Ichi the killer!

Plot Summary: In Shinjuku Kabuki-Cho, the biggest sin town in Japan, there are two crazy guys. Ichi is a coward and a wimp, but once he breaks into tears, he turns into a human weapon. With great martial arts skill and a blade hidden in his boots, he butchers a bunch of enemies into mincemeat in the blink of an eye. His arch enemy is Kakihara, a yakuza boss who's tired of everything, including himself. Only when he pierces, cuts, and burns his own and other people's bodies does he feel that he is alive.

Herbal23

@Garo:
I was thinking the same thing.

But... I'd still probably buy a PSP to play it, if someone made that mockup a reality. ;-)

Bichatse

I think merging the two geeky universes could either be very beautiful...or the beginning of the end for us all. Seriously though, it a great idea if developers are willing to put in the time to attempt to make these concepts into triple-A games.

Ryodestined

Hellboy 1 AND 2 were not shitty.

artofwar420

I finally played ICO last week, and by playing it I thought, that those guys who made it (and Shadow of the Colossus) could make Blame! just right. If someone could make it, it's them. And I think it might work really well as an ICO-style game.

Pepek