The Pulp Fiction video game is not crazy and wouldn’t even get classed as a video game parody, unlike our sequel idea. Pulp Fiction, as a movie, had many vital aspects of a modern video game. Crime, shootouts, scenes that are consistent with levels in a game, plus the added factor of characters that are way over the top, beyond anything a game had back in 1994. The Pulp Fiction video game will find it hard to top this.
Movie tie-in games are all the rage. Jurassic Park has had some terrible ones, including this traumatic one reviewed by The Critical Drinker in 2018. Dirty Harry got The Spoony One Treatment in 2009.
This could be a GTA-type game, but this might require a budget 10 times what was spent on the movie, both for the license and the voiceovers. Or could we get a new character within the Pulp Fiction universe? Perhaps one that will name-check all the favourites such as Butch, Marcellus and Vincent? Perhaps Jules’ lost long cousin or brother?
We know that some people have tried their best to make it. See this low-budget PlayStation One effort here.
This could be done. But the strange thing is that once they do it, it could actually be successful. Although something tells me Zed and Maynard will need ot be left out on this one in addition to the drug overdose by Mia Wallace.
The main obstacle is mentioned above. GTA have cornered the market. Rockstar Games do the best work in this area and GTA won’t be beat. The Pulp Fiction game will likely not make enough to justify the costs and who is going to want the game without the characters? I guess they will need to stick with the pinball game.
Overall, this game lacks legs. If it did, we would have driving missions, timer missions, shootouts and a lot of heavy reliance on cut scenes, especially if any of the original cast were involved. The only problem is that Pulp Fiction was innovative in 1994. If they made a game of it today, one might ask: Is there anything here I can’t get from Rockstar’s latest release?
In the end, this is a 4/10 chance of being made. Unlike our other entries, it’s not really a bad idea in itself. It just missed its chance. But a sequel is even less likely despite our pitching talents.