Movie tie-in games are big business. From Potter to Star Wars, they are a licence to print money unless the developer is an incompetent mess or gets ideas above their station. We have some that could make money (since the movies did), but we want rage gameplay.
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. But no Gold Watch/Zed level. Despite audience demand.
Shawshank Redemption Video Game
Our Shawshank Redemption Video Game might be shorter than the movie. Play as Andy Dufresne as you navigate the jail, avoid the sisters (easier said than done) and do quick timer actions to avoid getting killed by Captain Hadley. Final Boss will be the tunnel of faeces Andy has to crawl through. But a prologue will be Red and his bus ride to meet Andy.
The Academy Award-winning movie Oppenheimer takes a new twist in the game world. Oppenheimer himself goes on missions because, without him, the game is toast. These missions include stealing important chemicals for the bomb, flying the mission himself, and blowing up Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in a twist, Oppenheimer finds out that Harry Truman killed Roosevelt. Since we are dealing with ‘the bomb’ as they call it, you can’t really go too far on this one.
This is another Academy Award-winning film for Best Film, Director and Actor. Which is why we need to wreck it properly with a game. Revisionist critics have already done the ultimate takedown of Jenny; a movie tie-in game can really go all in. From action sequences in Vietnam to American Football levels to even Ping Pong, this will be an RPG to remember (for the wrong reasons). However, Forrest Gump can also be a shrimp fishing simulator if we need it to be.
This certainly has the shooting credentials to have a legitimate movie tie-in games but with the very dirty undercurrent to the story, this is never getting made. Imagine the heat any studio would get for even using the IP even if they steered away from the political assassination flirtation and the horrific brothel plot. Oh no, this is not happening. It would be more controversial than every Rockstar game combined. This means you can forget a (Joaquin Phoenix) Joker game too.
Satanic deals, voodoo sacrifice and a central character at a loss to know why? We may have just described some games already out there, but the Angel Heart IP is never getting a PS5 or an Xbox viewing. The subject matter is too dark, despite many games having this type of character on ice.
We can forget the message of the movie. We can turn this into a straight C64 shootout game complete with an endless number of enemies. It will also be a one-man mission all the way to the end. In this game, America wins the war thanks to Ron Kovic. Something tells me Tom Cruise won’t allow his voice to be used. But we could get a similar voice to do Cruise’s crazy laugh once he completes a misson.
We have more movie tie-in games that won’t get made, and why. But the genre is overbooked, and all we need is an indie developer with lots of time and an instinct to gamble.