Since the early days of gaming, many popular video games and game characters have crossed over into other media. And today, the impact of video gaming on the entertainment industry is bigger than ever.
Video Games and Music
In recent years, scores for video games have become just as important as movie soundtracks. Instead of the old 8-bit and 16-bit catchy game tunes, the new era of twenty-first-century video games saw well-known musicians like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails providing soundtracks for popular games. But long before that, popular bands and artists featured in their very own games, such as Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards to Broad Street from 1984 for the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum consoles, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker from 1990, and Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child from 2000. Bands have influenced slot games as well. Two of the best are the Jimi Hendrix slot and the Guns N’ Roses slot, which you can play at an online casino in NZ or UK.
It is not only bands and musicians that have influenced video games. Video games have also influenced bands and musicians. In recent years, covers of video game songs have become extremely popular. The Japanese group Black Mages perform a fantastic rocking version of the music from Final Fantasy, and a full-blown orchestra called Video Games Live toured in 2005, playing various popular video game tunes. There is even a whole music genre that incorporates video game music with punk and metal, called Nintendocore, which was started by bands like Horse the Band, The NESkimos, and Minibosses.
Video Games and TV
From the early days of video games, some of the most popular game characters crossed over into television shows. Early 1980s examples include the cartoons Q*bert, Pole Position, and Pac-Man. Later in the 1980s, there were shows like The Legend of Zelda and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! And in the 1990s, Pokémon became a popular TV series.
Video games have not only been turned into animations. Plenty of games have become live-action shows, such as the American game show Candy Crush, the British martial arts web series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, and the American martial arts TV show Mortal Kombat: Conquest. In recent times, there have also been shows that revolve entirely around video games, such as the web-based series The Guild, which features a group of friends interacting through a massively multiplayer online game.
Video Games and Movies
When Sega’s mascot got to star in his own movie in 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog soon became the highest-grossing video game film adaptation of all time in North America. But live-action films based on video games have not always been that successful. The first live-action Hollywood movie based on a video game, 1993’s Super Mario Bros. is widely considered to be one of the worst films of all time. Thankfully, the poor reception of that movie did not prevent Hollywood from creating some fantastic live-action films based on games, including 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, 2002’s Resident Evil, and 2016’s Assassin’s Creed. Hollywood has also produced some full-length animated films based on video games, including 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, 2016’s Ratchet & Clank, and The Angry Birds Movie, also from 2016.
The United States is not the only country to produce movies based on video games. Japan and China have also been leading the way. One of the best live-action Japanese films is 2007’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and one of China’s best is 2018’s Legend of the Ancient Sword. Japan and China have also produced full-length animated movies based on games, like Japan’s 2018 film Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us and China’s 2011 animated feature Seer.
