Quantcast

Games vs Movies: 20 cutscenes compared

We match up classic games to their film counterparts

Words: Shane Patterson, GamesRadar US

If you’ve played a movie-based game in your lifetime, we’re sorry. We’re sure you know that most games strive to stick as close to the film as possible. Even when taking “creative license” with the source material - in cases like Superman Returns, Hulk or any other boring action film - you’re bound to see some semblance of the movie’s story acted out in glorious 3D.

But back before 3D cutscenes were the new hotness, classic games from the 8- and 16-bit era had only so much technology. These games couldn’t replicate full cutscenes from the movies. What they did instead was focus on a few iconic incidents from the films they replicated. These games gave us screenshots complete with text to guide the plot and - BAM - we thought we were playing the movie!

Here we present to you 20 movie-to-game comparisons for your viewing pleasure. Note: we added some newer games in there for fun.

 


We don’t remember exactly when this image of Schwarzenegger took place considering the whole freakin’ movie is a bunch of guys walking slowly through the jungle against exciting music. The light blue glow of Ah-nuld against a starry sky just might coincide with the fact that the Predator alien came from space. Or it could’ve been simpler to use one color.

We know - this is just the poster. Stallone on one side, Snipes on the other. They even kept in the tagline on the Start screen. In the poster, Stallone looks pumped and ready to fight. Yet in the game version, he appears vaguely bored. Maybe Snipes just beefed.

Ellen Ripley having survived two movies of aliens finds she’s been made preggers by a facehugger during hyper-cryo-spacesleep. What a twist! At the very end she leaps backwards into smoldering steel to kill not only herself but the just emerging-alien. In the SNES version, the steel is portrayed by futuristic Mode 7 effects. Fancy!


Not much to say here. Pretty much a dead ringer. Fun fact: Bat Dance was not featured in this sequel.

 
21 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Necron  - 9 months 1 day ago 
Nice article, but theirs one mistake. Luke is riding a TaunTaun not a Wampa.
MacGyver1138  - 9 months 1 day ago 
I was going to say the same thing! Fun article, though. I'm actually amazed at how close some of the old-school screenshots are to their film counterparts. If only the games had been as close. (Or maybe not, in Spider-Man 3's case!)
GamesRadarShanePatterson  - 9 months 1 day ago 
Noted and fixed! Thanks.
Juriasu  - 9 months 1 day ago 
Yeah, you tell 'em Necron!
lava_lamp  - 9 months 1 day ago 
screw getting a blu-ray player ill get a snes instead, a completely new movie experience
LilBompie17  - 9 months 1 day ago 
cool
Mrinsane117  - 9 months 1 day ago 
the indianna one is the best
Gazlitt  - 9 months 1 day ago 
Yea amazing how games and films are crossing over - just did an item and nice compilation video containing quite a few of these on personalizemedia dot com. Item is entitled "Cinematic Game Renaissance - Game Now Leading Film?" - nice uTube vid embedded about the convergence of games and films...
XAkira96  - 9 months 20 hours ago 
The Star Wars game text crawl picture looks like "A Meh Hope" at the top.
MultiGamer  - 9 months 18 hours ago 
I cant even read that Star Wars text.
TheGreatHobbe  - 9 months 17 hours ago 
the t-rex has this "wtf you lookin at" face
GoldenMe  - 9 months 16 hours ago 
Ha!!!

I have that Mickey Mouse game for Genesis.
Ah, what good times.....kinda.
TheSuburbiaRuins  - 9 months 12 hours ago 
Good job Shatterson,
The Aliens 3 thing reminds me so much of Advent Rising
Masy  - 9 months 9 hours ago 
Check out the Godfathers scenes,
they are pretty exact, even the voices come pretty close too.

Great Article all and all.
dweller  - 9 months 6 hours ago 
Heh, Sandman’s dead-eyed gaze. That phrase encompasses my feelings on Spider-Man 3 game. I'm still afraid of having nightmares from those caricatures renderings of the characters.
cricket0  - 8 months 29 days ago 
The Super Star Wars movies look like crap in the title crawl.
KHfan  - 8 months 29 days ago 
is there a home alone game? lol
FlamingPeasant  - 8 months 28 days ago 
You seriously confused a Taun-Taun with a Wampa? You have failed. Go burn your geek card and start being cool.
Seabread  - 8 months 28 days ago 
Predator image is from the scene where they set a trap in a clearing; near the "start of the end" if you will. right before Poncho gets a tree in the gut. Ouch!
ELpork  - 8 months 28 days ago 
starwars suck.....to quote a troll.
"Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament"... N4G
PSP News from N4G
Jul 5, 2009
Could Fitness Gaming BeThe Future? N4G
Wii News from N4G
Jul 5, 2009
D2D Sale Slashes Big Name Titles N4G
PC News from N4G
Jul 5, 2009
Atlus spoils "Demon's Souls", announces... N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Jul 5, 2009