10 Best Movie / Videogame Crossover Moments
Doom (2005)
The Crossover Moment: The movie version of the popular (and astonishing) first person shooter jettisoned pretty much everything we loved about the game.
But Karl Urban enters a corridor of death, the camera shifts, adopting the POV we all know and love and we’re happy. For about 20 seconds.
Success Or Game Over: Definitely a success. In fact, it’s arguably the best moment in a fairly terrible movie.
Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
The Crossover Moment: Slightly complicated one, this.
One of the key inspirations for Shaun Of The Dead was the episode of Spaced where Tim (Simon Pegg) plays too much Resident Evil on his PlayStation , and starts seeing zombies everywhere.
Apparently, the team had so much fun making the episode, they decided to make a big-screen version.
This particular moment could be read as a nod to that real-life story-arc – Pegg’s Shaun playing PlayStation with an actual zombie.
Success Or Game Over: Massive success. This is a real treat for Cornetto Trilogy / Spaced geeks alike.
Scott Pilgrim Versus The World (2010)
The Crossover Moment: There’s about a million videogame crossover moments in Scott Pilgrim, but our favourite comes when Pilgrim beats Matthew Patel, and a voice-over announcer bellows ‘KO’ Street Fight style.
Success Or Game Over: Scott Pilgrim is a loving tribute to all the games we grew up on. Hell yeah it’s successful
Freddys Dead The Final Nightmare (1991)
The Crossover Moment: Spencer’s death contained so many Nintendo in-jokes we’re surprised Freddy’s finger-knives didn’t turn into plungers.
When Elm Street kid Spencer is pulled into his own television, he finds himself in different pop culture environments – including one that looks a little bit like Super Mario (complete with background pipes and ‘Super Spencer’ power-ups).
Cut to Freddy playing the game with a joystick and muttering ‘Great graphics.’
When Spencer’s friends rip the joystick from Krueger’s paws, they forget his back-up. The Power Glove. Ridiculous.
Success Or Game Over: Though not official, this is so close to Nintendo’s trademarks it’s a wonder no-one got sued. So, yes!
Super Mario Brothers Movie (1993)
The Crossover Moment: If you’ve played the Super Mario game, you’ll remember that Mario and Luigi can jump really high.
But jumping really high would be ridiculous in a movie, obviously. It would be exactly the sort of thing that would require a scientific explanation.
So, rather than innately possessing the power to jump during their time in an ALTERNATE LIZARD DIMENSION, our heroes discover a couple of rocket boots, because… we don’t know.
Success Or Game Over: Definitely game over. The jumping moments look nothing like the game. They don’t work in the same way as the game. They make us retroactively hate the game.
Still, it's the most faithful moment in the movie, which explains how it made it onto this list. It definitely wasn't us taking another chance to have a pop at Super Mario Bros.
We’re pretty sure the closest anyone in this film came to the original Mario games is faintly hearing the sound of someone else playing Sonic The Hedgehog in a neighbour’s house.
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
The Crossover Moment: Wreck-It Ralph may be a movie overflowing with obvious videogame references, but it's the subtle Easter Eggs that truly amaze.
Case in point, a blink and you'll miss it reference to Playstation classic Final Fantasy VII - in the form of graffiti claiming 'Aerith Lives'. A reference video game fans will immediately recognise as a tribute to the classic character from the RPG series.
Success or Game Over: It's brief as hell, but if you spot it (and have ever played Final Fantasy VII ) it's guaranteed to illicit a lump in the throat. Success.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
The Crossover Moment: The only thing crazier than attempting to control an anthropomorphised Statue of Liberty? Doing so using nothing but a walkman, some energised goo, and a NES Advantage controller.
Success or Game Over: Success. If you can buy into the ridiculousness or a meandering Lady Liberty, then you can buy the control mechanism being attributed to a NES controller.
City Hunter (1993)
The Crossover Moment: Rewind to 1993, and Jackie Chan wasn't as big a global star as he is now. Which partially explains his amazing appearance in this martial arts action comedy. During one notable fit of fisticuffs, he's thrown headfirst into a Street Fighter II arcade game and suffers an electric shock, which causes him to hallucinate.
Hallucinate that he's E. Honda and then Guile from Street Fighter, and locked in a battle with Ken. One Dhalsim cameo and then an incredible, jaw-dropping turn for Chan as kick-lady Chun-Li, and it's a fight scene stuffed full of signature moves and fanboy geekgasming.
Success or Game Over: Success. While that arguably depends on your enjoyment of seeing Chan's unarguably impressive pins in drag, the whole scene is better than the whole of the actual Street Fighter movie.
The Wrestler (2008)
The Crossover Moment: Randy 'The Ram' Robinson invites his young next door neighbour in for a quick go on an old-school NES game starring Randy himself, Wrestle Jam!
Success or Game Over: Success. Seeing as though the whole point of the movie is meant to sell Mickey Rourke's wrestler as a washed-up old star, there's no greater nostalgia-nod than having him star in his own NES game. It even features his signature move, the Ram Jam!
Defiance (2013)
The Crossover Moment: In a unique and rather original way, the Defiance TV movie ties directly in with a brand new MMO. Numerous plot points are cross-referenced, and fans are even given the chance to change the show every week with their actions.
Success or Game Over: The proof'll be in the ongoing pudding, but for now, the game and TV movie look set to offer a truly one-of-a-kind experience for gaming and movie fans alike.
Visit the Defiance website , and follow the show and game on Facebook and Twitter .
Image © 2012 Open 4 Business Productions LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Defiance starts Tuesday 9 April at 9pm on SyFy.