Our Favorite Video Game Adaptations of 2024

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 31, 2024 6 Views 7 Min Read
Our Favorite Video Game Adaptations of 2024

Summary

  • 2024 was a big year for video game adaptations, with notable successes like Fallout, Arcane, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
  • Fallout managed to create a new story set in the game’s world bringing the game to life effectively.
  • Secret Level, an anthology series on Prime Video, explored different gaming worlds with standouts like a gritty PAC-MAN episode.

Video game adaptations have been on the rise in recent years as Hollywood turns its attention to all the beloved IPs in the gaming world. 2024 was an excellent year for video game movies and series, which was only proven by the stiff competition at this year’s Game Awards.

This year saw a lot of variety in video game adaptations, with some primetime new series making their debut and others reaching a dramatic conclusion. There were fewer video game movies released in 2024, but the Sonic the Hedgehog screen franchise undoubtedly had a good year thanks to the release of both a movie (Sonic the Hedgehog 3) and a series (Knuckles). Other adaptations re-imagined the way video game characters had been seen before, and brought to life some IPs that were yet to make their debut on screen.

Ellie The Last of Us, Five Nights at Freddy's, Steve in Minecraft, Mortal Kombat

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Fallout

When it was first announced that Prime Video was making a TV series based on Bethesda’s popular franchise Fallout, it was questionable as to how it would go. The games are open-world and largely driven by player exploration and choice, but Fallout managed to be an exceptional adaptation by telling a new story set in the same world with many of the same factions and satirical tone represented in its story.

A stellar cast that included Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan and Walton Goggins helped bring the unique characters of Fallout to life and the writers weaved their stories in a way that explored many elements of the video game world in an effective manner for both newcomers to the franchise and fans of the games.

Arcane – Season 2

After an incredible debut in 2021, fans were eager to see how the rest of Arcane played out in 2024. The second season of Riot’s League of Legends TV series was equal if not better than the first, bringing the stories of Vi, Jinx, Viktor, Jayce, Mel, and Caitlyn, to a conclusion in grandiose style. Season 2 of Arcane featured more ambitious storytelling, more unique animation, and more incredible performances from its cast. While the second season stuffed a lot of stories into its final stretch, it ultimately brought things to a satisfying conclusion that was worthy of such a beloved series.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

Lara Croft has been brought to life on-screen multiple times before, but Netflix’s animated take on the video game action heroine is one of the best studies of the iconic character so far. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was hamstrung in some ways by the limits of its animation, but it excelled in others, particularly Hayley Atwell’s performance as Lara. The series also introduced a compelling ancient mystery to unravel with many visually stunning and effective action sequences that felt true to the Tomb Raider brand.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The Sonic the Hedgehog movies have always been effective video game adaptations for their intended audience, but the third film was possibly the best of them yet. This was made possible by the inclusion of Shadow the Hedgehog (voiced by Keanu Reeves) a beloved and much-anticipated fan-favorite character. Shadow added a darker edge to the Sonic the Hedgehog films and provided a heartfelt and moving story to the mix of whimsical humor and blockbuster action the films are known for.

Secret Level

Secret Level was an interesting addition to the video game adaptation landscape in 2024. The Prime Video series comprises a series of short episodes with each focusing on a different video game IP. Similar to other anthology series, some of Secret Level’s episodes are better than others. Among the winners was the dark and violent PAC-MAN episode, which rewrote the narrative of the classic arcade game with a gritty edge that laid the groundwork for a new title in the franchise to release next year. The Warhammer 40,000 and Unreal Tournament episodes were also standouts of the series. While not all of Secret Level’s episodes were to an equal standard, the format of the series was a clever one and allowed video game franchises that had not previously received the screen adaptation treatment a chance to shine.

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