By now, it’s definitely no secret that the TV andfilm industryflocks like a pack of vultures to acquire the rights to a famous video game IP and create flawed adaptations for the screen. It’s been going on since even before the release of the PS1 console when games were available in arcades and on the SNES, and before you had the graphics and storytelling that now allowgamestheir movie quality.

There have also been quite a few video game movies made overseas in Japanese cinema, which brought to life many of its popular series by acclaimed Japanese game designers. Altogether, this amounts to lots of video game properties that received the film treatment, probably with even a few surprises in store.

What Are All The Video Games That Have Received Movie Adaptations?

Video games have a long-standing history with Hollywood. In total, without factoring in the entirety of video game adaptations made exclusively for international markets, there’s beena sum of 65 video games made into movies(and counting).

Thevery first video game live-action adaptation was the 1993 Super Mario Bros. moviewith Bob Hoskins as the titular plumber in red and John Leguizamo as his brother Luigi, based on the classic platformer that launched the beloved Mario series.

30 years later, Illumination, the animation studio behind Despicable Me, would create an animated Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation, which proved much, much more phenomenal,thanks to its delightful castand story!

Then, in 1994 and 1995 came adaptations of fighting games likeDouble Dragon, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter with Jean-Claude Van Damme, which came full circle for the actor when hevoiced another version of Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 1.

Street Fighter also received the animated Street Fighter 2 movie, along with a live-action spin-off in 2009 titledStreet Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Mortal Kombat received a slew of animated films as well withthe Legends seriesand a new live-action reboot in 2021 from director Simon McQuoid, for which a sequel has already been completed.

Pokemon is one of the biggest games to be made into animated movies and TV, with the first movie, literally calledPokemon: The First Movie, centering around Mewtwo, released in 1998. TheDetective Pikachu spin-off game got its own live-action adaptationin 2019 starring Justice Smith and Ryan Reynolds.

TekkenandDead or Alivewere other big fighting game series developed into movies, with DOA directed by Corey Yuen, a martial arts action choreographer and director known for various Jet Li and Jason Statham films. Tekken further expanded into a CG animated spin-off movie in 2011 titledTekken: Blood Vengeanceand a 2014 live-action prequel,Tekken 2: Kazuya’s Revenge.

AndCompany of Heroes,a real-time strategy military game, got a surprise adaptation in 2013 even before Call of Duty or Battlefield, which boasts an all-star cast of Tom Sizemore, Vinnie Jones, Neal McDonough, Jürgen Prochnow, and Richard Sammel.

One of the biggest and most long-running video game movie franchises to survive box offices wasResident Evil, which includes the live-action Milla Jovovich Alice films like Apocalypse, Extinction, Afterlife, and Retribution,the animated CG films canon to the games, and 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City (a closer adaptation to RE2).

Horror video games definitely receive the most adaptations, with 2006’sSilent Hill, 2019’sDetention, and 2023’sFive Nights at Freddy’sbeing outright hits. Then you have the less successful ones likeAlone in the Dark(the games too, we know),House of the Dead,Dead Rising, andDoom(both 2005 and 2019’s Doom: Annihilation).

2016 was a giant year for video game adaptations with releases such asThe Angry Birds Movie,Ratchet & Clank,Assassin’s Creed, andWarcraft.

The 2020s are following similar suit as you now haveMonster Hunter,Sonic the Hedgehog,Uncharted,Injustice,Werewolves Within,Gran Turismo,FNAF, and the Eli Roth-directedBorderlands,on top of many more to come in movies and TV.

There are plenty of video game TV adaptationsin the 2020s, like HBO’sThe Last of Us,Peacock’sTwisted Metal,Parmount+‘sHaloseries, Netflix’sResident Evil,Castlevania,Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,The Witcher,Arcane,andThe Cuphead Show!,and Prime Video’sFallout.

One of the most notorious directors of video game adaptations is perhapsUwe Boll, who’s been given many noteworthy IPs across the horror and FPS genres, only to have them turn into disastrous flops.

The list of Uwe Boll’s video game movies includesHouse of the Dead,Alone in the Dark,BloodRayne,Postal,Far Cry, andIn The Name of Kingtrilogy (Dungeon Seige). He was also the producer onZombie Massacreand its sequelZombie Massacre 2: Reich of the Dead(a shelved Wii game!).

Paul W.S. Andersonis another well-known director of video game adaptations, whose wife Milla Jovovich headlinedhisResident Evilmovies that spanned from 2002 to 2016as well as 2020’sMonster Hunter. But his first turn at directing a movie based on a video game was1995’s Mortal Kombat.

Paul W.S. Anderson has other fantastic movies on his resume than just game adaptations, likeEvent Horizon,Soldier,Alien vs. Predator,andDeath Race.

Japanese filmmakers also developed their share of video games into movies, with releases likeSiren,Corpse Party,Ao Oni,Higurashi When They Cry,OneChanbara,Fatal Frame, and even themobile cat collectorNeko Atsumegot a 2017 live-action movie.

Most notably, the legendary auteur of violent Japanese cinema,Takashi Miike, has also adapted some video games. He had the honor of bringing the popular seriesYakuza/Like a DragonandAce Attorneyto film, as well as being the director of Netflix’sOnimushaanime series.

However, the discussion in these passages still only scratches the surface.Below is a table that catalogs every video game turned into a movie, live-action or animated, and when they were released.

Animation Or Live-Action

1993, 2023

1994

1994, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011

1995, 1997, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

1997

1998-2020

1999

2001, 2003, 2018

2001, 2005, 2016

2002 - 2023

House of the Dead

2003, 2005

Alone in the Dark

2005, 2008

2005, 2007, 2011

2005, 2019

2006, 2012, 2024

Dead or Alive

2006

2006, 2007

2007

2007, 2011, 2014

2007, 2015

2008

2008, 2009

2008, 2011

2009

2010, 2011, 2014

2010

2011

2012

2013

2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

2013, 2015

2014

2015, 2016

2016, 2019

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2020, 2022, 2024

2021

2022

2023

2024