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Video game TV adaptations are nothing new. In the 80s we had The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, The Legend of Zelda, Captain N: Game Master, Pac-Man, and many more. In the 90s we started seeing a lot more. But the difference between 80s TV shows and those of the following decades is that the quality has improved dramatically. More recently we have Fallout and The Last of Us, which are not only great adaptations but also great standalone TV series.
We're in a new golden age of television. There's a lot of choice, a lot of content, and the good stuff tends to be good. This has led to more and more video games being adapted for television as studios look for new ways to tell familiar stories in a different medium. Some of the TV adaptations we've seen have been truly fantastic.
Then there were some games that were just really bad, like The Witcher: Blood Origins. Sometimes the creative team just doesn't quite grasp what makes a game great, or it just doesn't translate well to television.
Looking back at the history of video game adaptations to television, we find that there are 12 TV series that have not been adapted to television, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Darkstalkers, and Double Dragon. only They took inspiration from some great video games, but managed to use that inspiration to create a great show.
For a longer list of film adaptations, check out all video game movies currently in production and the highest-grossing video game movies.
