5 of Our Favorite Horrible TV-to-Video Game Adaptations

Successful TV franchises have a long, chilling history of birthing video games. Unlike the classic RPGs and fighting games that take years to conceptualize, plan, and produce, TV-inspired video games are often rushed, leading to patchy animation, ungodly graphics, and really repetitive and/or awkward gameplay. In commemoration of the new video game version of Deadliest Catch (or as I call it: Harder Fishin') we explore five of our favorite misfit adaptations.

American Idol

Before these fancy Karoake Revolution Presents: American Idol games came out, Randy Jackson zealots were forced to play along with Idol by jamming buttons to the beat of hit songs to earn judges' praise. If you liked "Livin' La Vida Loca" before, you'll appreciate its subtle artistry after you stamp out "Her skin's the color of mocha" with your bruised thumbs. Look how ebullient Randy, Paula, and Simon are on the cover! They look like they stepped out of another game completely, like, perhaps, Anticipation.

Home Improvement

Would you fight mummies on behalf of Binford Tools? I'm on the fence. In 1994, at the height of Home Improvement's ratings, Absolute Entertainment released a Super Nintendo iteration of the Tim Allen series where Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor fought mummies, dinosaurs, and robots in order to recover supplies taken from the set of Tool Time. The game famously did not include an instruction manual, instead opting to present its players with a flash screen that said, "Real men don't need instructions." I didn't play far enough to find out if the final boss was the terrifying, medieval gawk of Patricia Richardson.

Pages: 1 2