Yesterday's post got me thinking. Despite its truly unfortunate portrayal of Jim, a Tom Sawyer game sounds like a great idea. So many games are based on movies and TV shows. Why not games based on books? There are centuries of fantastic literature to draw from, and in most cases the source material is in the public domain -- no need for onerous licensing fees. I offer these suggestions free of charge.
Don Quixote
A third-person action-adventure game -- think God of War in medieval Spain. Besides the standard brawling elements, the signature sequences would be on-rails jousting events with Don Quixote on his horse. Sancho Panza is the wise-cracking, AI-controlled sidekick, who can be ordered to attack, defend, or heal Don Quixote. He frequently gets caught on door frames, because there just wasn't enough time to iron out all the kinks in testing.
Moby-Dick
A lush, 3D update of the basic gameplay established in the mostly-forgotten NES Jaws game. Cruise the seas on the Pequod, battling various oceanic creatures in search of the ultimate prize: the great white whale, Moby Dick. Mini-games include squeezing the lumps out of a barrel full of whale blubber, and taking control of Queequeg for harpooning target practice (using the Wiimote, naturally).
War and Peace
A sweeping, turn-based strategy game that lets you take the side of Russia or France during the Napoleonic Wars. With thousands of units to command at once, the game quickly becomes untenable and overwhelming to all but the most dedicated strategy buffs. But everybody claims to have played it all the way through and loved it.
1984
Stealth action is the name of the game in a dystopian future with chilling parallels to our own time. Take control of Winston Smith and attempt to foment revolution under the all-seeing gaze of Big Brother. The "Two Minutes Hate" button-pushing mini-game is inspired by Konami's arcade classic Track and Field.
Finnegan's Wake
Just a bunch of incomprehensible ASCII art and system error messages.
20 comments:
Every novel by Nick Hornby should be turned into a game.
The Dark Wing series by Walter H Hunt. Action RPG would be best for that one...or an action/adventure game.
But definitely should be
"The Integral Trees" by Larry Niven
not sure how it would work but the farseer trilogy by robin hobb
War and Peace was made into a game. Kind of.
http://www.microids.com/en/catalogue/24/war-and-peace-1796-1815.html
They should do the entire Sharpe's series by Bernard Cornwell.
A Confederacy of Dunces reads like a SCUMM graphic adventure; Foucault's Pendulum is the best interactive movie I never played.
Most of the books by Shakespeare sound like a great chance to bring out even more "The Sims" stuff.
R & J for the ultimate love challenge - is your love rating strong enough to make them both survive? MacBeth adds a new job as the son whos sword fighting skills decide if he will survive the last battle.
Of course they could all turned into one epic RPG of some sort ...
The Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.
Any and all Harry Harrison books could be easily turned into awesome games. The Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series in particular come to mind as great videogame material.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.I know that there is already a text-based game that had the creative support by Douglas Adams, but frankly, text-based games sucks.
Pretty much any books by David Eddings and all of the republic commando novels by Karen Travis.
"Ender's Game" Orson Scott Card, i mean seriously, the whole book is ABOUT A GAME...bioware should totally do it
I would suggest Catch 22 but World War II has already become the new Hoth.
Most of the list seems sarcastic but what the hey: I nominate Watership Down.
I nominate the entire Dune series. I know that there was a Dune RPG(which doesn't run on any modern systems), and I know there was Dune 2000(a poorly developed RTS based on spice mining), but there's never really been a GOOD Dune game.
There once almost was a Dune, MMORPG too bad that idea never got to frution. Hope someone would still pick it up sometime though. :)
I would love to see Snow Crash being made into a game.
Ender's Game is being made into a video game, although it has been in the making for quite some time now. Who knows if we'll ever see a finished product. I think the ultimate game from book would be Dante"s Inferno.
Well, Dante's Inferno is a game coming out in February 2010 based from The Divine Comedy's poem. Thhough he may not be classic literature, I believe most any Stephen King novel would make for an interesting game. Especially something from the Dark Tower series.
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