Power Ranking 8-Bit Cinema

By Brock Wilbur | Lists | January 24, 2014 |

By Brock Wilbur | Lists | January 24, 2014 |

At the behest of CineFix, David Dutton of Dutton Films (and his brother Henry) create video game re-imaginings of both classics and modern releases. They vary in style, presentation, and depth. Today, we’re going to Power Rank the first fifteen releases. (There are 16 but one isn’t film based so track down Valiant Comics Unity on your own.)

Why are these adaptations so important? Not only do they strike a media convergence chord, but they remind those of us who grew up around licensed cash-in titles about what could have been. Some of us struggled through the ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, of which they once published more copies of an unplayable mess than there were game consoles on the market, only to watch it sink the Atari and film tie-ins for decades. De-Makes in video games have been a popular trend in the last few years, showing us what modern games could have looked like on an NES.

You’ll be amazed how one-hundred minute plus narrative run-times can be reduced to a few minutes. These non-playable 8-or-16-bit slices combine a love of cinema and gamer culture in a way little else could. We’ve decided to rank them in ascending order of both clever tribute but also games we really really wish we could play.

Without further ado, the best films through video game tinted lenses:

Finding Nemo

Godzilla vs Movie Monsters

Iron Man

GI Joe: Retaliation

Elf

Thor

The Hunger Games

Star Trek

Batman: The Dark Knight

Anchorman

Kick Ass

The Big Lebowski

Pulp Fiction

Blade Runner

The Shining

Have your own ranking? Let us know in the comments.

Bonus Game Adaptation: The Room

Not from the same creators, this playable version of The Room is a surprisingly in-depth affair. NSFW warning if you might get in trouble for pixelated Tommy Wiseau nudity.

Brock Wilbur is a stand-up comedian, writer, director, and actor. You can check out his website for a listing of all his work, check YouTube for stand-up acts, or follow him on Twitter.