“Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.”

— Stephen King

My long time favorite

Well, except for the Hitman movie maybe. That’s actually kind of fun in a stupid don’t-have-to-concentrate kind of way, if you ask us.

The failings aren’t just one-way though; common opinion holds that nearly every game that’s ever been based on a movie has been poorly received too. From Sega’s Iron Man game last year to the irredeemably awful Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game, it seems that the world of films and games are just destined to never really mesh.

At least, that’s what the developers of the really bad games would have you believe anyway, what with their excuses about deadline pressures and the requirement to stay close to the plot of the movie. Contrary to popular opinion though there are some decent games based on films – they’re just that little bit rarer and harder to find than the bad ones, so we’ve rounded up five of the best below. Check them out and, of course, let us know what you think in the comments section.

Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter

Developer: Totally Games
Platform: PC Exclusive
Year: 1997

X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter might not be based around specific Star Wars film, but as an expansion of the Star Wars universe it’s almost unrivalled if you take the Balance of Power expansion into account. While Jedi Knight, KOTOR and Battlefront II were all other competitors for this slot, it’s X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter that really stands out as the game that made you feel like a part of the Star Wars universe.

Designed mainly for multiplayer, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is such an enduring classic that it still has a fairly active community around it today, even though it was scorned for a lack of coherent singleplayer when it was first released. That’s where the Balance of Power expansion steps in, padding things out a bit and adding some Lucas-worthy plot to the mix.

Even judged just on its multiplayer, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter is still a fantastic game though and was remarkably sophisticated for the time. Not only was it one of the first flight sims to really push the idea of using a joystick as standard, but it also delved for the first time into pre-flight prep before missions. For the first time you were able to choose what part of a squad you wanted to be in and how exactly you wanted to rig your ship – creating a much deeper, replayable and more unique experience.

True, the graphics have aged badly, but for those truly looking to immerse themselves in the Star Wars mythos X-wing vs. TIE Fighter is a classic.

Die Hard Trilogy

Developer: Probe Entertainment
Platform: PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Year: 1996

Truly a game from another era, back before games were expected to have cohesive plots that tied together every element of the design, Die Hard Trilogy is an all-in-one package that brings all the Die Hard movies together into one place. The result is essentially three games in one, each with a completely different genre and setup.

The first game in the pack, Die Hard is a fairly standard third-person shooter that has John McClane running around killing criminals and saving hostages in a huge skyscraper packed with extra challenges and secrets. The second game, Die Harder shifted the action to first-person and strapped McClane to rails for a light-gun romp through Dulles Airport. The third game, With a Vengence, changed things around again – to a Crazy Taxi clone that had you running around defusing bombs as fast as you could.

Anywhere else the mish-mash of genres and plots would have been a bad thing. This was Die Hard though and, as the fourth film proved, John McClane rarely needs to make sense. All that really mattered was that each of the individual games was fun-filled and action-packed – which they were. Die Hard Trilogy went on to be one of the games which helped make the PlayStation a hit and, while it’s definitely not aged very well, I still have many fond memories of playing it as youngster, even despite the frenzied switching between controllers and play-styles.

Alien versus Predator

Developer: Rebellion Developments
Platform: PC, Mac
Year: 1999

Again, we’re cheating a bit. Alien versus Predator isn’t really based on a single film, though it does share a title with one. Instead, Rebellion’s seminal and super-scary stealth shooter traces it’s lineage back to the Alien versus Predator comic crossover, which in turn is based on the previously separate Alien and Predator films.

So, really we’re not cheating. In fact, because AvP is actually based on two films then we’re being doubly-good. Alright then.

Incorporating three entirely different campaigns, Alien versus Predator gives players a chance to play as both an alien, predator and human marine – which really means that the title is a classic under-sell. Those marketing people are devious.

Though there are a few areas of overlap in the original game, the three campaigns really stand apart as separate adventures with entirely different mechanics. As the alien you’re a stealthy melee warrior who climbs ceilings and noms skulls, while as the predator you’re a juggernaut of technology and gadgets perfectly suited to combat. It’s the marine campaign that most people remember though, for the simple reason that it’s the possibly the single scariest experience you can have with a computer without visiting the demotivational thread in the NeverObey.net forums.

Seriously. The thought of moving down those dimly lit corridors and a limited field of vision, spinning on the spot constantly and listening for the tell-tale blip of your motion tracker telling you that you’re about to be buried in acidic blood…No wonder we still have nightmares!

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

Developer: Starbreeze
Platform: PC, Xbox
Year: 2004

Here’s a real exception in the list – a game which actually turned out to be far, far better than the film it was actually spun-off of. While Pitch Black was a decent and sci-fi horror the ego-driven sequel was unapologetically awful. Thankfully, Vin Diesel’s game studio managed to salvage enough from the film to make a decent game.

The plot of Escape from Butcher Bay doesn’t really run that close to either of the films though; it’s actually a prequel that tells the story of Riddick’s most impressive escape ever – from ultra-max prison, Butcher Bay. The sci-fi equivalent of Alcatraz, nobody has ever escaped from Butcher Bay. It’s up to you to change that, which you mainly do by sneaking through airducts and backstabbing or pulverising people whenever you can.

It’s this kinetic melee action that forms the backbone of Riddick’s appeal and, though there are a lot of other things to like in the game, our minds usually circle back to the awesomely delivered sense of power communicated by the fluid first person brawling. It honestly feels like you’ve stepped into the skin of something sleek and predatory and lethal. It’s quite intoxicating.

It’s also worth mentioning that Butcher Bay was so well received by gamers that it eventually bred an expanded remake. Title Assault on Dark Athena, it included an entirely new singleplayer campaign that followed on from the first game and a new multiplayer segment.

GoldenEye 007

Developer: Rare
Platform: Nintendo 64 exclusive
Year: 1997

GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 really is the only game that can sit at the top of this list, claiming the title of the best film-to-game conversion ever. Not only are there few movie inspired games that can match it in quality, but there are few games which can match it at all!

The spiritual predecessor to Perfect Dark, GoldenEye was possibly the biggest single reason to own a Nintendo 64 if you were a youngster at the time. Nowhere else was it possible to feel that much like James Bond in both an expansive singleplayer and thrilling multiplayer mode. In fact, it’s not been possible since then either, with both Activision and Electronic Arts struggling to do the franchise justice after Rare lost the rights.

The singleplayer portion of the game is a fairly faithful to the film, taking full advantage of the fast pace and capturing all of the most memorable scenes perfectly, from the bunker infiltration at the start to the fight above the radar dish at the climax.

(GoldenEye may look dated now, but it was a classic at the time)

What distinguishes GoldenEye from any other James Bond game before or since though is that it was faithful to the mood of the film as well as the set pieces. Players weren’t always forced to just run and gun through hordes of indenti-kit enemies, but were encouraged (nay, forced) to use stealth tactics to defeat the game.

The multiplayer portion of GoldenEye is where the lasting appeal of the game is though, with some fans still going to extraordinary efforts in order to unlock hidden and unfinished content included in the retail release. As recently as 2004 new beta levels were being unlocked, provided you were willing and able to link your Nintendo 64 to a PC and run the 10,000 lines of code that assembled the required file fragments. Few other games have inspired such fanatical loyalty.

Strangely though, the multiplayer game doesn’t sound all that great when you try to explain it. The selection of available modes and tweaks, while incredibly innovative at the time, are fairly commonplace nowadays. Likewise, the way that Rare designed the interface and control system to make the FPS genre accessible on the Nintendo 64 may not sound like much now, but actually laid the foundations for modern console shooters.

(A GoldenEye multiplayer remake in Source is available)

That’s just the start too – GoldenEye 007 introduced so many things to computer games that it’s really hard to overestimate its legacy. It’s often credited as being one of the first games to introduce the concept of a zoomable sniper rifle, for example. It was one of the first games to feature a hit-sensitive damage model for enemies too, with enemies being more vulnerable to head or torso shots. Rudimentary material physics were worked into the game as well, with some weapons capable of penetrating doors and walls – yet there are some games nowadays which don’t have that feature!

GoldenEye’s legacy has caused a number of spiritual successors too, such as Perfect Dark and the Timesplitters franchise, which was developed by a group that separated from Rare to form the ill-fated Free Radical Design. It’s just a shame that the most recent of these doesn’t really have the lasting appeal of GoldenEye. Likewise, it’s a shame that a remake or retro re-release of the game is unlikely to arrive any time soon as the rights are currently shared between original publisher Nintendo and the now Microsoft-owned Rare – each of whom want a release for their own platform.

Still, until Nintendo and Microsoft work out their differences, there’s always the Source Engine-powered GoldenEye: Source to give you a taste of why GoldenEye 007 was such a classic.

I’ve always remembered that story, because it strikes me that applies to nearly every case where an outsider tries to make sense of an insider’s perspective. We can see all the things that someone, in a different profession than us, does. What we cannot know is the relative difficulty of those tasks. I know a reverse slam is harder than a simple dunk. But how much harder? And how much harder again would a slam be if you had a defender drapped all over you? (I also know very little about sports as well)

I was really bored one day and was actually watching golf. I remember watching Phil Mickelson at the PGA (or was it the U.S Open?). He was in the rough, just off the green, and chipped within a few feet of the hole. Ho-hum, I thought. He bogeyed the hole. Mickelson had taken a FULL swing at a ball in an impossible lie and sent it 20 feet, to within an easy putt of the hole. I’ve never played golf, so I had no idea how hard that was, or why that was anything special. The announcer, though, had a completely different perspective.

I think that misunderstanding over degree of difficulty issues is one of the major reasons for conflict between insiders and outsiders. We bridle at the school teacher who asks for a raise, because we don’t realize–and we can never realize unless we’ve been a teacher ourselves–how hard being a school teacher is. Mickelson shoots 75 and says, afterward, he thought he had a great round and we scoff, but only because we don’t know golf the way he does and we don’t understand how insanely difficult that chip shot was.