KUALA LUMPUR: These days, video game stories and franchises have been adapted to film and television very well.
Despite critics saying otherwise, the Super Mario Galaxy movie has positive audience reviews and has made four times its budget worldwide.
The secret? Just make it as accurate as its source material while also remembering that it’s a movie that needs structure and pacing. While we would hardly call The Super Mario Galaxy film a work of Shakespearean art, it is still a decent and entertaining watch meant for all ages, and it at least listens to its audience.
Most people did not like the needle-drop tracks in the first Mario animated film, so the majority of the sequel’s music is now orchestral renditions of classic Nintendo tunes meant to fit the action setpieces and highs.
On the flipside, the Amazon MGM-produced Mass Effect show, based on the popular BioWare-made sci-fi role-playing game, is getting a major rewrite. Why? Because it needs to be “more appealing to non-gamers”.
That is an absurdly ridiculous idea, as this forced rewrite may neglect all the qualities that made Mass Effect special and unique in favour of a generic sci-fi action series.
Rather than making a show that takes place after the famous trilogy, why not create an anthology highlighting the best parts of the series’ history and famous wars? The Fallout TV series on Prime Video did a great job adapting its source material while respecting what came before; why not apply the same care to Mass Effect?
Short Beats
Co-op pirate survival game Windrose has broken 1.5 million Steam wishlists and will be out in Early Access form on April 14.
Klei has announced a new entry in its Don’t Starve multiplayer survival series called Don’t Starve Elsewhere.
Valve is rumoured to be working on a SteamGPT AI bot for support and anti-cheat functions.
Warhammer Survivors, an upcoming roguelite survivors game using the Warhammer license, will be out for consoles and PC this year.
Nintendo-exclusive music minigame title Rhythm Heaven Groove will be out for Nintendo Switch platforms on July 2.
Nexon stated that one of its successful multiplayer first-person shooters, Arc Raiders, is a “Trojan Horse” for demonstrating AI tool usage in game development.
The Indonesia Game Rating System (IGRS) has been heavily criticised on its rollout, with titles like Grand Theft Auto V refused classification while Call of Duty gets a 3+ rating despite its violent content. Kid games like Upin & Ipin Universe get an 18+ rating, while adults-only anime visual novel Nukitashi gets a 3+ rating.
Op-Ed
We talk about the broken IGRS system in Indonesia and hope it is actually resolved by the time this article is published.
