Game as Movie

Six years ago, much of the summer hype swirled around The Matrix. Not only was the second part of the trilogy coming out, but it was being released alongside a video game that told part of the story. While this may not have been the first time games and movies hooked up to cooperatively tell a story, it was certainly one of the first to draw major media attention.

The next chapter in this trend will hit store shelves shortly. Instead of cooperative story telling between movie and game, Ghostbusters is essentially making Ghostbusters: The Game into the Ghostbusters Three movie. Well, maybe Ghostbuster Two and a Half, seeing as Ghostbusters Three is in production.

So far this kind of synergy has worked better when movies come to games rather than games going to movies. Silent Hill, for example, was just lackluster on the silver screen. While it is good to be true to the games, Silent Hill has proven that jumping levels and gimmicky boss fights just don't have the same allure without a controller in your hands. And let us never forget Super Mario Bros., the movie that certainly did not live up to the games.

Later this summer this relationship will get even stranger. Coming soon to a theater near you, a movie that appears to be loosely based on a game and is about people who play a game, sort of. Got that? Then, if we could mesh that with The Movies, we'd have a game in which you make a movie loosely based on a game that is about people playing a game, sort of! Then, if we could just convert that to a mini-series...