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Adapting TV to Videogames

Henry Atkins
Apr 7, 2018
2 min read

The Adaption series is back after an Author Hiatus!

I have 3 Videogames based off TV shows as examples. Here's the rundown:

iCarly: iSockItTo'Em for PC/Mac

I chose this game because I wanted to say that out of all the live Nickelodeon live TV shows (which are all garbage by the way) iCarly is my favourite by far... somehow.

For references sake here is a full playthough of the entire game

Well... there are no actual playthroughs of this game. It's a rather niche market of sorts to have awfully acted live kids shows be adapted to a video game. This particular game uses the TV shows webshow antics as a minigame. Not really inspired and more suited for a mobile game. It's one of those weak attempts to make a game out of not the actual show but one small aspect of it.

Robot Wars: Arena's of Destruction PS2/PC

This time I've actually played this game!

Reference:

Robot Wars is a special kind of show. I like to think of it as the Monster truck to America or the Giant robot to Japan. Robot Wars is the destructive entertainment for Britain and I really do urge anybody who hasn't seen it to go and watch it right now.

Not long ago they held a worldwide show and bunch of other engineers from America, Canada and other European countries went up against Britain only to get demolished. Robot Wars is our sport and I really can't see anyone beating Britain.

Ego aside, the PS2/PC adaption is by the far the most faithful. Arena fights and robot customizing. Unfortunately this was too easy. There's a whole genre of games that cover this same kind of gameplay.

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders

Unfortunately I haven't played this although I know my mum had for the brief time she spent her evenings in bed playing it. Now she reads actual Agatha Christie books.

Reference:

Wait, this isn't the same game? Well it is and isn't. The story is the same of course but now it's available on Steam, Xbox One and PS4 including other platforms. It's unaffiliated with the DS version.

Since games such as that one Back to the Future game that did the whole point and click adventure were so successful it makes sense to do the same with even a classic Poirot story. However I can't really go on talking about this version of the story without making a point of the awful Poirot voice actor which brings me straight back to the DS version!

The reason I want to focus on this version of the story (other than its lack of atrocious voice acting... or any voice acting in that matter) is because the characters in this version are designed directly parallel to the Poirot TV show starring David Suchet.

So, although Poirot is a book first, the appearance of this game directly mirrors the show instead. Unfortunately even then this is a bad example since the story is exactly like the book. Got good reviews though.