A maxim in the creative world is to “steal” influences from anything that can trigger the imagination, whether it be comics or literature. This is true in video games too, where game developers look to the movies for inspiration.
Take The Warriors for example, this gritty movie about a delinquent gang on the run served as the inspiration for games like Double Dragon. The relationship between movies and games is a mutually beneficial one, and it’s one that will last a long time.
10 The Warriors Set The Template For Old School Beat-‘Em-Ups
A loose adaptation of The Odyssey, Walter Hill’s The Warriors focused on the titular gang-fighting its way out of New York City as rival gangs chased them. The movie’s barebones story was compensated with hard-hitting action, memorable heroes, colorful enemies, and lots of style–all of which paved the way for fighting games.
King Of Fighters, River City Girls, Streets Of Rage and other urban side-scrolling beat-‘em-ups are all in The Warriors’ debt. Though this specific, side-scrolling fighting game later gave way to tournament-based ones inspired by Bruce Lee’s legendary Enter The Dragon (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, etc.), The Warriors’ impact on games will never be forgotten.
9 Scarface Was The Original Open-World Crime Sandbox
While it’s debatable if it was the first of its kind, Grand Theft Auto undoubtedly pioneered the open-world game–especially those set in the criminal underworld–and changed video games forever. After the massive successes of Vice City and San Andreas, digital sandboxes became the norm. This was most evident in imitators like Mafia, Saints Row, Watch Dogs, and more.
That said, all of Grand Theft Auto and by extension every game it influenced owe it all to Scarface. Here, Tony Montana is a newcomer to the criminal underworld who slowly and violently makes his way to the top of a drug empire. Each game adds its own twists to this formula but at the end of the day, they’re all loose remakes of Tony's bloody rise and fall from power.
8 Aliens’ Colonial Marines Inspired An Entire Subgenre
Any First-Person Shooter (FPS) game that puts players in the shoes of badass space-faring soldiers owes its entire existence to Aliens. The actionized Alien sequel is best remembered for the Colonial Marines, who inspired everything from later Call Of Duty entries’ futuristic grunts, Gears Of War’s Gear soldiers, Halo’s Spartans, Warhammer 40K’s Space Marines, and more.
The ironic thing, though, is that all of these games missed Aliens’ point. As cool as the well-armed Colonial Marines looked, they were embarrassingly defeated by the Xenomorphs. In fact, they had to rely on the non-combatant space trucker Ellen Ripley to survive. Meanwhile, the games they influenced took their empty and easily deconstructed posturing as a virtue.
7 Blade Runner Defined The Cyberpunk Game
Cyberpunk as it’s known today wouldn’t be where it is without Blade Runner. Literally every cyberpunk and neon-tinted futuristic work owes its existence to Deckard’s identity crisis, from the brutally industrial cityscapes, dystopian politics to post-human reflections. Some examples include: Beneath A Steel Sky, Deus Ex, Perfect Dark, System Shock, and more.
The most recent and obvious disciple of Blade Runner’s style was Cyberpunk 2077, which was advertised as the ultimate cyberpunk homage. Unfortunately, the game was mired in controversy and game-breaking issues. It’s also highly unlikely that Cyberpunk 2077 will ever be redeemed the way Blade Runner was vindicated by The Final Cut.
6 Mad Max Defined The Post-Apocalyptic Game
The post-apocalyptic genre owes its entire existence to the Mad Max trilogy (especially The Road Warrior), which set the template for all wastelands to follow. For example, Borderlands, Dying Light, Far Cry: New Dawn, Rage, and more clearly took notes from Max’s desert treks. Influences include the stoic protagonist, eccentric survivors, feral raiders, and the scavenger aesthetic.
By extension and arguably, the Fallout and Metro series are better Mad Max games than its actual console adaptations. Both RPGs cast players as a mysterious drifter who changes the course of post-nuclear war history after they get involved in the survivor tribes’ conflicts, which is the iconic base plot of every Mad Max sequel.
5 The Thing Defined Survival Horror Monsters & Gameplay
The Thing’s cultural impact came after the fact, and its belated appreciation was best seen in video games. For one, a clear line can be drawn between the movie’s shape-shifting monstrosity and any survival horror enemy that was once human. Examples include Carrion’s player-controlled mass of gore, Resident Evil’s freakish mutations (above), and Silent Hill’s horrors.
One of the most recent ways The Thing influenced video games was seen in the indie sleeper hit Among Us. Instead of gory abominations, Among Us turned the movie’s paranoid atmosphere into gameplay. Just as MacReady did in the Arctic base, players have to find the alien imposter in their spacecraft’s crew before they’re all devoured.
4 The Evil Dead Trilogy Created The ‘90s FPS Action Hero
The Evil Dead trilogy proved that horror movies don’t have to take themselves too seriously, but it also changed an unexpected genre and medium: the action video game. After Evil Dead II and especially Army Of Darkness, almost every FPS hero (Duke Nukem, Sam “Serious” Stone, etc.) became a bloodthirsty one-man army with catchphrases and quips for every situation.
The movies’ tongue-in-cheek fun permeated in these games, which reveled in the slaughter. Most importantly, Ash’s use of the chainsaw as the ultimate Deadite-slaying weapon was adopted by countless games. Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada took this to the extreme with his Ash-inspired fighter Alisa Bosconovitch, whose arms are literally chainsaws.
3 Indiana Jones Inspired Future Action Adventure Heroes
Indiana Jones changed the way action fiction was told and made, and nowhere was this clearer than in the world of video games. Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft and Uncharted’s Nathan Drake are more than just homages to Indy, and it’s been joked that the gaming icons are his children. Lara and Nathan are their own heroes, but they obviously followed in Indy’s footsteps.
In terms of gameplay, Indy’s movies reshaped the way adventure games were told. While not the first to do so, Indy’s franchise popularized exotic locations filled with hazards and puzzles. Similarly, Indy’s blend of action and exploration became a core part of many adventure games. Cases in point: Monkey Island, Myst, the Sly Cooper games, and more.
2 The Matrix Created A New Shooter Mechanic
Just as it changed action movies forever, The Matrix rewrote the way gamers played shooters. One of the most recognized visuals of The Wachowski Sisters’ groundbreaking trilogy is “Bullet Time,” or when the characters slow down their perception of time and reality to dodge incoming bullets or land decisive blows on enemy Agents.
Any FPS that allows players to slow down time to land shots better owes this technique to The Matrix, especially Max Payne. Other in-game Bullet Time mechanics include Bayonetta’s Witch Time and Prince Of Persia’s Sands of Time. Fallout 3 took this to a new, calculated extreme with V.A.T.S., which allows players to choose where their bullets land.
1 Star Wars Reshaped Sci-Fi Games Forever
Star Wars is one of the most definitive pieces of fiction ever created, so it’s unsurprising that its influence reached the video game world. Any game with playable spacecraft–from Space Invaders to No Man’s Sky–has the Empire and Rebels’ dogfights to thank, while the movies’ organic world-building directly led to RPGs like The Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect.
Additionally, one of the biggest ways George Lucas’ galaxy from far, far away changed media forever was the lightsaber. The Jedi’s iconic weapon reignited cinematic swordfights’ popularity so much that it became a gaming mainstay. Cases in point: No More Heroes’ Beam Katana or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where Raiden’s swordplay is the game’s point.