Video game movies and TV shows have come a long way, to the point where they are at last being treated seriously by the people making them. As the kids of the '80s and '90s have grown up with video games, they're now the ones calling the shots, so as a result, the quality of the movie and TV adaptations has gone up.
Nevertheless, while video game movies have always had a bad rap, many game to TV adaptations still hold up well today. With shows based on such major franchises as Halo, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, and Cyberpunk 2077 in production, plus the latest Sonic The Hedgehog animated series Sonic Prime coming to Netflix next year, it's worth remembering that some of the best video game shows are already out there.
Sonic X
After many cartoons based on SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog games, in 2003 the series finally got an animated TV series made in Japan. Unlike pretty much every other Sonic cartoon, Sonic X treated the canon of the games seriously. The show was light-hearted and colorful but not a comedy.
It had a focus on the story in which Sonic and his allies were accidentally transported to Earth, in a precursor to Sonic Adventure. In fact, both Sonic Adventure games had their plots retold on the show. Despite being quite popular abroad, Sonic X wasn't too successful in Japan and was canceled in 2005.
Castlevania
Netflix's anime adaptation of Konami's Castlevania series of vampire-hunting 2D platform-adventures is one of the most popular recent video game TV shows around. It currently has three seasons, with a fourth in production. The anime is a very loose adaptation of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and finds a vengeful Count Dracula seeking to destroy the people of Wallachia after they burn the love of his life, Lisa, as a witch.
The series has received rave reviews and boasts an impressive cast, including The Hobbit actors Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish as Trevor Belmont and Dracula, respectively.
Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
One of the best videogame web-series ever produced, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a prequel that sets up the events and a least one major character in Halo 4, in the form of the series' main cadet Thomas Lasky. It's set in a UNSC military academy 31 years before Halo 4, and deals with an assault by the Covenant and the counter-attack by Master Chief, with Lasky at the center.
Five episodes were released in 2012 during the run-up to the release of the highly anticipated game and the series is well-received by fans, despite being made on a small budget. It's the best live-action Halo adaptation, especially as the movie was canceled.
Costume Quest
One of the more surprising games to get an animated TV series is Costume Quest, a series of short RPGs from Psychonauts developer Double Fine. The cartoon was announced in 2015, a year after Costume Quest 2, and finally released on Amazon Prime in 2019.
Like the games, it deals with a group of kids on Halloween whose costumes can transform into what they actually are, like how a cardboard robot outfit can transform into a giant superpowered robot monster. Together they fight against the candy-stealing monsters that plague their hometown.
Defiance
The science fiction series Defiance was a fascinating experiment that wasn't just based on a video game but ran alongside it concurrently. The game Defiance was an MMO shooter from 2013, created by Trion Worlds, that is set on Earth several years after the apocalypse, and is still running today despite its developer closing down.
The live-action TV show ran for three seasons from 2013-2015 and is more specifically set in the titular city-state of Defiance, which features aliens and humans trying to live together and doesn't always work out. After the TV show was canceled, a fourth season took place inside the video game.
The Super Mario Bros Super Show
One of the oldest video game TV shows, The Super Mario Bros Super Show launched in 1989, and while definitely a quirky series, it's faithful to the games and pretty beloved by fans. The show consisted of a cartoon with live-action segments starring Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi, who would voice the characters in the remaining animated segments, alongside Toad, Princess Toadstool, and King Koopa (noticeably using their original names rather than Peach and Bowser).
It was often pretty fun but was made more notable by also including serials based on Nintendo's other major franchise, The Legend of Zelda.
The Witcher
While Netflix's The Witcher series is mostly based on the books, most fans of the character Geralt of Rivia come from the excellent video game series by CD Projekt RED, who also made the recent Cyberpunk 2077. Likewise, Superman actor Henry Cavill is clearly doing an impression of the gruff-voiced Doug Cockle from the games, which he's a big fan of.
The first season debuted in 2019, was based on the first two books in The Witcher series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and was generally well-received. A second season was commissioned before the first was even out and is due this year, with two prequel spin-offs in the works too.
Pokémon
The Pokémon animated series is a large reason why the brand became a phenomenon and is possibly more important to the franchise than even the games. It premiered in Japan in 1997, shortly after the original Game Boy games Pokémon Red and Green, and is still running to this day, now on its 23rd season and with over a thousand episodes broadcast.
The story of Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum and his adorable partner Pikachu resonated with kids, and it became the first anime series to be a global success. It's inarguably the most successful video game adaptation of all time.
Carmen Sandiego
There have been a number of fondly-regarded series based on master criminal Carmen Sandiego, most notably the '90s children's game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, but the best is easily the most recent Netflix animated series.
Produced by WildBrain, the studio behind the upcoming Sonic Prime, the series currently holds an impressive 96% audience average on Rotten Tomatoes and acts as an origin story for the titular thief as she goes up against the forces of V.I.L.E. The fourth and final season was released on Netflix in January 2021.
Sonic The Hedgehog (SatAM)
While 1993's Sonic The Hedgehog (colloquially known as "SatAM" to avoid confusion amongst Sonic fans) had an unimaginative title, it's the video game adaptation with the most unique take on its source material. This version of Sonic features SEGA's mascot teaming up with a group of Freedom Fighters to overthrow the despotic rule of Robotnik, who has taken over the world and converted most of the population into robots.
Despite only running for two seasons, the show strongly influenced the long-running Archie comic book series, meaning that for many fans out there, "SatAM" is true Sonic canon.