Ever since the dawn of their time, video games have, with an effervescent effort, always found ways of unbinding themselves from the various paradigms offered by a digital age. Thus it comes as little surprise these days when we see our favorite video game titles doing the rounds at the movie box-office.

One of the first video game titles, ever to be adapted on the big screen, was the iconic Super Mario Brothers, back in 1993.Ever since; however, there has been no turning around. Action genre favorites such as Mortal Kombat and the Street Fighter series made an early mark on the big screen winning more fans for the respective series worldwide. Cult favorites such as the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil series also made a big splash on the big screen with high portfolio castes such as Angelina Jolie and Milla Jovovich also joining the big screen gaming frenzy.

Abhishek Nandakumar (of xAbhishek.com), an erstwhile gamer says, “Video games are created to involve people in the game play. When this interaction is reproduced in film, even casual gamers will find it slightly odd. Especially if they've already played the game the movie is based on.”

One of the earliest first-person-shooter games, the Doom series, also made its foray into Hollywood, with Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, taking up the mantle of the iconic, Sarge. Other shooter games such as the Hitman series and the Max Payne series expanded into big scale film productions vying for box-office success.

While taking video games to the big screen may not be a sure shot formula to box-office success, it is indeed interesting to see how the various game franchises grow. “The 'Max Payne' movie wasn't exactly a hit, because most people who went and watched it found the story a little awry,” says Abhishek, “I think the problem with many of today's video games is that they do not have strong story line worth replicating in the form of a movie,” he goes on to say.

The reverse is also true. Many videogames based on movies were dumped on lack of sync between video graphics, vocals, background music and clumsy actions. Sometimes the basic ideology differed. Terminator 3, Enter the Matrix, Fight Club, and Charlie’s Angels were just few examples under the huge catalog of unsuccessful video games based on the famous movies titles. And who can forget E.T? It must be placed at the top.

Although movies and videogames have gone hand-in-hand, the transformation of the concept from silver screen to animation or vice-versa has not been appreciated, most of time. According to the gaming experts, the basic reason why these games initially don't get a decent response is the short span within which both the original movies and the inspired games are launched.

“In the US the games are usually launched to promote an upcoming movies and nothing more than that. There is greater risk involved with a game if it is launched just when the original movie is launched. Game developers don’t get enough time to look at the video quality and other important aspects of the game. Sometimes they fail to even get the voices of the leading characters right, which are a major dampener,” says Angelo Lobo, a game reviewer at Kreeda Games India.

However, there are instances, when a game earned more tha the movie. Halo 3, the game launched for Xbox 360 earned more success than Spider-Man 3, the movie, launched at the same time. Golden Eye 007, Evil dead: Regeneration and The Lord of The Rings: The return of the king managed to succeed in both the formats.

The recently launched movie X-men Origins: Wolverine is one movie-based game that gamers may like to play. With the distance-bridging leap attacks and customisable Wolverine and excellent combat system, gamers on internet chat-rooms have expressed great expectations from the game. With Hollywood showing signs of decline, the gaming industry may get an edge.

“Watching a movie cost $8-10 per show while a game CD-ROM can be bought for around $60 per piece. A movie can entertain a person for say two hours but a game gives more than twenty hours of non-stop entertainment. There are signs that the sales of Hollywood industry are slipping while sales of games CDs are improving, which could be positive for the gaming industry,” says Lobo. We have heard that prediction for long. It may at last be coming true. zz