Current Events > The key to making a video game movie is to work backwards.

(+) Yeah! (+)

You know how movies are converted into video games? Backgrounds that appear in one scene become levels, standalone opponents become recurring enemies, blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments become video game mechanics. If you want to turn a video game into a movie, just work backwards.

I just finished watching The Lion King for the umpteenth time and I couldn't help but think of the Sega/SNES game. In the musical number I Just Can't Wait (to Be King), young Simba hops along giraffe heads for a few seconds before riding an ostrich for about twenty seconds of screentime. These become gameplay mechanics which take up entire sections of levels. The monkeys and leopard which appear in the opening montage become enemies in the game. Simba's overhead swat which he performs against the final hyena becomes a primary attack in the later stages of the video game when Simba is an adult.

If you were to make a movie out of, say, Super Mario, you'd need only to work in reverse. Monty Mole and Buzzy Beetle appear in the background, but never fight Mario. Mario kicking a Koopa shell into a pack of oncoming Goombas is a technique he performs one time in order to create distance between himself and his pursuers. Wiggler sneaks up behind Mario only to be eaten by Yoshi. The rest would need only follow the basic mechanics of storytelling: make the characters interesting and have one scene connect to another in a natural progression.

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