From Beastars to Better Call Saul, these 5 Netflix shows deserve a video game
Netflix recently announced the creation of its own game studio to be based in Helsinki, Finland. This reduces the company’s reliance on third parties and allows it to create “world-class” games without ads or in-app purchases. Marko Lastikka, who previously worked at Zynga and EA, will lead Netflix’s new studio.
Will the company also take on some of its popular originals to give them a video game adaptation? I asked myself this exact question and put together a few ideas. I could well imagine these five Netflix series as a game:
Netflix series that deserve a video game adaptation
beastars: When I saw this bloody anime, an asynchronous multiplayer with survival elements immediately came to mind. On the grounds of the school, some herbivores could compete against a carnivore with matching skills. Their attacks and stats would depend on the animal species. Speed, size to fit into hiding spots, damage done by the animals with paws, paws, teeth and co. and so on. The map could offer various hiding places that are accessible depending on the size of the animals and weapons lying around that the herbivores can use to defend themselves if necessary. You can certainly create a wonderfully eerie atmosphere that will make the herbivores shiver as they try not to be eaten by the big bad wolf, tiger or bear.
Better Call Saul: How Saul Goodman fares in the courtroom is exciting to watch. In an Ace Attorney-style court simulation, you could stand by the accused and defend him by any means necessary. And I mean by ALL means. What testimonies do you use to entice the jury, what evidence to the contrary do you have, in what order do you present them, what witnesses do you send into the room? All of this could affect whether the jury returns “guilty” or “innocent.” Back in your office, you could eventually turn your little shack in the back room of a beauty salon into a swanky law firm—if you also perform well in the courtroom, of course. And don’t get caught cheating!
Dark: If Dark ever gets a video game adaptation, I’m all for a raise for the story writer, because we’re dealing with time travel, twists, doubles, and more paradoxes in this gritty series. And mixing all this with interactive elements is certainly not an easy task. I could well imagine a puzzle adventure where you walk through winds and uncover the mysteries behind the disappearance of some villagers and try to solve the strange conspiracies surrounding the nuclear power plants. Deciding who to share your knowledge with is important to the safety of all innocent people. Several endings, in which you save different numbers of residents from winds, are therefore conceivable.
Sandman: Sandman gives me strong Soulslike vibes. As in the series, you return to your realm as a Sandman and must rebuild the ruins of your palace and recover your powerful artifacts. This is only possible if you mess with the powerful rulers of heaven, earth and the underworld. Along with your raven, your sand, and some wonderfully sinister attacks you’ll acquire throughout the game, you’ll face off against massive, overpowering deities. Instead of dying, maybe you could fall asleep and wake up again at the last spawn point. Small dream sequences where you can enter people’s dreams to get information about the whereabouts of your items or the whereabouts of the bosses would also be pretty epic.
The Umbrella Academy: This series would make a great superhero game – logical. But if you want it to be a little more unusual and at the same time less complex, a deck of cards would certainly be a cool option. Numbers 1 through 7 have unique abilities that sure make good cards with different damage values or status effects. Within a story where you encounter different enemies with their own deck of abilities, you gather the family back together and your deck grows. Finally, you can save the world from a dire threat with the combined strength of all Hargreeves children. Visually, there is certainly more to it than just a static game board, and the abilities could also be given a fancy animation even without action combat.
Now it’s your turn: Which shows could a Netflix game studio like to tackle if you already own the rights to them? And maybe someone has an idea how to transform the ingenious improv comedy Middleditch & Schwartz into a clever game concept?
Reference-www.eurogamer.de