The Obligatory Movie Game Podcast

For this episode of the Obligatory Movie Game Podcast, Devon and Jesse sit down to discuss one of the most beloved movie games of all time. After EA’s Two Towers video game established a winning formula the year before, The Return of the King expanded on its predecessor by adding more playable characters, making the environments more interactive, and by improving the graphics and the cinematic framing of the events happening around the player. The combat was smooth, the option to play in co-op added another element to the experience, but ROTK is still a PS2 era tie-in so it shoe horns in some goofy boss battles, and in the name of providing a more rounded out experience, it makes Sam into a formidable orc-slayer. The Return of the King set the standard for movie games and Lord of the Rings games moving forward, and it’s finally time to geek out about it

0:00:00 Intro
0:12:04 IMDB Dive
0:20:18 Where We’re Coming From
0:38:56 Plot
0:53:53 Time Machine Time
0:58:27 Plot Cont’d
2:04:28 Characters
2:28:37 Setting
2:35:20 Rate, Recap and Recommend

For the final Pitch Party episode within the “Sexy Swordfights” theme, Devon, Bart and Alexis discuss entirely fabricated adaptations of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. While there have been countless versions of the play performed on stages across the globe, and several filmmakers have taken cracks at bringing the story to the screen, very few R + J video games exist. Devon and Bart present alternate histories where Luhrmann’s gaudy 1996 film spawned some role-playing video games in which players could place themselves within the shoes of the titular star crossed lovers…and their friends? Ultimately, Alexis must decide which pitch should be willed into existence

0:00:00 Intro
0:08:55 Warm-ups (Better Than/Worse Than/Fun Facts)
0:18:15 Pitch 1 (Bart)
0:28:16 Pitch 2 (Devon)
0:42:23 Questions
0:53:37 Verdict

For this episode of the Obligatory Movie Game Podcast, Sam and Bart join Devon to chat about The Pagemaster for SEGA Genesis. The different horror, fantasy and adventure settings lend themselves well to a video game, and there are no shortage of baddies from the film that are rendered in vibrant 16 bit graphics. However, many of the best characters from the film have been all but erased, and the game basically assumes the player is already familiar with the Pagemaster film, since it doesn’t even attempt to provide any plot details, or even dialogue. Still, with a staggering number of levels, and a reasonable difficulty level that keeps the game fun, Pagemaster allows young players to get lost in its literary worlds, if only for a spell

0:00:00 Intro
0:07:29 IMDB Dive
0:21:33 Where We’re Coming From
0:29:03 Time Machine Time
0:35:10 Weird Stuff
0:45:26 Nailed It
1:13:30 Failed It
1:36:10 Rate, Recap and Recommend

For the second episode in the Pitch Party trilogy of episodes on movies that contain [sort of] sexy sword fights, Alexis and Devon must pitch their own made-up games based on Kill Bill, to Bart. With tons of action, a bad-ass lead dead-set on exacting her bloody revenge, and a whole gang of cool villains in her way, a Kill Bill video game feels like a no brainer, but alas, no tie-in was made. Devon and Alexis have re-watched both volumes of Kill Bill, and they’ve come up with some wacky ways to use the licence. You can decide for yourself whether these abominations should see the light of day. Get on your yellow jumpsuit, and let’s party

0:00:00 Intro
0:04:55 Warmups (Better Than, Worse Than, Double Header Pick)
0:23:05 Pitch 1 (Alexis)
0:32:25 Pitch 2 (Devon)
0:44:40 Questions
1:02:48 Verdict

For the final Obligatory Movie Game Podcast episode of May, Devon and Dalton dive into Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the jaw-droppingly expansive Star Wars RPG from 2003. Unlike most games covered on this show, KOTOR was almost universally loved upon release, and it set the standard from Star Wars games moving forward. Many blogs, youtubers, and video game news outlets still feel like it’s the definitive Star Wars video game. From its robust cast of party members and interesting NPCs, to its gripping original story that is morphed by the player’s choices, KOTOR is one of those rare licensed games that deserves recognition alongside the best games of its generation. There’s not as much to make fun of here, but there’s a lot to gush over.

0:00:00 Intro
0:09:10 Warm Up (Favourite Star Wars Characters and RPGs)
0:19:03 Where We’re Coming From
0:28:12 Plot
0:45:06 Time Machine Time
0:51:04 Plot Cont’d
1:46:43 Characters
2:09:22 Setting
2:22:43 Rate, Recap, Recommend

Star Wars month continues as Devon, Hudson and Mark discuss one of their favourite Star Wars games ever made. They begin the episode by sharing their personal rankings of the Star Wars movies, before getting into the discussion on the game. This is the first time the Obligatory Movie Game Podcast has covered a game from the Playstation 4/ Xbox 1 generation, and the lucky game to become the newest game covered on the show is a game that showed up on many lists in last year’s Top Ten Star Wars Games episode. Even though Jedi: Fallen Order isn’t an adaptation of any Star Wars movie in particular, many of its characters, locations and plot points feel familiar to fans of the films (and TV Shows/novels etc.), and it gave Star Wars fans (a new) hope for future thrilling single player video games in the Star Wars universe. The force is strong with this one.

0:00:00 Intro
0:10:08 Ranking the Star Wars Films
0:37:13 Where We’re Coming From
0:42:53 Plot
1:05:55 Time Machine Time
1:11:26 Plot Cont’d
1:22:37 Characters
1:52:05 Setting
2:02:21 Tone/Music
2:07:50 Rate, Recap, Recommend

May the 4th be with you! It’s May, and the Obligatory Movie Game Podcast is ready to pick off some womp rats, starting with the 1991 New Hope adaptation for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even though the difficulty level is harsh (even for the NES), and some of the iconic villains are traded for thrilling adversaries such as the tractor beam generator, the game takes the player through the events of the original Star Wars, from the search for R2-D2 on Tatooine, to the climactic trench run. The familiar music rendered into scrumptious chip tunes, combined with the glorious 8 bit graphics give the game undeniable charm as the player takes on all manner of alien scum and stormtroopers as Luke, Leia and Han.

0:00:00 Intro
0:10:06 IMDB Dive
0:27:30 Where We’re Coming From
0:36:12 Game Talk (Context)
0:42:17 Plot
1:39:43 Characters
1:55:50 Setting
2:01:32 Rate/Recap/Recommend

In this episode of the Obligatory Movie Game Podcast, Devon and Hudson sit down to look at another superhero tie-in from the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox era. Fantastic Four shares some gameplay elements with other co-op beat em ups like Shrek 2 and X-Men Legends, but it takes some bizarre liberties with its plot. Instead of locking themselves away to conduct tests and to try and find a way to reverse the effects of their accident on the space station, our heroes find themselves battling mummies, dinosaurs, giant spiders and a half dozen random villains from Fantastic Four comics. As the members of Marvel’s classic quartet travel to different areas of New York (let alone different continents and dimensions) they have plenty of opportunities to hone their skills, set aside their differences and learn to work as a team in this comic book-loving movie adaptation.

0:00:00 Intro
0:04:45 IMDB Dive
0:11:08 Where We’re Coming From
0:17:20 Plot
0:44:58 Time Machine Time
0:49:40 Characters
1:06:44 Setting
1:11:23 Tone/Music
1:15:54 Rate, Recap, Recommend

For this Obligatory Movie Game Episode Devon and Darryl cover one of the most infamous, and also most-requested-for-this-show movie games of all time. E.T. for the Atari 2600 has garnered a baffling (if a little overblown) reputation as the game that caused the video game crash of 1983, almost destroying the video game industry altogether. A lot of ink has been spilled on the game’s outrageous forced 5 week development window, and the fact that many copies were buried in a desert in New Mexico (along with a lot of other Atari games and hardware). Devon and Darryl read the manual and played through the game on the ol’ Dozlaw Atari, and formed their own opinions about the quality of E.T. as an adaptation and as an old-school adventure game.

0:00:00 Intro
0:04:22 IMDB Dive
0:14:23 Where We’re Coming From/Movie Chat
0:23:37 History of the Game
0:34:52 Plot
0:48:13 Time Machine Time
0:59:44 Plot Cont’d
1:18:50 Characters
1:33:16 Setting
1:39:40 Rate, Recap, Recommend

For this Pitch Party episode, Alexis and Bart pitch their own original concepts for video game adaptations of The Princess Bride. The Pitch Party episodes are an offshoot of The Obligatory Movie Game Podcast in which three people come up with, and defend, their own concepts for video games based on films that they love. Since Devon is in the director’s chair for this round, it’s up to him to greenlight one of these bizarre games. Will the pitchers pitch platformers, turn-based RPGs, or perhaps medieval dating sims? No matter what, it’ll be a party

0:00:00 Intro
0:04:15 Warm-up Discussion (Better Than/Worse Than, Alternate Casting etc.)
0:18:33 Pitch 1 (Alexis)
0:27:20 Pitch 2 (Bart)
0:36:50 Questions
0:48:23 The Verdict