Films from the 80s are no strangers to hopping from the big screen to the screen right inside the player’s home, but many have been left in the dust with no playable version under their belt. With so much untapped potential and the trend of ’80s nostalgia still going strong, it feels inevitable for some of these timeless classics to make their return in a whole new way.
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While film franchises such as Predator and Indiana Jones have their fair share of games, many other series aren’t nearly as lucky. Just as many others haven’t received video game adaptations in a long time, or haven’t been properly used, and could surely use a revamp for the modern era. These next movies from the 80s are primed for a modern video game adaptation.
1 Die Hard
In The Style Of Far Cry
Die Hard
- Release Date
- July 15, 1988
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
- Director
- John McTiernan
- Cast
- Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, De’voreaux White, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, Bruno Doyon, Andreas Wisniewski, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Joey Plewa, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Dennis Hayden, Al Leong, Gary Roberts, Hans Buhringer, Wilhelm von Homburg, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush, Bill Marcus, Rick Ducommun, Matt Landers
Die Hard has had its fair share of game adaptations in the past, but none have truly captured that feeling of being John McClane. Now, on modern consoles, a first-person action-stealth game would be ideal for providing the player with just that. It’s one man against the world, and there is no better game for it to be based on than Far Cry.
Centralize the open worlds of the Far Cry series into one massive skyscraper, and it really becomes a John McClane simulator. Sneak up behind terrorists, and when the player gets caught, go guns blazing. When the player has to survive on pure intuition and skill, it’s not too far of a leap to take to make them go Yippee Ki-Yay.
2 The Princess Bride
In The Style Of Fable
The Princess Bride
- Release Date
- October 9, 1987
- Cast
- Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest
- Runtime
- 98 minutes
- Director
- Rob Reiner
When considering settings that blend the fantastical with a heavy dose of comedy, these two franchises immediately come to mind. The fast and funny dialogue of Fable already feels like it’s straight out of The Princess Bride, so the logical next step would be to give players the opportunity to play around in that setting.
Swordfighting with Inigo Montoya, swashbuckling with Westley, and arm-wrestling Fezzik, there are plenty of opportunities to truly explore these characters and get to know them. Combining high-flying action and sharp dialogue has already made for incredible RPGs in the past; throwing in Buttercup would simply add to the charm.
3 Who Framed Roger Rabbit
In The Style Of Telltale Games
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Release Date
- June 22, 1988
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
- Cast
- Amy Irving, Christopher Lloyd, Charles Fleischer, Bob Hoskins, Kathleen Turner
A cartoony noir parody with lovable characters and a consistently gripping story is a perfect recipe for a Telltale Games-style narrative adventure. After all, it’s been done before with the Sam & Max trilogy by Telltale Games. Turning Who Framed Roger Rabbit into an episodic mystery for the player to solve would be a no-brainer.
Treating this as a soft remake of the movie, with diverging paths from the iconic story to make it wholly the players’ own, or as a fully unique sequel, there are plenty of directions to take the story, all of which would be equally exciting. Solving a brand-new mystery alongside Roger and Jessica Rabbit while encountering a whole new cast of characters, with some cameos in tow, would spark that same magic from years gone by.
4 A Nightmare On Elm Street
In The Style Of Silent Hill 2
A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Release Date
- November 9, 1984
- Cast
- Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, Charles Fleischer, Joseph Whipp, Lin Shaye, Joe Unger, Mimi Craven, Jack Shea, Ed Call, Sandy Lipton, David Andrews, Jeff Levine, Donna Woodrum, Shashawnee Hall, Carol Pritikin, Brian Reise, Ash Adams, Don Hannah, Leslie Hoffman, Paul Grenier
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Director
- Wes Craven
Freddy Krueger has been dormant for many years now, in both the worlds of film and video games. His iconic claws have sunk into various modern games, most recently Mortal Kombat (2011) and Dead By Daylight, but these have all been Freddy placed among a cavalcade of characters, never as the star of the show.
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The dream-like setting of the Silent Hill franchise is the perfect basis for a truly nightmarish A Nightmare on Elm Street video game. With the success of Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2, there’s a clear demand for more games like it. Trying to escape the clutches of Freddy Krueger through ever-changing dream hallways, knowing full well that he’s controlling every single aspect of the world, would create a nightmare like no other.
5 Return To Oz
In The Style Of Lies Of P
Return to Oz
- Release Date
- June 21, 1985
- Runtime
- 109 Minutes
- Director
- Walter Murch
- Cast
- Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Tim Rose, Brian Henson
The land of Oz is colorful, whimsical, and truly enchanting. Return to Oz, however, turned that completely on its head, adding surprisingly bone-chilling elements to the wonderful world of Oz. The Wheelers, a creature that acts as this film’s flying monkey, has stuck in many viewers’ heads ever since.
This darker interpretation of Oz is the perfect fit for a Soulslike experience, with Lies of P being a suitable comparison. Corrupting these fairy-tale legends into something much darker has proven successful before; with an iconic setting like Oz, it would, without a doubt, work once more. Traversing Oz and teaming up with revamped allies to take on nasty foes in nail-biting close-call combat would fit like a ruby slipper.
6 Top Gun
In The Style Of Ace Combat
Top Gun
- Release Date
- May 16, 1986
- Runtime
- 110 minutes
- Director
- Tony Scott
- Cast
- Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt
Top Gun: Maverick blew cinemas away in 2022, giving audience members from around the world the drive to fly around in an F-14A Tomcat. Bandai Namco gave players that chance with the Top Gun: Maverick DLC for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Despite this already coming to fruition, there is so much more to tap into.
Putting players directly in the Mach 10 missions of both Top Gun: Maverick and the original Top Gun would be captivating beyond belief. The comm chatter between Maverick and Iceman, the downtime between missions, and of course, the thrilling dogfights. These would all blend together to give players the ultimate Top Gun experience.
7 National Lampoon’s Vacation
In The Style Of Crazy Taxi
National Lampoon’s Vacation
- Release Date
- July 29, 1983
- Runtime
- 99 Minutes
- Director
- Harold Ramis
- Cast
- Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid
Iconic ’80s comedies aren’t the first thing one would think of for a video game adaptation, but bizarrely enough, National Lampoon’s Vacation would lend itself perfectly to the fast-paced arcade-style action of Crazy Taxi. Controlling Clark Griswald and blasting from point to point in an effort to appease the Griswald family, all while keeping his rage in check, would work perfectly to try and hit a top score.
Giving players free rein over a classic Americana-style landscape with various landmarks to hit and secrets to uncover would make this all too addictive. Throw in witty dialogue, wacky characters, and a record scratch to Holiday Road, and it’s a niche, but perfectly fitting success.
8 Beetlejuice
In The Style Of Overcooked
Beetlejuice
- Release Date
- March 30, 1988
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Director
- Tim Burton
- Cast
- Catherine O’Hara, Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones
To be a true bio-exorcist, a player needs to learn how to multitask. A couch co-op party game like the Overcooked series is the perfect place to drop Betelgeuse himself, allowing players to scare (or annoy) patrons trying to live in different homes like the titular spirit does in Beetlejuice. This fast-paced, hectic gameplay loop could stir up quite the fright among any good friend group.
Pulling up the ghostly striped pants as the player’s very own custom character, or running around as Adam or Barbara, concocting new ways to make any human unlucky enough to enter into the player’s domain scream their lungs out, would never get boring. Once a level is all said and done, whoever does the spookiest job would finally find out who’s really the ghost with the most.
9 They Live
In The Style Of Papers, Please
They Live
- Release Date
- November 4, 1988
- Runtime
- 94 minutes
- Director
- John Carpenter
- Cast
- Keith David, Roddy Piper, George ‘Buck’ Flower, Peter Jason, Meg Foster
Putting players in the sunglasses of Nada would make for a fantastic social deduction game. That’s undeniable. Figuring out who’s who in a world where anyone could be anyone is Mafia 101, but taking this idea and squeezing it into a single-player game based on They Live could make for an even more engaging experience.
Taking the sunglasses away and having the player try to figure out by the skin of their teeth who’s truly human would make for a brow-sweating experience that hasn’t been seen since Papers, Please. Fighting through lies and deception, unable to truly discern whether the choices the player makes are right or wrong until the very last second, it all adds up to an otherworldly experience.
10 Gremlins
In The Style Of Goat Simulator
Gremlins
- Release Date
- June 7, 1984
- Runtime
- 106 minutes
- Director
- Joe Dante
- Cast
- Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman, Zach Galligan, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, Howie Mandel
Giving players the reins over cinema’s wildest creatures is a recipe for delicious disaster. There’s an argument to be made that there’s a fun asymmetric multiplayer game, akin to Dead By Daylight, to be found in Gremlins, but giving players the full freedom to do whatever they want as a Gremlin of their making is far more in tune with the franchise.
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