10 Classic Movies Every Retro Gamer Needs to See

Retro video games are always fun to return to, but what about movies with retro video games? I’m not talking about movies based on video games, though there are some campy exploits in films like Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter. I’m talking about movies that made video games seem like far more than just a diversion after school.

There was a time when video games seemed more real, more deadly, and as competitive as sports. Mere pixels could be a matter of life and death, which sounds ridiculous, but also weirdly imaginative at a time when games seemed more mysterious. These movies, that you can stream now, made video games seem wilder than they really were, from vector graphics to virtual reality.

10 Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

Freddy Krueger always finds absurd and gruesome ways to kill teenagers in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and he went full-on cartoony in his sixth film, The Final Nightmare. With every teen in Springwood murdered, Freddy decides to lure in more youngsters to his trap. While new victims arrive, they also learn about Freddy’s hideous origins and a way to defeat him.

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The Final Nightmare is played up mostly as a comedy, due in no small part to Freddy’s over-the-top attacks. One of his most memorable moments is how he targets a gamer by trapping him in a video game. In a ridiculous bit of product placement, Freddy brandishes the Nintendo Power Glove to finish his video game kill, making the glove perhaps look more intimidating than it did in The Wizard.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare features the dream killer Freddy attacking new teens with ridiculous new tactics, such as the Nintendo Power Glove.

9 Surf Ninjas

Riding the wave of films like 3 Ninjas, Surf Ninjas comes across as ridiculous, as it was advertised. Three brothers, big into surfing, find themselves attacked by ninjas, forcing them to adopt ninja skills they never knew they had. They’ll need to fight for their chance to attain the throne of a mysterious island, ruled by a goofy villain portrayed by Leslie Nielsen.

Surf Ninjas was made as a partnership between New Line Cinema and Sega of America. This meant that Sega would develop a Surf Ninjas Game Gear at the same time as the movie was in production. The game was finished during production, and one of the heroes can be seen playing it on a Game Gear, marking the first time a movie advertises its own video game tie-in before its release.

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Surf Ninjas poses three surfer brothers battling ninjas for their right to a throne.

8 Arcade

Written by David S. Goyer (yes, the guy who helped with the story for The Dark Knight), Arcade tapped into the early-90s paranoia about virtual reality becoming too real. The VR game of the film is titled Arcade, and while the graphics might be impressive, there’s a hefty price for losing the game. Those who fail are forever trapped in a realm dominated by the game’s child antagonist, forcing the heroes to fight for the freedom of their friends in this virtual dominion.

While the CGI for the VR world was dated, it did make the setting more believable, considering the limitations of that technology. The graphics were also so similar to Tron that Disney sued the production company of Full Moon, forcing the film to redo its visual effects. It’s about as cheesy as any B-movie of that era, but it is worth watching for the retro effects and some notable performances by Peter Billingsley, John de Lancie, and Seth Green.

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Arcade is a scary film about what happens when a virtual reality game traps the losing players.

7 Joysticks

If you have ever wondered what Porky’s would be like at an arcade, Joysticks answers that question that nobody has likely asked. The local arcade is threatened by a greedy businessman (Joe Don Baker) who wants to shut it down. The only ones who can save the establishment are the geeky and horny teens who have devoted their time and quarters.

Joysticks was a film of its era for being a ridiculous sex romp with a “save the block” plot set in an arcade. It’s got plenty of the standard features for a teen sex comedy but also boasts cameos by plenty of Midway Games arcade cabinets. This includes the yet-to-be-released Super Pac-Man, which became the game of choice for the big climax.

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Joysticks features gamers trying to save their local arcade amid all the wacky and sexual gags.

6 Hollywood Zap!

Downer is a young man who is making his dream of heading to Hollywood come true. His traveling companion is Nash, a man so addicted to video games that his only ambition is to achieve the highest score in Zaxxon. To earn that title, Nash will have to challenge the current champion known only as The Zap.

Hollywood Zap was all about high scores, as the score-keeping organization Twin Galaxies sponsored it. It’s a low-budget B-movie churned out by the gleefully trashy Troma Entertainment, loaded with horny hijinks and campy absurdity. Through all its strangeness, the film managed to cram in the real scrolling shooter of Zaxxon into a road trip plot of closure and sex jokes.

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Hollywood Zap fuses a road trip movie with an obsession with arcade games.

5 Wreck-It Ralph

Disney dived face-first into a video game animated adventure with Wreck-It Ralph. Taking place in the arcade world, the villain Ralph (John C. Reilly) is tired of his repetitive role of trying to stop the hero. While venturing out of his game, he endangers other video game characters while standing up for the glitchy racer, Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman).

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Wreck-It Ralph created a video game world that felt real in more ways than one. The game graphics were astute, and the presence of real video game characters like Zangief and the Ghosts of Pac-Man easily sold the setting. It’s also just a funny and heartfelt adventure, making it easier to care for the plight of pixelated characters trying to save their world. Not every Disney film features a cameo by Sonic the Hedgehog.

Wreck-It Ralph is the animated story of a video game villain aiming to be something more.

4 Brainscan

Michael (Edward Furlong) is a teenager obsessed with video games and horror movies. His interests fuse with a virtual reality game that lets him take on the role of a murderer. But the murders turn out to be real, and the game won’t let him stop, making for the most addictive and deadly game Michael has ever played.

Brainscan is the horror movie for retro gamers with more CD-ROMs than cartridges. The in-movie game Brainscan has apt staging for a video game before it gets all spooky, with the demonic Trickster literally coming out of the screen. Considering the weird stuff that could be shared through CDs in the 1990s, there’s something eerie about the prospect of the next shareware or pirated game being one that turns you violent.

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Brainscan features a cursed CD-ROM that forces an unlikely teen into committing real murders.

3 The Dungeonmaster

The Dungeonmaster makes a computer geek the hero in this weird dose of wish-fulfillment. When the nerdy Paul has his girlfriend abducted by the evil sorcerer Mestema, Paul’s only chance of rescuing her is to venture through various realms. He’ll be transported to fantasy realms where he’ll use his techy wristband to blast monsters with lasers.

Fusing the tech of Tron with the fantasy elements of Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeonmaster entertained the greater imagination and potential of video games. The various segments have the feel of video game stages, and the presence of the wristband computer X-CaliBR8 merges wickedly well with the B-movie fantasy staging. It’s a dorky dose of an RPG with lasers, made all the more 80s with a soundtrack by heavy metal band W.A.S.P.

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The Dungeonmaster is an adventure film about a gamer forced into a fantasy world to battle monsters with his computer that shoots lasers.

2 WarGames

WarGames entertained the idea of online games that determined more than credibility. Teenage hacker David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) uses his computer to manipulate his grades and play games. One of those games is Global Thermonuclear War, and he is playing an artificial intelligence at NORAD. What starts as a game becomes a thrilling plot of preventing the world from ending through AI-launched nukes.

While the computers might look dated, WarGames was surprisingly ahead of its time regarding cybersecurity and AI. In addition to being a rousing cyber thriller, the film makes excellent use of video games as the solution to saving the day. It’s both incredible and terrifying that technology and online gaming could be used to save the world as much as blow it up.

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WarGames finds a teen hacker playing video games with an AI that could launch nukes on the world.

1 Tron

As a trailblazer of computer animation, Tron took audiences inside the realm of computers and video games. Software engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) attempts to hack ENCOM’s files but is zapped straight into the electronic world known as The Grid. In this realm, he’ll have to battle against other programs for survival and find a way back to his reality.

Even in an age when video games were mostly primitive vectors, Tron made that digital world come alive with a combination of computer graphics and backlit effects. Everything from the battle of discs to high-speed bike chases was portrayed with relatable video game visuals, but with the higher stakes of death. Tron not only made retro arcade games feel more exciting but also explored the greater potential within the medium.

Tron explores the possibility of what happens when a human is transported to the digital realm of computer programs and video games.

These films all have a certain charm for the potential they saw in video games. They didn’t always work and some of them have aged terribly, but there was a desire to tap into something beyond the high scores and sound effects. The phrase “you die in the game, you die for real” has become a comical punchline at this point, but these old films teased that idea with a more tantalizing “what if” scenario.