By Noah Coss

Films and video games are two of the most prominent forms of media, having played important roles in our society for decades. The mere presence of a beloved movie, show, or game has an immense impact on individual audience members and players. Fans of either thing often hold more passion and love for their favorite stories than even the creators themselves, which, come to think of it, can be more true than naught. But when the two mediums of storytelling come together to bring those beloved stories into a new format, that adaptation process becomes a severe and dangerous one.

Since the 80s and 90s, video game adaptations have been one of the biggest parts of Hollywood. First of all, taking a phenomenal IP with thousands of loving fans and turning it into one of the biggest forms of entertainment is usually a pretty profitable idea. On a personal level, seeing some of your favorite epic gaming moments come to life on the big screen is one of the best feelings a fan can have. But game adaptations are more than just money printers and cool moments, which is why it is so tricky to adapt them properly.

There are a few main factors that contribute to the downfall of a video game adaptation, including how good the story is and how overall faithful the movie is to the game. When it comes to the story, there are usually two opposite arguments that answer an interesting question. Should the story be the same but different, or should the story be new but also similar? To answer that now would be a bit difficult because, despite seeming obvious, the answer isn’t really what you think.

This is not a decisive topic by any means. In fact, many people agree on the same base idea of making sure the story is good, but approach the idea of that question differently. Ethan Tran stated, “I think what makes a good video game adaptation is when they know the source material, but the story is somewhat different.” In a similar contrast, Andrew French explained, “I think if a movie that stays true to the game, doesn’t alter it too much, and just has the full story that the game has, like very similar to it, I think that makes a good game adaptation.” The idea is there for both sides, having a good story that is true to the game in terms of either exact plot and characters or the lore and world.

In the case where everything goes wrong, there are many examples. A recent example would be A Minecraft Movie (2025), due to it’s lack of a good story period. When it came to A Minecraft Movie, it was apparent from the get-go that it wouldn’t really be like Minecraft itself. Andrew stated, “A movie that did it wrong, I gotta say, is the Minecraft movie. The story was just mid, and I wish that it was, you know, more like the game. I wish that it wasn’t like a kid movie.” The film was different from the game in terms of story, visuals, and lore, making it pretty unfaithful.

Now, a movie that Andrew did like and think was peak, of course, the Iron Lung (2026) movie. Iron Lung is a phenomenal game adaptation because it gets almost everything right when it comes to adapting a video game. I think Iron Lung did that amazingly, because there’s this, like really similar one-to-one with the game,” Andrew explained, “they took a game that was very low quality when it first released and stretched that game out into a full-fledged amazing movie.” Iron Lung is the perfect example of that because it really captured the way the game played and felt while also sticking to the lore and having a fresh story to go along with it. A Minecraft Movie doesn’t really do that; it captures the magic of Minecraft, it just replicates it in a typical Hollywood blockbuster way.

That’s really the most important factor, capturing that magic of the game, what makes it special, either through the world, lore, characters, or story. It’s a tricky thing to do because almost all fans will be critiquing all the little things about how their favorite story is being translated into a new medium. A good way to approach the translation would be to look into a new but similar story that keeps the lore and truth from the game intact. The adaptation method will vary depending on the game you are adapting. So as long as you capture the magic and the essence of what made the game so special, no one will hate you.