Date: 3/05/2010
With the recent announcement that the wonderful Batman: Brave And The Bold will be getting a video game based on its greatness, we got to thinking about other cartoons past and present that deserve their shot at video game immortality. These kids today don't know how good they've got it with nearly every cartoon they watch getting a video game of one kind or another. Here are 10 games we demand get the video game treatment.
IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES
Nicktoons' Iron Man CGI animated cartoon is a pretty good account of a young Tony Stark trying to balance school life and a life of crime fighting as Iron Man. The animation is sick and the show is a lot of fun, so it would seem a natural step get the voice cast together and the CGI models and make a fun game for kids and adults to enjoy. Toss in some of the villains from the show like Ghost and Crimson Dynamo with some new additions and this sounds like a lot of fun for everyone.
CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER
Oddly enough, our favorite cartoon based on a video game has never had a video game itself. See, Captain N brought together characters from games like Mega Man, Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Metroid and Punch-Out among plenty of others, teamed some of them up and pitted them against others in one 22 minute long video game commercial a week. The lynch pin to the series was video game addict Kevin Keene who sported an NES controller belt and zapper gun. We'd be cool with an update version involving the Wii as long as an unloackable classic skin existed as well. We understand you can't base a game on 20 year old tech, but throw us a bone at least!
HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
With his recent comeback thanks to the fantastic Masters Of The Universe Classics figures from Mattel available only on their mattycollector.com site, we think an epic action game starring He-Man and his Masters of the Universe pals and villains should be the next step in his ascent to awesomeness. Splice together a story based on the figure bios and we'll have not only the first He-Man video game for a home console since Collecovision, but also a surefire hit that will bring in nostalgia heads along with hardcore gamers looking for a beat-em-up smashfest with all kinds of crazy looking characters.
PROSTARS
Back in 1991 three of the biggest stars in sports came together to star in a cartoon called ProStars and by "came together" we mean that they appeared in some live action segments and didn't voice the characters bearing their names. Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson, who played baseball AND football at the time, each had cool powers, weapons and gadgets based on their respective sports and we'd like to see them utilize those skills in some kind of game, maybe something for the Wii for casual gamers who want an all-in-one game. Heck, it's not like they've got much going on now, so hopefully they'd even have time to do their own voices this time around.
INSPECTOR GADGET
For our proposed Inspector Gadget video game, we'd like to flip the script and come at it from a different angle. Instead of doing a faithful recreation of our beloved bumbling detective who unwittingly relied on his niece Penny and her dog Brain for solving mysteries, we'd like to see the cyber-detective in a more serious tone. The game can take on a noir-ish quality with Gadget running around trying to figure out that latest plot by terrorist organization MAD with the help of his tech-oriented niece Penny. Developers would have a brand new genre by mixing the mystery elements with his go go Gadget legs, arms, hat and mobile.
VENTURE BROS.
With its crazy mix of old school action cartoons, pulpy adventures, robots, monsters and big-themed villains, Venture Bros. has everything a video game developer should be looking for when scouting for the next licensed game. Get Jackson Public on board to work on board to help write the script and add on an extra few recording sessions and the game will be a natural extension of Adult Swim's best show.
CHUCK NORRIS: KARATE KOMMANDOS
How is it possible that Chuck Norris hasn't starred in a video game yet? Dude's fought Bruce Lee, starred in dozens of movies, his own animated series, the internet and Walker, Texas Ranger, which lasted a whopping eight years. Long before anyone started spouting off facts about our childhood hero, though, we were marveling at his abilities on the animated Karate Kommandos. Get the voice cast back together, create a kick ass fighting or adventure game and include some animation from the original series as cut scenes and you've got a winner on your hands.
TEK JANSEN
Stephen Colbert's super agent alter ego Jansen has starred in a series of short cartoons airing during Comedy Central's The Colbert Report and even a comic book from Oni, but he hasn't ventured into the realm of video games yet. We'd love to see an action packed game featuring Alpha Squad 7's top agent, voiced by Colbert of course, with just as many laughs as ridiculously over the top kills.
HONG KONG PHOOEY
Like with Inspector Gadget, we'd take a different approach with the Hong Kong Phooey game. This time around we'd like to do a reverse Space Ghost Coast To Coast and make the goofy character more of a bad ass in the vein of a Bruce Lee or Tony Jaa fighting souped-up versions of existing Hanna-Barbera villains. Study from The Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu along with your faithful cat sidekick Spot to earn more and more complex moves and become a black belt in badassery.
G.I JOE: RESOLUTE
Sure you've got your games based on the original Joe toon and the recent live action movie, but G.I. Joe hasn't been this cool in, well, ever really. With Resolute, Hasbro handed the reigns of the Joe-verse to comic book writer Warren Ellis who helped create a more dangerous world where Joes could die, Cobra's actually dangerous and the stakes all around seemed much higher. Convert that into a video game that mixes the nostalgia factor in with a game along the lines of Modern Warfare 2 and fans all around will be happy.