HBO's long-awaited adaptation of The Last of Us is finally here and to superb critical reception. Few properties have endured a more beleaguered history of imperfect adaptations than video games, but the tides just might be turning with the pristine likes of Arcane, Castlevania, and, perhaps, The Last of Us now leading the pack. Whether fans keep experiencing euphoria or return to disappointed sighing, bringing games to television isn't going anywhere between Prime Video's upcoming God of War series and Netflix tackling Assassin's Creed. And there are many other franchises waiting for the right creatives to unleash their potential upon our television screens.
Mass Effect
The sheer scope of this ambitious trilogy spans hundreds of hours of gameplay, and the narrative possibilities within its carefully constructed galaxy are as vast as the black expanse of space. Mix more than a touch of Star Trek's wide-eyed explorer optimism, a nightmare-haunting threat worthy of Alien, and the self-aware lunacy of Farscape, and you have the deconstructed (then re-constructed) DNA of science fiction at its best. At its heart, Mass Effect is about discovery and wonder, friendship and loyalty, all the while balancing vibrant supporting characters, varied relationship possibilities, and sly challenges to expectations — not to mention those jokes immortalized into meme history. An RPG this dense offers seasons' worth of material on a silver platter and necessitates a production quality to match. And who should lead the charge against the Reapers? Female Commander Shepard, undoubtedly. A woman as the galaxy's primary protector is dazzling.There are rumors of the series being bought by Prime Video, which would be great news considering Amazon's wallet would give the series the budget it deserves for a space epic.
Red Dead Redemption
Wind back the clock to late 2018. The names Arthur Morgan (Roger Clark), Dutch van der Linde (Benjamin Bryon Davis) and John Marston (Rob Wiethoff) were tossed around office cubicles and across bar tables with a fervency usually reserved for football or superhero versus superhero debates. The dubious morality and shifting loyalties of the van der Linde gang broke sales records and created a community bound by their shared awe over what already played like an interactive film. Both Red Dead Redemption 2's aesthetic and plot would effortlessly translate to the small screen in this era ofYellowstone reviving the modern Western. There's one condition: start chronologically with Red Dead Redemption 2 before concluding Marston's story from the first game. The sequel-as-prequel format was a prescient tragedy, but imagine the shock unfolding in "real" time to new viewers.
Final Fantasy
Never may a critical word be uttered against Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (I'm only a quarter joking), but why stop there? The Japanese game developer Square Enix defined many Gen X and Millennial childhoods between Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, and with sixteen games of the former and counting, the material's ripe for adapting. Each installment affords the potential for multi-season arcs within the anthology structure popularized by Ryan Murphy — just insert magic and chocobos, keep the eldritch horror. The lauded Final Fantasy VII is an obvious and worthy choice to adapt, but let's not overlook how III, V, VI, VIII, X, and XVIII are tailor-made for an HBO budget.
Uncharted
Before The Last of Us, Naughty Dog built their name upon the pillar that is Uncharted. Uprooting the classic Indiana Jones energy to modern day, replete with a spectacular cast and the snarky charisma of its leading man (Nolan North), set the franchise apart from its competitors. In 2022 Sony Pictures released a monetarily successful film starring Tom Holland as a younger Nathan Drake, but Uncharted's surprisingly moving emotional core tucked beneath the chaotic action sequences deserves the breathing room afforded by television — especially the cinematically-charged Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
The Legend of Zelda
The king (princess, technically) of them all. At this point, it's nigh-impossible to say something unique about a series as celebrated and ever-evolving as The Legend of Zelda — which is an argument in its televised favor. Like Final Fantasy's anthology format, few Zelda games are connected narratively, so creators have their pick of the bountiful lot. And with the existing nostalgia for 1980s fantasy films bolstered by the recent return of Willow, young protagonists Link and Zelda carrying the story offers a refreshing change to adult-dominated TV without losing dramatic heft.
Chrono Trigger
If any game deserves a ten-season series, it's Square Enix's Chrono Trigger. Let none say Enix wasn't creative: here's an actual epic covering history from the dawn of time to the faraway future through six characters representing different eras of Earth, plus the villain is a planet-destroying alien, and the plot concerns time travel with multiple possible endings. What more could a network ask for? The creative team of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest creators Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yuji Horii, respectively, and Dragon Ball manga writer Akira Toriyama invented a game almost unfairly good for its time. That ambition deserves to be newly realized.
Until Dawn
Still the best entry from the development team at Supermassive Games, Until Dawn is a lightning-in-a-bottle winking send-up of teen slasher films as much as it's an ode to their blood-soaked, envelope-pushing glory. Supermassive replicates the classic slasher pacing and isolated atmosphere to a gore-splattered T, providing the game version of that slowly building warning at the back of your neck that something's terribly wrong. The characters sport every stereotypical teen personality (or lack thereof) but receive enough development to warrant concern over their fates. The deliciously effective concept and mostly unexplored creature mythos itches for a proper cable television miniseries.
Elden Ring
The magic words for Elden Ring are as follows: FromSoftware and author George R.R. Martin. Combining FromSoft's reputation for medieval fantasy with Martin's stellar world-building is a match made in gaming heaven. To the surprise of no one, Elden Ring boasts complex lore, a rich cinematic experience, and hours upon hours of playtime. The player character is also customizable, so a series has full creative agency over their protagonist's looks and motivations as they defeat monstrous enemies and traverse the lands to reforge the titular Elden Ring and become the Elden Lord of all. Or not, depending on the player's morality. Elden Ring has Rings of Power aesthetic potential and the darker touch of Game of Thrones's creator.
Hades
Few gamers suspected a roguelike to include a piercingly sharp and moving narrative about choices, family, and loss. Zagreus (Darren Korb), the son of the Greek gods Hades (Logan Cunningham) and Persephone (Laila Berzins), isn't running away from the Underworld to shirk his duties like a rebellious teenager. He's on a quest to find the mother he's never met and is justifiably angry with his father's secret-keeping. Hades teases out the Persephone reveal and her fate, as well as dense characterization, in between its cycling combat system and even allows for a happy ending. Keep the vivid art style, rock soundtrack, and revolving door cast of supporting gods: it's a winner.
Metroid
Metroid is another icon of Nintendo's glory days, a science fiction fighting fest between the player's bounty hunter avatar and evil Space Pirates. Metroid's original atmosphere feels claustrophobic, which lends it a suspense edge as much as an action-adventure. Even better is the main character Samus Aran herself, one of the first and still most famous female protagonists in a game. Her richly-drawn backstory (raised by an alien race after Space Pirates killed her parents, joined the Galactic Federation military, went rogue as a bounty hunter, has lots of adventures) suits television with aplomb.
Half-Life
A physicist's experiment triggers a dimensional portal allowing aliens to attack and take over Earth. After massive destruction and alien rule, powerful officials put the scientist, Gordan Freeman, on ice until twenty years after the initial invasion. Freeman joins a resistance group fighting the Earth's alien overlords -- and zombies also exist. Action-packed and truly dystopian, Half-Life and its successor Half-Life 2's narratives are strong enough to transplant into live-action with few changes. In the absence of former smash hits like The Walking Dead, Half-Life fills the tonal void and elevates pop culture's ongoing craving for fictional apocalypses.
Tomb Raider
But wait, you say, what about the three films? Perhaps the best adventure series ever made, or at least the most recognized, Tomb Raider is too legendary for decent-if-middling movies. The original games have plenty of plots to choose from with the country-hopping heiress Lara Croft, and yet the survivalist reinterpretation of her origin story in the 2013 reboot serving as a coming-of-age metaphor is the one that sticks. The 2018 film starring the perfectly cast Alicia Vikander drew heavy inspiration from the 2013 source material but abandoned the most affecting part: Lara's devoted relationship with Sam Nishimuru. Her best friend, trusted confidant, and possible romantic interest, Lara crossed an entire island, killed multiple foes, and defeated an ancient queen to save Sam. For this Lara, long before she investigated enemy organizations or toured perilously located caverns for fun, her priority was love. Let's incorporate that onscreen.
Metal Gear Solid
Creator Hideo Kojima has assisted with various Metal Gear Solid film plans since 2012. 2020 saw Oscar Isaac cast as Solid Snake. Since the COVID-19 pandemic froze ongoing progress, why not a series instead? Typical of the renowned Kojima, the Metal Gear franchise isn't quite like any proceeding game and defies categorization. The Cold War inspiration, alternate history, dystopian suspense, political intrigue, genetic engineering, cloning, supernatural elements, fourth-wall breaking, and interrogating the concept of identity: only a long series of long movies might do Metal Gear Solid justice. And with television's ability to match (or surpass) the imaginative capabilities of film, shifting Metal Gear to streaming just makes sense.