BreakABone
04-19-2010, 12:02 PM
I realize we have a movies/TV forum, but doing this in here for a simple reason. We've determined this would make an interesting topic for the podcast this week.
As long as there have been video games, there has been tie-ins. I'm sure we've all heard Pac-man Fever at least once in our life. There have also been movies of varying qualities (From awful to watchable, its a small scale). But as video games are generally seen as kids entertainment, there has also been a ton of animated series tie-ins.
Let's start with the most well known, longest latest one, Pokemon
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mNf7tdjElkw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mNf7tdjElkw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
The show has been around for more than a decade. Has had over 600 episodes, and something like 13 movies. It is probably one of the longest running cartoons in history, which easily makes it one of the longest running in the video game world.
Then you go to gaming's big two mascots, Super Mario and Sonic have also starred in their fair share of cartoons.
Mario has 3 under his belt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2fi_f5OLY
The Super Mario Bros: Super Show which for the most part is based on the Super Mario Bros 2 video game (even though it features Bowser as the main foe) This show was also famous for the wraparounds which starred a real life Mario (Captain Lou) and Luigi with various guest stars. And on Fridays would also include an episode of the Legend of Zelda cartoon.
Then there was The Adventures of Super Mario Bros, which took its cues from Super Mario Bros 3 including the Koopa Kids who were all renamed for the series (for reasons that escape me), and finally Super Mario World which took its cues from the game of the same name.
Sonic on the other hand, has had various animated shows, with varying degrees of how they are related to the game.
The first was The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog which aired weekday morning. It was a light-hearted affair, which featured Robotnik and a few of the common foes from Sonic 1/2. Around the same time, Sonic Satam (Saturday morning) premiered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4jd0UWGPgY
This cartoon was the first to shake up the premise. While Sonic fought Dr. Robotnik, he was part of the Freedom Fighters which was other wild life critters who tried to save the world from Robotnik's evil influence. Gold rings also granted him super-speed and he only needed one of them. It had a hell of a tune though.
Then came Sonic Underground which pretty much said to hell with the concept. Sonic is one of three children who is orphaned by his mother to protect them. Sonic and his siblings form a type of traveling rock band with magical instruments to fight evil. Yeah, its out there.
After that, I believe Sonic took a minor hiatus before returning in mid-2000s with Sonic X which is an anime-esque adventure that pays homage to the Sonic Adventure games.
As mentioned above there was a Zelda series, and Captain N featured characters from prominent NES games including Megaman, Simon Belmont, Mother Brain and Kid Icarus.
Other than that, Nintendo has tried its hand at two other animated series. Donkey Kong Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MecV47MbkY
This of course took influence from the SNES games developed by Rare, and was quite an odd show. One of the first CG cartoons of the day.
Finally, and most recently, Nintendo had Kirby: Right Back At Ya! which was an anime-inspired Kirby cartoon. Not sure if he spoke in it?
Well Nintendo and Sega have had their share of cartoon, as always, Pac-man led the way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3n22GQMgcU
Never seen the cartoon (or don't remember seeing it), but I do watch Christmas Comes to Pac-Land every year. :D
Mega Man was a part of the Captain N cartoon, but that doesn't mean the Blue Bomber hasn't ventured out on his own in the animated world.
First with Mega Man
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ufVQIUEiYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ufVQIUEiYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
He's the fighting robot apparently. The show was pretty enjoyable. And most people would remember the episode when Mega Man teamed with Mega Man X as the first real crossover of the two universes.
The next time he came to the small screen was in the form of Mega Man NT Warrior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQEK_CI4IU
Which is based off of the Battle NT games on the GBA/DS.
For a time, Capcom also did a Viewtiful Joe cartoon, but Youtube seems to offer up no intro/music for it. I remember it came on during the afternoons.
Capcom has also done a few Street Fighter cartoons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaJgxUOUlo
It made about as much sense as the movie.
And of course there was Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHbdmbeaXQ&feature=related
I actually enjoyed this cartoon, but I guess because the Mortal Kombat storyline on its own is pretty stupid anyhow.
And this thread is getting long in the tooth, and hasn't even hit on all the animated series nor have we touched on the actual animes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_programs_based_on_video_games
As long as there have been video games, there has been tie-ins. I'm sure we've all heard Pac-man Fever at least once in our life. There have also been movies of varying qualities (From awful to watchable, its a small scale). But as video games are generally seen as kids entertainment, there has also been a ton of animated series tie-ins.
Let's start with the most well known, longest latest one, Pokemon
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mNf7tdjElkw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mNf7tdjElkw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
The show has been around for more than a decade. Has had over 600 episodes, and something like 13 movies. It is probably one of the longest running cartoons in history, which easily makes it one of the longest running in the video game world.
Then you go to gaming's big two mascots, Super Mario and Sonic have also starred in their fair share of cartoons.
Mario has 3 under his belt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2fi_f5OLY
The Super Mario Bros: Super Show which for the most part is based on the Super Mario Bros 2 video game (even though it features Bowser as the main foe) This show was also famous for the wraparounds which starred a real life Mario (Captain Lou) and Luigi with various guest stars. And on Fridays would also include an episode of the Legend of Zelda cartoon.
Then there was The Adventures of Super Mario Bros, which took its cues from Super Mario Bros 3 including the Koopa Kids who were all renamed for the series (for reasons that escape me), and finally Super Mario World which took its cues from the game of the same name.
Sonic on the other hand, has had various animated shows, with varying degrees of how they are related to the game.
The first was The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog which aired weekday morning. It was a light-hearted affair, which featured Robotnik and a few of the common foes from Sonic 1/2. Around the same time, Sonic Satam (Saturday morning) premiered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4jd0UWGPgY
This cartoon was the first to shake up the premise. While Sonic fought Dr. Robotnik, he was part of the Freedom Fighters which was other wild life critters who tried to save the world from Robotnik's evil influence. Gold rings also granted him super-speed and he only needed one of them. It had a hell of a tune though.
Then came Sonic Underground which pretty much said to hell with the concept. Sonic is one of three children who is orphaned by his mother to protect them. Sonic and his siblings form a type of traveling rock band with magical instruments to fight evil. Yeah, its out there.
After that, I believe Sonic took a minor hiatus before returning in mid-2000s with Sonic X which is an anime-esque adventure that pays homage to the Sonic Adventure games.
As mentioned above there was a Zelda series, and Captain N featured characters from prominent NES games including Megaman, Simon Belmont, Mother Brain and Kid Icarus.
Other than that, Nintendo has tried its hand at two other animated series. Donkey Kong Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MecV47MbkY
This of course took influence from the SNES games developed by Rare, and was quite an odd show. One of the first CG cartoons of the day.
Finally, and most recently, Nintendo had Kirby: Right Back At Ya! which was an anime-inspired Kirby cartoon. Not sure if he spoke in it?
Well Nintendo and Sega have had their share of cartoon, as always, Pac-man led the way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3n22GQMgcU
Never seen the cartoon (or don't remember seeing it), but I do watch Christmas Comes to Pac-Land every year. :D
Mega Man was a part of the Captain N cartoon, but that doesn't mean the Blue Bomber hasn't ventured out on his own in the animated world.
First with Mega Man
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ufVQIUEiYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ufVQIUEiYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
He's the fighting robot apparently. The show was pretty enjoyable. And most people would remember the episode when Mega Man teamed with Mega Man X as the first real crossover of the two universes.
The next time he came to the small screen was in the form of Mega Man NT Warrior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQEK_CI4IU
Which is based off of the Battle NT games on the GBA/DS.
For a time, Capcom also did a Viewtiful Joe cartoon, but Youtube seems to offer up no intro/music for it. I remember it came on during the afternoons.
Capcom has also done a few Street Fighter cartoons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuaJgxUOUlo
It made about as much sense as the movie.
And of course there was Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHbdmbeaXQ&feature=related
I actually enjoyed this cartoon, but I guess because the Mortal Kombat storyline on its own is pretty stupid anyhow.
And this thread is getting long in the tooth, and hasn't even hit on all the animated series nor have we touched on the actual animes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_programs_based_on_video_games