14 video game movie and TV adaptations that actually work

polygon.com:

It’s a banner week for video game adaptations in live action. The new Resident Evil show, titled Resident Evil, dropped on Netflix, as did the adaptation of Uncharted, starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg.

There’s now a long and storied history of video game adaptations, from 1993’s Super Mario Bros. to this year’s Uncharted and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. There’s also a litany of upcoming based-on-a-video-game movie projects, including planned adaptations of [deep breath] Borderlands, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Gears of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Minecraft, Metal Gear Solid, Space Invaders, and Just Dance.

But of the ones already out there and watchable at home, which ones are worth your time? Polygon is here to help.

We’re including movie and television adaptations here, but many readers will probably notice the omission of Netflix’s The Witcher. That’s no slight against the show, but it doesn’t qualify; while the series probably wouldn’t exist without the video game franchise, it is an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson grew up playing Mortal Kombat at the arcade, and his first of what turned out to be quite a few video game adaptations was, naturally, 1995’s Mortal Kombat. Unlike the more recent adaptation of this property, this movie actually features the titular fighting tournament. While the effects certainly look dated at times, Mortal Kombat is a colorful, delightfully cheesy tournament movie that embraces its source material (the needle drop of the title theme!) and goes to great pains to recreate the atmosphere of the bloody game. —Pete Volk

Mortal Kombat is available to watch on HBO Max, or for free with a library card on Hoopla.

Anderson’s most ambitious and extensive video game