Converting a successful IP into other mediums is not a new thing. For years, movie studios have been taking any comic book license they can get their hands on and converting them to the silver screen. We've also seen a fair amount of video games brought to life. Movies like World of Warcraft, Ratchet & Clank and Assassin's Creed got a big screen version. There are always rumors about a Halo movie, Castlevania got a special Netflix treatment and "The Rock" stared in a movie based off the 80's arcade game, Rampage.
While some of these movies were flops-Doom for example-some of them spawned a spin-off Television series and branched out to reach an even bigger audience. The main issue fans of any comic book, video game or book have, is that the movie or TV series are poorly executed. People don't like it when you take something they love and try to make a quick buck, without care or regard for what made the franchise great to begin with.
One industry that's had its fair share of tie-ins, is the world of board games. Video games, comic books or popular films have had board games based in their universe. However, now that you can purchase games like Ticket to Ride, Small World and Smash Up at places like Target and Walmart, it only makes sense that someone will try to cash in on the mainstream popularity of board games and bring well-known titles to your game table.
We can look at all the different IP's that have been developed for us boardgamers, but let's narrow it down to the one that makes the most sense. If you're going to create a board game based off of anything, video games seem like an obvious choice. First, let's take a quick look back at two of the earlier titles that were already successful video games that made the transition to the table.
Everyone knows about the arcade game, Pac-Man. But did you know that Milton Bradley published a Pac-Man board game? I can remember playing this board game quite a lot as a kid. That is, until we broke the mouth off poor P-Man, lost most of the "Pac-Dots" and worst of all, grew up. All in all, it wasn't a bad game for my brothers and I to play. Plus, it really did look like the video game we begged our mother countless quarters for. However, the one game I wanted to play as a board game was my favorite video game at the time, The Legend of Zelda.
While The Legend of Zelda is one of the most popular IP's Nintendo has ever created, it was not a good board game. I mean sure, it looked like it's supposed to look. But all it did was remind you that you weren't playing it on the NES that was sitting in the other room. That's the trouble with making a board game version of a video game. It has to be different enough that you'll want to bust it out, but most importantly, it has to be a good board game.
Luckily, it seems that fact isn't lost on board game publishers. There have been some really fantastic video game based board games like Civilization, XCOM and BioShock Infinite: Siege of Columbia. While not everyone will agree that these are some of the best board games out there, their success proves that you can take a well-known, successful video game franchise and create a unique, fun experience you can't get elsewhere.
There is a downside to board games created from a pre-existing video game franchise, however. We've seen it countless times before, where the original IP makes a truckload of cash and someone decides to slap something together and toss the name Call of Duty on it and expect it to sell millions. We have even seen the mixed review of the Dark Souls board game, with the Kickstarter campaign generating over five million dollars. People aren't shy with spending their money on a video game turned cardboard product. Heck, I am one of those who forked over the cash to bring the Dark Souls board game to light!
[ These are five of the 7 Dark Souls expansion boxes I purchased! ]
Go to BoardGameGeek's website, or browse the board game sub-Reddit and you'll see people putting down games that don't have an existing IP. "This game would be awesome if were based on (insert video game) instead." While you can appriciate their love for something and wanting to see it transition over to another hobby they have, it seems wrong to expect board games to only exist as a gateway for other mediums.
But maybe that's where we're at with board games. We have so many original titles to select from that maybe it's time we see an influx of video game based board games. The board game industry doesn't need it to succeed, but we might be at a point where we can have our cake and eat it too.
What do you think? What video games out there deserve the board game treatment, or should we shy away from this trend? Are there any board games based off video games that you love?
