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TV adaptations of video games are nothing new. Back in the ’80s, we had the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, The Legend of Zelda, Captain N: The Game Master, Pac-Man, and others. As we got into the ’90s, we saw even more. However, the difference between the TV shows of the ’80s and those of the decades that followed is that the quality got a whole lot better. More recently, we’ve seen Fallout and The Last of Us, which aren’t only great adaptations, but also amazing standalone TV series.
We’re in another golden age of television, with there being so many options and so much content, and the stuff that is good tends to be very high-quality. Because of this, we’re seeing more and more video games being adapted to the small screen as studios look for stories that people may be familiar with but could find brand-new life in a different medium, and some of these TV adaptations we’ve seen have been really good.
There have also been some really bad ones, like The Witcher: Blood Origins and others. Sometimes, creative teams just don’t have a good grasp on what makes a game great or some games just can’t be adapted to television.
Looking through the history of video-game adaptations for television–yes, even at Sonic the Hedgehog, Darkstalkers, Double Dragon, and others–we’ve found 12 TV series that not only got their inspiration from pretty great video games, but managed to take that inspiration and turn it into a great show.
For more adaptation lists, check out every video game movie currently in the works and the highest-grossing video game movies.