** Click here for Episode 164 **
Marc in Altrincham has left me gobsmacked:
Recently my favourite book, Dante’s Inferno, was turned into a game
By ‘random’, we assume you mean ‘inappropriate’. Therefore we can confidently say: all of them. I struggle to imagine a first-person shooter based on The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
A more pleasing question, if you’ll allow me to venture, would be the following: “Which totemic literary work is ripe to be converted to a video game?” Readers, you know what to do. Trot to the comments, suggest away, and if anyone at Square or EA is reading this, we could be playing Wuthering Heights Tekken by Christmas.
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Answer Me This! Podcast 
March 6, 2011 at 2:49 pm |
owl babies. it would be some sort of gripping game about a inch high owl that sits down shitting on a branch waiting for its mom to come back with its food
February 3, 2011 at 7:50 pm |
As most children’s tales are grounded by some form of macabre underpinning why not revisit the stories and make them appealing to gore junkies? Goldie Locks, Hansel and Grettel, or even the cutest and cuddliest of modern greats. For example, my favourite –
The Gruffalo.
Who can honestly say they would or could resist the temptation to take control of a Gruffalo and wander through a woodland ripping animals to pieces?
February 3, 2011 at 3:34 pm |
Harry Potter.
February 3, 2011 at 5:46 pm |
but would the book-game differ sufficiently from the film-game?
February 4, 2011 at 12:44 am |
It would definitely weigh more…and there would be different covers for adults and children.
They could be on different platforms. Xbox for kids and an ascii style platformer for adults.
There could be a type your answer style puzzle game;
“Harry is stuck in the room of requirement as his teenage urges brought up a Middle American cheap strip club, there is a pole to the North, a bar to the West, a Doorman to the East and a Stripper with a snake is approaching from the South. What should Harry do?”
(Use expelleramus spell)
“Harry could not use selected spell, he’s replaced his wand with a roll of dollar bills”
(Invest bills in a lap dance)
“Stripper takes you to the back room, the snake instantly rises up and reveals itself to be Lord Voldemort, hiding in ‘Tits ‘n’ go’ while recovering from his last fight with Harry. Voldemort strikes Harry with his fangs. Harry begins to feel the effect of the venom taking effect, what would you like to do?”
(Cop a quick feel of stripper)
“Game over…..”
February 2, 2011 at 10:07 pm |
One of my favourite books has to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I’m sure you could make a good Super Mario Galaxy-style platformer with that as you play as the caterpillar working your way across planet-like fruit and cakes.
Or play as the fruit and cakes and try and escape a giant malevolent caterpillar monster in a unique survival-horror game. 🙂
February 2, 2011 at 4:02 pm |
Two secondary school GCSE classics would surely have a good playership:
Lord of the Flies: a GTA style sandbox game where you rise to the top of the island’s power structure through killing pigs and pussies (Simon); and instilling bulimia in Piggy by alternately feeding him cream cakes and calling him a big fatty-fat fat fat.
Of Mice and Men: SPOILER : As George you choose between two modes of play.
Mode 1: Play through the story bucking barley for a few dollars and navigating depression era America, guiding Lennie through various scrapes to his inevitable descent into murder and madness, and the ultimate indignity of a mercy killing at your hands. Mode 2: cap the fool in the first level and play the rest of the game as a Red Dead Redemtion style western, playing lots of poker and poking lots of hookers, blowing away cats like that douchebag Lennie without a second thought.
Just thought of a third one. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch: You play Dr. Benway. A Tekken style beat ’em up where each combo relates not just to an act of violence, but some sort of drug intake and/or horrific sexual act as well. For instance Down, Down, hold L1, X, X means you shoot a syringe full of heroin into your eyeball then have sex with a dead dog. K.O!
February 2, 2011 at 10:16 am |
Catch-22 would be great! You play Yossarian, the B-25 bomber captain who thinks the world is trying to kill him. (Hint: it is.) Can you shirk duty in hospital without angering the nurses, pilot through anti-aircraft flak, and still be alive at the end? The game would put you in many improbable situations and would bounce through non-linear time. Love it!
February 1, 2011 at 1:14 pm |
I think “The Kite Runner” runner would make an awesome video game. Will you be the child who gets to start a new life in the US or will you be the one caught and savagely raped in Afganistan?