Interplay: The Adaptive Contexts of Videogame Adaptations and Franchises Across Media

400 Pages·2016·2.78 MB·English

Stuart Knott Interplay

Interplay:
The Adaptive Contexts of Videogame
Adaptations and Franchises Across Media

By Stuart Knott

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a
PhD degree at De Montfort University, Leicester

April 2016
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Table of Contents

Abstract 3
Acknowledgements 4
Introduction
i.i Understanding Videogame Adaptations 5
i.ii Existing Work 11
i.iii Chapter Summary 14
i.iv Conclusion 21
Chapter One:
A Brief History of Videogames and their Adaptations
1.1 Theory and History 23
1.2 Cinema(tic) Immersion 34
1.3 Reputation 47
1.4 The Japanese Connection 58
1.5 Early Videogame Adaptations 66
1.6 Cross-Media Complexity 82
1.7 Conclusion 93
Chapter Two:
Japanese Videogame Culture as International Multimedia
2.1 The Console Wars 98
2.2 Building a Mascot 110
2.3 Developing a Franchise 120
2.4 Sonic the Animation 128
2.5 International Multimedia 147
2.6 Conclusion 160
Chapter Three:
Unifying Action and Culture through Mortal Kombat
3.1 Martial Arts Cinema 165
3.2 The Action Genre 173
3.3 Arcade Duelling 186
3.4 Adapting Street Fighter 195
3.5 Franchising Mortal Kombat 201
3.6 Cult Success and Aftermath 216
3.7 Conclusion 227
Chapter Four:
The Appropriations, Economics, and Interplay of Resident Evil
4.1 Zombie Cinema 232
4.2 Developing Resident Evil 240
4.3 The Economics of Adaptation 247
4.4 Personifying Adaptation 265
4.5 Further Appropriations 284
4.6 Beyond Anderson 291
4.7 Conclusion 297
Conclusion 305
Appendices
Appendix One: Videogame Adaptations 329
Appendix Two: Sonic Timeline 338
References 343
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Abstract

Videogame adaptations have been a staple of cinema and television since the 1980s
and have had a consistent presence despite receiving overwhelmingly negative
reactions. Recognising the perseverance of videogame adaptations, I examine some
of the key issues and debates surrounding the genre with in-depth analysis of the
source material, the machinations of the film and videogame industries, and the films
themselves, specifically relating to three prominent onscreen videogame adaptations.
Following an introduction to the various theories and areas of study already
performed in this field, all of which I incorporate into an intricate, blended
methodology, I explore issues of fidelity, localisation, and evolution that occur when
adapting Sonic the Hedgehog out of the confines of its limited narrative. In
examining adaptations of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, I explore how cinematic
genres (such as the Hong Kong martial arts and American action movies) have
influenced the creation of videogames and the production of their film and television
adaptations. Finally, I delve into the history of zombie horror films, which influenced
the Resident Evil franchise. As this became the longest-running (and, by extension,
most successful) live-action videogame franchise, I explore the complex production of
videogame adaptations, their critical and financial reception, and their ability to
evolve into multimedia franchises.
Overall, my work is designed to take videogame adaptations seriously by
examining them through in-depth analysis, exploring how they convey the gameplay
mechanics of their source material, analysing why they remain so popular despite
their negative reputation, and by establishing an academic framework by which to
discuss them with the same reverence afforded to literary adaptations.
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Acknowledgements

My initial thanks extend to all those involved in the creative process of bringing some
of the most iconic characters to life in pixels and celluloid, fuelling my imagination
and creativity in the process and without whom this project could never have been
undertaken.

My primary thanks go to my parents, Rosalind and David Knott, who introduced me
to videogames over twenty years ago with the SEGA Master System, and to Siân
Brock for supporting the erratic work hours and longevity of this project. Additional
thanks extend to the following people, who have continued to support and inspire me
throughout: Zoe White, Jamie Darnell, Natalie Evans, Alex Henson, Alistair Lewis,
Faye Grant, Adam Craig, and Dhara Mistry-Kansagra. I would also like to
acknowledge my peers at De Montfort University, Charley Meakin, Dave Cliffe,
Laura Mayers, Lizzie Wright, Hannah Louise Denton, and Judith Massey. Finally, I
would like to thank my supervisors, James Russell and Keith Scott, for their patience
and invaluable input, and my former DMU tutors Yvonne Griggs, Imelda Whelehan,
Deborah Cartmell, Stuart Price, and Ian Hunter.
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Introduction

Overview

Interplay is a text-based, methodical analysis of the adaptive contexts of videogame
adaptations and franchises across media. While videogame adaptations have had a
consistent and tumultuous presence in cinema and television since 1982, there has yet
to be a serious attempt to examine the genre. Interplay changes this by infusing the
genre with a legitimacy and significance that has been sorely lacking. The following
chapters each focus on videogames that have been adapted not just into live-action or
animated films and television shows, but also complex multimedia franchises. This
allows Interplay to reveal the intricate complexities of videogame adaptation, the
ways they reconfigure theoretical thinking (particularly in adaptation theory), and
brings to light how videogame adaptations are quickly becoming an exciting, new
critical battleground.

i.i Understanding Videogame Adaptations

Adaptations of videogames have long had a notable presence in cinema and
television; blockbuster Hollywood films are regularly accompanied by a videogame
tie-in and videogame franchises are frequently, and increasingly routinely, adapted
into live-action, or animated, movies and television shows. Indeed, “best-selling
science fiction, fantasy, crime, and thriller novels all translate fairly readily to video
games by virtue of their mission-based structure and action heroes” (Cutting, 2011:
169).
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With adaptations of videogames into films and animation proliferating cinema
and television screens since 1982, the question of why they are so popular and what
they can teach about adaptation theory becomes particularly relevant. As videogames
are inherently active – players directly influence the actions they witness onscreen –
as opposed to film and television’s passive nature, “Literary scholars, educators, and
game designers all potentially have something to learn from the process of
conceptualizing […] apparently impossible adaptations” (ibid).
Videogame adaptations have a tumultuous history and are often met with
apathy, negativity, or dismissal. Indeed, although videogame and cinema
development has become increasingly intertwined, “critics often assume Hollywood
‘can inject the gaming medium with the same revitalizing energy and innovative
vision’ that their directors bring to the screen” (Moore, quoting McEachern, 2010:
185). However, one of my key observations is the inherent differences between
videogames and film and how videogames have been adapted into other media. As a
result, while Ben Fritz (cited by Moore, ibid: 186), observes that videogame players
“view film-to-game adaptations with a fair amount of scepticism”, playing a
videogame is a vastly different experience than watching a movie despite both
mediums following a similar formula “—establishing conflict, playing out conflict,
and finally resolving conflict—video games prioritize the second stage [and] are very
much about playing out narrative conflict” (ibid, quoting Hutcheon).
Interplay specifically addresses the complex methods of adaptation at work in
videogame adaptations. Moore (ibid: 185) notes that, just as film adaptations have
long struggled to break free from the shadow of literary works, “game adaptations
struggle to cast off the reign of Hollywood films. Within the film world, video games
are often dismissed as purely derivative works, secondary productions beholden to
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their theatrical source texts”. Interplay illustrates that, beyond simply exploiting
popular franchises for profit, videogame adaptations have come to expand upon and
inform their source material, generate ongoing canonicity debates within fan
communities, and conform to new genres.
Compounding the reception of videogame adaptations is what Henry Jenkins
observes to be “the popular conception of games as a technological toy, undeniably
out of place in productive society” and the placement of videogames within
Hollywood’s economic tapestry (cited by Moore, ibid). Within the Hollywood studio
system, videogames are a secondary concern, licensed products that exist simply to
promote blockbuster releases and “provide movie fans with yet another opportunity to
buy into the film franchise” (ibid: 186). This thinking is nothing less than a disservice
when one views videogame adaptations within historical context and by blending
together multiple methodologies. Chapter One expands upon how Interplay blends
adaptation theory, film theory, videogame theory, and fan theory together with the
complex issues of adaptation, fidelity, economics, appropriation, and genre at work
within videogame adaptations.
Consequently, my research focuses entirely on analysing videogame
adaptations with the same critical thinking and intellectual significance afforded
towards literary adaptations. As there has yet to be a definitive attempt to discuss
videogame adaptations at a critical or intellectual level, or to truly take them seriously
as a viable genre of adaptation, videogames “present a relatively uncharted field [for]
adaptation scholars” (Cutting, 2011: 181). Videogame adaptations are thus a bold,
fresh, relatively untouched field wherein, as Cutting (ibid) states, “there is no stable
body of adaptations into or from videogames that we can look back on as definitive,
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not merely indicative, both because games are rapidly evolving and because they are
as yet culturally somewhat narrow and especially divided from literary fiction”.
Rather than limit adaptation theory to literary adaptations, videogame
adaptations provide an exciting opportunity to analyse “areas of undeveloped
potential so as to discover how the seemingly unplayable […] could in fact become
playable” (ibid). Similarly, when approached from a perspective that is removed from
“filmic fascination, the world of video game adaptations becomes quite broad”
(Moore, 2010: 186), encompassing a variety of ancillary media, including toys and
comic books. Typically, academic writing focuses less on screen adaptations of
videogames and more on videogame adaptations of films, specifically relating their
incompatibility by highlighting the notorious failure of Atari’s E.T.: The Extra-
Terrestrial (Atari Incorporated, 1982; Herman, 1997: 76).
Conversely, Tron (Lisberger, 1982) “took film audiences inside a videogame”
(Howells, 2002: 110), and the film’s videogame adaptations, mainly inspired by
existing arcade titles (Herz, 1997: 19), allowed players to experience a videogame
based on a movie based on videogames. This signalled that levels of interactivity in
videogames were becoming increasingly cinematic as technology progressed; yet
Trevor Elkington (2009: 214) observed that, because “licensed adaptations are
commonly dismissed by critics and players as nothing more than cynical attempts to
cash in on hype”, videogame adaptations of movies are also often ill-received due to
“incompatible production practises between film studios and game studios, as well as
the resistance of critics and fans with incompatible expectations drawn from the
original medium” (ibid).
Similarly, both methods of adaptation must appeal to multiple audiences who
“expect a certain adherence” to the source material alongside “adherence to common
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notions of gameplay” (ibid: 215). As with film adaptations of videogames, these
expectations are often soured by flawed products and a negative reputation (ibid).
GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) is a notable exception; still considered “the greatest
licensed game of all time and one of the greatest games of all time” (Bissell,
2010:131) and highly-rated among videogame adaptations of films (King and
Krzywinska, 2002: 7; Newman, 2004: 150), despite “Many gamers and game
reviewers [being], not unreasonably, suspicious of directly movie-linked games, many
of which are viewed as transparent attempts to cash in on successful movie franchises
with products that lack much in the way of compelling gameplay of their own” (King
and Krzywinska, 2002: 7).
It is much harder to pinpoint such a universally praised counterpart film or
television videogame adaptation: “There has never been a standout movie, one with a
compelling plot and A-list acting, made from a videogame […] videogame movies
have sucked” (Goldberg, 2011: 209). This opinion originates from the assumption
that cinema should only adapt culturally respected works (Leitch, 2007: 258) –
indeed, while it would be highly “misleading to apply adaptation studies solely to
cinematic versions of canonical plays and novels, […] that is perhaps its most
common and easily understood manifestation” (Sanders, 2006: 23). Yet videogame
adaptations have endured alongside literary adaptations to become an integral part of
Hollywood’s transmedia strategy of franchising, world-building, and seriality
(Bourdaa, 2013: 208). My research demonstrates that they have also become
commercially viable franchises in their own right, to the point where “Considering the
large number of video games licensed by Hollywood studios, there will be more
adaptations than ever in the years to come” (Picard, 2008: 296).
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Nevertheless, what separates Interplay from other research is my principal
focus on taking videogame adaptations seriously by analysing them through textual
analysis, the application of multiple theoretical prisms, and research into production,
to bring an academic perspective to the genre. The apathetic reception towards
franchised videogame adaptations, Parody (2011: 216) observes, demonstrates how
“Conscious artistic endeavour is made invisible within both popular and academic
discourse on franchised videogame adaptations, negated or overwritten by the
transparent economic motivations undeniably also at play”. Indeed, critics usually
adopt a condescending position towards videogame adaptations rather than taking
them seriously as legitimate media.
Thus, franchised adaptations – especially in and of media such as videogames,
which have long struggled for artistic legitimacy – are often regarded as “forms of
advertising or merchandising, as products, or even paratexts more than texts” (ibid).
Parody (ibid) also suggests that it would be more constructive to “recuperate this
figuring as a way of opening up, rather than closing down, readings of franchise
adaptation as a creative practice”. As a result, I have framed Interplay around in-
depth research into the history and longevity of videogame adaptations; Appendix
One provides a comprehensive list of videogame adaptations from 1982 to the present
day and beyond. While this is far from a complete list – many are still to be
produced, others are languishing in obscurity in Japan and other parts of the world,
and Appendix One also does not include the multiple fan-made efforts available
online – Appendix One nevertheless lists hundreds of screen adaptations of
videogames and quite blatantly demonstrates their prominence.

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