30 Video Games Made into Movies (For Better or Worse)

Street Fighter (1994) Dir: Steven E. de Souza

For many moviegoers, 1994’s Street Fighter was probably the film that made them realize that video game adaptations don’t have to follow the plot of the game – not even a little bit. While Mortal Kombat stuck with the fighting tournament premise, de Souza’s film turned Street Fighter into a politically-themed large-scale battle of good versus evil. Raul Julia gave a wonderful scenery-chewing performance as maniacal dictator M. Bison in what was sadly his last role before his death.

The film earned many negative reviews and makes regular appearances on lists of the world video game adaptations of all time. Despite this, it tripled its budget at the box office, though a direct sequel was never made. A post-credits scene revealed that Bison had survived the events of the movie, but was cut from the theatrical run out of respect to the late Raul Julia.

Super Mario Bros.  (1993) Dir: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morton

Oh boy. Opinions on Super Mario Bros. seemed to be mixed between “it’s so bad” and “it’s so bad it’s good,” but it’s managed to become something of a cult film. For most, not even the late great Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper could save the doomed adventures of Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. However, it has to be asked: how does one make a faithful Mario Bros. movie? It had King Koopa, Toad, Yoshi, and even its own version of Big Bertha, which was just a lady in a spiked, red leather outfit. Alright then.

The film was a box office bob-omb, earning $20 million on an almost $50 million budget. The studio originally wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger for King Koopa, but he passed on the script. It’s too bad, because he could’ve been the power-up the film needed to make bank.