Video games have been turning up on television since the days of Space War, but they didn’t appear on the schedules until Pac-Man got his own Saturday morning cartoon show. After that, it was only a matter of time before Mario, Sonic, Kirby, and a host of others got their own TV programs. Being a cartoon mascot worked for Mickey Mouse, so why not them?
Nintendo and Sega have had frequent adaptations of their work. But it’s only been fairly recently that Sony have had their properties adapted to the small screen. Whether it was via a third party, or directly from Sony themselves, these are the best TV shows based on PlayStation games.
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7 Tekken: Bloodline
IMDB Score: 6.6/10
- Studios: Studio Hibari, Larx Entertainment
- Release: August 2022
- Streaming: Netflix
- Genre: Action
The Tekken games went multi-format way back in the late 2000s when Tekken 6 got ported to the Xbox 360. Nonetheless, they were originally designed to be the PlayStation’s answer to Virtua Fighter. The 4-attack-button layout, and its original arcade boards, were designed to make it as easy as possible to port to the PS1. But even then, it involved a lot of compression to squeeze it into the console, especially by the time Tekken 3 rolled around.
It was the biggest game in the series, introducing Jin Kazama and a new wave of Mishima clan madness. So, it was only fair that his arc would get adapted as Tekken: Bloodline. The show is a retelling of Jin’s arc from T3, as he seeks to avenge his mother’s disappearance and learn more about his father, Kazuya. The only drawback is that it’s too short. It could have done with more episodes to flesh out the plot and side characters more.
6 Devil May Cry
IMDB Score: 7.0/10
- Studio: Madhouse
- Release: June 2007
- Streaming: Hulu, Crunchyroll
- Genre: Action Fantasy
As of this writing, Netflix’s own Devil May Cry anime with a younger-looking Dante has yet to make its debut. However, that won’t be the son of Sparda’s first TV appearance. Madhouse made a Devil May Cry anime all the way back in 2007, featuring Dante, Lady, Trish, and even J.D. Morrison, who would be redesigned for Devil May Cry 5. The series even had Reuben Langdon reprising his role from the then-latest game Devil May Cry 3 in the English dub.
The only issue with this series was that there wasn’t much of a solid plot, beyond Dante needing to look after a teenage girl who’s descended from a famous sorcerer. Still, it is somewhat canon, as it is referenced in DMC5. It just needed a little more narrative meat on its bones.
5 PaRappa the Rapper
IMDB Score: 7.3/10
- Studios: J.C Staff, Production I.G.
- Release: April 2001
- Streaming: YouTube
- Genre: Comedy
It seemed like a hard-to-miss prospect. The original PaRappa the Rapper games, iconic for being some of the first rhythm games to catch on, were already kooky, cartoony, slice-of-life tales about a rapping dog doing his best for his friends. It could have made for fun, family viewing with some catchy music.
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Made 5 years after the original game in 2001, the animated series certainly had the franchise’s surreal plots and quirky characters. But beyond the OP and ED, there are few to no musical interludes, let alone raps. It is still an entertaining kids’ show, yet one can’t help noticing its missing ingredients. It’s like making a Twisted Metal series without cars, or a Super Mario Bros series without Italian accents.
IMDB Score: 7.4/10
- Studios: PlayStation Productions, Sony Pictures Television Studios, Universal Television, Artists First, Inspire Entertainment, Electric Avenue, Make It With Gravy, Wicked Deed, Reese Wernick Productions
- Release: July 2023
- Streaming: Peacock
- Genre: Action-Adventure
Luckily, when a Twisted Metal series did come to fruition, it did include cars. Yet it seemed like an odd choice to make a TV show around. The games weren’t exactly rich in plot, beyond “people compete in car battles for a wish that backfires on them.” But perhaps this gave the writers the extra freedom to work with what the games did give them, and expand on it a little.
Here, in the post-apocalyptic US, amnesiac milkman John Doe gets an opportunity to gain citizenship in New San Francisco. All he has to do is retrieve a mysterious package from New Chicago, contending with the murderous Sweet Tooth and other threats. It’s not particularly deep or introspective, but it gets the vehicular smashing right. All its second season needs is Calypso chewing the scenery to make it perfect.
3 Zone of the Enders: Dolores, I
IMDB Score: 7.5/10
- Studio: Sunrise
- Release: April 2001
- Streaming: DVD only
- Genre: Sci-Fi Action Adventure
Ironically, for a series criticized for being more like movies, the Metal Gear games have stayed strictly as games. Fans can occasionally find subtitled videos of drama CDs online, but the live-action movie project is currently stalled, and there hasn’t been a TV series or anime adaptation made thus far. But some of Kojima’s other projects have been adapted for the small screen.
Zone of the Enders (Z.O.E) wasn’t a sole Kojima creation, but it caught on thanks to its mech shooting action. It received an anime adaptation, Z.O.E: Dolores, I. The show followed an original story about a LEV pilot using the titular Orbital Frame (mech) to search for his presumed-dead wife. It even got a prequel OVA, Z.O.E: 2167 Idolo, that tied itself closer to the games by featuring the villain Viola as the lead.
2 Gungrave
IMDB Score: 7.9/10
- Studio: Madhouse
- Release: October 2003
- Streaming: Hulu, Crunchyroll
- Genre: Sci-Fi Action Drama
By contrast to their DMC adaptation, Madhouse’s Gungrave anime was actually better received than the original games. With designs by Trigun’s Yasuhiro Nightow and Sakura Wars’ Kōsuke Fujishima, the third-person shooters were about Beyond the Grave (‘Grave’ for short), taking missions from the mysterious Dr T to bring down the Millenion organization.
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The games have since become cult classics, but at the time of their release, magazines like GamePro called them “a low-rent Max Payne.” The anime expands on its details by making it a story about two friends torn apart by their love, hatred, and ambitions. It starts off slowly, then picks up as the viewers learn more about Grave and his past. It’s ahidden gem of a show that’s worth tracking down.
1 The Last of Us
IMDB Score: 8.7/10
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Creator
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
- Network
- HBO Max
Older video game adaptations didn’t give writers a lot of plot to work with, yet their artistic license often didn’t do them any favors. Some fans appreciate the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie taking the series in a radically different direction with its dystopian dinosaur setting. It didn’t mean it was that good to watch though.
Fans had similar fears when the hype for the HBO series The Last of Us suggested it wouldn’t resemble the games all that much. However, it arguably outdid the original game thanks to its fleshed-out side plots, and strong performances from Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay. With a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, it might be the most highly-rated video game TV show adaptation to date.
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