Let’s face it - there’s one fact about video game sales that many of us hardcore gamers loathe to admit: games based on licensed properties (e.g. movies, comic books, tabletop RPGs, etc.) tend to do ridiculously well. It’s embarrassing but true; otherwise, why would game companies continue to make them? While it is true that most games based on such licensed properties are junk, simply because of the sheer volume of them, there are occasional diamonds in the rough. Consider GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64, which basically showed the world that the FPS genre could be done and done well on consoles; the Chronicles of Riddick games, which showed an unusual amount of polish for movie-based games; or Wanted: Weapons of Fate, which was just plain fun to play, although not critically acclaimed. Believe it or not, this also holds true in Japan, where there is naturally a lot of collaboration between the video game and anime industries. Some storylines seem to translate very well from anime to video game, and vice versa (see Pokémon). Other anime series logically appeal to the demographic that buys a lot of video games anyway. Regardless of the reason, though, there seem to be just as many games based on anime as there are games based on Hollywood properties.
However, there are some anime series that would fit the aforementioned description of translating naturally into a video game, especially one for current-gen consoles such as the Xbox 360, but for some reason or another haven’t made the jump yet. It’s not like games based on anime would necessarily do poorly on the Xbox 360, considering the amount of hardcore gamers loyal to the Xbox 360 that are also anime fans. (Need evidence of that? Check out all the anime video-on-demand titles available on Xbox LIVE; and also Halo Legends.) Here is a list of the top seven “anime series” that would make badass video games for the current generation of consoles, Xbox 360 specifically.
7. Ninja Scroll: Although there’s already been ninja anime that’s been adapted to video games (such as Naruto), the Ninja Scroll series would still make an excellent choice. Ninja Scroll brought a unique adult feel to the tired ninja theme in anime, and if its adult themes could be preserved in a video game adaptation, it could potentially do very well. Naruto sure could use some competent competition in this generation of consoles.
6. Bamboo Blade: Japanese swordfighting is already a topic of many a video game, such as the Bushido Blade series. So why is this anime on the list? Well, although fighting with actual swords has been covered, the sport of kendo, which uses the titular bamboo blades, has not, at least to my knowledge. A fighting game which uses all the rules of the actual sport of kendo would be cool, as it’d be far more of a technical fighting game than most. It would certainly cut down on the button-mashing.
5. Get Backers: The premise of this anime would translate very well into a Grand Theft Auto-style game, but of course with an obvious twist: as the title implies, Get Backers is about retrieving items instead of stealing them. It would be cool to have an open-world sandbox game where it wasn’t necessary to act like a thug, like Crackdown or inFamous. Sure, there are retrieval missions in such games already, but a Get Backers game would be an opportunity to perfect such missions, and make them as fun as possible.
This feature top 10 list continues on the next page, please click below to reveal the final couple choices for top Anime that would make epic video games.
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