Animation has cleverly evolved over the years, with the art form no longer limited to a younger audience. Family-focused shows alternate their humour to tickle both the young and mature alike, while late-night showings and streaming services deliver awesome animated stories strictly for adults. Today, we’re taking a look at a few current animated shows which contain stories and themes which are ideal for adaptation to our beloved PlayStation.
5. Total Drama
A parody of the competitive reality TV show Survivor, Total Drama places various interchangeable groups of youths in exotic locations, from isolated islands to abandoned film sets where they compete against each other in increasingly dangerous tasks for the amusement of sadistic host Chris McLean, winning immunity from being voted off the show by their competitors, with the final competitor grabbing a big cash prize.
The regular summer beach themes and pretty people in swimwear could easily translate into a quirky multiplayer party game. Avoiding the nasty selection of creatures inhabiting the island could make for a quirky stealth game, while hunting down hidden macguffins to win challenges is always a simple strategy. Then again, launching teenagers down a slide with painful targets at the end is sure to be a humourous favourite.
4. Solar Opposites
After abandoning their dying world in search of a new home, aliens Corvo, Terry, Yumyulack and Jesse arrive on earth, tasked with cultivating the Pupa, a creature which when mature will terraform the earth into the ideal environment for their race to thrive. This process takes some time, and the group try to live mundane lives among the humans in order to survive. Their misuse of advanced technology and obsession with keeping pet humans in a terrarium often leads to the group and those around them getting into a series of deadly misadventures.
Yes, the Solar Opposite family are both protagonists and antagonists here. The terrarium, known simply as “The Wall” is filled with an ever-growing (and sadly also ever-diminishing) group of shrunken humans trying to survive by scavenging any food and resources they can find. Here’s where the potential for a game kicks in. Terrarium survival game anyone?
3. Disenchantment
Disenchantment chronicles the adventures of the rowdy, ale-chugging princess Bean as she tries to protect her friends and her people from a growing syndicate of villains scheming to seize the throne. With the help of her father, the eccentric king Zog, a mild-mannered half-elf named Elfo and a mischievous demon named Luci, the group will learn that each of the surrounding lands have ambitions involving the royal bloodline. An all-star cast including John DiMaggio, Matt Berry, Noel Fielding, Richard Ayoade, and Eric André make the show a captivating adventure.
The story of Disenchantment might as well be an epic high-fantasy game. An RPG at heart, the show cleverly expands its universe with a growing collection of locales featuring every staple of the RPG and fantasy genre textbook, but it also goes above and beyond, with a diverse selection of amazing characters and unexpected twists including a classic depiction of Hell fueling an advanced steampunk land. The possibilities for a game world are endless.
2. Hazbin Hotel
Hell descended into chaos when Lucifer abandoned his throne, isolating himself in an act of depression, leaving Hell to become largely enslaved by its many tyrannical overlords. The series revolves around Charlie Morningstar, princess of Hell, on her quest to find a way for sinners to be rehabilitated and allowed into Heaven via her ‘Hazbin Hotel’, as an alternative to Heaven’s recurring ‘extermination’ of souls due to Hell’s overpopulation.
With musical numbers in every episode reminiscent of a dark twist on Disney epics, and mysteries to uncover in Hell’s seedy underbelly, a music or adventure game might fit into the narrative, but it’s during the war between Heaven and Hell that Charlie and her growing group of redeemable demon friends show their true powers, which could make for one hell of an action-packed RPG.
1. Gravity Falls
The series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal), who are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle “Grunkle” Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a mysterious backwater town full of paranormal incidents and supernatural creatures. The kids help Stan run the ‘Mystery Shack’, the tourist trap that he owns, while also investigating the local mysteries, making a few friends and enemies along the way.
A game was once created for the series back in 2015, titled Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets but didn’t really find its audience, released as a Nintendo 3DS exclusive. However, an adventure game which captures the feel of the show along with classic point-and-click-style gameplay would be a whole different story. The constant arrival of a new mystery to uncover in every episode leaves the door open for an exploratory mystery-busting adventure game to fit in anywhere along its magnificent storyline.
