You’ve already heard about movies and books we want to see made into video games. To finish up the trifecta, I’m presenting 10 TV shows that I would like to see turned into games.
Nova
Source: PBS
Nova is an ongoing series of short documentaries that explore the mysteries of the natural world. This makes it ripe for a series of games like the Magic Schoolbus games from the 90s, which explore different concepts through minigames—from the structure of DNA to the exploration of ancient cultures.
Dirtgirlworld
Source: mememe productions
Dirtgirlworld was a preschool show about a girl who loved farming and exploring nature. It would be a great base for an educational game with ecological themes. There’s already an app that helps kids grow plants, but a full game could feature a farm mode for kids who don’t have access to real gardens—it could also teach kids about plant and animal identification and different ecological systems.
Jane and the Dragon
Source: Film-Cine
Jane and the Dragon is a great show about a young woman who wants to be a knight in medieval England. This could be a great vehicle for teaching medieval history, with a sprinkling of fantasy in the form of, well, dragons. By acting as Jane and carrying out their own quests, kids could learn about how people lived in castles, how knights were trained, and how kingdoms were ruled.
Pretty Little Liars
Source: Pretty Little Liars Wikia
Pretty Little Liars is full of mystery and vibrant and flawed female characters. Like the Nancy Drew series, it would lend itself well to a mystery-game format, where the player must investigate a crime. Since the relationships between characters are so fraught I would love to see a version where diplomacy and friendship is crucial to success, and character interactions push the plot progression.
Supernatural
Source: Huffington Post
Supernatural is one of the most popular shows on TV right now (especially with young women) and it has an arc that would adapt naturally to a game setting: one where the characters gradually discover their powers as the story goes on. The show has a vast lore full of monsters and demons. The game could center on the demon-hunting Winchesters or on an original character.
The Food Network
Source: 105.7
The Food Network should be a game. Yes, the entire Food Network. I’d like a carnival-style game with different “attractions” based on each show. You and your family could take on the Ace of Cakes minigame, or face off in Chopped or Iron Chef—there’s lots of competitive-style cooking game shows to choose from!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Source: Fanpop
Buffy Summers is a heroine for the ages. A Buffy game wouldn’t just appeal to people who watched the show in the early 2000s—it could reach out to a whole new generation of young people looking for a strong female hero. I would love to see an Assassin’s Creed-style adventure game starring Buffy solving a mystery and taking down bad guys with her Slayer powers.
Skyland
Source: ABC-TV
Skyland takes place in the far future, where advanced humans get superpowers from sunlight. The main characters are pirates fighting against a controlling dictatorship—it’s meant to be an adventure game! There aren’t very many straight-up adventure games that aren’t rated M for mature, and this would be a great chance to let teens and tweens fight their own battle against oppression, all the while learning to use their powers responsibly. The series also features great female characters.
Oban Star-Racers
Source: Zerochan
Oban Star-Racers is an anime that stars a feisty female pilot in a race through space. The anime has a lot of action as well as emotional development. It would be interesting to see this one as a Persona-style social simulation (where you interact with other characters and build relationships with them) with action sequences where the player takes charge of the ship.
Prehistoric Planet
Source: Okanagan Child Magazine
Nothing is better than dinosaurs. Prehistoric Planet gives us dinos and the creatures that outlived them in a hyper-realistic style. It would be great for kids to play through the prehistoric eras, unlocking the stories of different kinds of animals and solving puzzles to help them survive. This game could stoke kids’ interest in biology and science.
