Films live on as games

Sometimes seminal films can get a new lease of life in games, argues Daniel Etherington of BBCi Collective in his weekly games column.

The game recreates the black-and-neon aesthetic of the film

Many purist gamers have an issue with the idea of movie spin-offs, while many movie buffs are similarly sniffy about the vice versa.

Certainly the history of games based on movie franchises is littered with poor games. Sometimes, however, such games are justified.

Imagine you have a film with a cult following. But a cult following is very different to mass-market viability. A sequel in game form might very well be a good solution.

The memory of John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece The Thing, for example, was not completely violated by the 2002 video game sequel.

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A more recent example is the PC game, Tron 2.0. Steven Lisberger's seminal 1982 gem was not only one of the first films to utilise computer-generated graphics, but one of the first to bring the burgeoning culture of video gaming to the big screen.

Tron 2.0 smacks of a loving homage to the film, just sadly without quite enough attention to the gameplay Discuss this story on BBCi Collective

As such it has a neat connection with game culture.

The earlier Tron games on Atari, Intellivison and C64 largely offered old-school variations of the "sports" within the film.

Tron 2.0, through the miracle of modern processor power, instead presents a more filmic experience, in terms of the quality of the visuals and the narrative, involving the son of Jeff Bridges' original hacker hero.

Of course, the essential Tron sporting elements are there - combat that uses the glowing discus and the immortal lightbikes are present.

Tron 2.0 is no masterpiece. In many respects, it is a fairly average shooter.

But it is elevated to a worthwhile experience on the strength of the fabulous environments, which expand on the innovative black-and-neon aesthetic of the film.

On the whole, Tron 2.0 smacks of a loving homage to the film, just sadly without quite enough attention to the gameplay.

But then, a chance to return to the remarkable cyber wonderland of the film is a treat. Almost enough to overcome the gameplay's shortcomings.