Departing from Cliches — It’s All in the Gameplay
The badass super soldier. An evil villain who’s evil for no apparent reason. Flirtatious, big-breasted women.
Said simply, clichés abound in video games. If you’ve ever played video games, you’re probably familiar with their trite characters and predictable plots, even in the biggest titles. At best, these hackneyed elements are brainless fun. But they also get annoying really fast, and what’s more, they keep games from fulfilling their potential.
We’ll always have our B-quality productions. Even so, some games have already transcended the clichés, and we should be demanding the same qualities from all of our titles.
This year, fanboys abound will be treated to two big time video game and anime-based feature films, namely Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li and Dragonball Evolution. The Street Fighter movie is due to hit theaters in February, just in time for the stateside console release of Street Fighter IV. Dragonball will follow, arriving in theaters in April.
Video games that are based off of movie or television licenses have a reputation for either being not nearly as good, or faithfully as disappointing as their source material. There are exceptions to this rule, though they are few and far between. But then there are cases where Hollywood completely drops the ball and neglects a premise that—while it may be hit or miss cinematically—begs to be given a video game treatment.
Time has illustrated that video game movies are on the lower end of the movie-grading spectrum. As previously discussed by GotGame in 
The video game movie has never been an incredible success. Our favorite characters and storylines seem to lose something in translation to the big screen. This unfortunate time line started with the live-action Super Mario Bros. in 1993, and reached new lows with House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have potential.
Throughout the history of comic book movies, there are a few that have risen to the top. Yet, for the most part, the average comic book movie is…well, pretty average. Most comic book movies nowadays are better than your worst fears, but not as good as your highest hopes. 
We all have fond memories of Ghostbusters from our younger days, whether it was the original 1984 film, its 1989 sequel or the various spin-offs and merchandising ploys throughout the nineties. So needless to say, the prospect of an official Ghostbusters 3 is awfully exciting; the only problem is we still don’t know for sure when or what the damn thing is going to be.
Given runaway successes like Spider-Man 3 and The Dark Knight, both Marvel and DC are looking to launch several new comic movie franchises in the following years. Individual plans for movies featuring Wolverine, Magneto, Captain Marvel, Thor, and Captain America are all in the works, plus there is always Spider-Man 4 and the next Batman sequel to look forward to. There are even rumblings of a “reboot” Superman film, complete with dark and edgy atmosphere. But it’s in their best interest (both Marvel and DC) to realize that some superheroes should stay as far away from movie screens as possible.