9 Times They Thought It Was A Good Idea To Make Kids Games Out Of R-Rated Movies
Video game adaptations of movies have been around for decades, often trying to capitalize on the biggest new kids movie or summer blockbuster. For some reason, sometimes this ends up with video games based on very, VERY explicit movies being marketed to kids, with these 9 being the most surprising.
1) Friday the 13th (NES, 1989)
In this NES game, you play four camp counselors who have to save children from Jason. Die four times and it's all over, ending with a game over screen that says "You and your friends are dead." Y'know, for kids!
2) A Nightmare on Elm Street (NES, 1989)
You and three of your friends can team up in this colorful game about stopping a vengeful child murderer who invades people's dreams and kills them in increasingly brutal ways. Nothing says a kid's game like fighting a severed head!
3) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Atari 2600, 1983)
A game based on the movie that pioneered the Slasher genre, this one actually has you play the villain! That's right, as Leatherface your goal is to brutally murder young women with a chainsaw. Makes for a great gift under the Christmas tree.
4) Halloween (Atari 2600, 1983)
Because nothing says "kids game" like evading a masked killer, who chops off your head (complete with a spurt of blood) if he catches you!
Click to the next page for even more surprisingly inappropriate movies turned into kids games!
5) Total Recall (NES, 1990)
Total Recall is about as R-rated a movie can get. There's graphic violence, swearing, nudity, the works. So of course they sold a game of it on the NES, a system almost entirely marketed to families. Makes sense.
6) Predator (NES, 1987)
It's not surprising they made a game based on one of the best action movies ever, but it IS surprising that it was on the NES. And that it's a weird platformer with a purple Arnold Schwarzenegger.
7) Robocop Vs. The Terminator (SNES, 1991)
Movies don't get much more violent than either Robocop or Terminator. They both have more than enough explicit content to merit a total fit on the part of parents who took their kids, so of course there's a game that combines the two.
8) Rambo (NES, 1987)
One of Sylvester Stallone's most beloved characters is a veteran of the Viet Nam war, tortured and traumatized by his past. So it was perfect fodder for a game that plays like a total rip off of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
9) Jaws (NES, 1987)
Jaws created the concept of the Summer Blockbuster and made thousands of people terrified to go in the water. This of course meant that someone made it into a cartoony NES games where you can fight the least-threatening shark ever.
Did you play any of these games? Did you see the movie when you were way too young?