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10 MOSTLY TERRIBLE AMERICAN CARTOONS BASED UPON CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES

19/3/2019

33 Comments

 
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Suffice to say, video games don't have the greatest reputation for successfully making the jump to live action. From the travesty that was the Super Mario Bros. movie, to the early impressions of the forthcoming Sonic The Hedgehog films, you'd think they'd have given up by now.

Indeed, wisdom would suggest that video games would have greater success with animation, but the legacy - as suggested by these 10 American cartoon series - proves otherwise...
PAC-MAN
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Created by animation luminaries Hanna-Barbera, Pac-Man: The Animated Series directly influenced the video games - leading to the Pac-Land, Pac-Man Jr and Super-Pac arcade games, the former of which itself was a huge influence on, among others, Super Mario Bros.

Beyond that, its mythology and continuity is defiantly its own thing, with Pac-Man's wife being called Pepper Pac-Man, with whom he has a son - Pac-Baby. They also have a dog, Chomp-Chomp, and a cat with the unfortunate name "Sour Puss".

Most episodes revolve around their ongoing rivalry with Pac-Land's resident ghosts; Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde, and - in a bold strike for equality, Sue - an original character not found in the games. 

Adding another layer of narrative complexity, the ghosts are employed by a cackling, Darth Vader-like villain, Mezmaron, whose sole aim in life is to gain control to the source of the Pac Pellets coveted by Pac-Man and his family. 

Contrary to its actual quality, the show was an enormous hit, and led to other video game-inspired cartoons.

Oddly, Marty Ingels, who voiced the lead character, was best remembered for his many court cases - for, among other things, unpaid commission and ageism. In his obituary, following his 2015 death from a stroke, the New York Times wrote: "He always seemed to be suing someone, and someone always seemed to be suing him."

Silly old man.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
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The first, but certainly not the last, animated series to be based upon the omnipresent Sega mascot, The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog lasted for one epic 65 episode series, plus a Christmas special.

Though broadly inspired by the video games, it also introduced new characters, including the memorably-named Stinky The Badger, and Professor Caninestein - who almost sounds like a treatment for vaginal yeast infections.

In its US broadcasts, each episode would end with a to-camera life lesson from Sonic, under the title "Sonic Sez" - on topics such as alcohol abuse, sexual harassment, gun safety, and the dangers of shallow water... 

​Not a joke.
STREET FIGHTER
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Primarily based upon Street Fighter II, the Street Fighter cartoon series also borrowed elements from other Capcom fighting games, including Final Fight and Saturday Night Slam Masters, as well as the godawful Street Fighter movie. 

Guile was the main character (voiced by Michael Donovan, who also plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in assorted Lego Star Wars games), leading a force of international peacekeepers, whose main tactic for dealing with the threat of international terrorism was to punch bad guys via the use of martial arts. These days, they'd be better off cracking an egg on their heads, albeit at the risk of invoking the wrath of Dean "A Superman" Cain and Brian "A Westlife" McFadden. 

M.Bison, Zangief, Vega and Sagat were the main antagonists, attempting to dominate the world through biological weapons, invisible planes, and by diverting big eggs (comets) to smash into the earth. 
DOUBLE DRAGON
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There wasn't much in the way of plot in the Double Dragon games, but somehow they managed to eke 26 episodes out of Billy and Jimmy attempting to rescue Billy's girlfriend, Marian, from a bunch of real bad people. 

The series deviated sufficiently from the source material - the brothers could transform into weird, bat-mask-wearing superheroes with swords - that it led directly to a game based upon it, Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls, in an effort to bring some of the cartoon's continuity into the game series. 

Amusingly, two of the main recurring villains were called Anobo and "Willy". 
EARTHWORM JIM
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With a main character voiced by Dan "Homer Simpson" Castellaneta, Earthworm Jim was on the wackier side of the Saturday morning cartoon scale. Characters were often seen in vignettes showing them engaged in mundane activities, or would break the fourth wall to address the viewers. Indeed, one notable episode featured a quest to find a lost eggbeater. 

In a rare incident of crossover, series antagonist Psy-Crow was played by Jim Cummings, who also portrayed Doctor Robotnik in The Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog, thus making him the go-to guy for video game villains in animated shows. 

Adhering to the nonsensical nature of the games which inspired it, every episode of Earthworm Jim concluded with one of the characters being crushed by a falling cow. 
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
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Troublingly, the main impetus for Link's heroic deeds in The Legend of Zelda cartoon was his desire to receive a kiss from the titular Princess Zelda. The series otherwise made overtures towards being slightly more progressive than the games upon which it was based, with Zelda taking much more of an active role in the stories - often fighting alongside the snog-hungry, whining, Link.

Who would often spout his catchphrase "Excuuuuuuuse me, Princess!", make remarks about her cleavage, ogle her while she's getting changed, or burst into her bedroom uninvited.

In fact, Link is so perma-horny that he doesn't care who he sexually harasses. In one episode, he meets a female character who doesn't speak English, and suggests: "Oh, I'm sure there's still a language we could all understand!"

That language? Sexxus.

In an apparent bid to balance the scales, Link's fairy companion Sprite seems to be attracted to him, even watching him in the bath at one point, and commenting how she likes seeing him in flagrante. 
SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW
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Famously, every episode of Super Mario Bros. Super Show - based upon the first two Super Mario Bros. games - opened with a live-action introduction from the eponymous brothers.

Mario was played by former wrestler Lou Albano - who collaborated with pop singer Cyndi Lauper on various wrestling projects - while Luigi was portrayed by one Danny Wells, who later provided voices for the video games Descent 3, Evolution Worlds, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. He also once starred in a 1975 film called "Whiffs".

Various real-life celebrities made appearances in the live sections, including Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White, large-breasted vampire-style woman Elvira, Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson, and basketball legend Magic Johnson (how did he get that name?!?).

In a nod to Star Trek, eps would open with Mario recording an entry into his "Plumber's Log", representing a repeated missed opportunity for a joke about the number of logs plumbers encounter in their line of work.
MORTAL KOMBAT: DEFENDERS OF THE REALM
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As you would expect, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm removed any of overt violence and gore that was a staple of the game series, putting it in the same category as other kids' shows based upon R-rated properties, such as Robocop and Rambo.

To get around the whole ripping-human-spines-out stuff, Defenders of the Realm had the characters facing off against robots, aliens and zombies, and trying to paper over it with cheesy one-liners and horrible "life lessons". 

Continuity-wise, the cartoon had more in common with the dreadful movie franchise than the games, but - again - without any of the movies' violence. 

Oddly, it also featured a four-part crossover with several other animated series, including the aforementioned Street Fighter and the justifiably forgotten Wing Commander Academy. 
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY
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The one CGI-entry on this list, Donkey Kong Country initially aired in France, before making it to the US a year later. It's notable for being one of the first - if not the first - TV animation to be entirely motion-captured, ensuring that it at least tried to look the part. Unfortunately, late-90s CGI, at least on a TV budget, wasn't quite up to the task, and the horribly stiff movements of the characters is straight out of a nightmare. 

Every episode revolved around the hunt for the wish-granting Crystal Coconut, featured at least one song - which would span the entire spectrum from unwatchable, to sort of so-bad-it's-good - and had Diddy Kong in full excruciating Scrappy Doo mode. 

The best thing that can be said about it is that the first episode offered the suggestive title "I Spy With My Hairy Eye"...
SATURDAY SUPERCADE
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Inspired by the success of the Pac-Man series which kicked off this list, Saturday Supercade was an anthology show which featured short episodes starring a host of arcade game heroes. These included a pre-Country Donkey Kong, a pre-Super Show Mario/Jumpman, foul-mouthed-flaccid ginger penis Q*Bert, Frogger, Pitfall Harry, and Space Ace. 

Frogger took the greatest liberties with the source material, turning the character - who had previously no motive beyond crossing the road without being smashed beneath the wheels of a truck - into an investigative reporter. 

Important trivia: Saturday Supercade's version of Mario was voiced by the legendary Peter Cullen, who Transformers fans may know better as Optimus Prime, the robot.
33 Comments
Nocturne
19/3/2019 09:52:00 am

The Darkstalkers cartoon series was as bad as many of the entries here and even added an annoying whiney child to the mix to act as the lead called Harry Grimoire. They made the lead Darkstalker Felicia though, which on one hand is my favourite fighting game character so great, on the other hand the series was essentially about a scantily clad cat-lady sneaking into a teenage boys bedroom and taking him on adventures....
The show had a recurring joke about Rikuo where everyone would comment that he's "curiously attractive, for a fishman" I still use this regularly, especially when The Shape of Water came out, because that's the sort of person I am.

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James Burton
19/3/2019 10:07:13 am

I remember the Sonic cartoon. It was... pretty odd, but it looked like they had fun making it. Wasn't there a different one released around the same time which had a totally different tone? I seem to recall a different Sonic cartoon that went for a "dark" and "gritty" feel - which was clearly a rubbish idea in light of the source material.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
19/3/2019 01:44:57 pm

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was the fun one - Robotnik’s butt crack, chilli dogs, fun. It only barely made sense.

Sonic the Hedgehog was the boring “serious” one. Angry Sally Acorn and the Knothole Freedom Fighters in a fairly generic “save the kingdom from evil” plot line.

They started airing within a week of each other in 1993.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
19/3/2019 02:22:16 pm

You're thinking of Sonic The Hedgehog, also known as Sonic SatAM (because it was shown on Saturday mornings in the US, I guess).

I never really got along with its dystopian seriousness and romantic drama, in part because I was already getting my "serious" Sonic fix from the UK's Sonic The Comic. That's also why I never really loved the American Sonic comics published by Archie, as they were also aligned heavily with SatAM concepts until legal issues meant they had to delete around 20 years' worth of stories and characters.

Incidentally, Biffo's list has missed out an even worse Sonic cartoon called Sonic Underground where Sonic is a member of royalty in exile and has two siblings with whom he plays in a renegade rock band that plays absolutely agonising music. It's terrible and I thoroughly recommend looking it up, if only for the theme tune that outlines the series' premise.

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Col. Asdasd
19/3/2019 10:06:33 pm

Ah yes, the cartoon that gave us the modern internet's first true work of art:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFMwgOfdG_M

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Spiney O’Sullivan
20/3/2019 12:56:21 am

Incidentally, though the article above says that Jim Cummings did the voice of Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog, that’s only true for the pilot. He mainly voiced Robotnik in the less fun Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon, and the AoStH Robotnik voice after the pilot was done by influential British (later Canadian) bluesman Long John Baldry, who discovered Rod Stewart and is the “someone” in Elton John’s “someone saved my life tonight”.

Nobody could yell “I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!!!” like Long John Baldry. (Except possibly Biffo when he was writing Digi’s Sonic 3 review)

THX 1139
19/3/2019 10:37:30 am

The Earthworm Jim cartoon was flippin' great, really funny and surreal. Excellent theme song. One of DJ John Peel's favourites, too.

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Neptunium
19/3/2019 11:13:09 am

I concur. It was in no way terrible!

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James Doggett
19/3/2019 10:58:20 am

Earthworm Jim was glorious.
How dare you Biffo...

Although I'm glad I've all but forgotten the Pac man one.

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Pete Davison link
19/3/2019 11:34:57 am

I rewatched some of the Sonic cartoon recently (most of it is on YouTube) and it's actually quite unironically entertaining. A few of the Sonic games from over the years acknowledge the odd aspect from it here and there, too, such as Sonic's love for chilli dogs.

The Sonic Sez section about being touched in places you're not comfortable with being "no good" was mildly horrifying, however.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
19/3/2019 07:39:17 pm

If you liked Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog, I'd recommend giving Sonic Boom a shot if you have Netflix. Despite the WiiU game supposedly being dire, the series is actually quite fun and has a few genuine laughs. It's not as unironically zany as AoStH, but I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

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dave perrier
19/3/2019 11:44:04 am

Earthworm Jim cartoon was great and very funny

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Geebs
19/3/2019 11:57:01 am

Princess Zelda here seems to have been modelled on Tori Spelling, for some reason.

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colincidence link
19/3/2019 12:14:33 pm

Sue appeared in Ms. Pac-Man, 1982. She was... identical to Clyde.

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Guru Larry link
19/3/2019 12:31:21 pm

You could follow this up with terrible american cartoon pilots that failed based on video games,

Battletoads, Bubsy the Bobcat, Final Fight, Ape Escape Etc.

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RichardM
19/3/2019 12:32:04 pm

Yeah, Earthworm Jim cartoon was pretty good... but he did say Mostly Terrible! Same headspace as the superlative Rocko’s Modern Life for me, children don’t know what they’re missing nowadays. (Although they do get the fuckin’ awesome remake of DuckTales, which is the best animated show I’ve seen in forever!)

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Spiney O'Sullivan
19/3/2019 02:27:37 pm

The Ducktales reboot is so good that it cracked my rose-coloured glasses. The old show was great for its time, but the new one is better on every level.

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RichardM
19/3/2019 03:56:45 pm

David Tennant is canon Scrooge McDuck for me now. Would buy another remake of the NES game if he did voice work!

Nick
19/3/2019 09:32:51 pm

They remade DuckTales?
Who knew?

Mathew H.
21/3/2019 12:36:01 am

The remake of Capcom's Ducktales - titled simply "Ducktales Remastered" - was developed by WayForward and was released in 2013. The soundtrack was done by Jake Kaufman.

RichardM
19/3/2019 12:36:01 pm

I forgot to mention the Chrono Trigger anime short in passing, which is only terrible because it wasn’t a full movie! Also highlights what a weird game CT is. Available on YouTube if you haven’t seen it, it’s awesome.

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Floop
19/3/2019 01:43:18 pm

Captain N was worse than all of these

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
19/3/2019 01:50:04 pm

Earthworm Jim stands proudly among some of the best imaginative or surreal kids’ shows of the early 90s, like Space Cats or Bobby’s World, though not to the lofty heights of Rocko’s Modern Life or Samurai Pizza Cats.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
19/3/2019 02:29:48 pm

I recall the Sam and Max cartoon released around that same time (also on Fox Kids alongside Earthworm Jim and Samurai Pizza Cats) being great too.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
20/3/2019 11:41:34 am

I tried extremely hard to like Sam & Max but just couldn’t. Too much was lost in translation from the comics and Lucasarts game to make it suitable for kids’ TV.

I remember reading in the Lucasarts magazine that Purcell had resisted other offers for years thinking they wouldn’t do it justice, too.

Sedric-and-Charlie
19/3/2019 04:11:05 pm

I would've left off Earthworm Jim, which was great fun, in favour of The Power Team. That was Acclaim's attempt to do a Captain N, with a bunch of their characters coming out of their games to fight crime in the real world. One of them was Kwirk, a tomato who solves maze-based puzzles, and you can imagine what an invaluable skillset that is in defeating crime

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Adam
19/3/2019 05:12:30 pm

That picture of Donkey Kong looks like he's saying 'I'd give it a minute if I was you'.

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Marro
19/3/2019 08:56:29 pm

I'd say he's trying to contain a follow-through incident using the pier hence the high concentration. "My next move is critical".

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Robobob
19/3/2019 09:36:34 pm

"Frogger took the greatest liberties with the source material, turning the character - who had previously no motive beyond crossing the road without being smashed beneath the wheels of a truck - into an investigative reporter. "

I mean...why the hell not, makes about as much sense as anything else trying to expand the story of Frogger.

Yeah, he was an investigative reporter, and also an accountant, and then briefly worked at the UN, before all that business with the road and the trucks and the lilly pads, and then he retired early to a small Caribbean island which is now underwater due to the melting of the icecaps, it's a tragic story.

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James Walker
20/3/2019 12:00:30 am

If only HTV Wales or Yorkshire Television had made a Miner Willy cartoon!!!

If only....heavy sigh....

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Marro
20/3/2019 07:33:25 pm

I am going to ask those nice tattooed lads who do the free weights at my gym if they want to play "I spy with my hairy eye" next time I'm towelling off in the changing rooms.

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Lewis Clark
24/3/2019 05:50:59 pm

Lest we forget Captain N - The game master. A half hour advert for a bunch of Nintendo characters.

Most notable for having it's 'Mother Brain' (from Metroid) voiced by soul legend Levi Stubbs Jr (from the Four Tops).

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Rod G
25/1/2022 05:23:55 pm

You forgot Dragon’s Lair?

Tsk tsk.

And I liked that one.

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