If you were to put every single video game adaptation onto a grading scale, you’ll find that most will fall in between “oh dear god, why” and “that was the new definition of ‘meh’” with some exceptions managing to get as high as “that was a lot better than I was expecting”.
With reports now coming out that writer-producer Roberto Orci will be helping to adapt the classic video game Galaga for TV, I have just one thing to say: this is gonna suck, isn’t it?
Deadline states that Orci will help digital studio The Nuttery develop a 12-part animated TV adaptation of Galaga called Galaga Chronicles and has signed on as an executive producer. Also joining the project will be animation studio ShadowMachine, which is best known for producing shows such as BoJack Horseman, Robot Chicken, and Final Space.
As a cherry on top of this news, Orci even dropped one of those cliched “I played this game as a kid and I will use my fond memories to turn it into TV/a movie/whatever” statements.
Galaga is one of the games I played growing up. I have fond memories of the quarters and hours upon hours I spent playing the game. I look forward to working with The Nuttery and to capture that magic in an exciting new format.
Oh boy. It’s like he’s rubbing it in our face.
Having Orci join the project throws up some red flags.
Firstly, he co-wrote several god-awful films in the past few years, including Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so he hasn’t had the best track record writing-wise.
Secondly, he’s been the producer of a number of other god-awful films during his career, including Now You See Me and its sequel, and The Mummy with Tom Cruise, so his track record as a producer is also spotty.
And then there’s the biggest problem of all: how on earth are they going to make 12 episodes of Galaga when the game itself had literally no plot and only involved shooting aliens until either you die or they die. I’m not sure if 12 hours of a nameless ship shooting at aliens makes for good binging.
It’s probably too early to judge Galaga Chronicles since there’s still a year or two before the show even hits TV screens, and the studio behind BoJack Horseman is working on the project so there’s definitely some talented people onboard.
And I shouldn’t dump on Orci too much since he did play a big part in some good projects, like producing and writing the recent Star Trek movies and co-creating the TV show Fringe.
This is a case of “let’s wait and see” at the moment, so fingers crossed it lands somewhere between “At least it wasn’t Super Mario Bros. bad” and “it was almost as good as the new Tomb Raider” on the video game adaptation grading scale.