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VIdeo Game Cartoons that SHOULD have been...

Game list created by THE_ORIGINAL_SHNAST

What games of the 80's and 90's should have been made into Saturday Morning (or syndicated) cartoons?

Furthermore, which video games should have had an animated movie release?

This is a list that operates in retrospect, dreaming of a couple of decades of entertainment that could have been.

I will ignore what I think is possible now with the advances in live action films and animation. I will only be imagining what video game properties could have worked at the time (1980 - 1999) given the limitations of that era to produce quality work in animation and film.

As such, I would have to say that no video game property should have ever been produced as a live action film until after 2008.

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Super Mario Bros.

Yes there was a Mario live action movie and cartoon already. I feel the cartoons were sufficient at the time however the movie was not.

There is a great anime movie "Rescue princess peach" that should have been released in English instead of wasting the money they spent on the live action train wreck.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

Even though there was a live action movie, and a cartoon on USA network that qualified as "Saturday morning cartoon" quality, none of those were good. They should have just released the English dub of the anime movie from Japan.

And then they should have just released the anime series here in English as well instead (which they did eventually).

Also the action figures that came out using GIJOE molds were abysmal. Should have had some better stuff for us at the time.

Ninja Gaiden

There was a relatively unknown anime that came out but it diverted from the game so much that it didn't gain popularity. Ninja Ryukenden 1991 (忍者龍剣伝 Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword) You can watch it here.

This could have made a great show even if it was just 24 episodes of an Anime released in japan then ported to English.

This probably wouldn't be a great series to have done in "American" (only Hanna Barbara drew their own serious toons) style.

A Boy and His Blob

This was intended by the creator to take off as a multi-dimensional property. I think it had the potential. (That we are starting to see today almost 20 years later)

Too bad it didn't get a series at least the quality of "my pet monster" at the time. I think it could have been better than that even (not hard).

Castlevania

I only put this on the list because of the horrible portrayal of Simon Belmont and Dracula on Captain N the game master.

It's not that I have any faith in the quality of 80's/90's American animation to have done this series justice. However it couldn't have been any worse than Captain N's comical portrayal.

At best it could have been similar to the 90's cartoons "monster force"

and "Conan the adventurer".

But I think an anime series for this one would have been perfect and worth the wait for it to get dubbed into English and released in America 10 years after it's debut in Japan (as was usual then). The animation in the intro to "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" would have been doable in the 90's in japan.

Golden Axe

With cartoons like "Galtar and the Golden Lance"

, "Thundarr the Barbarian",

and "Blackstar"

this would have been an easy match for a 80's Barbarian Sword & Sorcery series.

Heck, you could even reverse that thought and say any of those cartoons could have been pasted over the Golden Axe format and done quite nicely. Including He-man (Which did get this treatment in a high quality fan demo a few years ago)

Metroid

I saw a "what if" depiction of this idea on deviant art and I've been hooked every since. Metroid the animated series as a Saturday Morning Cartoon with all the American action and Camp at the time. I think Metroid is a great property for that.