Decades ago there were a pair of singular visions displayed on the silver screen. Two award winning and critically acclaimed cinematic masterpiece. Two cornerstones of the Mafia movie genre. The Godfather and Scarface. One a dark and moody saga and the life and death of families, the other a blood splattered epic of power and respect. Two sides of the same coin, opposite but equal. Now they are games.

The Godfather has just been released by EA (the irony of a EA creating a Mafia game must have been lost on them) for the rapidly aging PS2 and Xbox systems. In it you take control of a small time crook trying to make a name for himself in post-WW2 New York. What will you do to obtain money and power? Is respect worth peoples’ lives? Have you played this game before somewhere?

The other game in question is the notorious vaporware known as Scarface: The World is Yours. This game purports to put you in the shoes of the movie’s protagonist after the climatic battle at the end of the movie as he fights to rebuild his empire of vice. What will you do to regain money and power? Is restoring respect worth peoples’ lives? Have you played this game before somewhere?

Do you ever get that Déjà vu feeling?

It should at this point, my loyal riders, be obvious that I have a problem with this. What I need to know is exactly what kind of colossal waste of time do we have here? There are problems that are way beyond there being another two GTA clones out on the market (not even clever ones, at least they could of may one with Aliens or Cowboys or something) these two new games are treading on an old path, one that almost inevitable leads to failure.

Do you ever get that Déjà vu feeling?

If I’m about to blow your mind here, you’ll know your reading the wrong column, but The Lord of the Rings was a book long before it was a movie (and yes I’m counting the animated version for what that’s worth). Only decades after its publication could a live action movie version be fully realized. Only the right combination of time, technology and people could put something with the depth of that work on the screen, and even then it wasn’t perfect (Note: I am not a die hard fan of Tom Bombadil, just observant). Now we have games based on movies! And we’re not talking ‘in the stores by the movie’s premier date’ kind of games, but games that can be produced by the kind of reasonable production schedules that all (potentially) good games are made by (uh-oh two cracks on EA in one column, what am I now? Penny Arcade?)

So now we are mining old movies for games, and the cycle of recycling ideas cycles on. GTA style games are still in vogue right now, but when the next truly original game idea comes around, which cinematic works of art will be excavated? How will you nostalgia be used to sell you something that will undoubtedly fail to live up to our memories?

They’ve made you an offer of new games based on old concepts and even older movies. Refuse it.

This is my stop.

Comments?  Questions?  E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com.  Complaints?  Do you ever get that Déjà vu feeling?

Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.