The 1990s saw many video games make the leap into other mediums, though not always to any major success. The 1980s saw video game technology improve drastically, with the 1990s ushering in a whole new era for the exciting medium of entertainment. More traditional media such as movies and TV were forced to catch up, resulting in many attempts to adapt popular video game characters onto the big and small screen alike. This saw many of the video games loved by ’80s kids get adapted into animated TV shows, with the relatively low cost of animation and the fantastical nature of many video game characters making this the most viable option for adaptations. Naturally, most ’80s kids fell for the gimmick and sank their teeth into these shows.
Certain animated shows defined the 1990s, and many children of the ’80s will fondly remember watching cartoons throughout the decade. The following animated TV shows all took their cues from popular video games, resulting in many kids making the effort to watch them due to the iconic nature of their protagonists. Sadly, they actually bore little to no resemblance to the games they were based on, leaving the audience confused and often disappointed as a result.
There have been several attempts to adapt Sonic the Hedgehog into TV shows and movies, and most have kept their story pretty close to the one established within the video game series. 1999, however, saw the release of Sonic Underground, which made some pretty drastic changes to Sonic’s story. The 1990s cartoon TV show followed Sonic, who is explained to be part of a royal family, alongside never-before-seen siblings named Sonia and Manic. All three are also armed with medallions that conjure musical instruments which double up as powerful weapons.
The story of Sonic Underground is established as existing in an entirely different continuity to the video game franchise. Many ’80s kids watched the show upon its release simply because Sonic was included and it introduced new characters to his story, but swiftly grew increasingly confused as they realized the show had nothing to do with the games. It’s hard not to imagine that the show might actually have fared better had it not tried to tie itself into the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, because it was quite simply nothing at all like the games.
Donkey Kong Country is often considered one of the best video games of its era, and helped cement the character as a popular Nintendo staple whose popularity endures even decades later. However, 1997 saw the character star in a TV show of the same name, and it was a bizarre departure from the game. The ’90s animated show starred Donkey Kong alongside several supporting characters, some of which were created specifically for the series. The basic story involved Donkey Kong protecting an artifact called the Crystal Coconut from the villain King K. Rool, taking its cues from the game. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarities stopped.
The Donkey Kong Country TV show was nothing like the video games. The games saw Donkey Kong embark on adventures, whereas the show was a more episodic affair that focused on recovering stolen bananas, protecting the Crystal Coconut, and, most bizarrely of all, the ongoing relationship between Donkey Kong and his girlfriend Candy Kong. The show’s strange use of performance capture technology and repeated focus on Donkey Kong’s romantic issues painted it as a very different experience from the character’s beloved video game series.
There is perhaps no single video game character as utterly iconic as Mario. Nintendo’s poster boy has featured in many excellent video games as well as a host of movies and TV shows, and while several of them could easily have featured in this list, Super Mario World takes the cake as the biggest departure from the source material. The 1991 series featured Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Yoshi, but opted to get rid of Toad in favor of an original character, a caveboy named Oogtar. This was just the first of many creative additions to the show that separated it from the games.
Many ’80s kids will remember watching the animated show, largely because its approach to telling the characters’ story was incredibly odd. As well as the addition of Oogtar, Super Mario World featured episodes that grappled with real-world problems such as street gangs, capitalism, and peer pressure, as well as, hilariously, a cautionary tale about TV addiction. While Mario’s massive popularity attracted many young viewers, the show being so vastly different from the games was more than a little bizarre.
