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Animated Series Based on Video Games
I realize we have a movies/TV forum, but doing this in here for a simple reason. We've determined this would make an interesting topic for the podcast this week.
As long as there have been video games, there has been tie-ins. I'm sure we've all heard Pac-man Fever at least once in our life. There have also been movies of varying qualities (From awful to watchable, its a small scale). But as video games are generally seen as kids entertainment, there has also been a ton of animated series tie-ins.
Let's start with the most well known, longest latest one, Pokemon
The show has been around for more than a decade. Has had over 600 episodes, and something like 13 movies. It is probably one of the longest running cartoons in history, which easily makes it one of the longest running in the video game world.
Then you go to gaming's big two mascots, Super Mario and Sonic have also starred in their fair share of cartoons.
Mario has 3 under his belt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w2fi_f5OLY The Super Mario Bros: Super Show which for the most part is based on the Super Mario Bros 2 video game (even though it features Bowser as the main foe) This show was also famous for the wraparounds which starred a real life Mario (Captain Lou) and Luigi with various guest stars. And on Fridays would also include an episode of the Legend of Zelda cartoon.
Then there was The Adventures of Super Mario Bros, which took its cues from Super Mario Bros 3 including the Koopa Kids who were all renamed for the series (for reasons that escape me), and finally Super Mario World which took its cues from the game of the same name.
Sonic on the other hand, has had various animated shows, with varying degrees of how they are related to the game.
The first was The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog which aired weekday morning. It was a light-hearted affair, which featured Robotnik and a few of the common foes from Sonic 1/2. Around the same time, Sonic Satam (Saturday morning) premiered.
This cartoon was the first to shake up the premise. While Sonic fought Dr. Robotnik, he was part of the Freedom Fighters which was other wild life critters who tried to save the world from Robotnik's evil influence. Gold rings also granted him super-speed and he only needed one of them. It had a hell of a tune though.
Then came Sonic Underground which pretty much said to hell with the concept. Sonic is one of three children who is orphaned by his mother to protect them. Sonic and his siblings form a type of traveling rock band with magical instruments to fight evil. Yeah, its out there.
After that, I believe Sonic took a minor hiatus before returning in mid-2000s with Sonic X which is an anime-esque adventure that pays homage to the Sonic Adventure games.
As mentioned above there was a Zelda series, and Captain N featured characters from prominent NES games including Megaman, Simon Belmont, Mother Brain and Kid Icarus.
Other than that, Nintendo has tried its hand at two other animated series. Donkey Kong Country
Never seen the cartoon (or don't remember seeing it), but I do watch Christmas Comes to Pac-Land every year.
Mega Man was a part of the Captain N cartoon, but that doesn't mean the Blue Bomber hasn't ventured out on his own in the animated world.
First with Mega Man
He's the fighting robot apparently. The show was pretty enjoyable. And most people would remember the episode when Mega Man teamed with Mega Man X as the first real crossover of the two universes.
The next time he came to the small screen was in the form of Mega Man NT Warrior
Animated Series Based on Video Games
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