The Old School Otaku Lounge

okay, I'd like to know peoples opinions on the best and worst Anime based on a video game. Best for me was probably Street fighter 2 the animated movie, the worst, samurai showdown or maybe street fighter 2 V, but perhaps I'm neglecting something. Please top or bottom my selections.

Not gonna count dating sim based anime.

My favorites were:
Street Fighter II & Alpha
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge
Fatal Fury (both OAVs and Movie)
Animal Crossing
Dragon Quest: Abel Yuusha (aka Dragon Warrior)

Middle Ground:
Sonic the Hedgehog (the movie from ADV) - Loved the animation, story was meh. Sonic X on the other hand, complete garbage.
Final Fantasy Unlimited - I can get past the animation (since that was the most criticized) but I was more upset it was never finished.

Ones I didn't like:
Samurai Showdown - I used to watch this a TON when I was young, but 'fraid it didn't age very well, and probably wasn't good to begin with.
Battle Arena Toshinden - the animation and washed out colors, plus it's paper thin plot, did shame to Tsukasa Kotobuki's awesome designs.
Tekken - BAD, VERY VERY BAD!!

I forgot about Night warriors, that WAS great. I saw a couple minutes of a Virtua Fighter series, it seemed fairly terrible but that may be unfair.

So far, the most accurate-to-the-original game I've seen has to be Wizardry.

I've got a craptastic one to share with you: Voltage Fighter Gowkaizer. It was based off of a not-so-bad fighting game on the Neo Geo (at least, I don't remember it being bad). The anime's storyline is so F'ed up, with convoluted plots and even involving an incestuous brother and sister. I mean, if your main criteria for an anime (or videogame) is that it contains bouncing boobs, then you probably won't be disappointed with Gowkaizer. For the rest of us though... yeesh.

greg wrote:I've got a craptastic one to share with you: Voltage Fighter Gowkaizer. It was based off of a not-so-bad fighting game on the Neo Geo (at least, I don't remember it being bad). The anime's storyline is so F'ed up, with convoluted plots and even involving an incestuous brother and sister. I mean, if your main criteria for an anime (or videogame) is that it contains bouncing boobs, then you probably won't be disappointed with Gowkaizer. For the rest of us though... yeesh.

OH GAWD, yeah, I remember that piece of garbage. It was just...horrible. The Masami Obari character designs were BAD. Which surprised me, given the sort of campy fun of Fatal Fury. But this...ugh, it was just terrible.

I agree that the Darkstalkers anime was actually pretty fantastic, all things considered. Even though it was short, it was handled well and the character designs were on par with the video game. Also had a cool soundtrack!

I'd have to say my favorite anime based on a game would be Sakura Wars. I know it's partially a "dating sim", but the strategy RPG parts of the game I always found to be really fun (I still have my copies of the games!). The anime (well, the OAVs and movie) was great, using the same voice actors and delving into the characters a bit more than just the game's "here's a bit about her, do you want to date her?" set up.

Pokemon also has it's good moments, even though it's a kid's series. I enjoyed watching some of it with my sister when she was little and REALLY into the franchise, lots of fun memories of watching it with her after school while I babysat her as well as taking her to the local Nintendo events to promote it.

EDIT: OH MAN, how did I forget Galaxy Fraulein Yuna?! I never played any of the games it was based off of, but I thought the anime was cute back in the day.

usamimi wrote:EDIT: OH MAN, how did I forget Galaxy Fraulein Yuna?! I never played any of the games it was based off of, but I thought the anime was cute back in the day.

Oh, yes! I have actually played a bit of the first Galaxy Fraulein Yuna game, up until just past the first battle. It's so cute! I own the DVD, but I have yet to watch it. Yuna is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama, the same as Sakura in Sakura Taisen.

As for the Sakura Taisen anime, the OVAs were mostly just supplemental material to the games, and I can't imagine anyone getting much out of watching them without first having played at least the first game or so. The TV show, aka "Sakurangelion," was okay, I suppose. What I liked about the games was the campy feel to them, like how the painting on the wall slides to reveal chutes, and the gang hops in and their clothing is ridiculously changed into their uniforms by the time the slide ride ends. The TV show tried to take itself too seriously.

I actually saw raws/fansubs of the Sakura Wars OAVs first, THEN played the games. You're right that you get way more out of both if you've played the games--the OAV is definitely meant to supplement it, and it obviously geared more to already established fans. I saw them when I was in high school, though, so I was a little more forgiving, I guess. I was just like "Wow, a group of kick-ass ladies who pilot steam-powered robots! AWESOME!" The games are super fun, though--I wish they'd gotten a release here instead of just game number 5. Playing them on the Dreamcast was tough for me, as my grasp Japanese was/is fairly elementary, but I somehow made it through (and this was back before "Let's Play" videos! I had to figure it out on my own!)

I always wanted to play some of the GFY games but don't have any way of doing so. I wonder if anyone ever made any Let's Play videos for them? I kinda doubt it, but I've been wrong before! The anime is super fun and cute (or at least I remember it to be, I probably haven't watched it in 14 years XD) I always thought Chisa Yokoyama was pretty talented.

usamimi wrote: Playing them on the Dreamcast was tough for me, as my grasp Japanese was/is fairly elementary, but I somehow made it through (and this was back before "Let's Play" videos! I had to figure it out on my own!)

I used the translated walkthroughs on Gamefaqs, done by a guy who went by Lando/Kayama. He'd never even been to Japan, yet he did a great job translating them! It gave me the idea to make something similar for Galaxy Angel, but I never got around to it.

usamimi wrote:I always wanted to play some of the GFY games but don't have any way of doing so. I wonder if anyone ever made any Let's Play videos for them? I kinda doubt it, but I've been wrong before!

That would be a good idea. I have it for the PC Engine, but I've mostly played it on the PSP (it was a long, 9 hour flight from Narita to California on my return trip, during which I had bought the game). I could definitely do a Let's Play video of it, I think. I only played the first act though. Yuna goes to the spaceport, only to realize that she'd forgotten her boarding pass. So you go home to look for it, to school, and then the theater or whever she works. There she is attacked by a competitor girl. That's as far as I'd gotten. I recorded footage of the battle gameplay for my "100 PC Engine games in 10 minutes" video.

I've done a few game translations on my YouTube channel, but the only "Let's Play" video I made was for Hyper Iria on the SFC. So many of these videos are done by people who don't know a single word of Japanese, so they clumsily try to play a game and then give up after a while. I could do more Let's Play videos, but the problem is with finding the time. I've pretty much given up on helping that guy translate the Mega CD Urusei Yatsura game. I figured there would be more text involved, but it turns out to be speaking-only. I am only good for gist, because so many characters in UY do not speak normally.

Most anime inspired by a video game sucks...but I must admit that I really enjoyed the anime for "Persona 4".

You're right. It would be great if the Final Fantasy anime was just an animated version of something like Final Fantasy 6 (minus the CG animation).

As bad as many anime-based-on-games are, they're still better than movies-based-on-games!