The rest is silence: Grief, Image, and Collective Feeling in Hamnet
14 Sep, 2025
Recent years have seen an explosion of video game adaptations across cinema and television. What was once viewed as a niche, nerdy hobby for adolescents has become a boon for Hollywood. As early as 2019, the Entertainment Retailers Association in the United Kingdom reported that the gaming industry made more revenue than both film and music combined.1 It should be no surprise then, that filmmakers and television producers have begun mining for narratives and intellectual property to adapt for the big screen and small screen alike.
In just the past few years, films such as Sonic The Hedgehog (2022), A Minecraft Movie (2025), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and even Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023) have adapted pixelated worlds and characters to cinema. In doing so, such films brought with them the same visuals and loveable albeit campy characters that made the original games so popular. Streaming services have also been eager to join in on the trend, often aiming for more mature, grounded, and much more violent narratives such as HBO’s The Last of Us (2023-) and Amazon’s Fallout (2024-).
In this top 5, I provide my takes on what constitutes the best video game adaptations to date. Like any list, this will not be without controversy. I am fully prepared to resolve conflict with a highly ritualised round of Mario Kart…
Number 5: Uncharted (2022)
A sleeper pick opens our list. The original Uncharted games were lauded for their action set pieces, from cargo plans falling apart mid-air, to sinking cruise ships that tasked the player with climbing through a mind-bending level to safety. Yet, the game’s strength was arguably in its writing. Treasure hunter Nathan Drake was as daring and brash as he was suave and poignant. The later games, especially Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, intricately explored the complex and heart-tugging relationship between Drake and Elena.
Fans had been clamouring for years for an adaptation of the globe-trotting, treasure-hunting, action-adventure game. The resultant Uncharted movie is far from perfect. Fan-favourite Nathan Fillion was snubbed for a younger version of Drake played by Tom Holland. Mark Wahlberg was also critically sans moustache for most of the film in his turn as Sully. Nevertheless, the film does strike a few strong chords. The story, spliced together from different narratives in the games, is engaging and well-paced. It also features some heartwarming character development between the two leads. The action, especially the cargo plane sequence, is bombastic. The Nolan North cameo is the cherry on top.
Daniel Carrigy is Lecturer in Modern History and English at Avondale University, where he is also the Course Convenor for the Bachelor of Arts degree. He has recently published on detective fiction, video games, and postwar American literature. He is currently working in eighteenth and nineteenth century American history, as well as conducting further research on contemporary video games and adaptation.
Number 4: Pokémon (1997-)
Like number 5 on this list, Pokémon may also come as a surprise. For those of us who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, we have fond memories of trading Pokémon cards at primary school lunches, and weekends spent hunting Charizards on our Gameboys. Pokémon was a cultural force for much of the period. A staple breakfast cartoon across the world, Pokémon was set in a fictional world that humans shared with pocket monsters, or Pokémon. These ranged from the lovable Pikachu to the hilarious Mr Mime, and even the ethereal Mewtwo. The worldwide "Pokémania" craze had children and parents alike hunting for trading cards, desperate to catch ‘em all.
The genesis of this craze was the humble RPGs (role-playing games) Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, released in 1996 for the GameBoy. The cartoon adaptation of the game followed Ash Ketchum, a young Pokémon trainer, determined to become a master of his craft. Truthfully, each episode followed a fairly familiar formula. Ash, Misty, and Brock would travel to a new destination to challenge the local Pokémon master. Along the way, Team Rocket would hilariously fail in their attempt to sabotage the trio. Whilst the series may not have reached the same critical acclaim as other adaptations on this list, I rank it highly due to its cultural significance. Seemingly everyone in the western world had heard of Pokémon in the early 2000s. Pokémon also paved the way for Japanese anime to become more mainstream for Western audiences.
Number 3: Fallout (2024-)
Fallout has come a long way since the original game was released in 1997. Set in an alternate, atompunk timeline in which the world is devastated by nuclear war, the series thrusts players into an inhospitable and unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland. Yet, this gritty setting is also a hilarious one. Filled with fascinating characters, the open world of the Fallout games throw surprise after surprise at the player. From Lily, the grandma super mutant in Fallout: New Vegas, to Nick Valentine, a robotic private eye with an acute existential crisis in Fallout 4, Fallout never fails to produce memorable gameplay moments and storylines.
Amazon’s recent adaptation of the series is an astounding piece of television. The opening pilot faithfully captures everything that makes the game so engaging. The portrayal of vault dwellers in Vault 33 is rife with acute attention to detail. The retrofuturistic setting is perfectly portrayed, with vault dwellers all eager to play their role in an underground society that serves as a microcosm of Cold War nationalism and paranoia. The plot is an excellent one and effectively borrows from many of the inciting incidents in the game series. The writing also fleshes out the dark, comic wasteland that has become the United States. Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins deliver memorable, humorous, and captivating performances in their portrayals of vault dweller Lucy MacLean and a gunslinging ghoul respectively.
Number 2: Arcane (2021-2024)
The League of Legends universe has been a world-wide phenomenon since it launched in 2009. Riot Games, inspired by a custom multiplayer map for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, launched their multiplayer arena game to incredible success. Since then, League of Legends has been a unstoppable contributing force in the rise of esports culture. Originally set in a rather simplistic, fantasy world, characters in the game had minimal background and characterisation. In 2014, Riot Games hired Graham McNeill, a designer and novelist for Warhammer, to reboot their intellectual property. The result was the setting of Runeterra, an engaging world filled with conflict and sorcery, and a litany of races and societies. The ecologically diverse map was populated with expected races such as humans and trolls, but also unique beings like sapient scorpions and ancient void beasts.
Netflix’s Arcane surprised many when it first launched in 2021. Nervous fans of the game had little to fear, as the adaptation beautifully recreated the game’s recognisable art style and brought its world to life. Its plot follows two sisters, Powder and Vi, as they find themselves in the middle of social and political conflict between two cities: Piltover, a rich utopia, and Zaun, a crime-ridden, poverty-stricken city that the sisters call home. The series writers wove together an incredibly engaging plot, one that kept viewers glued to their screens and in awe of a striking, steampunk world. Arguably, the only thing wrong with Arcane is that the creators did not opt for a third season.
Number 1: The Last of Us (2023-)
As both game and television, The Last of Us is a masterclass in storytelling. Released in 2013, the first game in the series was a significant tonal shift for Naughty Dog, the developer that had created the Uncharted series. Set in a post-apocalyptic world following a zombie outbreak, The Last of Us created a harrowing narrative of love and loss in a brutal world of violence, trauma, and prejudice. The game is largely focalised through Joel, an experienced smuggler. Joel, having never recovered from the loss of his daughter during the initial outbreak, is tasked with taking a young girl, Ellie, across the Eastern United States to safety. Ellie, having been bitten by a zombie without succumbing to the cordyceps virus, offers the chance of a vaccine. The pair’s relationship is intricate and heartbreaking, whilst the gameplay and story is some of the best ever produced by a videogame.
The same can be said for The Last of Us television series. Neil Druckmann, writer of the games, paired with Craig Mazin to bring the game world to life in HBO’s adaptation. The series recaptures what made the games so great, weaving a masterful plot whilst keeping the relationship between Joel and Ellie (at least in season one) at the forefront of its storytelling. What is so striking about this adaptation though, is its effective ability to stake new ground in the world. The series creates new subplots and backgrounds for supporting characters, especially Bill in season one. Its twenty-four Emmy nominations (with eight wins), are a testament to its universal acclaim, but also its ability to appeal to mainstream audiences beyond those who played the games.
