Most of the time, when you think about video game adaptations, they’re movies or TV shows based on video games, but what about when it goes the other way? In the early days of video games, we used to get (usually pretty terrible) tie-in games based on movies, but the practice has mostly gone away with the exception of mega franchises and omnipresent IP like Batman or “Star Wars.” Which is why it’s so strange that the world was somehow given a video game adaptation based on one of the most well-known independent films of all time: Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 feature debut, “Reservoir Dogs.”
If that doesn’t ring a bell, don’t fret, because the 2006 game was actually banned in a couple of countries and was not particularly well-received by critics, so it’s become something of a cult oddity. Given the cult classic status of the original film, that almost feels appropriate, though the game has not gained nearly the same level of love as the movie that inspired it. With its gun-toting antiheroes and crime story, “Reservoir Dogs” seems a lot better suited for a video game adaptation than, say, “Gilligan’s Island,” but unfortunately, the game ended up going about as well as the movie’s heist.
The game version of Reservoir Dogs wasn’t just bad, it was also banned
The only actor who reprised his role from the movie was Michael Madsen, who plays the vicious Mr. Blonde, so everyone else had to be recast. That means we don’t get to hear Harvey Keitel or Tim Roth delivering any of their famous dialogue as the smooth Mr. White or secretly traitorous Mr. Orange, but instead get to hear it from other actors and voice actors doing their best. (The characters also don’t look quite like their movie versions, which is distracting.) Cut scenes are mostly just sequences from the movie, but with PlayStation 2-era graphics and different voices, and according to reviews, gameplay is pretty repetitive, following the dogs as they rob the bank and head to the warehouse. In fact, it has a 50% rating on review aggregator Metacritic on all platforms, which is pretty rough.
There are some interesting mechanics, like being able to cut off someone’s ear as Mr. Blonde, but overall, the game is a real bust. The game was also banned in several countries, including Australia and New Zealand, because players were playing violent criminals doing criminal acts, joining game contemporaries like “Grand Theft Auto III” and “Manhunt.” While die-hard Tarantino fans might want to try and play the game by finding old copies or using emulators, for the most part, players are going to be disappointed. Maybe if the cast had returned to play some of the larger-than-life characters, it could have worked a bit better, but instead it’s an odd footnote in Tarantino’s filmmaking history.
