Cartoons from your childhood turned into games.

Having watched the Thundercats quicklook, I was reminded how few good games get made based on cartoons from our childhood. What Developer do you think could do justice to the cartoons you watched as a kid, and what cartoon would you like them to make a game from?

I'd like to get Suda51 to give this a go... because the themes in this cartoon are kinda messed up

And maybe give Double Fine this... just because it would be amazing.

The thundercats game is not based on a TV show from your (our?) youth, it's based on a TV show thats based on the TV show from our youth, because god damnit childrens TV industry

That being said a Johnny Bravo dating sim would win

I would like to see the Persona team make a Super Hero RPG. Could be neat to base it around a young team of heroes similar to the Teen Titans. All my favourite studios have been bought by EA and killed so I don't really have any developer choices. Really I just want a grown up story focused RPG with a super hero theme and a turn based combat system like XCom or Dragon Age: Origins.

I'd love to see the characters form the classic Gi Joe cartoons in a game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but with more robust character, vehicle and base building aspects.

I'd be pretty stoked to see a game that uses the style of the old animated Hobbit/ Lord of the Rings' aesthetic. I think the art in those films is fucking stellar, and I am so fucking sick and tired of anime and shitty western anime rip off styles.

SWAT KATS.

CODE NAME: KND FTW!

Arkham Asylum was Batman : The Animated Series.

Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series. Part sports sim, part space opera action/adventure.

Sonic SATM. So much lore! And Uncle Chuck!

I guess I was more into comic books than cartoons, but for us Swedes, I think putting Amanita Design or possibly Telltale Games on making a Skrotnisse game could yield some interesting results. I think they could do justice to the odd and slightly uncomfortable puppetry art style, and both funny and really dark, anti-social and misanthropic themes in the show.

A Descent style game (maybe by Starbreeze or Volition) based on "Il était une fois... la vie" could be quite interesting as well, a semi-educational 6DOF FPS set in the human body.

And I guess Telltale would be the best to do justice to the Tintin Animated Series:

If that Adventure Time game is as good as some people say it is, WayForward should be working on an Inspector Gadget game right now.

I was really into the Magic School Bus games as a kid.

Cartoons from our childhood were shit. They were half hour long advertisements for toys (and were even slotted as such in program scheduling). Transformers and He-Man and GI JOE were fine when I was five years old and too stupid to realize how truly horrible the shows were and what their real point for existing was, but I'm a grown ass fucking man now and the last thing I give a fuck about is having the stupidest parts of my childhood pimped back to me as something I'm supposed to be nostalgic over. I'm certainly not going to pay to play crappy games based on crappy cartoons meant to entertain a toddler three decades ago.

It is beyond my comprehension that, for example, Transformers based games are selling for $60 in an age where the only people old enough to remember then are in their late thirties and forties. I mean, who are these people clamoring for this crap? I generally feel the same way about Star Wars, but at least that is still watchable and is (okay, arguably, I guess) not aimed at five year olds.

@Branthog said:

Cartoons from our childhood were shit. They were half hour long advertisements for toys (and were even slotted as such in program scheduling). Transformers and He-Man and GI JOE were fine when I was five years old and too stupid to realize how truly horrible the shows were and what their real point for existing was, but I'm a grown ass fucking man now and the last thing I give a fuck about is having the stupidest parts of my childhood pimped back to me as something I'm supposed to be nostalgic over. I'm certainly not going to pay to play crappy games based on crappy cartoons meant to entertain a toddler three decades ago.

It is beyond my comprehension that, for example, Transformers based games are selling for $60 in an age where the only people old enough to remember then are in their late thirties and forties. I mean, who are these people clamoring for this crap? I generally feel the same way about Star Wars, but at least that is still watchable and is (okay, arguably, I guess) not aimed at five year olds.

Tell me what Johnny Bravo was an ad for besides mace and I will listen to you

@Iodine said:

@Branthog said:

Cartoons from our childhood were shit. They were half hour long advertisements for toys (and were even slotted as such in program scheduling). Transformers and He-Man and GI JOE were fine when I was five years old and too stupid to realize how truly horrible the shows were and what their real point for existing was, but I'm a grown ass fucking man now and the last thing I give a fuck about is having the stupidest parts of my childhood pimped back to me as something I'm supposed to be nostalgic over. I'm certainly not going to pay to play crappy games based on crappy cartoons meant to entertain a toddler three decades ago.

It is beyond my comprehension that, for example, Transformers based games are selling for $60 in an age where the only people old enough to remember then are in their late thirties and forties. I mean, who are these people clamoring for this crap? I generally feel the same way about Star Wars, but at least that is still watchable and is (okay, arguably, I guess) not aimed at five year olds.

Tell me what Johnny Bravo was an ad for besides mace and I will listen to you

I've never heard of Johnny Bravo before, but Wikipedia says it was a cartoon from '97 to the early 00's and were for the Cartoon Network. That's not the same thing. Back when we were kids, cartoons were all Saturday-morning-long and all afternoon after school. And they were all oriented to marketing action figures and various other toys (also into the 90s and probably even today, frankly). The animated GI JOE series, for example, was basically paid advertising to sell Hasbro's action figures. The same goes for Autobots, Transformers, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, He-Man, Thundercats and countless others. They were really awful (try watching them, today -- it's like trying to watch an episode of Knight Rider, but worse). Today, a lot of cartoons are made for the sake of pure entertainment and programming. In the late 70s and 80s, cartoons were marketing vehicles to sell really stupid toys to children. I'm sure there were some exceptions, but I can't think of many. This wasn't a time of "hey, let's make a neat toy based on this cartoon". It was the time of "hey, let's make a new line of toys and market them with these shitty cartoons that five year old kids are too dumb to question".

Which, I guess, is fine. But why grown-adults would want to play video games based on shitty cartoons like that from thirty years ago is beyond me. I mean, yeah, I liked Transformers in the early 80s. He-Man, too. But I was a little kid and didn't know any better. I thought checkers was fun, when I was five, too.

For me, growing up in Sweden during the 90s with like three television channels, cartoons were pretty rare. But I did get to see a lot of Eastern European puppet shows about famine, loneliness and potatoes. They'd probably make decent point&click adventure games.

I'd also like to second Skrotnisse.

Doug, Hey Arnold!, Dexter's Laboratory, Angry Beavers, Rocko's Modern Life, Gargoyles, PPG. I watched way too much TV as a tiny child.

God, I miss Hey Arnold. Some of the episodes are legitimate life lessons.

@Branthog said:

But why grown-adults would want to play video games based on shitty cartoons like that from thirty years ago is beyond me.

Blind nostalgia.

@FunkasaurasRex: When I grew up in the UK, childrens TV was thick with amazing content. Of course there was the same grey sludge shoveled at us that you describe... but there was also genuinely great stuff too. I choose to remember that.

I'm not asking for these games to be made by the way, it was a simple thought experiment... Who would be able to do it well.

@Branthog said:

@Iodine said:

@Branthog said:

Cartoons from our childhood were shit. They were half hour long advertisements for toys (and were even slotted as such in program scheduling). Transformers and He-Man and GI JOE were fine when I was five years old and too stupid to realize how truly horrible the shows were and what their real point for existing was, but I'm a grown ass fucking man now and the last thing I give a fuck about is having the stupidest parts of my childhood pimped back to me as something I'm supposed to be nostalgic over. I'm certainly not going to pay to play crappy games based on crappy cartoons meant to entertain a toddler three decades ago.

It is beyond my comprehension that, for example, Transformers based games are selling for $60 in an age where the only people old enough to remember then are in their late thirties and forties. I mean, who are these people clamoring for this crap? I generally feel the same way about Star Wars, but at least that is still watchable and is (okay, arguably, I guess) not aimed at five year olds.

Tell me what Johnny Bravo was an ad for besides mace and I will listen to you

I've never heard of Johnny Bravo before, but Wikipedia says it was a cartoon from '97 to the early 00's and were for the Cartoon Network. That's not the same thing. Back when we were kids, cartoons were all Saturday-morning-long and all afternoon after school. And they were all oriented to marketing action figures and various other toys (also into the 90s and probably even today, frankly). The animated GI JOE series, for example, was basically paid advertising to sell Hasbro's action figures. The same goes for Autobots, Transformers, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, He-Man, Thundercats and countless others. They were really awful (try watching them, today -- it's like trying to watch an episode of Knight Rider, but worse). Today, a lot of cartoons are made for the sake of pure entertainment and programming. In the late 70s and 80s, cartoons were marketing vehicles to sell really stupid toys to children. I'm sure there were some exceptions, but I can't think of many. This wasn't a time of "hey, let's make a neat toy based on this cartoon". It was the time of "hey, let's make a new line of toys and market them with these shitty cartoons that five year old kids are too dumb to question".

Which, I guess, is fine. But why grown-adults would want to play video games based on shitty cartoons like that from thirty years ago is beyond me. I mean, yeah, I liked Transformers in the early 80s. He-Man, too. But I was a little kid and didn't know any better. I thought checkers was fun, when I was five, too.

Oh yeah all that stuff is a giant ad for toys, I agree, I forgot we are not all the same age.

@Iodine said:

@Branthog said:

@Iodine said:

@Branthog said:

Cartoons from our childhood were shit. They were half hour long advertisements for toys (and were even slotted as such in program scheduling). Transformers and He-Man and GI JOE were fine when I was five years old and too stupid to realize how truly horrible the shows were and what their real point for existing was, but I'm a grown ass fucking man now and the last thing I give a fuck about is having the stupidest parts of my childhood pimped back to me as something I'm supposed to be nostalgic over. I'm certainly not going to pay to play crappy games based on crappy cartoons meant to entertain a toddler three decades ago.

It is beyond my comprehension that, for example, Transformers based games are selling for $60 in an age where the only people old enough to remember then are in their late thirties and forties. I mean, who are these people clamoring for this crap? I generally feel the same way about Star Wars, but at least that is still watchable and is (okay, arguably, I guess) not aimed at five year olds.

Tell me what Johnny Bravo was an ad for besides mace and I will listen to you

I've never heard of Johnny Bravo before, but Wikipedia says it was a cartoon from '97 to the early 00's and were for the Cartoon Network. That's not the same thing. Back when we were kids, cartoons were all Saturday-morning-long and all afternoon after school. And they were all oriented to marketing action figures and various other toys (also into the 90s and probably even today, frankly). The animated GI JOE series, for example, was basically paid advertising to sell Hasbro's action figures. The same goes for Autobots, Transformers, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake, He-Man, Thundercats and countless others. They were really awful (try watching them, today -- it's like trying to watch an episode of Knight Rider, but worse). Today, a lot of cartoons are made for the sake of pure entertainment and programming. In the late 70s and 80s, cartoons were marketing vehicles to sell really stupid toys to children. I'm sure there were some exceptions, but I can't think of many. This wasn't a time of "hey, let's make a neat toy based on this cartoon". It was the time of "hey, let's make a new line of toys and market them with these shitty cartoons that five year old kids are too dumb to question".

Which, I guess, is fine. But why grown-adults would want to play video games based on shitty cartoons like that from thirty years ago is beyond me. I mean, yeah, I liked Transformers in the early 80s. He-Man, too. But I was a little kid and didn't know any better. I thought checkers was fun, when I was five, too.

Oh yeah all that stuff is a giant ad for toys, I agree, I forgot we are not all the same age.

I don't think it's any different today, either. Cartoons are still generally a vehicle to advertise for shitty toys. A least, the cartoons aimed at kids with only a few exceptions (like Scooby Doo back in the 70s or whenever that was around, which I don't think was marketing any toys but was still dumb). I mean, that's what the entire Pokemon and Power Rangers stuff is about, I think.

But unlike the 70s and 80s, we now also have cartoons that exist just for their own sake and are often aimed at adults. Or, at least, at both kids and adults (like a number of things on Cartoon Network). But those aren't the things games are being made about. We just get shitty games for shitty cartoons that -- in the first place -- were just shitty advertisements for shitty toys. And it's all aimed at thirty and forty year olds. At least, I think they are? I mean, do little kids today know what a Thundercat or Transformer or He-Man is?! And do grown-ass men really want to play these crappy games and care about these crappy franchises? I mean, they must, apparently, but . . .

Maybe there are some games made on unrelated cartoon franchises, but I wouldn't know about them. Maybe someone will mention a few. I tend to think that children's cartoons (which is what the original post was asking us about) are just too simple and too dumb to offer enough to make any sort of interesting game out of, unless you're just using the cartoon's assets to make something like a shmup, maybe.

And anything really interesting would probably be off the table. Like the Sesame Street Heavy Rain-style murder mystery/crime investigation I always wanted to play.

@Ghostin: I was specifically referring to the kind of cartoons @Branthog was describing. There are certainly plenty of great cartoons that aren't just marketing vehicles for toys, but they tend to be outside of the action/adventure fare. I grew up with cartoons from the mid-to-late '90s and most of the ones I remember most fondly are the weird, vaguely subversive Nickelodeon shows that were popular at the time. The modern equivalent of those are probably something like Adventure Time or Gravity Falls. I'm not sure how you'd make games for those kinds of shows without them just being generic genre games, as is so often the case though.

Make this!! Make this!!

This reminds me of something weird: We haven't had a solid GI Joe game in quite awhile. You'd think that it would be easy.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

Arkham Asylum was Batman : The Animated Series.

My wish has already come true.

I'm pretty sure all of my favorite childhood cartoons have had shitty tie-in games made already. There's even an AAAHH!!! Real Monsters game (SNES *and* Genesis).

@Branthog said:

Cartoons are still generally a vehicle to advertise for shitty toys.

I'm not sure that's the case with Adventure Time or Archer or Superjail or Regular Show or Robot Chicken or Robotomy (while that was still on the air) or SpongeBob or TUFF Puppy or The Looney Tunes Show or The Legend of Korra or American Dad or just about any cartoon I could name. They may have toys, but that's after the fact instead of the initial motivation.

I defer to Branthog on this one. Although I choose to not rewatch them these days and retain fond memories of some of them.

Dungeons and Dragons, and yes ^ Pirates of Dark Water, etc.

@EXTomar: Too true, that said there were two good ones on the old 8-bit. I wish that they could make some of the more recent cartoons in the style of the duck tales game. that one was solid.

@Branthog: I'll still play a game of checkers today.

Courage the Cowardly Dog. Would probably be turned into some sort of Horror Game. Let the Amnesia guys do it.

Batman.

I'd love to see The Raccoons done by Media Molecule.