Mobile gaming is all the rage these days, and the big IP owners know it. We’ve seen console titans like Call of Duty coming to smartphones with Call of Duty: Mobile’s battle royale mode, as well as huge properties from other mediums getting in on the action. Popular TV series becoming a title of mobile games is one of them.
One of the most highly-anticipated of these themed mobile games is that of Stranger Things. Not only is the game being derived from one of Netflix’s most popular shows, but it’s also been given a serious amount of hype due to the streaming company revealing it during E3 in 2019.
What we know about the 2020 Stranger Things mobile game
The Stranger Things property is no stranger to the gaming space. There’s been Stranger Things: The Game in 2017, and following an announcement made a bit before the unveiling of their upcoming mobile title, Netflix released Stranger Things 3: The Game across all platforms. In 2020, the range expands further
Created by developers Next Games – the team behind other screen-to-mobile creations like The Walking Dead and Blade Runner – Stranger Things is to be a location-based puzzle RPG in the style of 1980s morning cartoon shows. The game will also incorporate Google Maps, enabling fans to delve into The Upside Down that’s hidden in the real world.
Netflix has been looking to expand its presence across gaming, looking to turn several of its properties into mobile or console games. Given the popularity of Stranger Things, it seems likely that the upcoming mobile title won’t be the last to come from the retro-set show.
Famous TV properties coming around to mobile gaming
There was a great deal of stigma around movies being morphed into games, with the practice all-but fading out over a decade ago. The problem was that development studios couldn’t work within the comparatively speedy schedules of Hollywood. Shows, however, are longer-lasting, span several years, and present the opportunity for developers to create more evergreen titles.
The prime example of this is in the case of what was once deemed to be the biggest show on the planet, Game of Thrones. Before the show launched, there were a few cracks at adapting the novel series by George R. R Martin, but with the success of the HBO show came waves of games across all platforms. On PC, the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3, Game of Thrones was the first game to draw from the show, which was followed by the mobile and Facebook strategy title Game of Thrones Ascent.
The Telltales Games Series adaptation proved to be very popular, as was the mobile and Nintendo Switch title of Reigns: Game of Thrones. Still, the most endearing of them all has proven to be the official Game of Thrones mobile slot game, from Microgaming, which has remained one of the most popular online games since its launch over five years ago. Even more GoT games are on the way, too, with the browser-based Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms having been in development since 2012.
Having premiered in 1997, South Park has been on televisions across several generations of gaming, and it, too, has experienced both the dark days and the modern age of adaptation games. Pre-millennium releases are best forgotten when it comes to South Park games, with a couple of Xbox Live Arcade games in 2009 and 2012 giving the creators hope that the property could fare well in modern gaming.
In 2014, South Park: The Stick of Truth offered the complete South Park experience in video game form. From the storylines, humor, combat, and even the side-scrolling perspective, the long-running cartoon finally had a place in gaming. The Stick of Truth was followed by The Fractured But Whole in 2017, also on consoles, with a very well-received and content-filled mobile title, South Park: Phone Destroyer, arriving in 2017 as well.
These three goliaths of television have all found that the modern gaming space is perfect for their properties.
So what are your opinions about the popular TV series’ becoming mobile games? Do let us know in the comments below.
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