Nothing is more exciting to a gamer than when their favorite video game becomes a movie. Throughout the years, several production companies have taken on the task of making a video game one step closer to reality by putting it on film. Let’s take a look back at some of the most memorable movies based on video games.

Super Mario Bros.

Ah, yes, the classic. In 1993, directors Rocky Morton and Annable Jankel, took on the incredible task of taking America’s well loved Mario and Luigi and turning them into movie stars. However, as you may recall, it wasn’t wildly successful. The movie tanked, hardcore, at the box office. It recouped only half of it’s $48 million dollar budget. Unfortunately, there was just nothing “super” about this Mario Bros. movie.

Mortal Kombat

Eventually made into a mildly successful series, Mortal Kombat the Movie, was directed by Paul Anderson and released in 1995. Despite receiving heavy nay-saying from critics, the movie did well amongst fans of the popular video game. It was actually eventually made into a television series in 1998.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

This one was for the ladies! The film, directed by Simon West, and starring a beautiful Angelina Jolie, was released in the US in 2001. Commerically a success, Tomb Raider grossed $335 million dollars and eventually lead to a sequel. It takes our cake as being the highest grossing video game to film adaptation worldwide. It couldn’t have anything to do with it’s saucy leading lady, could it?

These films, whether successful box office hits or not, are definitely responsible for the evolution of video games. They helped turn our video games from levels to life-like, and created characters we could relate to. The movies are well love by fans and can be found syndicated on popular channels and dish network channels on the weekends. Of course, these are only 3, but there are several more video game to film adaptions to be appreciated. No doubt, we will continue to see high dollar productions of our video games in the future. I’m ready. Are you?