What does The Walking Dead, Back to the Future and Minecraft have in common? If you were to say, they are all awesome – well you would be right. But the answer I’m looking for is that they have all been given the Telltale Games Treatment, along with Borderlands, Game of Thrones and soon also Batman these are all existing entertainment products that have been re-imagined as point-and-click adventure games not unlike the Monkey Islands and Grim Fandango’s of yesteryear.
What is interesting however is that you have re-imaginings of graphic novels/comics (The Walking Dead, Batman), movies (Back to the Future), TV Shows (Game of Thrones) and other games (Borderlands and Minecraft). So there is a broad spectrum of material out there for them to potentially delve into. But the question I’ve put the the oh-so gorgeous members of the RGM Team is this – what would you want to see given the Telltale Games Treatment? I’ll start off with myself, since it was my question…
Richard Talbot-Ashby, Assistant Editor in Chief – Personally, I can think of 3 titles that I would absolutely love to see Telltale Games get their teeth into, and in no particular order: Once Upon a Time – my wife actually got me into this, and it’s fantastic! ABC’s own re-imagining of the world of fairy tales and other pieces of lore, from the Machiavellian Rumpelstiltskin (played by the amazing Robert Carlyle) to twists on traditional character roles (Captain Hook and Peter Pan for example) and inserting other characters from other pieces of lore including Dr Frankenstein, Elsa and Anna from Frozen, Jekyll and Hyde and Hades and Hercules from Greek Mythology – there certainly wouldn’t be a shortage of possible characters or story arcs.
Secondly I would love to see a Mass Effect inspired game from Telltale Games. Already one of the all time greatest games franchises from a storytelling point of view, Mass Effect’s Reaper War story and incredible emotion and feeling you get for the characters could easily translate into a Telltale Games game. Who wouldn’t want just one more jaunt into the Milky Way? Maybe exploring Garrus’s time between the first and second games? Or Tali’s Pilgrimage before being rescued by Shepard in the first game? Or Jack’s criminal exploits before being sent to Purgatory? Again, there is no shortage of ways they could go with this…
Finally, and one I’ve thought of for a while, it would have to be Archer. Right?? I mean come on it would be….EPIC! Who wouldn’t want to play a game as the world greatest secret agent…come drugs dealer…come private eye? It could be based during the first few seasons where ISIS (not them…) were more prominent, or filling in little gaps here and there when they were trying to sell their ton – literally a ton – of cocaine, or maybe some extra cases as a private eye firm in Los Angeles. Again, the possibilities are huge, and the art style and humour would easily translate in
to a game by Telltale.
Michael Cardwell, Co-Founder, Real Game Media – Really want too see Telltale tackle a New Mass Effect Series or an 80’s style Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series. Mass Effect is rich in lore and it’s world in general that a lot can be done with that. Plus don’t forget there’s books and comics on the material. As for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles well.. It’s freaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which dominated my childhood in the mid to late 80’s and admittedly still does in some ways to this day! The 80’e cartoon was episodic with great humor and action! Telltales Episodic approach would make perfect sense for this franchise!
Patrick Landry, PlayStation Writer – I would love to see Telltale have its chance to build a story-driven game on the Deus Ex franchise. These shooters take place in a world with such a detailed world, where the lore is so vast that it would be easy to find a little piece of this pie and just create a story around genetics, human augmentations and the meaning of life in general. The values already part of the core game would have its place in a Telltale and I would play that in an instant!
Eric Jackson, Senior Writer – I made the joke to someone before E3 2016 that a huge stage announcement will be Telltale Games announcing a line of darker titles starting with HBO’s hit shows OZ and The Wire. This will most likely never happen of course, so in all seriousness I would love to see them tackle Mass Effect. Mass Effects lore and universe are vast and could make for a rich and interesting subject matter and as one of my all time favorite series in gaming I would love to see it come to fruition. If I have a second wish for a series that Telltale Games could tackle I would have to throw The 80’s television show Thundercats into the arena. It’s a series steeped in nostalgia that had a way of handling sci-fi and fantasy tones but also didn’t take itself too seriously.
Tom Romanelli, Staff Writer – My pick for a series that should get the Telltale games treatment is the X-Files. I am a huge fan of the the TV show and was ecstatic when it came back for a 10th season. I think this series would make for a great Telltale game because of the format it follows. There is an overarching plot however, each show in the series (except the mythology episodes) are stand alone, monster of the week stories. This would be an interesting take on the Telltale format. From my experience all the Telltale games have told a single story over a season or multiple seasons of content. An X-Files Telltale series could have an individual story for each episode with some clues that eventually lead to the overarching plot. This could take place between earlier seasons of the show when Mulder and Scully are still young. Scully is still the skeptic and Mulder is still the die hard true believer. The decisions you make in each episode could lead towards true paranormal activity, or skepticism where the player thinks a more straightforward reason is the answer to the situation. Investigation of crime scenes and of course the witty banter between Mulder and Scully would make this a must buy.
Blake Hawthorn, Staff Writer – I would want telltale to make Hitman into a series because there is so much that they could do with that franchise. The Hitman lore is also amazing and interesting and I think they could turn a game like that into a great telltale series. The second franchise I would love to be turned into a telltale game is Gotham from TV that show is just so entertaining to watch and if I could have the chance to choose the direction that the show takes in its own little telltale way I would fall in love.
Well the people have spoken on our Survey for this as well, unfortunately we have not had the 100 responses required to run the Telltale Games Batman Series Competition*, but you guys have voted and the results are:
- Mass Effect – 24.69%
- (Joint Second) – Archer and 80’s TMNT – both 12.35%
- (Joint Third) 80’s Transformers and X-Files – both 11.11%
- Mr Robot – 8.64%
- (Joint Fifth) The Darkness (based on comics) and McGuyver – both 7.41%
- Gotham TV Series – 3.70%
- Falling Skies TV Series – 1.23%
So the runaway winner was Mass Effect! Deserving of the win? Or was there another title that you think would have blown it away better than the Reapers ever could? Some of the comments included in the survey included Assassin’s Creed, Star Trek, Star Wars, Rick and Morty, Stargate SG-1, God of War, Destiny and The Hunger Games some great choices there, wish I’d have thought of some of them myself!
As a future part of “RGMTalks…” we will be including some of what you think in these articles as well, because you, the readers, the forum posters, the commenters are all as much as part of this website as any of the writers, and we thank you all so much for your participation in this website.
As a way of saying “Thank you!” in the future, when we run these types of article again, we will be offering giveaways for your participation, because none of us would be here without you guys! With your thoughts in mind, let us know what you think in the comments below or in the RGM Forums.
*Survey pre-requisite: At least 100 responses to the Telltale Games Survey asking the question “What Franchise should Telltale make into a Game next?” by 10pm GMT / 5pm EST today, Saturday July 16th 2016 were required, otherwise the competition would not run. Amount of responses to Survey was 81 as shown in the screenshot below which also shows the time and date (UK Time). (Some information blocked out for privacy and security)
