Summary
Over a decade since the airing of the originalBreaking Badseries finale, characters from the show may be making an appearance in one of the biggest video games on the market - which may turn out to be a poor fit. Despite being one of the most highly regarded TV series to have ever aired, there haven’t been any attempts at adaptingBreaking Badinto a video game, not counting abizarre mobile game adaptationin 2019. And while an idea like that could have potential, it would also come with a number of difficult factors to consider.
Adapting franchises across mediums has given, historically speaking, mixed results at best. Attempts to adapt video games into movies have turned out so poorly, so often, that until recent series likeFallout,Castlevania,Arcane, andThe Last of Us, movie or TV adaptations of video games were thought of as “cursed.” In the other direction, video games based off of TV or movie properties have fared better, generally speaking, but are still a mixed bag - for every well-receivedStar Warsgame, there’s another half-baked movie tie-in game that poorly re-tells the original material’s story, and is quickly forgotten as shovelware.
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That could be why, as indicated in a leaked player survey fromHYPEXon X (formerly Twitter, viaComicBook),characters fromBreaking Badmight be appearing inFortniteas skins.Fortniteis, of course, no stranger to crossover skins, being the only game where Spider-Man can fire a shotgun at John Cena,but, while the survey also includes franchises likeGame of ThronesandDoctor Who, the game does seem like an odd choice forBreaking Bad’s first “adaptation” to the medium of video games.
As entertaining as it might be to see Walter White get into afirefight with Goku, or Gus Fring do the Electric Shuffle, it seems like a wasted opportunity forBreaking Bad’s first foray into video games to be a cameo in a game with a wildly different tone and audience from the show. For what is one of the best (and arguablythebest) shows to come out of the 2000s, with a legendary reputation and enduring legacy, it could be argued thatBreaking Baddeserves a full video game of its own - but that idea raises other questions.
While it’s easy to say thatBreaking Baddeserves a full video game adaptation, there would, realistically, be plenty of obstacles in the way of getting one. ABreaking Badgame could take any number of forms - for trying to match the storytelling style of the show and match its tone,something like the choice-based games from Telltale Studios might be the best fit. Telltale’sThe Walking Dead, of course, was highly successful, and in combination with the studio’s later work onGame of Thrones, proves that adaptation to that style of game could work well.
The Telltale Games that madeThe Walking DeadandGame of Throneshas since shut down. While Telltale has since been “revived,” with LCG Entertainment doing business as Telltale Games, the new Telltale is, as yet, unproven as a developer, with its first new game,The Wolf Among Us 2, now slated for an undefined 2024 release date after a delay.
A good adaptation ofBreaking Bad, or, more likely, a game taking place within the same world as it, would also need to match the show’s caliber of writing.BothBreaking Badand its later spin-off,Better Call Saul, owe much of their quality to specific figures who worked on them, most notably the series' original creator, Vince Gilligan. And while Gilligan is a prolific writer, producer, and director in television, there’s no guarantee that he would involve himself heavily in the development of agame, or that he would find the same success in a different medium.
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While a leakedFortnitesurvey doesn’t definitively confirm that characters fromBreaking Bador any of the other media franchises mentioned in it will actually appear in the game, it’s at least a nod towards that possibility. And, whileBreaking Badis arguably better left alone after the definitive closure of the original series, the spin-off series, and the movieEl Camino, it does feel like somewhat of a waste for the franchise’s first foray into video games to be aFortniteskin, although seeingBreaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman face off against Darth Vader would, at least, be funny.
Breaking Bad
Cast
Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, follows a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin named Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as he attempts to provide for his family following a fatal diagnosis. With nothing left to fear, White ascends to power in the world of drugs and crime, transforming the simple family man into someone known only as Heisenberg.
