Adult Swim is a juggernaut of alternative entertainment. If it’s weird or controversial and on television, you’ll usually find it there. I’m a fan of a lot of shows that have come out on Adult Swim and I think some of them could see serious success as a video game.
So, here’s 5 of my favorite shows on Adult Swim and what I would like to see them accomplish in game form.
The Venture Brothers
This show is a massive parody of Jonny Quest. It centers around Venture Industries — a massive, multi-faceted corporation created by the late Dr. Jonas Venture Sr., who had a lust for adventure. He took his son, Rusty, on these adventures and traumatized him to such an extreme degree that he now lives in his father’s shadow. Being the inheritance’s of Venture Industries brings with it no end of villains wanting a piece of it — which means endless trouble for Rusty, his sons Hank & Dean, and the bodyguards that try to keep them safe.
This series would probably do best as an action platformer — something along the lines of Donkey Kong Country. You could play as Hank and Dean, running and jumping through locations featured in the show. The brothers aren’t exactly the most capable fighters, so combat without items or power-ups would be nonexistent. You could even make it a total rip-off and have Brock appear as a vehicle like the Rhino, and give you bonuses for collecting all the letters to “Venture.”
Squidbillies
Squidbillies is a show about hillbilly squids. That’s really all that needs to be said about it. Take any stereotypical hillbilly or redneck thing you can think of, and this show cranks it up to ten. That could really work in its favor as a game.
This in-your-face comedy would do really well as an arcade style beat-’em-up. Your four playable characters would be Early, Rusty, Granny and Lil. Early would be a longer ranged character, using his signature sawed-off shotgun. Rusty could be more of a quick brawler, using his adolescent agility and practice dodging Rusty’s abuse to his advantage. Granny might be a slow, but heavy hitter — inflicting massive damage with her walker. Lil could be a mid ranged control character, scratching enemies from afar with her nails and stunning them with a heave of her breasts.
Other characters would show up as bosses. Starting with Krystal, Early’s one-time fling and Rusty’s mother. Then maybe you could make your way through others such as The Sheriff, Deputy Denny, The Reverend, etc.
Superjail
This is an easy one. Superjail is an over-the-top, gory comedy that takes place in a jail. Not just any jail though — this one is Super, but not for any good reasons. It’s super ridiculous, super out of this world, and super unpleasant for anyone who’s done enough wrong to warrant being taken there.
I’d love to see this as a city building mobile game. Managing the chaotic jail and its deplorable inmates would be really fun — like a much more entertaining version of Prison Architect. Keeping the inmates in line would provide a larger budget to improve the jail. Add some incentive to kill, maim or otherwise make the inmates’ lives extravagantly awful…and I think you’ve got a game that’s true to the show.
Moral Orel
Moral Orel is show about a child named Moral who does everything he can to do right by God. The only problem is, God’s word can be skewed in the eyes of an adolescent. Despite his good intentions, Moral usually ends up doing something wrong and being punished by his father. This is a tough one, but it’s too good not to include on this list.
Since it’s by far one of my favorite series Adult Swim has given us, I’d love to see this show reimagined as a game like Lisa. Take out any combat and make it a story-driven side scroller. Add the dark humor from the show with some player choices to determine the direction the game takes, and you’ve got something that could be pretty great.
Metalocalypse
Perhaps one of the most popular Adult Swim shows, Metalocalypse is the brutal as hell story of 5 larger than life musicians. Imagine if the iconic status of figures like The Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and anyone else you can think of were all concentrated in one band. That’s how popular the show’s band Dethklok is. They’re so well-known that an Illuminati type organization has to constantly stop them from changing the course of human history. Let that one sink in.
This one is also a bit simple. We already have a game that tried this called Brütal Legend. Take everything that game has going for it and simply insert the characters from Metalocalypse in to it. Boom — you have an awesome game.
What other Adult Swim shows do you think would make awesome (and hilarious) video games? Let me know down in the comments!
