Gaming

The best TV-show based video games for dads

TV shows
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Written by Tim Barnes-Clay

We look at three of the best video games based on TV shows around for all you gamer dads out there.

Watching TV and playing video games are both hugely popular hobbies for dads. So it’s no surprise to see that games based on TV shows are growing increasingly popular with men who want to make the most of their precious leisure time.

But which are the best types of games like this around just now? The good news is that there are some very good options to choose from no matter what you prefer to watch on the small screen. The following are some of the best titles to look out for right now.

Game of Thrones

16 million people across the US watched the premiere of the seventh series of Game of Thrones, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The incredible success of this series has spawned a series of games, as well as a range of other types of merchandise.

While there are a few games to try, Telltale Game’s graphic adventure, simply called Game of Thrones, is widely rated as the best. While we never saw the second instalment of this series due to Telltale falling on hard times, the first game is still very much worth a look.

Other games to come out of this franchise include 2011’s A Game of Thrones: Genesis, which is a strategy game from Focus Home Interactive, and 2013’s Game of Thrones Ascent, which is a strategy game published by Disruptor Beam.

Vikings

Another big success on the small screen lately came from the historical drama Vikings, released on the History Channel. The fourth series of the show averaged 7.8 million viewers in each episode across all platforms, as reported by Variety.

This level of popularity and the exciting Norse theme meant that it was a certainty to be turned into a video game. Hugo Games announced in mid-2017 that they were working with MGM to release a title based on this series, although at the time of writing it has yet to be been released.

Quicker off the mark were NetEnt. This Swedish developer has already released a slots game based on Vikings. It can be found at the Winningroom casino, alongside another TV spin-off slot based on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire quiz show.

Star Trek

Given the long-running success of Star Trek, it is no surprise to see that there have been a number of games based on the TV series, as well as on the different movies that have been made featuring the occupants of the USS Enterprise and USS Voyager.

Perhaps the best game of this type is Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. This is a first-person arcade game based on the fourth season of Star Trek Voyager. As you would expect, it includes some of the show’s best characters and settings.

Some other video games based on Star Trek are 2006’s real-time tactics-based Star Trek: Legacy from Bethesda Softworks and 2018’s Star Trek Adversaries, which was published by Puppet Master Games.

Choosing a game based on your favourite TV show is an easy way to get something that is instantly familiar. While not every franchise leads to great games, there are plenty of worthwhile titles to choose from.

Image source: “Man in headset playing computer video game” (CC BY 2.0) by nodstrum