Shack Chat: What Netflix property should get the video game treatment?

Over the last few years, Netflix has spent quite a bit of money building up a relatively new Netflix Games division. The division has kicked off its operations with a few mobile games based on some of its original IP, but it looks like Netflix Games is going for something much more ambitious soon. The company teased that it’s working on a AAA game for PC, though there’s been no word on what it would be. With that in mind, the Shack crew opined on what original Netflix content it would like to see gamified. Check it out.

Question: What Netflix property should get the video game treatment?

Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Netflix Watcher

I was too much of a little scaredy kid to watch horror shows like Tales from the Crypt. However, now that I'm a grown, slightly less sheltered adult, I've grown to love more horror movies and TV shows, especially the ones that mess with your mind. I love the imaginative horror of Guillermo Del Toro and him hosting a horror anthology over Halloween week was a blast.

I'd love to imagine what the magicians at Supermassive Games could do with the Cabinet of Curiosities idea. Maybe Netflix Games could hire them to create a more interactive version of one of these GDT-approved horror tales. Give me player choice, character consequence, and the potential for characters dying permanently and influencing the story's outcome. Go for The Quarry on the largest scale possible.

Sweet Tooth - TJ Denzer, Senior Sweet Tooth enjoyer

In a video game world that has already seen The Last of Us and all the success that came with it, Sweet Tooth feels to me like it has the potential to be successful in very similar ways. In a post-apocalyptic world where there are half-human/half-animal people and a virus wiped out much of regular humanity at the time of the hybrids’ first appearance, many reggos have come to fear them. The crux of the show is a gruff protector looking after a child that is also a hybrid.

I imagine that a game would work very well in a sort of Joel and Ellie survival and action scenario. You’d have to wander through the world looking for help, support, and supplies while evading or fighting back against the whims of paranoid and/or deranged humans and maybe even other hybrids. Sweet Tooth was intense it is. Making it into a deeply narrative-driven survival-action game just might be the way to make us feel more for the hybrids, the world they live in, and the tragedy of human paranoia and cruelty than ever before.

Inside Job - Morgan Shaver, Fan of Myc Celium

For some reason the first Netflix property that came to mind is Inside Job. I think in part it’s because it’d be a lot of fun to adapt the show into a management sim type game where you need to work to keep things as on track and stable as possible at Cognito. The show has so many fun, memorable characters each with their own unique responsibilities and talents that it’d be fun to be able to play as all of them in a Stranger Things: The Game sort of way as well.

Different missions might require different characters, and bonus points if the game also makes it so that different approaches lead to different outcomes that impact the rest of the game. That’d add some nice replayability, along with added incentive to play around and experiment to see what might happen. Given what happens in the show, I imagine the game would be packed with nothing short of outright chaos.

Big Mouth - Blake Morse, Going through changes

I’m honestly not into dating sims. I can’t even think of one that I’ve played for more than a minute or so. But with all that said, I think a Big Mouth dating sim would be freaking hilarious on an epic scale. Think about it, so many of the characters have dated each other on the show over the seasons, why not just throw a customized player character into the mix and see where things go. Heck, what if you could romance a hormone monster or any of the other random creatures? Maybe even Coach Steve could find someone with which to make “thick in the warm”. Get the voice cast involved and you’ve got a surefire hit on your hands.

Dark - Sam Chandler, Time travel Connoisseur

Give me a narrative-drive, Disco Elysium-like take on Dark. That’s all I want. Is that too much to ask? With only three seasons and a handful of episodes each, it sticks around for the perfect amount of time. Each episode is packed full of hints and clues, and those keen detectives out there that could piece together answers before the show revealed them were rewarded. Similarly, anyone who played Disco Elysium could use their detective skills to unravel the mystery. It’s a match made in some psychedelic, creepy, time-traveling heaven.

Gunpowder Milkshake - Bill Lavoy, Mayor of Blackrock

I’d love to see IO Interactive take a crack at Gunpowder Milkshake. I know they have their hands full with 007 and Agent 47, but I feel that they could do something really cool with any action star facing off against seemingly insurmountable odds. That movie was just silly fun and I think a game by the right studio could take that to the next level.

The Umbrella Academy - Dennis White Jr., Community Manager

Well, Ozzie took my first choice because I would love Guilermo to be involved in another game besides Death Stranding. But Umbrella Academy is zany enough that I think an interactive Telltale-style narrative game could be a lot of fun. There’s enough interesting characters and a doomsday-level world ending event every season that adds some stakes. I would hope to see some creative usage of each character’s abilities but also having the alt universe team makes the gameplay and narrative choices even more dynamic. With the final season coming next year most likely, this could be a good way to keep that world alive even longer.

Stranger Things - Donovan Erskine, Hawkins’ finest

Yes, Stranger Things has technically already gotten the video game treatment with a mobile title and a VR game on the way. However, with the news of Netflix developing a AAA game for PC, this is a golden opportunity to give the company’s most valuable IP a truly impressive adaptation.

I imagine a big-budget Stranger Things game to be a narrative-heavy experience with action-adventure elements throughout. The characters from the Netflix series are already iconic, so it would be cool to see a story set several years either before or after the days of Eleven, Will, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin. It’d also be dope to get the Duffer Brothers to at least come up with the story concept. Let’s get some ex-Naughty Dog devs on this and make it happen!

Bojack Horseman - Steve Tyminski, Horsin' Around

What Netflix property should get the video game treatment? If I had to go with one, I’m going with one of my favorites, Bojack Horseman. You could take this in a couple directions. My favorite has to be a Bojack kart racer. There are so many characters in the series that the possibilities are endless. If Garfield can have a kart racer, why not Bojack Horseman? You could have it be like a bartender sim where you interact with Bojack and advise him why his actions have consequences. I’m going with Bojack kart racer as my choice here, it’s too stupid not to work!

There you have it, readers. Those are our picks, but what Netflix series would you like to see turned into AAA games? Let us know in the Chatty section below!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.