The cinema quickly took over video games as a source of inspiration, from the 1993 Super Mario Bros to Super Mario Galaxy, which is set to storm the box office. Direct adaptations of video game licenses like Street Fighter, Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Silent Hill emerged, as well as broader inspirations like Pixels (2015) by Chris Columbus and the famous scene in Old Boy (Park Chan Wook, 2004). Comics also made their mark, turning Dragon Quest into a manga in 1989, while Street Fighter had regular comic releases and Injustice became a major series at DC.
The contemporary art scene understood the symbolic power of the medium early on, with artists like Invader creating pixelated creatures inspired by the iconic Taito game. Translations to TV series like The Last of Us, The Witcher, Fallout, and soon Tomb Raider, or literature adaptations like Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, 2011) and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin, 2023) also highlighted the growing influence of video games in various creative fields.
Despite the long-standing relationship between pop music and video games, recent months have seen a surge in video game-inspired music becoming a significant part of pop culture. Artists like Nicki Minaj and Sabrina Carpenter referenced video games in their lyrics, while songs like Space Invaders by Digitalism and Jon Batiste’s Song of Storms from The Legend of Zelda gained popularity. Mainstream musicians are now embracing video games as a source of inspiration, blurring the lines between popular music and gaming culture.
Overall, the cultural footprint of video games continues to expand, with museums dedicating entire exhibitions to the medium, universities offering courses on gaming, and popular musicians incorporating video game themes into their music. The intersection of video games and mainstream culture is evolving rapidly, and it remains to be seen how this trend will shape future creative expressions.
