Video games are finally getting their due in the world of live action adaptations — but for some reason, the adaptation just isn’t done properly. People are really, really mad at the Halo show for the changes and choices they’ve made that differ from established lore. Even when the showrunners explain what they’re doing and why, fans are still angry.

And Halo isn’t alone. We had our first trailers last week for the upcoming Resident Evil adaptation on Netflix — which won’t have much to do with the pre-existing stories from the games. There will be some classic Resident Evil elements, like the zombies and Umbrella, but there will be all new characters, locations and storylines. So that got me thinking…what other video games could work for live action adaptations that don’t actually use the source material stories? What other live action game adaptations could veer wildly away from what fans actually want?

Join me after the jump for some franchises that would make for some pretty great live action adaptations, especially if the show doesn’t actually adapt the existing game story.

6. Street Fighter

I’m very surprised that we haven’t had any Street Fighter projects in a long time. Remember that Chun-Li movie from ages ago? Of course you don’t. I’m just saying, Street Fighter is ripe for an adaptation. And it’s especially ripe for some showrunners to take the classic characters and change whatever they want to make their own show. Blanka isn’t a green-skinned monster? Sure! Guile doesn’t have that crazy blonde flattop? Absolutely. They don’t even have to use the classic game characters if they don’t want. The recent Mortal Kombat movie created an entirely new dude to be the star, with zero history in the games. Street Fighter could do the same exact thing and there would be nothing we could do to stop them.

5. Assassin’s Creed

There are a dozen different main characters and stories available in the Assassin’s Creed game franchise, but a TV adaptation wouldn’t need to use any of them. That’s what they did with the movie right? I don’t know, I never saw it because apparently it was really bad. But yeah, a fresh adaptation of Assassin’s Creed could do anything they wanted. The concept works so well, as we’ve seen with all the different assassins in all the different time periods. The show could pick somebody new from a new time period and just tell the story, slowly expanding to include more from elsewhere as it went along. The general concept of white-robed assassins throughout history is still cool as all hell. Fans would just have to accept that they’ll never see Ezio.

4. Castlevania

There’s this really awesome Castlevania cartoon adaptation on Netflix that adheres fairly closely to the video game canon. So why not mess it all up with a live action adaptation that doesn’t follow the story or characters much at all? Obviously you use them in name only, then tell whatever generic vampire story you want in live action. That’s exactly how this works, and it would just be so hilarious to have both the cartoon and the live action adaptations on streaming.

3. Metroid

Getting Metroid wrong would probably break the internet. So it’s perfect! Metroid is a very popular Nintendo game with decades worth of fandom. And there has never really been an adaptation, weirdly enough. No cartoons. No movies. No nothing. But it’s still a hot property, and could be very similar to Halo. Just have Samus take off her helmet all the time! It’s not as verboten as in Halo, but it could still be a thing to rile fans. And get Samus’s personality wrong on every level. And then never let her roll up into a ball to traverse narrow terrain. Fans waited a decade for a Halo adaptation, only to be disappointed. They’ve theoretically waited even longer for a Metroid adaptation. Disappointment is Theo only option.

2. Warcraft and/or Starcraft

Say what you will, I really enjoyed the Warcraft movie. And I love the world of Warcraft, all the cool races and heroes and history. Likewise, Starcraft is really cool too. Both are great little worlds, be it fantasy or sci-fi. And while both have a ton of stories one could adapt, a studio could also just come up with some original stories to tell in these worlds. Want a completely different take on Arthas and the Frozen Throne? Or send Thrall on a completely different adventure? Why not? Wanna jump into the future of the Humans and Protoss in a new fight against the Zerg? Totally doable. There is a lot of room to flex those original and creative muscles in both Warcraft and Starcraft — which I’m sure fans would love.

1. Legend of Zelda

This would be the big one, right? The one all the video game fans in the world have been waiting for? A full-on, live action, sword & sorcery adaptation of the adventures of Link and the Legend of Zelda? This is a fandom that extensively catalogues how all the desperate Zelda games are actually linked together on the same/alternating timelines? It’s insane! I’m no real academic on the subject. I’ve only ever played Breath of the Wild. But you just know a Zelda TV show would tell its own story with the characters, and then fans would either be pissed or they’d bend over backwards to try and fit it into the existing timeline.

Or maybe the show would just go ahead and rename Link as “Zelda”.

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