Adaptation Decay

Duckfeed.tv

Are video game movies always bad? Is there nothing to love about old Nintendo cartoons? Are any video game comics worth reading? In this monthly premium show, Gary Butterfield and Kaye Ross look at all kinds of media derived from video games and take it apart, answering whether it's a good adaptation, and whether it's a good piece of art.

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92 episodes
Updated January 14
Explicit

Episodes92

Newest first

Nov 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 32: Tron
Tron is a groundbreaking and important movie that turns the concepts of old arcade games into gladiatorial combat... at least briefly. Even when it goes off the rails, it still gives us cyberpunk concepts that would inspire games for decades to come.
Oct 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 31: House of the Dead
It's as bad as you've heard. We wanted to cover something good after taking a dive on The Wizard last month, but a tragic miscommunication led to us covering Uwe Boll's House of the Dead instead. We're always shocked when terrible things live up to their terrible reputations, but believe us when we say this movie is preternaturally awful. It deserves all of the scorn it's gotten, and no claim of "it's all a joke!" will save it.
Sep 17, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 30: The Wizard
It's so bad. A long time ago, it was very novel to see video games in other media. This was the appeal of Nick Arcade, another topic we covered on this show. But not even that novelty can save a bad script, and boy howdy, have we got a doozy. Corey breaks his little brother Jimmy out of an institution in order to drag him across the country and play video games for money. They meet another unsupervised pre-teen who drags them into a life of crime, as Bad Dad, the adult son, and the Kidhunter follow their tracks.
Aug 18, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 29: Detective Pikachu
Detective Pikachu made a big splash before its release by audaciously featuring realistically-rendered Pokémon in a live action setting. While those 'mons are absolutely the high point of this adaptation, the film itself is a perfectly serviceable kids' flick with lots of good moments.
Jul 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 28: Warcraft
A monument to man's folly. In what stands as a monument to human folly, this extreme waste of money adapts the Warcraft brand into a thoroughly mediocre movie that could easily be read as a parody of fantasy tropes. Made for China and released elsewhere only incidentally, this bland light show will make you angrier than any Uwe Boll movie except Postal, probably.
Jun 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 27: Dishonored: The Wyrmwood Deceit
Gary and Kole chat about the surprisingly decent Dishonored comic that no one else has ever talked to you about.
May 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 26: Hitman
Kill ingeniously. Timothy Olyphant cannot save this one... at least that's what one of us thinks, because this is a classic Duckfeed Showdown! Agent 47 is wrapped up in a plot hatched by Russian hardliners, and only jurisdiction can save him.
Apr 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 25: Nick Arcade
Everyone sing along to the theme song, and remember to make up your own words. It's about as nostalgic as Carmen Sandiego, but leagues less educational. Regardless, Nick Arcade was one of the only places a little kid in the early 90s could see video games on television. So listen to us talk about the technical hurdles they had to overcome, and the very strange show that became the result.
Mar 15, 2019 · 1 hr 30 min
Adaptation Decay 24: Carmen Sandiego Grabbag
Double Trouble has stolen another fuckin' quarry. In this episode, we look at the very good game show and the very bland cartoon based on the hottie amazon known as Carmen Sandiego.
Feb 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 23: Resident Evil: Degeneration
We've got Resident Evil on the brain after playing the magnificent remake of Resident Evil 2. So we decided to turn our attention toward a different kind of adaptation... Capcom's first attempt to expand the RE continuity into CGI film. Resident Evil: Degeneration takes place shortly after RE4, and it has Leon and Claire teaming up to clean up another T-virus mess. Also a mess: this movie. It's confusing and boring, and we ended up wishing it was just a game instead.
Jan 15, 2019 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 22: Bloodborne: Death of Sleep
We're as surprised as you are that a Bloodborne comic turned out pretty good! Titan Comics doesn't have a great track record with Soulsborne properties. Their Dark Souls comics are bad and weird, as we discussed in a long-ago episode of Bonfireside Chat. So we're pleasantly surprised to say that their take on Bloodborne actually works! A few hiccups aside, it's a good supplement to the story and world of Bloodborne, with an attractive art style and fantastic last issue. So, listen in to learn the particulars.
Dec 17, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 21: Max Payne
A side effect of Valkyr is sucking all of the fun out of a movie. The problem with adapting something that is such a pastiche is that you risk just making another version of whatever inspired the pastiche. When Hollywood set out to adapt Max Payne, which itself is an homage to crime and noir films, they avoided that. Instead, they made a really mediocre mid-2000s action movie and profoundly miscast it.
Nov 16, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 20: Pixels
Pixels just sucks. It suuuuucks. It sucks. Are you ready for some garbage!? Holy moly, this Adam Sandler movie about invading alien video game characters is just straight up gutter-leavin's. Its humor is outdated, the deliveries are halfhearted, and the visual effects are ugly and confusing. Thankfully, Peter Dinklage is in about 1/4 of the movie to brighten things up. Otherwise, this nostalgia bomb is a complete dud.
Sep 20, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 19: Mortal Kombat: The Album
Johnny Cage is not afraid to die, but we weren't prepared for this album. We aim for variety on this show. We don't want to fall into a rut of just covering bad video game movies. Sometimes we want to cover bad video game music, too. Mortal Kombat mania produced a lot of cultural output, but nothing matches the sheer idiocy of Mortal Kombat: The Album, by The Immortals, a side project of Lords of Acid. You need to experience it for yourself to understand just how execrable a novelty techno dance album can be. I don't think we've dunked on anything harder in the whole run of our shows.
Aug 15, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 18: Dungeons & Dragons (Film)
Not even Jeremy Irons can save this catastrophe. It's hard to believe it, but the Dungeons and Dragons movie came out in the year 2000. It looks and feels much older than that, hearkening back to a shoddier time in filmmaking. Not even the fully-committed hammery of Jeremy Irons can save this misguided and ramshackle disaster.
Jun 15, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 17: Zelda Nintendo Power Comic
It was a fixture for kids 1992. Every issue of Nintendo Power didn't just bring far-too-optimistic coverage of the games available on Ninten It was a fixture for kids 1992. Every issue of Nintendo Power didn't just bring far-too-optimistic coverage of the games available on Nintendo's hardware, but it also brought another installment of Link's adventures through Hyrule. Nintendo Power worked with Shotaro Ishinomori to bring the events of A Link to the Past to life... but the problem is, he didn't do a very good job. Attractive character design and coloring is cold comfort compared with the dorky script and bad pacing. Link is sleepy, and so are we!
May 15, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 16: Super Mario Super Show
Swing your arms from side to side, but make sure not to drop your phone while you listen to this Adaptation Decay about 1989's bizarre hybrid live-action/animation Mario show. For this episode, we talk about "The Bird! The Bird!" and "Butch Mario and the Luigi Kid", and all of their celebrity guest absurdities.
Mar 15, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 15: Mortal Kombat (1995)
This episode takes us back to the Paul W.S. Anderson well for a movie that's much more fun than Resident Evil. The fate of our world hangs in the balance as extradimensional beings battle it out in the tournament of Mortal Kombat. This movie is cheesy, goofy, brainless, and not high art. But man, is it fun to talk about.
Feb 15, 2018 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 14: Clue
We're playing fast and loose with the mission of the show in order to talk about the most unlikely thing: a board game adaptation that is also a very good movie. Tim Curry headlines an ensemble cast that tries to solve murder after murder in a nonstop horny farce. This movie should be remembered for a lot more than its "multiple endings" gimmick.
Dec 15, 2017 · 5 min
[PREVIEW] Adaptation Decay 13: Mega Man
The year was 1994, and cartoons could still be sexist. Of course we'd lead with that, because we're us, but it's remarkable how quickly this cartoon goes from 0 to "whoa" in that regard. Beyond that, the Mega Man cartoon is a very pretty commercial for some very good toys that espouses some very muddled and retrograde values. Tune in to hear us talk about the first three episodes!