There have been too many dreadful movies based on videos games. From Super Mario Bros. to BloodRayne to the recent Pixels, these films almost always trade on brand recognition alone rather than - you know - being well-made entertainment. They don't ask you to think or feel anything; all you have to do is sit quietly and receive a series of images that sort of remind you of a game you might have played once. They're a $13 dollar lobotomy-via-cinema, complete with a side of popcorn.

Thankfully, they're not all terrible. From AAA blockbusters all the way down to independent ventures, there are some video games movies that show a modicum of respect for their source material. On the Hollywood side, there's Wreck-It Ralph, the first Silent Hill movie, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And on the independant side there's a bevy of fan-made passion projects that really demonstrate the creator's love of the game. Imagine that: art from passion. Here are some of our favorites...

Our Take: This one's worth it for the costume designs alone. Seeing the Zelda cast reimagined as gunfighters from the Old West is a treat, and their outfits - especially Zelda's - are expertly crafted. I mean, come on, Zelda even has Triforce-embroidered gun holsters! The film is shot slowly and deliberty. There are several closeups on eyes and hands slowly reaching for guns - this is a gunfighting movie after all - punctuated by flashbacks that give context to the action while maintaining the tension. It's enough to make you pine for another Red Dead Redemption.

The Premise: After lighting GLaDOS up and escaping from Aperture Science, things still aren't great for Chell as she tries to deal with the traumatizing memories of her time in the facility that keep coming back to haunt her. But in , she does find ways to cope, namely by taking comfort in simple pleasures like, say, baking a cake.

Our Take: Portal has its fair share of fan films given the game's wild popularity, but they rarely capture both its darker aspects and ridiculous sense of humor. Outside Aperture dodges that problem as gracefully as Chell dodges turret death lasers, showing how her experiences have affected her while not taking itself too seriously. You get a real sense of her personality from watching her break a TV with the portal gun and waiting in front of the oven for her cake to bake. It's not all smiles, but it's not drowning in ennui either, which captures the spirit of Portal in a way that feels truly in touch with the source material. I wouldn't be surprised if some fans preferred this version of events over Portal 2.

The Premise: Set before the fall of Rapture and the events of BioShock, follows siblings Charles and Arthur as they explore the possibilities of life in a world without moral boundaries. Gradually, their passion for sculpture and the arts spirals out of control as the underwater paradise of Rapture collapses around them.

Our Take: The Brothers Rapture succeeds at putting a human face on the many faceless Splicers you mow down in BioShock. Even with all the tape recorders and graffiti scattered throughout that game, it's easy to forget these monsters were once people searching for a better life under the sea. Actors Nicolas Taggart and Charles Alexander both give excellent performances as Charles and Arthur, conveying genuine affection amid the growing chaos surrounding them. Supported by some surprisingly top-grade special effects, The Brothers Rapture is one of the best in this lineup.

The Premise: Some fan films may get a nice shout-out from the team behind the source material if they're particularly good, but few are so well-received that they end up getting worked into the original game. That's what happened with , a Team Fortress 2 fan creation that sees the Red team trying to derail a warhead-bearing train before it destroys their compound. The film adheres to the goofy but action-fueled nature of TF2 so well that Valve eventually integrated it into the game's December 2014 update with custom cosmetics and weapons, so now some fans think it's an official video. That's some high praise.

Our Take: You can't swing a dead cat around YouTube without hitting something made in Source Filmmaker - Valve's video capture and editing suite - and it's pretty easy to tell the enthusiast work from Valve's professional releases. But the team behind End of the Line clearly knew what they were doing, building dynamic and detailed action scenes and never once flinching on the quality of the animation. Plus, even without any dialogue the film features some stellar visual humor that's just as impressive as the action. I hope I never laugh that hard at a kitten orphanage again.

The Premise: Street Fighter mainstay Ryu has long struggled with the Satsui no Hadou; basically this universe's version of the Dark Side. But when he hears a demonic voice rumbling in his mind, he realizes a new evil influence has revealed itself: the Devil Gene. Then Tekken's Kazuya Mishima shows up and Ken gets thrown into the mix and everyone is punching everyone and it's glorious.

Our Take: If "glorious" wasn't high enough praise, consider this: how many times have you seen a Street Fighter movie did not fall into this trap. Hadokens, Shoryukens, and even Ken's Shinryuken all make an appearance and look surprisingly not terrible. This high standard carries over to the fight choreography, which is every bit as kinetic and exaggerated as its video game counterpart. And if you like what you see, the same production company has a ton of other nerd-worthy fight videos.

The Premise: Calling a fan film is a bit of an understatement - it's two fan films, a two-season web miniseries, and an upcoming spin-off series all rolled into one. Following a barely competent gang of raiders made up of a former slave, a ghoul, a soda-addicted ex-vault dweller, and a Courier who follows close on their heels, Nuka Break shows just what the life of a Fallout raider is like. It mostly involves getting shot at and drinking irradiated water, but over the series' three-hour run, they get up to other hijinks too.

Our Take: Putting this much effort into a fan creation isn't just admirable - it's damn impressive given the film's production quality. Each part of the series has its upsides. The first film is a rough cut full of on-point humor. The second is incredibly atmospheric (if a bit on the slow side). And the miniseries brings unique character designs and a clever premise together to create an enthralling Fallout experience. The fact that its fan-creators were able to successfully Kickstart a third season (starring the near-silent Courier) isn't surprising, given how great the series is. Plus, you know, it's Fallout.

The Premise: ZombiU (sans U) is can give you a rundown of how things work… in a way. Focusing on an hour in the life of a random survivor while he goes on a perilous quest to scavenge toilet paper from the local corner store, the film calls back to its inspiration by putting the Wii U gamepad and up-front menus into the film itself. It's hard to take a man seriously when he's walking around waving a Nintendo peripheral around, but that might be the point.

Our Take: The Real ZombieU could have easily ended up looking like a generic "[video game X] in real life" video, especially if it was just ten minutes of a guy hiding from zombies. But the fact that the creators skillfully work the gamepad and the game's upfront UI into the film's environment, know where to inject just the right amount of humor, and understand the meaning of quality cinematography, all work to set it apart from the crowd.

Our Take: Mega Man has some major highs and some major lows. It's wonderfully flawed, delightfully campy, and filled with Mega Man love; but often stumbles in the execution of its craft. At its best, Mega Man focuses on character: Rock's desire to find meaning in his existence is set against Roll's carefree attitude; Dr. Wily's jealousy is set against Light's altruism. These are interesting ideological conflicts that we can relate with. At its worst, Mega Man focuses too much on awkward action scenes. This plagues the latter half of the movie as we slog through the robot masters; a problem compounded by some unconvincing VFX. Even so, I'd take a double feature of this and the by the group over Pixels any day.

It's impossible to deny the epic scale of religious histories. That may help to explain why so many video games take such inspiration in their theologies (here's looking at you multiple Jesus-clone messiah protagonists). In essence, they're a ready-made source of rich and detailed adventures with profound resonance, their enduring popularity and name-recognition long-since assured. What publisher wouldn't want that?

Of course, the other side of the equation looks a little less rosy. The odds of offending large swathes of your potential player base only increase when tapping into existing religions, meaning most developers using them play around with their presentation to a greater or lesser degree. The following seven games all opted to take that risk, representing complex belief systems via the interactive medium. Some edged closer to the sacred scripture than others, but all shall be judged of their worthiness. Do any of these games offer a worthwhile introduction to the great gamut of the gods? Let's find out.

Developer Silicon Knights envisaged Too Human as an attempt to rationalise complex Norse theology via futuristic technology. Here the gods of the pantheon are not born, but made, granted their astounding powers through advanced cybernetic augmentation. In place of the nine realms of existence, Too Human supposes a singular planet, broken up into numerous distinct sectors, such as the human city of Midgard. Their implacable opposition - the giant folk of Jötnar, are now sentient machines, while the likes of Beowulf's Grendel and the menacing Dark Elves become simple boss and enemy types.

As for the game's hero, Baldur - god of light, joy, purity and presumably also lollypops - Too Human opts to introduce us to a much gruffer deity. Expanding upon the most famous of all Baldur stories - his untimely death (as orchestrated by the mischievous half-god Loki), Too Human takes both this and other existing legends as the basis for an entirely new saga, one based upon rebirth and ultimately revenge. As an introduction to Norse theology, Too Human represents a strong and surprisingly accurate start, familiarising players with the names, relationships and dwelling places of these Germanic-Scandinavian gods. If you can ignore the sci-fi trimmings, shoddy gameplay and freshly expanded lore, then Too Human is a good a way as any to begin your ongoing course in Norse.

See Also - Age of Mythology, Jotun (2016), Viking: Battle for Asgard

Strange as it may sound, the single most inaccurate element of the entire God of War franchise is the game's ongoing depiction of central character Kratos. Indeed, far from being the frenzied father-stabber that he appears in the games, the theological Kratos is instead counted among the most zealously loyal of Zeus' retinue. He's also considered the God of Strength, as opposed to the demi-god and later God of War he's portrayed as in the games. That being the case, it seems highly likely that Sony Santa Monica chose the name Kratos as an ironic nod to the original character, inverting not only his loyalties but also on occasion his actions. Case in point, the scene in which a virtual Kratos frees the heroic titan Prometheus, having done just the opposite according to the original Greek narrative.

Like many of the games on this list, the God of War franchise positively excels in taking existing theological legends and using them to create new and exciting adventures. One such example is the renewed Titan vs. God war, the big round two of an event that dominates much of the ancient theology. While Kratos' actions may not bear much relation to the stories upon which his world is based, God of War remains a fine foreword to the rest of ancient Greek mythology. After all, what better way to become accustomed to the characters, places and epic tales than by cutting a bloody swathe right through them?

See Also - Age of Mythology, Disney's Hercules, NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, Spartan: Total Warrior, Titan Quest

Despite some rather obvious parallels Okami's exact relationship to the Shinto theology remains somewhat difficult to define. That's because the team at Clover Studios has always tended towards a vague and imprecise language when discussing that facet of the project. Game director Hideki Kamiya argues that Okami's characters, in particular Amaterasu, are not necessarily the same as those found in the Shinto faith, though they do share a great deal in common. It's possible that this tack was taken simply to avoid offending believers, though it could also indicate an intentional level of ambiguity.

Familiarities (and differences) include the aforementioned Amaterasu, goddess of the sun in both Shinto tradition and in Okami. Interestingly however, no mention of wolves or wolf-form is ever made in reference to the Shinto deity, while the virtual version is neither strictly male nor female, at least not in the Japanese version of the game (translation difficulties forced the team to pick an English pronoun i.e. he or she, thereby confusing the issue). As for the game's celestial brush gods, none appear to correspond directly with Shinto deities, but are instead based upon the Far Eastern Zodiac signs. Susano meanwhile appears somewhat similar to the Shinto hero Susano-o - both of whom are famous for slaying (or helping to slay) an 8-headed serpent named Orochi. As a guide to Shinto deities, Okami is hardly authoritative, not would the game's designers have you believe that it is. All told, those wishing to learn more about Shinto via the game should probably support their playthrough with the odd spot of research.

See Also - Okamiden

Basing a game on the tenets of an active religion is always going to prove tricky. Basing a game on two even more so. Asura's Wrath manages to monkey around with details of both the Hindu and Buddhist faiths (the two groups share a number of common legends, including those drawn from the Indian epic The Rigveda). That's not to say that either side became too irate about it, most just balking at the perceived inaccuracies. So what exactly did the game get right, and more importantly, what did it get wrong? Well for starters, the game - much like Too Human - opts to take the sci-fi reinvention route, trading in powerful demi-gods for massively upgraded cyber soldiers.

Speaking of demi-gods, the term Asura actually applies to all beings of this type, not just to any one individual. The game also leaves out the more benevolent set of deities known as the Devas, although the game's final boss Chakravartin may be considered as such. While religious tradition holds that the two sets of gods waged war upon each other, Asura's Wrath finds these so-called 'Guardian Generals' (i.e. the Asura) battling it out against the Gohma, a race of hideous monsters led by Vlitra, a planet-devouring serpent similar to Vritra, an evil demigod from Hindu Vedic tradition. The Gohma, meanwhile, appear to have little to no basis in religious texts. All things considered the game does present a solid introduction to the Asura deities, not individually perhaps but rather as a group, nailing their look, temperament and abilities as recounted in various religious texts. The rest, however remains somewhat less authentic.

You might expect that there'd be a litany of titles covering the ancient Egyptian pantheon, and you'd be right, though precious few of those exist outside of the god game and RTS genres. Consider Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy a rare exception to that rule, dealing as it does with the likes of Ra, Set, Osiris and co. through the format of an action-platformer. The game stars Sphinx, an upright, decidedly more human take on the beastly man-lion hybrids that guard many an Egyptian temple. Truth be told, this incarnation is little more than a teenager with a tail, though other ancient icons ring truer. Horus has his falcon head, Anubis is a jackal and Tutankhamen is covered from head to tow in bandages. Likewise, King Tut's mummification also results in the storage of four sacred organs, just as it would have in ancient days.

Interestingly however, the game also chooses to shift around several well-established relationships. Tutankhamen's mother and father become his lover and brother, respectively, head honcho Ra is created via the union of Osiris and Set - as opposed to being his own independent deity - and Osiris' son Horus is now working for Set, instead of actively trying to murder him. These elements aside, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy does an entertaining job of familiarising fans with the unique iconography - think ankhs, amulets and sarcophagi - as well as many of the major players of the ancient Egyptian tradition.

See Also - Age of Mythology, Pharaoh, Ankh: Battle of the Gods

Alright, first things first - Dante Alighieri's Inferno isn't exactly considered canon by the Christian church. However the epic poem does make use of, and even helped to inform, certain elements of popular Christian theology. Suffice to say, this blood and guts actioner shouldn't be taken as a literal guide to Christian tradition, but rather as the retelling of an influential Christian myth. So, how does it fare? Well, much like the gameplay itself, largely hit and miss. Alighieri's epic poem stars none other than the author himself, indulging in a brisk walking tour of the nine levels of Hell. Digital Dante, meanwhile finds himself recast as a fighting knight of the third Crusade, wading through the underworld so as to free his beleaguered lover from Satan's icy grip.

The game does get a lot right, including the presence of Roman poet Virgil, who acts as guide to both iterations of Dante. Likewise, many of the levels of Hell, and the punishments performed therein, reflect those originally envisaged by the writer. Other translations prove less authentic, with the knife-wielding babies of the purgatory level proving particularly false. So too the use of Cleopatra as a willing servant of Satan, as opposed to the simple prisoner she appears in the poem. Strangest of all however, is the inclusion of an absolve/punish mechanic for beaten enemies. Somehow it seems difficult to believe that the Church would sign off on an admitted sinner forgiving other offenders their sins. All in all then, a decent visual trip through quasi-Christian tradition, chock full of crosses, demons and holy iconography. Just take it with a massive pinch of salt.

See Also - Super Noah's Ark 3D?

A surprisingly popular tradition, at least where video game settings are concerned, the world of Celtic theology entirely informs the 2007 RPG Folklore. The title takes place in a small country village that just so happens to act as a functioning gateway to a bizarre realm of the dead. In keeping with Celtic tradition, this fissure only appears once every year - on the night of Samhain, to be precise, a major inspiration for modern Hallowe'en - leading the spirits of the dead to revisit our world, as adventurous peoples head off in the other direction. Folklore's depiction of this netherworld is largely in keeping with that of the ancient Celts, drawn an underground paradise - known alternatively as Mag Mell or Tír na nÓg - made up of strange and fantastical creatures.

These inhabitants, or 'folk' will occasionally attempt to kill the player (somewhat less authentic, though as the game explains, other adventurers have previously 'broken' the paradise) and are largely modelled after fabled Celtic creatures. Taken as a whole, the game provides a strong overview of ancient Celtic theology, though crucially it does gloss over the role of the actual gods, including Balor, Crom and Morrigan. As such, it might better be described as a game of mythology, or as the title itself states, folklore.

See Also - Bloodforge (much greater focus on the Gods - terrible, terrible game), Hellblade (2016), Sorcery