The 1990s were a strange, magical era for video game movies. Hollywood was still trying to figure out how to take pixels and turn them into popcorn, and the attempts wildly oscillated between cult classics and sheer disasters. Certain films became sleepover legends; others had you faking that you’d never actually owned the game to begin with. So grab your controller for comfort—we’re running through the decade’s best and worst gaming movies, starting with the trainwrecks (because, honestly, the flops are half the fun).
10. Double Dragon (Worst)
Take one beloved beat-’em-up, toss it into a cheesy, neon-soaked future, and sprinkle in a magical amulet, and you’ve got Double Dragon. The action is clunky, the story nonsensical, and the costumes… well, let’s just say they scream thrift-store cosplay. Robert Patrick (yes, the T-1000 himself) chews scenery as the villain, but even he can’t save this misfire. Surviving it deserves an achievement badge.
9. Wing Commander (Worst)
With a big-name cast (Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard) and a $30 million budget, Wing Commander should’ve soared. Instead, it crashed-landed. The visual effects were bargain-bin bad, and the rich lore of the games was stripped away for a bland love story and cookie-cutter space battles. It felt less like a blockbuster and more like something you’d stumble across on late-night cable.
8. Street Fighter (Worst)
Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile! Raul Julia as M. Bison! On paper, this should have been epic. In life, it was a lunatic mess that couldn’t make up its mind whether it was parody or action. Julia’s extravagantly hammy performance is the sole saving grace—his immortal “Tuesday” line will forever be etched in our brains—but the rest is just button-mashing drivel.
7. Super Mario Bros. (Worst)
The granddaddy of terrible video game movies. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo did their best, but the grimy, dystopian “Mushroom Kingdom” was confusing. Dennis Hopper as Koopa? Half delightful, half terrifying. The storyline was a mess, the tone inconsistent, and yet… it turned cult because it was that bizarre.
6. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (Worst)
And if the original Mortal Kombat was cheesy fun, the sequel was a bad fever dream. Too many characters, a terrible joke of a storyline, and final battles that resembled rejected PlayStation cutscenes. It’s commonly regarded as the worst of the worst—and honestly, that is well-deserved.
5. Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (Best)
Before Sonic zipped into modern CGI glory, there was the 1996 anime OVA. Featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik, it felt like the games came to life. The animation style was unfamiliar to Western audiences back then, but fans who gave it a shot got a fun, faithful adventure that captured Sonic’s spirit.
4. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (Best)
While the live-action disaster failed, the cartoon version aced it. The movie presented us with a clear narrative—Guile vs. Bison, Ryu on the run, Chun-Li as a spy—coupled with crisp animation and fight scenes that finally met the game’s hype. It wasn’t revolutionary, but set against its live-action brother, it felt like a masterpiece.
3. Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (Best)
The second Pokémon movie went out bigger with Lugia and the legendary bird trio. It had an actual villain catching legendary Pokémon (something new to the franchise) and even allowed Team Rocket to be reluctant heroes. The plot may have been somewhat confusing for the non-fan, but the fans were captivated. For children in the late ’90s, this was an event.
2. Pokémon: The First Movie (Best)
Few cultural experiences land as hard as Pokémon: The First Movie. When Pokémania was in full swing, children waited around the block for the opportunity to watch Mewtwo and Mew fight on the big screen. It combined action with unexpectedly dark themes regarding life and identity, providing viewers with a narrative that lingered long after the credits rolled. Unadulterated nostalgia fuel.
1. Mortal Kombat (Best)
The quintessential ’90s video game film. Mortal Kombat put together thumping techno rhythms, epic martial arts battles, international exotic locations, and a roster of irrepressible characters. Christopher Lambert’s Raiden and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s Bison were campy gold. Was it a great film? Not on your life. Was it over-the-top fun? No question. This is the film that demonstrated game adaptations could succeed—even if only by embracing the camp.
Game Over—or Just the Beginning?
The ’90s provided us with the entire range of video game movies: from facepalm-inducing flops to cult classics that remain good even today. Loved them for the retro charm, the inadvertent humor, or occasional moments of genius, these movies remind us that hitting “start” in Hollywood has never been a safe bet.