Breaking Bad Deserves A Much Better Video Game Adaptation Than This One (2024)

Over a decade since the airing of the original Breaking Bad series finale, characters from the show may be making an appearance in one of the biggest video games on the market - which may turn out to be a poor fit. Despite being one of the most highly regarded TV series to have ever aired, there haven't been any attempts at adapting Breaking Bad into a video game, not counting a bizarre mobile game adaptation in 2019. And while an idea like that could have potential, it would also come with a number of difficult factors to consider.

Adapting franchises across mediums has given, historically speaking, mixed results at best. Attempts to adapt video games into movies have turned out so poorly, so often, that until recent series like Fallout, Castlevania, Arcane, and The Last of Us, movie or TV adaptations of video games were thought of as "cursed." In the other direction, video games based off of TV or movie properties have fared better, generally speaking, but are still a mixed bag - for every well-received Star Wars game, there's another half-baked movie tie-in game that poorly re-tells the original material's story, and is quickly forgotten as shovelware.

Breaking Bad Might Get A Video Game Appearance In Fortnite

Should A Fornite Skin Be Breaking Bad's First Foray Into Video Games?

That could be why, as indicated in a leaked player survey from HYPEX on X (formerly Twitter, via ComicBook), characters from Breaking Bad might be appearing in Fortnite as skins. Fortnite is, of course, no stranger to crossover skins, being the only game where Spider-Man can fire a shotgun at John Cena, but, while the survey also includes franchises like Game of Thrones and Doctor Who, the game does seem like an odd choice for Breaking Bad's first "adaptation" to the medium of video games.

As entertaining as it might be to see Walter White get into a firefight with Goku, or Gus Fring do the Electric Shuffle, it seems like a wasted opportunity for Breaking Bad's first foray into video games to be a cameo in a game with a wildly different tone and audience from the show. For what is one of the best (and arguably the best) shows to come out of the 2000s, with a legendary reputation and enduring legacy, it could be argued that Breaking Bad deserves a full video game of its own - but that idea raises other questions.

How Should A Breaking Bad Video Game Be Made?

An Actual Breaking Bad Game Would Be Hard To Make

While it's easy to say that Breaking Bad deserves a full video game adaptation, there would, realistically, be plenty of obstacles in the way of getting one. A Breaking Bad game could take any number of forms - for trying to match the storytelling style of the show and match its tone, something like the choice-based games from Telltale Studios might be the best fit. Telltale's The Walking Dead, of course, was highly successful, and in combination with the studio's later work on Game of Thrones, proves that adaptation to that style of game could work well.

A good adaptation of Breaking Bad, or, more likely, a game taking place within the same world as it, would also need to match the show's caliber of writing. Both Breaking Bad and its later spin-off, Better Call Saul, owe much of their quality to specific figures who worked on them, most notably the series' original creator, Vince Gilligan. And while Gilligan is a prolific writer, producer, and director in television, there's no guarantee that he would involve himself heavily in the development of a game, or that he would find the same success in a different medium.

While a leaked Fortnite survey doesn't definitively confirm that characters from Breaking Bad or any of the other media franchises mentioned in it will actually appear in the game, it's at least a nod towards that possibility. And, while Breaking Bad is arguably better left alone after the definitive closure of the original series, the spin-off series, and the movie El Camino, it does feel like somewhat of a waste for the franchise's first foray into video games to be a Fortnite skin, although seeing Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman face off against Darth Vader would, at least, be funny.

Source: HYPEX/X (via ComicBook)

Breaking Bad

Crime

Drama

Thriller

Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, follows a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin named Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as he attempts to provide for his family following a fatal diagnosis. With nothing left to fear, White ascends to power in the world of drugs and crime, transforming the simple family man into someone known only as Heisenberg.

Cast

Dean Norris , Bob Odenkirk , Aaron Paul , RJ Mitte , Anna Gunn , Giancarlo Esposito , Betsy Brandt , Bryan Cranston , Jonathan Banks

Release Date

January 20, 2008

Seasons

5

Network

AMC

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix

Franchise(s)

Breaking Bad

Writers

Peter Gould , Gennifer Hutchison , Vince Gilligan , George Mastras , Moira Walley-Beckett , Sam Catlin , Thomas Schnauz

Directors

Vince Gilligan , michelle maclaren

Showrunner

Vince Gilligan