The Boys, currently in its third season onAmazon PrimeVideo, is a live-action television adaptation of the beloved comic book series from writer Garth Ennis. Fans quickly fell in love with the show thanks in large part to its ultra-violent satiricalapproach to the superhero genre.
Despite the series making the jump to both animation and live-action, it’s yet to find itself adapted to the world of video games. The gaming industry is full of hundreds of talented development studios, but there are a select few that feel like perfect fits for the type of video game experience people would expect fromThe Boys.
9Dennaton Games
The name Dennaton Games may not sound familiar, but they are the studio behind the chaotic top-down shooter seriesHotline Miami. Both entries in the series feature stylized ultra-violence that sees the player moving through tight spaces in an attempt to come away unharmed, or at the very least still breathing.
The studio can implement superhero-type powers into their already fast-paced action. It seems like the perfect situation whereThe Boyscan thrive in the video game space.
8Firaxis Games
Firaxis Games, best known for theXCOMandCivilizationseries, has dipped their real-time strategy toes into the world of superheroes with their upcoming release ofMarvel’s Midnight Suns.The Boysis a show lauded for its satire and over-the-top violence, but Butcher’s crew also has to handle situations with a bit of strategy and finesse.
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Having players approach situations where they must take downsuperpowered humanswith a group of normal people adds a bit of natural difficulty. Turn-based combat is becoming more of a niche combat style, but if anyone can pull it off withThe Boys’license, it’s Firaxis Games.
7Behaviour Interactive
Asymmetrical multiplayer games have been hit or miss the last few years, but there are shining examples of how the genre can flourish. One such case is the horror gameDead By Daylightfrom Behaviour Interactive, which sees four survivors try and outsmart a terrifying killer in hopes of escaping.
Imagine a game in whichfour members ofThe Boysmust navigate a map where they try and avoid a superpowered individual who’s trying to hunt them down and kill them. ThoughThe Boyscan be quite comedic, it also does a great job at building tension, as it’s never clear who could die at any given moment. A game with this structure would capture that feeling.
6Dotemu
The French game developer Dotemu is coming off of back-to-back acclaimed beat ‘em up releases inTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s RevengeandStreets of Rage 4.The beat ‘em up genremight not be the first thing one thinks of when considering a gaming adaptation ofThe Boys, but the multiplayer quick-paced action fits in line with the properties’ vibes.
It’s easy to imagine a beautifully rendered pixel-art version of Butcher leading a team around the city in search of supers who have earned a reality check fromThe Boysfor one reason or another.
5The Coalition
Gears of Waris a respected and well-crafted series that simply doesn’t receive the praise it deserves. The Coalition took over the franchise years ago and has delivered numerous titles that have both elevated and evolved the original vision of what the series was intended to be. Their understanding of the Unreal Engine allows them to bring graphical fidelity and performance to their projects unrivaled by many other studios.
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The Boysdeserves that type of hand-crafted attention, such that when the game is revealed and fans get their first glimpse of Butcher and the gang in-engine, everyone’s jaw drops at how utterly astounding they look. It’s time The Coalition is allowed to flex and show people what they’re capable of when not hindered by the dismissal of their talent due to their attachment to theGears of Warseries.
4Naughty Dog
Naughty Dog is undeniably one of the premier game developers in the industry and has delivered medium-defining experiences with both theirUnchartedandThe Last of Usseries. The former showcases their knack for sarcasm and humor interlaced with blockbuster action, while the latter tackles violence, trauma, and consequences.
Putting all of those together feels like something close to what a game based onThe Boyswould function like. The reality, though, is that Naughty Dog likes to create their own properties, so it’s more likely they’d pursue the superhero genre in their own vision as opposed to doing something licensed likeThe Boys. That being said, there’s always hope.
3MachineGames
After revitalizing theWolfensteinfranchise over the last decade, MachineGames is now hard at work on their highly anticipatedIndiana Jonestitle. In a world whereThe Boys’license fell in their hands, most people would likely be losing their minds at the partnership.
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The two mainlineWolfensteintitles by MachineGames worked because they were high-quality shooters that managed to tell an engaging, coherent story about an alternate history of World War II.The Boysas a series focuses on satire centered on real-life politics and events, so MachineGames’ experience feels like it would fall in line with that.
2Insomniac Games
No other game developer on the planet has strung together excellent superhero titles quite like Insomniac Games has. In addition to releasing two belovedMarvel’s Spider-Mangames featuring Peter Parker and Miles Morales respectively, the studio is hard at work on a game centered on the X-Men’s Wolverine.
The reason people enjoyed Insomniac’sSpider-Mantitlesis that they captured the feel of playing as a superhero inan open-world gameand stayed true to the core of the characters.The Boysmight be a bit extreme for what they deliver, but Butcher and Logan are every bit as violent as one another.
1Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games develops some of the highest-quality and most detailed games on the planet, but what separates them from studios like Naughty Dog is the sheer scope of their projects. If anyone could deliver an open-world game based onThe Boys, it’s probably them.
Grand Theft Auto Vfeatured three playable protagonists, so it’s not a stretch to see a reality in which players could play missions as either Butcher, Hughie, or another member ofThe Boys. Satire is at the core of both Rockstar Games andThe Boys, and if the accomplished studio were to ever tackle the superhero genre, it’d likely resembleThe Boysin some capacity in both tone and theme.
The Boys Season 3is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
