Why aren’t there more anime shows based on videogames?

[skynerel]

Pokemon is the biggest one and there have been others like Kirby and F-Zero, but I’m surprised franchises like the Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and Fire Emblem don’t have one. I just think it would write itself.

I know Fire Emblem had an unsuccessful OVA release in the 90’s and Zelda had a strange american cartoon in 1989, but the landscape has changed since then and I feel that anime shows for video game franchises could hold their own. Maybe the creators of these videogames don’t think it’s necessary or profitable and I understand that not everything needs a tv/movie adaptation, but it does make me wonder.

 

[terashards]

i think there are a lot of animes based on video games if you look outside the realm of popular nintendo franchises? here's a list on wikipedia (though it is by no means total/conclusive)

 

[da man/man]

If you count animated short films then technically there are many. A lot of toys have animated series and if you count videogames as a subsect of toys (which they are) that also adds to the list. But even excluding that, there are several. (like the wikipedia link @terashards already provided)

 

[Tenjiku]

I mean, visual novels have a lot of TV anime and OVA's lol, to the point their quality usually suffers from it (bad animation/still frames, chopped up or new story, bad voice work, possible censorship depending on which VN is adapted, etc.); I can name only a handful that are actually good quality and popular enough to have staying power or constantly referenced. Some people generally overlook VN's as 'not real games', or certain adaptations are just that obscure enough to not get a dub/are just not known about unless you go looking, so I guess it may seem like game -> anime adaptation don't happen often.

Mobile and fighting games get adaptations occasionally, but similar with VN adaptations, the quality is hit or miss. And if we look at the MegaTen franchise, most of their adaptations were pretty bad quality wise too. And a few other JRPG adaptations seem to have just one-episode OVA's that's not connected to a longer anime (Ar Tonelico and Growlanser, for example).

As for Nintendo specific games aside from Pokemon and Kirby, who knows. Fire Emblem (aside from the OVA) has quite a few manga adaptations though, with some of it based on the older installments (1-5 mostly) and a pseudo-adaptation of Binding Blade, newer ones seem to be mostly character books and mini stories though.

 

[The Mega Champion]

Most of the animes based on video games have been FAILS.

I haven't watched the Ace Attorney anime but that was the general opinion on most animes based on video games. (not saying it's mine but I'm just saying). I would agree in the case of TWEWY and Danganronpa animes (though the Danganronpa 3 animes were really damn good but those were original stories and/or stuff the game didn't cover/show)

The only one that I personally thought was really well done... was the Nier Automata anime. Again I haven't watched the Ace Attorney anime yet.

 

[Thegameandwatch]

Nintendo doesn't do it for some reason for Mario and Zelda despite allowing manga to exist. Maybe they are extra paranoid but the stuff in the 90s were mostly for the West.