Back in the 80’s, Warner Bros. Gremlins was poised to print the money right out of the box office thanks to families! What about those slightly older kids who weren’t wanting stuffed Gizmo dolls? Well, it was the early days of video games, friends!
Well, don’t worry: You don’t have to dive back into your collections to see if you have these games. Thankfully, the Internet has all we need to go back in time. Let’s start with the first game, shall we?
Gremlins | Atari 2600 and 5200
(Gameplay: Squakenet)
I absolutely couldn’t tell you how stopping Gizmo from eating hamburgers has anything to do with anything, but perhaps water bottles just weren’t really a thing yet? Glasses of water? Nope. Hamburgers. Wait, was it after midnight in the game? Who has this many midnight hamburgers? Also: Where are you HOLDING these burgers? Cargo shorts? To be honest, I have to believe this was one of the first games we saw a game studio was forced to shoe-horn a movie property into an existing one. This game wasn’t good, but heck, at least we had the movie? The movie was a classic but the game? Not quite so much.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Nintendo Entertainment System
(Gameplay: NintendoComplete)
You just have to see this commercial. It’s incredible. Sunsoft at least attempted to put together a game here, where Atari just kinda shrugged and cobbled something together out of studio assets. It’s actually pretty dang fun.
Yes, you’re trying to navigate Gizmo through a lot of danger using all sorts of weapons but none as exhilarating as the gun that launches huge genetically modified tomatoes. See, Amblin was on this non-GMO hype for YEARS. Get into it. The game was actually quite entertaining and there was even a GameBoy version, though it was a bit harder to follow what with it being in essentially green and black and a side-scroller.
Gremlins: Unleashed | GameBoy Advance
(Gameplay: Vizzed Gameplay Videos)
Gizmo is alone and attempting to capture the other Gremlins. It surprisingly had some fun music and pretty whimsical graphics but it was a bit peculiar to release this game so far after the films had come out. Not a ton of kids were watching and re-watching Gremlins, but alas, it was enjoying a nice re-release window.
Gremlins – Gizmo | Nintendo Wii
This game actually looks adorable and it apparently centers on doing fun little activities and keeping Gizmo quite like a Tamagotchi. I have to wonder if this game suffered from people not understanding what it was about and the trailer not quite giving much else in detail other than it being a party game of sorts. After reading some reviews on Amazon, it appears parents bought this game for their younger kids as a means to introduce Gremlins to them in a fun way, thus making them interested in the films. Not bad, Geek Parents! I salute this!
So, there you go. You didn’t even know these games existed about one of the best 80’s movie franchises of all time and now, not only do you KNOW, I get you’re looking them up to play as we speak. Heck, I already wishlisted this Wii game, so I’m right there with you!
