Game Played

Game Played is a 2027 American live-action/animated science fiction comedy crossover film directed by Michael D. Lee and written and produced by Chris Columbus. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Michael Peña, Mila Kunis, Andy Daly, Edward Norton, Ken Jeong, Jennifer Lawrence, and John Legend while Charles Martinet, Roger Craig Smith, James Arnold Taylor, and David Kaye headline the voices of Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog, Ratchet and Clank respectivly. Combining computer-animated video game characters and visual effects, the film follows 4 childhood friends and who are prodigy gamers teaming up with video game characters old and new to stop an evil chairman from unleashing evil video game characters and viruses to wipe out all games from arcades and misinterpret. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing, Game Played was released theatrically in the United States on July 16, 2027 and in Japan on July 30, 2027. The film received positive reviews from critics comparing it favorably to Wreck-It Ralph, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Space Jam and was a box-office success, grossing $471 million worldwide against a $165 million budget and winning the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, as well as receiving nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film's success led to two sequels Game Played 2 (2033).
== Premise ==
When video game prodigy Frank Mitchell (Mark Wahlberg) – who dreams of being a video game developer – and his childhood friends, Duke Allen (Dwayne Johnson), Milo Carter (Kevin Hart), and Liam Garcia (Michael Peña) – who are also video game prodigies – find themselves trapped in Arcadia, a virtual video game world company own a chairman named Horace R. Gamerman (Andy Daly), the four must save their world with the help of Frank's childhood love interest, Grace Wilson (Mila Kunis) by leading Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Ratchet & Clank, and other video game characters old and new to win a virtual game and battle against their foes. It's Retro versus Modern in the highest-stakes challenge of their lives.
== Cast ==
* Mark Wahlberg as Frank Mitchell, a video game prodigy, the leader of the Arcaders, and the main protagonist of the film.
** ???? as young Frank Mitchell
* Dwayne Johnson as Marmaduke "Duke" Allen, Frank's former rival-turned friend and a member of the Arcaders.
** ???? as young Duke Allen
* Kevin Hart as Milo Carter, the president of the Sonic the Hedgehog fan club, Duke's best friend, and a member of the Arcaders.
** ???? as young Milo Carter
* Michael Peña as William "Liam" Garcia, a conspiracy-theory-obsessed genius with poor social skills and a member of the Arcaders.
** ???? as young Liam Garcia
* Mila Kunis as Grace Wilson, a unique weapons developer and specialist for the military and Frank's love interest.
** ???? as young Grace Wilson
* Andy Daly as Horace R. Gamerman, the main antagonist of the film and the CEO and chairman of the Arcadia Company who wants to put other video game companies out of buisness with his new virtual game he created.
* Edward Norton as Todd Lawrence, a publicist and assistant who helps the Arcaders.
* Ken Jeong as Yuri Chang, Gamerman's assistant and henchman and the secondary antagonist of the film.
* Jennifer Lawrence as Olivia Jones, Frank's neighbor and video game prodigy.
* John Legend as James Moreno, an arcade owner.
* Shigeru Miyamoto as himself
=== Voice cast ===
* Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi
* Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog
* Martin T. Sherman as Pac-Man
* Benjamin Diskin as Mega Man
* James Arnold Taylor as Ratchet
* David Kaye as Clank
* Kengo Takanashi as Link
* Makiko Ōmoto as Kirby, Ness
* Jess Harnell as Crash Bandicoot
* Tom Kenny as Spyro the Dragon
* Billy West as Q*bert
* Kenny James as Bowser
* Mike Pollock as Doctor Eggman
* Keith Silverstein as Dr. Wily
* Armin Shimerman as Dr. Nefarious
* Samantha Kelly as Princess Peach, Toad
* Deanna Mustard as Princess Daisy
* Kazumi Totaka as Yoshi
* Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Dave B. Mitchell as Knuckles the Echidna
* Cindy Robinson as Amy Rose
* Takashi Nagasako as Donkey Kong, Ganondorf
* Katsumi Suzuki as Diddy Kong
* Caety Sagoian as Bowser Jr.
* Jim Ward as Captain Qwark
* Kyle Hebert as Ryu
* Reuben Langdon as Ken
* Gerald C. Rivers as M. Bison
* Peter Beckman as Zangief
* Lani Minella as Lucas
* Masahiro Sakurai as King Dedede
* Ryō Horikawa as Captain Falcon
* Mike West as Fox McCloud
* Mark Lund as Falco Lombardi
== Video game cameos and references ==
In addition to the spoken roles, Game Played contains a number of other video game references, including characters and visual gags. The video game villains at the support meeting, in addition to those mentioned above, include Bowser from the Mario franchise, Doctor Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog, and Neff from Altered Beast. Additionally, the game cabinet of the fictional Fix It Felix, Jr. arcade game is stylized to strongly resemble the cabinet of Nintendo's original 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game, with Ralph and Felix taking similar poses as Donkey Kong and Mario, respectively. The Hero's Duty game is a reference to the hugely successful first-person shooter games Halo and Call of Duty., Q*bert, including Q*bert, Coily, Slick, Sam, and Ugg, are shown as "homeless" characters and later taken in by Ralph and Felix into their game (Q*bert also speaks to Felix at one point using the signature synthesized gibberish and word-balloon symbols from his game, called Q*bert-ese). Scenes in Game Central Station and Tapper's bar include Chun-Li, Cammy and Blanka from Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, and Inky from Pac-Man, the Paperboy from Paperboy, the two paddles and the ball from Pong, Dig Dug, a Pooka, and a Fygar from Dig Dug, The Qix from Qix, Frogger from Frogger, and Peter Pepper from BurgerTime. Lara Croft and Mario are also mentioned.
== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
Game Played grossed $189.4 million in North America and $281.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $471.2 million.
In North America, the film debuted with $13.5 million, an above-average opening-day gross for a live-action/animated film released in November. During its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $49 million, making it the largest opening for a video game film at the time. The film fell 33% to $33 million in its second weekend.
=== Critical response ===
The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 188 reviews with an average score of 7.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough to catch the references, Game Played is a clever, colorful adventure built on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The film earned an "A" from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
== Video game ==
In August 2027, Nintendo, Gameloft, THQ, Microsoft, Capcom and Sega released a video game based on the film with Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Ratchet, and Clank as main playable characters.
== Trivia ==
* It is the third video game crossover film. The first two are Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels.
* This is Mario's third big screen appearance since Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Super Mario Bros. (2022).
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