The Hobbit hasn’t been quite as prolific as The Lord of the Rings in terms of inspiring video games, but it still has a pretty impressive track record. The family of video game adaptations of The Hobbit reaches across some 40 years of video game development, essentially connecting current times with the dawn of the video game industry. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum suggests that video games based on Tolkien’s work are hardly a thing of the past, so one wonders if more adaptation of The Hobbit are on the horizon. If that’s the case, there’s a couple notable past games to take inspiration from.
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Early Adaptations of The Hobbit
The Hobbit’s very first video game adaptation was an illustrated text-based adventure game from Beam Software simply titled The Hobbit. It premiered in 1982 exclusively for the ZX Spectrum computer, but arrived on several other home computers later in the 1980s. Reception for The Hobbit was largely positive thanks to creative use of the source material; rather than adapting the book’s text beat for beat, it took creative liberties and left room for player freedom. Notably, The Hobbit was released along with copies of the book, encouraging players to read Tolkien’s work and follow in Bilbo’s official footsteps.
Beam Software’s The Hobbit was a financial success, but nevertheless, some time passed before another game adaptation came along. Finally, in 2003, Sierra Entertainment released an action-adventure platformer also simply called The Hobbit. Unlike its predecessor, Sierra’s The Hobbit was much more loyal to the book’s plot, closely following Bilbo’s journey alongside Thorin’s band of dwarves, which earned it some praise from fans and critics. Unfortunately, it saw a mixed reception overall. Critics weren’t impressed by its gameplay, and opinions on its colorful, whimsical aesthetic were split.
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A New Wave of The Hobbit Games
Unsurprisingly, the next attempts at The Hobbit video games came in the early 2010s, following in the wake of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy. Kabam and Warner Bros. released a couple of games directly based on the movies, including a mobile strategy game called The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth and a web browser game called The Hobbit: Allies of the Third Age. Traveller’s Tales also contributed to the hype around Peter Jackson’s film series with LEGO The Hobbit, which followed in the wake of LEGO The Lord of the Rings’ success.
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