In 1992, the Steven Spielberg cult-classic film Hook won the hearts of audience goers, and its obligatory movie tie-in video game (released on the SNES) was met with critical bewilderment due in part to some ridiculous liberties it takes with Peter Pan canon. The movie tie-in video game is now a relatively lost art; they were celebrations of - but mostly an additional merchandising opportunity for - their titular films that generally ended up being a watered-down paraphrasing of the movie with mediocre gameplay. Though the Hook video game's colorful 16-bit visuals actually do hold up pretty well even today, the game’s mechanics and obscure borrows from other popular games at the time make Hook a sort of nostalgic fever dream and truly a relic of its time.
Steven Speilberg’s Hook follows the story of an adult Peter Pan, played by the late Robin Williams, who has forgotten his previous life as the boy who never grows up and is forced to return to Neverland after Captain Hook, played by Dustin Hoffman, kidnaps his children. For anyone who hasn’t seen the 31-year-old blockbuster, the movie ends in a final confrontation with Peter - his magical abilities regained - and Captain Hook, who is defeated and de-wigged in disgrace. It’s campy, it’s acrobatic, there’s a giant statue of an alligator for some reason and a lot of clocks. The video game essentially follows the same arc as the film, but some of the more absurd features added by the game's developers are ittedly somewhat incompatible with Peter Pan lore.
It's hard to forget Peter Pan’s famous ranged attack where he sweeps his sword forward and a gust of tangible energy shoots out of it at his enemies. This, of course, isn't an ability of Peter's that was conceived by Speilberg for the original movie, nor is it featured in Disney's heralded animated adaptation of Peter Pan or J.M. Barrie's original tale. A ranged attack of this kind was a cornerstone feature they'd give just about any character in an action platformer during that era, so this exciting and customary addition was included by the developers for players to live out.
Peter Pan & Hook Reach New Ridiculous Heights on SNES
It’s also important to address Captain Hook’s vertical jumping ability in the video game adaptation. Yes, Peter Pan can fly, but Hook has hops! The game is an earnest enough recreation of the original movie - with some surprisingly bleak cutscenes - so it’s safe to assume that proportions are intended to be accurate as well. When Hook jumps to dodge Pan's attacks in the game, the base of Hook's foot reaches about the top of Peter Pan's forehead. Robin Williams was 5’7” in the movie, which means that at this scale, Hook is clearing nearly five and a half feet. Dustin Hoffman is a terrific actor, but these numbers seem a little hard to believe. A gameplay video can be viewed below:
Captain Hook is gifted one more impressive skillset in the game, a trusty chainlink extendo-hook which he's able to launch across the map in all directions at Peter Peter. When scaled proportions from above are factored in, Hook's claw seems to have a maximum extension length of close to seven and a half feet, defying most laws of spatial and kinetic physics. There's also no mention of this device in J.M. Barrie's original story or in the film adaptation either, but it certainly seems to take a page from the "Hookshot" used by Link in Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past which was released one year prior.
The rest of the game has its own eccentricities, including a snow-mission, hot air balloons, and a tiger for some reason, none of which are featured in Speilberg's original movie. Perhaps Hook offers a cautionary tale as to how the movie tie-in game was largely lost to the sands of time. Though the format was tried, again and again, the games never seemed to capture the magic of the movie they were based on, with the exception of some rare but truly excellent movie tie-in games. Still, the era of tie-in games like Hook that subverted their own subject matter in all kinds of surprising ways will forever remain a cherished part of gaming's history.
