The CW’sSupernaturalfinally ended its 15 season run in 2020, airing a staggering 327 episodes.Supernatural’s TV ratings weren’t always the greatest through the course of its 15 years, but it remained popular enough to justify renewing the show season after season.Supernaturalhas a dedicated fanbase, which has resulted in the show becoming a multimedia franchise in its own right, with aSupernaturaltabletop board game available in addition to merchandise, a series of novels, an anime adaptation, and more.
There are plans to continue the franchise through aSupernaturalspin-off show calledThe Winchestersthat will reportedly be about John and Mary Winchester, parents of heroes Sam and Dean from the original series, with Dean actor Jensen Ackles returning to produce and narrate. However, there have been other attempts to getSupernaturalspin-offs off the ground to no avail, and while a pilot has been ordered for the new show, it’s too early to say if anything will actually materialize from it.
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But while a newSupernaturalshow would likely please fans of the franchise, there’s another arena where the series could get a new lease on life, and that’s through video games. There’s never been a properSupernaturalvideo game, yet the show really has the perfect set-up for a solid video game offering. And while some may think that it would be too late to move forward with aSupernaturalgame, the thing is the game wouldn’t even have to market itself only to fans of the franchise. The concept ofSupernaturalwould have broad appeal as a video game, and could be a genuine hit in the right hands.
Supernatural Co-Op Shooter
The most obvious route a developer could go with aSupernaturalspin-off game would be by making a third-person co-op shooter where one player plans as Dean Winchester and the other plays as Sam (or maybe up things to 4-player co-op by throwingcharacters like Castiel, Jack, or Bobby in the mix). The hypothetical game could take players through the show’s major storylines, while having players go up against the various creatures that the Winchesters faced in the series like vampires, werewolves, ghouls, ghosts, and more.
Dean and Sam do plenty of shooting in theSupernaturalseries, but it would be important for this hypothetical game to have melee combat as well. Throughout the course of the show, Sam and Dean hit ghosts with iron bars to make them dissipate, and they also cut off plenty of vampire heads using a machete. In the case of vampires, players would likely need to combine shooting and melee combat, immobilizing enemies with bullets laced with dead man’s blood and then going in up close with a machete for the kill.
Supernatural Gameplay Would Include More Than Combat
The bones of a potentialSupernaturalvideo game would likely need to be a co-op shooter, but there should be more to it than just fighting monsters. TheSupernaturalTV showfeatures plenty of action sequences, but it also has the characters investigating supernatural crimes and traveling across the United States. Various detective games have already shown how well these moments could translate to the gaming medium, with players having to investigate crime scenes and choose dialogue options when interacting with locals.
The only question is how exactly these cases would be presented to the player. One option would be for players to select cases from a menu or otherwise be shepherded from one location to the next in chronological order. Another option would be for theSupernaturalvideo game to take an open world approach, allowing players to travel across the midwest, tackling the cases in any order as they also deal with the overarching narrative threat.
Along the way, players could earn rewards and skill points that could be used to purchase new weapons or upgrade existing gear. And of course, all of this equipment would be stored in the trunk of Dean’s 1967 Chevy Impala, which would be the main method of transportation in the game.
Supernatural Game Storyline
ASupernaturalvideo game could tell a completely original storyline starring Sam and Dean, as the novels do, but it could also base itself on the TV series. There are plenty of storylines to choose from overSupernatural’s 15 seasons on the air, but it would make the most sense to start from the beginning and perhaps go through the story of the show’s first five seasons, as that was originally when the actual series was supposed to end.
Then if theSupernaturalgame were success, subsequent seasons could be added as DLC or even a sequel. Then again, it may be best to keep things simple, focused on Sam and Dean hunting monsters without throwing in Lucifer, God, the angel and demon war, etc.
While theSupernaturalTV series seems like it provides the perfect set-up for a video game experience, fans shouldn’t hold their breath for one. It’s not exactly a high profile IP that has developers knocking down doors to make, but if one ever materializes, it would have potential as a third-person co-op shooter.
