If blockbusters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Five Nights at Freddie’s, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie are proof that mainstream audiences are finally ready to feast on video game adaptations, consider Secret Level a sampler platter. Hailing from the creators of Netflix’s similarly pitched animated anthology Love, Death + Robots, Secret Level offers 15 bite-size adaptations of 15 distinct video-game franchises. The result is, charitably, a mixed bag, focusing largely on lesser-known games and rarely offering more than a straightforward take (with one deeply insane exception in Secret Level’s riff on Pac-Man).
Still, it’s an interesting experiment, and one that, if successful with viewers, could beget future seasons that take the concept of a video-game adaptation in new and unexpected directions. So which episodes of Secret Level are actually worth your time? Here they are, ranked worst to best:
“Playtime: Fulfillment”
In its worst moments, Secret Level makes you feel like you’re voluntarily watching a commercial. But Playtime: Fulfillment might as well be a commercial, as a bicycle courier, played by Kevin Hart’s daughter Heaven, zips past PlayStation characters like Kratos and Sackboy while her famous dad yaps in her ear. The big reveal at the end essentially comes down to “Video games are good!” — as if anyone who chooses to watch Secret Level needs to be convinced.
“Mega Man: Start”
Secret Level skews toward the grim and gritty, so an adaptation of Capcom’s beloved Mega Man franchise, which is overloaded with wacky robots, could have provided a welcome burst of color. Instead, this short, bland origin story is a missed opportunity. This episode ends where it should have begun; inexplicably, the blue armor, the insanely catchy music, and pretty much everything else that’s fun about Mega Man doesn’t actually arrive until the closing moments.
“Unreal Tournament: Xan”
It’s safe to say no one played Unreal Tournament for the story. Maybe that’s why this adaptation of the first-person-shooter franchise feels so by-the-numbers, as a renegade robot sparks a revolution by attaining a series of unlikely victories in a futuristic gladiatorial arena. Credit, at least, for bringing back Unreal Tournament 3 voice actor Fred Tatasciore as the announcer.
“Spelunky: Tally”
Spelunky: Tally has the poor fortune to come after no fewer than three other episodes meditating on the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that video-game protagonists are forced to endure. But even if the episode stood alone, this is a pretty thin take on the addictive roguelike game with most of the story unfolding in a bland starting area instead of Spelunky’s ever-shifting corridors.
“Armored Core: Asset Management”
Keanu Reeves in a mech suit! That’s pretty much the whole pitch for this adaptation of FromSoftware’s third-person-shooter franchise, which casts Reeves as a cynical pilot whose closest companion is the computer-enhanced voice in his head. It’s nothing special — and it’s tough to shake the feeling that Cyberpunk 2077, in which Reeves played a prominent role, would have been a much better fit for Secret Level — but it’s a decent enough introduction to an underappreciated video-game franchise.
“Crossfire: Good Conflict”
Don’t feel too bad if you’re not familiar with Crossfire. The free-to-play shooter is a massive, massive hit in Asia but never really caught on in the United States. This episode — in which two rival squadrons of mercenaries, each of which insists they’re “not the bad guy,” fight over a briefcase and the asshole who’s carrying it — delivers serviceable action while standing out as the only Secret Level episode that takes place in the real world.
“Pac-Man: Circle”
You have to respect the audacity of this grim, gory adaptation of Pac-Man, which reimagines the video-game icon as a sword-toting humanoid being guided through a maze of ghosts and monsters by a floating yellow dot that insists he needs to eat everything in his path. To be clear: Pac-Man: Circle is breathtakingly stupid in both concept and execution. But at least it’s trying to do something interesting.
“Honor of Kings: The Way of All Things”
I’m largely unfamiliar with Honor of Kings — a multiplayer online battle-arena game developed by China’s Tencent Games — so I can’t speak to how well this installment adapts its source material. But these pseudo-philosophical musings on the nature of free will and fate, which wouldn’t sound especially out of place in a stoned freshman’s dorm room, are at least presented with some panache, as a vengeful orphan challenges a crumbling city’s unfeeling ruler to a game of Go.
“Exodus: Odyssey”
Can you really call this a video-game adaptation if the video game hasn’t even been released yet? Exodus won’t even be out until 2025, which makes this episode feel a little more like a commercial. But at least it’s a pretty good one — albeit one that cribs heavily from Interstellar — as a dad chases his wayward daughter around the galaxy while the vagaries of space-time ensure that she’s aging faster than he is.
“Sifu: It Takes a Life”
This adaptation of the beat-’em-up franchise sticks pretty close to the source material, as a martial-arts master pursues revenge with the aid of a magical talisman that revives him as an older man whenever he falls in battle. But Sifu: It Takes a Life at least manages to find an elegant gloss on the concept by comparing its hero’s battle to a chef’s lifelong quest to make the perfect dumplings, and the stylized animation — a welcome departure from the bland near-realism of most of Secret Level’s episodes — makes this one stand out from the crowd.
“Concord: Tale of the Implacable”
Awkwardly, “Concord: Tale of the Implacable” arrives several months after the spectacular failure of Sony’s multiplayer shooter, which was so unpopular that it led to both the shutdown of the game and the shuttering of the studio that developed it. But even if Secret Level viewers can’t just boot up a few rounds of Concord, this episode — a not-bad Guardians of the Galaxy knockoff about a squabbling spaceship crew on a mission to throw off the bonds of space capitalism — is one of the show’s more distinctive and breezy installments. Consider it a dispatch from an alternate universe where Concord was a massive hit.
“Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle”
Secret Level was wise to kick off with this installment, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons with a charming greatest-hits reel of archetypes from the beloved tabletop game’s larger universe. A cursed prisoner, a courageous paladin, a spell-casting necromancer, and a five-headed dragon … If you were a GM looking to launch a new campaign, this episode wouldn’t be a bad starting point.
“The Outer Worlds: The Company We Keep”
The Outer Worlds has been largely overshadowed by the Fallout franchise, which hails from the same creators, but Secret Level offers a solid primer on the game’s jaundiced tone. In an alternate universe in which ruthless megacorporations have colonized outer space in their relentless pursuit of profit, we follow Amos, an indefatigable orphan who volunteers for more than a hundred body-modifying experiments in hopes of climbing a corporate ladder and reuniting with the woman he loves. This is satire delivered with a sledgehammer, but hey, it’s not like we’re living in particularly subtle times.
“Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear”
And speaking of unsubtle: Of all the grimdark stories in Secret Level, “Warhammer 40,000” is the grimdarkest, and that’s exactly as it should be. Set in a far, far future in which, as the opening text explains, there is only war, it follows a group of space marines from a strange, dogmatic religious sect as they shoot and chainsaw their way through an endless horde of sadistic aliens. It’s a bloody good time.
“New World: The Once and Future King”
In this loose adaptation of Amazon’s own massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a vain king who aims to conquer a distant land but ends up humbling himself instead. This is yet another installment that plays with the concept of a regenerating protagonist — on this island, we soon learn, anyone who dies is reborn unharmed on the shores — but there’s both humor and some sneaky poignancy as Schwarzenegger’s King Aelstrom loses competition after competition to the island’s own reigning monarch before devoting himself to building a prosthetic arm for his loyal servant. “That’s what this island is. An eternity of second chances,” Aelstrom is told, and his character growth through countless setbacks is a welcome reminder of what video games can offer.
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