As one of the cornerstone pieces of fantasy literature, it's no surprise that there's so many video games based on The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien's magnum opus has defined fantasy stories for decades, and its epic story provides source material to developers, who create games of all shapes and sizes. Some developers decide to retell The Lord of the Rings directly, like Traveller's Tales in LEGO Lord of the Rings, while others create their own stories about Middle-earth, like Monolith Productions' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The Lord of the Rings isn't the only Tolkien work with video games, though; The Hobbit has seen a fair few video game retellings too.
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.
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.
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.
Once again, The Hobbit game adaptations have fallen out of favor, but interest in The Lord of the Rings and other Tolkien media may be on the rise again. Amazon's upcoming show The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power promises to tell some compelling stories about Middle-earth's past, while Daedalic Entertainment's The Lord of the Rings: Gollum shows that LotR games still have a lot of potential. Because of these projects, fans may yet see another adaptation of The Hobbit appear in the future. Whether it's a high-action game in the style of Middle-earth: Shadow of War or a more stealthy adventure like Gollum, it'd be great to see another developer take The Hobbit for a spin.