Amazon's Secret Level is exactly what gaming needs right now

Last night, during the two-hour Opening Night Live show for Gamescom, we got the first look at a new anthology series for Amazon Prime, called Secret Level, based on several IP from across the sphere of video games. We’d already had wind that this was coming before the show but it was great to see it in action even if the clips were too short to really get a grasp of what stories would be told.

Today, as the dust settles, more information is coming out of Amazon and the team behind the show, Blur Studio, including a full list of the games that will be showcased within the series. According to information from Amazon, the show will air on 10 December and feature 15 “mind-bending” episodes across “A tapestry of iconic games across multiple mediums.” The full list of games is exciting, but there are a few standouts - Armored Core, Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, PAC-MAN, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament, and Warhammer 40K.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the lot is the entry on the list from the press release that simply says “PlayStation (Highlighting various PlayStation Studios beloved entities)” Realistically this could mean anything, but if you watch the trailer you’ll see a shot of Kratos geared up for a fight and pointing into the distance. Intriguingly, he is surrounded by a modern city, quite possibly New York.

Secret Level - Amazon Studios

This has already sparked a lot of conversation across social media speculating that the ‘Sony episode’ could be a riff on PlayStation All-Stars which was a fighting game initially set to take on the likes of Super Smash Bros, by bringing together Sony’s well-loved franchises.

I’d love to see this episode go full-on silly and bring Sony’s greatest characters to the modern day for a battle. A kind of Avengers: Endgame mish-mash or team-ups and fights between the latest and greatest from PlayStation. Sony has a vast collection of characters to pull from with Sackboy, Nathan Drake, Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us, Aloy from the Horizon series, along with Ratchet and Clank.

Not only would this make for a great piece of television, despite perhaps feeling like an advert for PlayStation 5, but it would ultimately be a win for all involved. Amazon is already winning when it comes to adaptations of video games with their stellar Fallout show - the verdict is out on Yakuza for now - and this anthology can test the audience’s love for possible future adaptations. For Sony, this episode will act as a point of nostalgia for many but also a testing ground for how much passion there is for older characters or franchises that have been dormant for some time.

Secret Level - Amazon Studios

Across the other episodes, this is a great chance to get legendary games shown off on a grand scale to a new audience, though it’s not without its danger. Putting a foot wrong could be a disaster and a major upset for fans. If they mess up my beloved Spelunky my heart will break a little, but to be honest, I have a lot of faith in this project because of the passion shown on stage at Gamescom and the quality of the animation that puts together a great deal of action.

Skepticism will still persist, of course, we only need to look to the recent box office flop of Borderlands to see that even the most entertaining of games can be butchered by an adaptation. However, this is a monumental moment, especially for IPs like Mega Man, which can give us a better sense of history while playing to nostalgia, or Sifu which can further the story established and showcase the intense fighting the game displayed. While I hate to say that these shorts will act as adverts, because of the negative connotations of advertising, bringing more people to something like The Outer Worlds can only be a good thing for the industry and a boon to the games but, more importantly, for the future of these games.

And this is before we even consider the levels of star power these episodes could contain. We’ve already caught a glimpse of what seems to be Keanu Reeves in the Armored Core footage, so if more Hollywood stars lend their voices or likeness, it’ll draw even more eyes and open up further potential.

Secret Level - Amazon Studios

In a world where success hinges so heavily on numbers, increased players after being tempted by a TV show could secure the future for something like Sifu 2, giving those developers another chance to tell a story and deliver a great game.

If we go back to Fallout as an example, Amazon released the Fallout TV show on 10 April 2024, three days before the show premiered Steamdb shows that Fallout 4 had around 24,000 concurrent players. Fast forward to 18 days later and the game had over 180,000 concurrent players, which shows the power of the adaptation. Fallout 76 saw similar growth jumping from 10,000 players before the show to 73,000 a week after. And this is just on Steam.

Gaming, as much as many don’t like to admit, has become a multimedia business with crossover potential that is off the charts. Even Fortnite sees a boost in player count when they drop new crossover skins because the power of popular culture can’t be denied. Whether the shorts featured in Secret Level do a good job of capturing the games or not, this stands to boost the industry enormously, of course, great adaptations would do far better.

I’m going to ride this wave of excitement and enthusiasm to the 10 December and then, hopefully, have a great time with the show. Perhaps though, I’m more excited to talk to my friends who aren’t players of these games and encourage them to give some of them a go once the show airs and spread the love of games even further.