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Tron and The Matrix are like flip sides of the same coin. In both movies, there is a constructed world where hapless slaves labor for an unseen, uncaring overlord. It's just that in Tron, the drudges are software programs and the overlords are humans. It's also notable that The Matrix pushed the use of computer graphics in the creation of near-seamless recreations of reality, while Tron made extensive use of real objects and non-computer animation techniques to try to emulate computer visuals that at that time weren't quite possible (or at least affordable) with the available computing power.
It's also notable that the Enter the Matrix videogame was a beautiful example of how to do a completely awful movie tie-in: the plot felt like a retread of elements of The Matrix Reloaded, the game mechanics felt tired (especially since Bullet Time had already been nailed years ealier by Max Payne), and the game was just ultimately not fun, especially given the epic amounts of hype it received prior to release.
(Which was a damn shame, because the video content in EtM was kind of interesting, and the fight system definitely had its moments.)
On the other hand, Tron 2.0 is a completely unexpected tie-in: it ties into a movie that was released twenty years ago. It beautifully tweaks the first person shooter genre, including some great Deus Ex-like features, like upgrades and improvable attributes. And it clearly has great love for the source material, weaving together psuedo-techno jargon with plot elements, enemy design, and gameplay choices. (For example, you level up by increasing your version number -- har!)
The most astonishing thing is that, twenty years later, it's now possible to do all of the great effects in Tron in real-time on consumer-grade video cards. This includes the absolutely tremendous glow effect that so characterized the original movie.
Boss combat simply requires fighting bigger baddies, not solving strange new problems, which is fine by me. That didn't mean I didn't end up relying on cheat codes from time to time, but hey, I'm supposed to be playing a hacker, right? :) Light cycles are fun, and disc combat is freakin' great (including the ability to block and redirect other discs back on your opponents).
In fact, the only problem with Tron 2.0 is that now I'm done with it!
Update: Here's another striking similarity: both movies end with the "one" being kissed right before he jumps into a hostile program to save the day. On the other hand, in the Tron world, programs are impulsive and seat-of-the-pants, but think Users are coldly logical; while in Matrix-land, humans adopt the cold facade of the programs (check out those sunglasses!).
Also, Google indicates that I'm hardly the first person to have noticed this. 6:09:34 PM () 
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