Your opinion on licensed games?

[Nino Rybicki]

What is your opinion on licensed games? Do you think they're always bad, or they can possibly be good?

I kinda have mixed feelings towards licensed games. There's some that I think are pretty good, like the recent South Park game, the Hamtaro games for the GBC and GBA, The Simpsons Game (one of my faves), and I guess Kingdom Hearts could sorta qualify due to the use of Disney characters. But it seems that for every good licensed game, there's at least five bad ones. A lot of the older ones especially fit the bill, but plenty of recent ones do too. In fact, I've had the misfortune of playing a few really bad ones, such as the SNES Lord of the Rings game (I kid you not when I say this: you can play as Legolas, but he cannot attack - kinda sucks since he's supposed to be a badass archer), the game based on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the Rambo video game, the Muppets NES game (a friend downloaded a ROM for it, which I played, and it's terrible), the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game (my sister, a huge Tim Burton fan, got it, and she hated it almost as much as I did), and Hotel Mario (technically counts as one since Nintendo didn't make it - the only good thing about it is those so-bad-it's-good cutscenes).

Licensed games have had a pretty bad history. After all, Atari's infamous E.T. game was probably the one to start it. Not surprisingly, it kinda parallels the idea that movies based on video games tend to be awful (which is sadly true). I'm wondering if you guys have played any licensed games, which ones you've played, and how good or bad they were.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS
1. What are the best licensed games you've played?
2. What are the worst licensed games you've played?

 

[HeavyLobster]

The best and worst licensed games I've played were both on the N64. The best was Beetle Adventure Racing, which is actually a pretty good game, and the worst was Superman 64, which I rented, played for about 15 minutes, and then quit for obvious reasons. Most of the other licensed games I've played were hit-or-miss overall, with some decent parts but weren't anything special, though I enjoyed a number of Yu-Gi-Oh games more than I probably should've. Licensed games from my experience tend to be more mediocre than horrible, and can be decent pickups off the bargain bin if you happen to like the license.(though not always) There are a few that stand out as great games in their own right, and a good number that are just trash, but the majority feel meh overall.

 

[finalark]

I've actually played a number of decent licensed games. I'll second @ HeavyLobster on that Yu-Gi-Oh comment and that most licensed games are just mediocre instead of flat out bad. Speaking of YGO, though, I'll like to bring up Capsule Monster Colosseum which is flawed but as a fan of the series it was nice to see one of the more obscure games from the manga show up in a playable format.

Aside from the obvious Batman Arkham series and Kingdom Hearts answers, I'd have to say that I've found a number of the Dragon Ball games pretty enjoyable. Budokai 3 and Budokai Tenkaichi 2 in particular stick out for me (entirely because nostalgia, but those two games actually manage to hold up decently well). Unfortunately the two DB games I played on PS1 as a kid, namely Ultimate Battle 22 and GT Final Bout, are actually pretty bad.

Moving away from anime and manga and into something more western, one of my first games was Aladdin on the SEGA Genesis. I loved the game to death since it was based on my then-favorite movie, but playing it today its really nothing special. It is competently made and still worth a try if you like the movie, though. Also from Disney is Toy Story 2 on PS1, which I actually had a chance to revisit recently. To my surprise its actually pretty solid for what is it. Although it does have the problem of being both short and easy, in the hands of a competent player the game can easily be 100%'ed in only a few hours.

So yeah, most licensed games usually end up in the average area IMO. There are some really bad ones out there, but a lot of them are at least worth taking a look at if you're a fan of whatever they're based on.

 

[ZomBiehn]

Ill go NES days for my votes, , a bad licensed game was JAWS I remember awful memories of that game, everytime I played it I got bored, and my favorite might be a surprise or even a game you never heard of, Attack of The Killer tomatoes was my personal favorite movie licensed game

 

[TuttyTheFruity]

A good rule of thumb is that if the licensed game is for a property already released and established, it's highly likely it wasn't rushed for release (to coincide with a movie's release, for example), and is thus highly likely that it won't be shovelware trash. Star Wars games are usually solid for this reason (Battlefront 2 is one of my favourite FPSes), case in point.

Toy Story 2 for PlayStation was remarkably solid. Traveller's Tales probably had something to do with it. Otherwise I'm usually wary about licensed games.

 

[Deleted member]

There's a lot of good license games out there. Spider Man 2, Star Wars Battlefront, and some others. But if it's a movie tie in for a movie it will almost always be shovelware. (I said almost. There are some good movie games out there)

 

[Minato]

It's true that the ratio for good to bad licensed games are on the bad side, but there's a lot of gems. Listing from what I can remember throughout my childhood, it'd be

Ninja Turtles 2-3
Turtles in Time
Simpsons Arcade
Ducktales
Chip and Dale
Darkwing Duck
Aladdin
Lion King
Toy Story
Goldeneye (although framerate hurts nowadays)
Batman The Videogame (This game for the NES is ridiculously good, Mega Man mixed with Castlevania basically)
Any of the Marvel fighters done by Capcom
Spawn (SNES)
Various Spiderman games (SNES and GBA ones were good)

There's been a lot of good licensed games with Japanese franchises too, but I won't list those.

I know there are a ton of awful licensed games though, luckily I tend to end up never playing them. The majority of the NES games are bad since that was the thing to make a quick buck. I actually don't buy too many licensed games off of western properties nowadays. Most of them are either really bad or go into that AAA budget. Nothing that's in between that catches my eye.

As for the bad ones I've played, a lot of them can also be found on Angry Video Game Nerd. A lot of them by LJN. lol

 

[Nixon Corral]

Batman (NES) and the Arkham games are great licensed games.

DuckTales is great.

But yeah, they're mostly bad.

 

[Twewy]

There are a lot of good licensed games out there. On the top of my head (and my shelf...well, what's left):
Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Spongebob Squarepants Movie
Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!
Star Wars Rogue Squadron series
Star Wars Battlefront 1+2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Spider-Man 2
Goldeneye 007 (N64)
The Simpsons: Hit and Run
The Simpsons: Arcade
Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Yes, that IS a really ****ing long name. I agree with you)
Ducktales
Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman Arkham City
Sam and Max Hit The Road
Sam and Max Season 1, 2, and 3
Poker Night At the Inventory
Telltale Games's The Walking Dead: Season 1

...I made that list longer than I should have. Oh well, hopefully you get the point; there are a lot of good licensed games out there. The Witcher series is pretty good too, from what I hear.

 

[Raethien]

Most of them usually end up bad due to the fact they just want money. But There are few good ones, Like older Capcom games. Duck Tales, Aladdin and so on.