The Warriors is a VERY solid adaptation for the simple reason that they decided to set a majority of the game three months before the events of the movie. You do eventually get to play through the movie but it's really only a third of the game. This was incredibly smart since the movie shows off dozens of colorful street gangs that it didn't really get to explore. So what better way to get to know them better than with a video game? And interacting with the gangs three months before the movie starts was just *mwah*!
roarshach13 This is what I would totally consider a more proper way to go about adapting a tv show or film into a game. Expanding the lore and storyline through setting a majority of the action prior to the events of the movie is, in my opinion at least, what every experience should be of a video game in the licensed family. Even better is when the game adds canon background/context or extra info to the movie it's based on that hasn't been mentioned anywhere previously - I spose it just helps add to the immersion - if it's done right
Yeah, and with the Warriors it was absolutely perfect for that kind of expansion since you get to interact with gangs that weren't in the movie. Star Trek and Star Wars games of course do this kind of thing all the time. Star Wars sometimes setting their games CENTURIES before the movies even start!
This is the first game I think of when I think of licensed video games done well. They added enough for it to not just feel like a rehash of the film, and everything they added fit in really well with the feel of the movie. Such a great game!
And it really fleshed some of the gangs out. Like having those Mime looking bastards (the Hi Hats) be performance artists that see their brand of gang chaos and street tagging as art. Or making the Hurricanes a very family oriented gang who get extremely territorial if you hassle any of the civilians. Or having the dapperest of gangs the Boppers be disco dancing gangsters in purple vests. Yeah, stuff like that was very solid and I feel like that game is a must for Warriors fans. ...Who happen to enjoy playing games.
I have to agree completely. Not only does it capture the film and it's world pretty spot on, it's also just fun, it plays really well especially with the myriad of moves and things to interact with. One of my favourite modern beat em ups. They put the effort into the game, and it shows. Loved seeing the previously unkown and little known gangs come to life, even the radio host got more presence.
*Telltale Presents: Wayne's World* Garth: You didn't tell them about my pubes, did you? 1) No, of course not. 2) You bet I did, Garth! I'm just so proud! 3) ... *(1)* Wayne: No, of course not. [Garth will remember that]
To me, the best licensed video games (at least based on movies) are the ones, that allow you to interact with their fictional world. Movies make you believe their universe is real and make you wish you were in there and video games can allow you to be in it, so if a game based on movie allows me not just reenact scenes and see visual material, but also, to go beyond straight narrative, to explore and interact with it's environment, I am satisfied. The best examples might be Star Wars games, but to be honest in my opinion (and it's a weird one) the best movie game I've played was "The Room" flash game based on Tommy Wiseau's "The Room"... Yeah, I know it sounds weird and yes I know the game is more of a joke but... I actually had a feeling I was exploring the movies universe, with the ability to mess around with stuff, read Danny's diaries, that kinda expanded movies story line :D
The GBA and GBC Hamtaro games are amazing! I never managed to watch much of the anime nor read the books, but the games are a great part of my childhood.
John Cleese was also the voice of Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom "The Magnificent Bastard" in Jade Empire; so this was a pretty significant change of heart.
I would like to think that somehow an exchanged happened between him and Idle about Discworld and that's what convinced him. Probably not but it'd be neat if Idle showed him his work and Discworld and Cleese was like, "Oh shit, that's awesome. I wanna do games now."
I should like to think something like that took place, or perhaps something along the lines of Idle convincing him that it'd be an awesome thing to have in his 'Eulogy' routine.
I wish Telltale's current business model wasn't so crappy. It started off ok, with each episode released separately as downloads before being compiled into a boxed release, but now they do these "Season Pass discs", where the disc only has 1 episode and you have to wait for the rest. It's already a waste of a disc for games such as the Minecraft Telltale game, but then a few months later a complete edition comes out anyway, making the season pass disc redundant! The games themselves became less and less about puzzles and are close to being interactive movies, such as their Game of Thrones game. Also they need a new engine as it's still very buggy at times and feels like it's restraining the games themselves with all the titles they pump out.
I'm primarily a console person, I like playing and collecting games so when a misuse of the physical format comes along I have to point it out, and Telltale is one of my least favorite companies because of this. Thankfully the Batman game on Switch seems to be complete, even though I didn't think much of the demo, but if they start doing Season Pass Switch carts then they've set a new low.
Even for avid collectors I don't see the Season Pass discs being very desirable, there's no data aside from the first episode, much like how Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 was just the tutorial with the 8GB patch being the rest of the game.
Sam and Max and Game Of Thrones. Maybe more Tales from Monkey Island. That series has been dormant. I'll admit, though, I bought the Batman: Season One disc a year ago.
The Return of the King game on 6th Gen Consoles is probably one of the best movie licensed games I've ever played. Fun simple hack and slash. Good graphics, good controls, some really cool voice work from Sir Ian Mckellen, co-op and just a solid game.
Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom and the movie game Ed, Edd, n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures The Powerpuff Girls: Him and Seek Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights
Blade Runner! the late 90's one, that is. loved it, just yesterday figured out how to get it running on modern windows, will play soon. S.t.a.l.k.e.r. was also great, based more on the great book "roadside picnic" than the movie.
Roses, I'd love to hear your opinion on the new Pillars of the Earth game. In case you (or anyone else reading this) doesn't know what I'm talking about, Daedalic Entertianment (Tales of Monkey Island) made a point-and-click adventure out of Ken Follet's best selling trilogy The Pillars of the Earth. It came out last month and right now only the first book is available (book 2 is slated to come out in December, 3 in Q1 2018) and to my understanding, it shows incredible loyalty to its source material. Anyways Roses, it seems like it'd be right up your alley. I just finished it, too, and I adored it.
Daedalic didn't make Tales of Monkey Island, they just did the German localization and publishing. Telltale made that game. But damn, I forgot Pillars of the Earth was out, still need to play that.
Oh shit, is that all they did? I haven't played ToMI in so long that when I saw them list it on their site I was none the wiser. Thanks for correcting me! Still an excellent game nonetheless. You should play it!
My favorite licensed games are ones that I forget are licensed in the first place. They also don't just copy the source, but add to it. Such as Walking Dead or the best Star Wars games. Therefore, I think the best licensed games supplement and expand on the source material, rather than simply "adapt" it, or toss its skin onto generic mechanics. The game has to balancing being faithful to the source, as well as almost pretend it doesn't exist. Not an easy balancing act, and not one that can be achieved with a cash grab approach.
I actually quiet enjoyed the game to the amazing spiderman movie. Where they decided to make the game a sequel to the movie instead of a retelling. Worked pretty well in my opinion. Also spiderman 2 for ps2, where they used the main story, but added some new stories to it as well, which honestly I enjoyed even more than the actual movie story. Like the whole thing with Mysterio was just awesome. XD
I thinks it's two completely different beasts: "game set in licensed universe" (like alot of Star Wars games, for example) and "videgame adaptation of the original product" like your Lion King example. There's probably alot of good games in pre-existing universes, but a good adaptation is really hard to find, since games better work with stories that was created for videogame from the start.
That is a very good point if you adapt a preexisting story then you pretty much have to hit certain points while making it interactive. But it's easier to make a new character to be interactive and just have them interact with a universe that players know.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - the Lucasarts adventure game. Follows the film but with alternative paths and puzzles which makes it really playable whether or not you've seen the film. And let's not forget there Grail Diary included. It does what the best licensed games do - be a great game first, then be an accurate representation of the license. Fate of Atlantis is also great, showing how you can extend a license with enough care.
deanolium My first introduction to Indiana Jones was the game Fate of atlantis and man was I happy to learn that there are movies about this great character :)
Been rewatching these old videos recently and they are great! I'm glad you have such a big backlog that I can rewatch all of your recent TV show retrospectives, etc and then go back even further to seriously awesome old game content! So far my favorite videos have been on moon logic puzzles and the more kids geared adventure games!
Aww, I really liked the Back to the Future games. :( But yeah, I wish there was space for more well-crafted licensed games... There are about a million Adventure Time games and none of them are especially noteworthy, but that world is so perfect to make, say, a rad Old-School Style Inventory Object Adventure Game or something.
I think the problem with the most licensed games is, that they must been released the same time, when the movie hits the theaters. That's why most of them are horrible, 'cause the developers have no time, to make a good one (Or they don't even trying). Oh, and other good licensed games? I guess: The Darkness 2, South Park: The Stick of Truth or the Metro, Witcher or Parasite Eve series. ;3
That's not always true but it does happen. Take ET for example, he had to make that game by himself in 5 weeks. Sure Atari games are simple compared to games today but still for one guy making a game in that short amount of time it could have turned out a lot worse. But othertimes the game company doesn't care they just throw something together as a cash grab.
Yes. I guess it was the short time (and maybe they wanted to make something totally unusual, compered to other Atari games). I do not think it was because only one guy had programmed the game. There a plenty of titles, who had have proven the opposite (Undertale, Axiom Verge etc.).
just 1 guy can't make a full title game. And it takes years to make a good game. indi games are another beast entirely, ET came out when making games was trial and error. there was no course in schools.
Three licensed adventure games that are criminally overlooked are from Legend (the creators of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon) and are also based on book series, like Callahan's was: Companions of Xanth, Death Gate, and Shannara. Death Gate is generally considered to be the best...Companions is absolutely hilarious, if you're looking for something in the spirit of Callahan's. These three games were so good that they got me to read all three book series they were based on! And I'm awfully picky when it comes to adventure games...and video games in general. And I hardly play any licensed games!
The Back To The Future game is my favourite Telltale game. I loved the DBA Gameboy advance games. I also had Yu-GI-OH Worldwide Edition on the GBA too. The rogue squadron games on the GameCube are glorious. Spiderman Mysterios Menace on the GBA is great too. Spiderman the movie game on the GBA is surprisingly good, as is Spiderman 2 on the GameCube. Oh and Marvel's Ultimate Alliance for the Wii. :) Oh and Monster Rancher Battle Card 2 for the PS1 Also Gundam Wing Battle Assault 2 is great too. Man I played so many licenced games!
Agreed on Back to the future, it was one of the last Telltale games that actually had puzzles solving gameplay and wasn’t just an interactive movie like the recent ones.
I think my favorite licensed game was the Dungeons & Dragons arcade games. They were a ton of gun, had branching paths, different weapons and abilities to acquire, and were generally solid experiences. It's a fun mix of beat-em-up and RPG that you just don't see anymore.
I think everyone is ignoring the most important thing: Is that American Tail game using the Willy Beamish engine? I never knew it existed until just now.
Back to the future is actually my favourite licensed. I feel like the game captured the feel of back to the future perfectly. it didn't just re-hash the film. It created new stories that didn't stray so far from the main story that it didn't make sense, for example the part with multiple biffs. the series was popular enough to warrant a comic based on the game
Emerald City Confidential is both a fun little adventure game with a neat noir aesthetic and an absolute love letter to the original novels. The amount of call-backs is amazing.
The very first games I ever played we're the Harry Potter games for PC and Game Cube. That massive castle I could never possibly fully explore. The ambience as ghosts quietly drifted through the walls, and the stairs that would fly away before your eyes. That music that still sticks in my head. I can't possibly tell you how surprised I was in later life to learn it was composed by Jeremy Soule of Elder Scrolls fame, or just how well that information clicked into place. No wonder Oblivion worked so well for me. That music was subtly reminding me of my childhood. So in the end, the first three Harry Potter games will always hold a special place in my heart as some of my favorite licensed games.
I thought the first Harry Potter game was pretty good. From the music to series staples like quidditch and exploring the castle I was impressed. The games that followed weren't that great imo, they put their work into Lego games for some reason which I skip but then the Last Harry Potter game was pretty good and action packed imo. Played like a cover shooter but I still enjoy shooting magic and later on apparating around.
I would say LEGO Dimensions has to be one of my fave games due to the Hilarious way for what they did with the Licenses for what they did (Wizard of Oz and Ghostbusters 2016 for Example 🙂)
@@kgpspyguy Thank you, I was about to ask if someone played the one with creepy teleporting Dr Watson. Which is more akin to a horror game than a crime solving mystery game. Because someone didn't have the time to give him walking animations.
I think the key to a good licensed games is creating fun gameplay that relates to the spirit of the origonal work. For instance the iron studios spongebob games realized they were addapting a colorful zany cartoon with some at times dark commedic undertones so they made a zany collectathon platformer with a zany story that sometimes had dark commedic undertones and it made for a game that added something to one of my favorite shows as a kid. Heck Patricks line during the tutorial when he explains how the sock he's standing right next to is actually lost just less so than his other socks is still one of my favorite lines from the series. Then again Die Hard Arcade literally has nothing in common with the movies yet it wouldn't be the same without Bruce Willis in it and it's my favorite licensed game so maybe there's more to it than that.
One I've always been curious about that I was hoping you'd cover eventually is the Twilight Zone adventure game. I didn't even know it existed until a couple years ago, but apparently there was a game based on the iconic show released in 1988 for DOS and Amiga. I have difficulty believing that the license could result in a good game, but... there it is, anyways. As for my favorites, I'm a big fan of the 16-bit TMNT games, Batman on the NES, and of course Capcom's Disney stuff.
I actually really quite liked the Telltale Back to the Future series. I thought it was true to the source and developed the story in some interesting ways. Also it was back when Telltale still used puzzles in their games, so that was a bonus too. I do enjoy their narratives (I even liked their Minecraft games) but after the Walking Dead's success their games became strictly narrative experiences with little in the way of gameplay outside some QTE's and dialogue choices.
So I know you focus on PC games, but what are your thoughts on the Kingdom Hearts franchise? They aren't exactly movie tie-ins, but with most of the games being focused on retreating through Disney properties, it's fitting for this topic. Personally, I feel the first game missed the mark with a lot of their retreads, which was later addressed in 2. (Apart from Atlantica, -shudders-)
Kingdom Hearts pioneered active menus for RPG games. I wish Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves had something similar in it, it would have made some of the game a bit less fumbly to play through. Then again, we're talking about NES hardware- who knows if the tricks would have been possible on that system to begin with?
I'm still impressed at how well the Wolverine origins game turned out considering how bad the movie was, sure in a lot of ways it was a god of war clone but then they added his healing ability, which actually showed on the character model, and his enhanced senses. Also I find quite a few of the Star Wars games to be better then the movies, and I mean the good original trilogy, I think Lucas did a great job combining things from different sources to create a great universe but his writing and stuff hold back the movies from being true masterpieces; I still consider the original trilogy to be good movies though
It was fun-for sure, definitely. But I bought it at a reduced cost, when it was not retail price. So I had fun with it. But I don't think I'd pay the full rate for it.
I would not even call it guilty pleasure, cause it actually was a great game. And huge respect to the creators for going with the risk to rarely play as Kong and instead make the island itself the main focus. made it into a great and atmospheric survival game. I certainly enjoyed the heck out of it. :3
There's a great Scooby Doo point and click adventure game on the Genesis that I always loved. It's probably not the best but it captures the feeling of the original show pretty well. Criminally underrated given how much love and care was clearly put into it.
My two favorite movie tie-in games are Path of Neo and Aeon Flux both for the PS2. Path of Neo is based on the Matrix trilogy and guides you through all three movies. It's a straight-up 3D action game with an extremely fun combat system that is surprisingly complex. It focuses on dealing with multiple enemies at a time with over the top hand to hand combat and some Gunplay. As you go through the movies Neo gets more powerful and towards the end you do some pretty God like things. It has one or 2 bad levels but is over all quite fun. Aeon Flux was released as a promotion for the live action movie that came out, however it is way more based on the 90s MTV cartoon then the movie has far as tone and story structure. The crazy thing is that the story of the game is actually way more compelling than the story of the movie and pretty much acts as a prequel to it. It is also a 3D action game and while the combat isn't amazing the acrobatics and infiltration that you perform to get from place to place is where the fun really comes in. I believe was made by the people who made the bloodrayne games but I actually like Flux better. It makes me sad that due to the stigma of movie tie-in games I doubt most people got to enjoy these as much as I did but they are both worth checking out if you have them I can somehow get your hands on them.
I'm thrilled to hear that about the Aeon Flux game! My mum and I were fans of the original show (along with The Maxx) - and while we were among the rare few I guess who did at least enjoy the movie well enough when we saw it (...a midnight opening), it... definitely wasn't the cartoon. I'll have to check it out!
I really enjoyed the story of Telltale's Back to the Future, but actually playing it wasn't very fun. I wound up finding a let's play and watching it instead. You may be interested to know it's since been adapted into a comic. I haven't read it so I can't vouch for it, but it exists.
Spider-Man on the PSX was basically the first great Spidey game and set the standard for practically all the later games, however it wasn't until Spider-Man 2: The Movie: The Game where we finally got web mechanics that felt most true to the character. Unfortunately to this day we still get awful games because of the quick buck tie-in trend and I don't think there has been a great Spidey game since Ultimate Spider-Man on Gamecube.
Here's a rethorical question: Will you ever not use the Discworld psychiatric office theme music in your videos? (Also: Never stop using the Discworld psychiatric office theme music in your videos, I love it.)
HAHAHA. I was wondering when the day would come when someone noticed my use of this song. Nice job on catching it and knowing exactly where it's from. :)
There's sort of a weird sub-genre to this sort of thing, I think, when it comes to telltale's Back to the Future or the Ghostbusters game for XBox 360, in which it seems less focused on being a game, and more a sort of CGI-animated semi-sequel. Like, they get the actors together, they put some effort into writing a story that ties into the films and furthers them, but the game mechanics seem like a little bit of an afterthought, something to stitch together the narrative. I kind of admire those two specific examples _as movies_, more so than as _games_, basically; which is a bit of a missed opportunity, but still makes them interesting for a fan of the given franchise. Then again, there are some game series where installments turn out similarly, such as some of the Final Fantasy games (like IV/II for the SNES, which has very simplified mechanics and is completely driven by a linear story), so I guess "slightly interactive narrative fiction" is a more general thing.
Lemme just drop Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on here. Solid Adventure mechanics, with some menu based RPG elements tacked on that slow the pace considerably (keep in mind this was way before Kingdom Hearts was developed, or could conceivably be developed) and some multi-genre minigames in between to keep things interesting. It even does something to explain where the Merry Men got enough meat during the montage with a sidequest, so that's cool. Largely following the movie plot is just cool even if a photo or two is swapped.
Hey, Roses! I saw you on DYKG and decided to check out your channel. Fantastic stuff. I hope you're not getting slammed by the Adpocalypse too hard. Keep up the awesome videos!
Despite the harrowing lack of good Harry Potter games , I was very impressed by the two Harry Potter RPGs on the Game Boy Color. Not only were they inspired by the books (most of the characters look less like their movie counterparts, and more like the covers of the books themselves), but they had fun JRPG-like gameplay that fit the handheld at the time. A lot of love was put into the work in the sound, music and heck they even had the card game. I urge people to at least give that one a try if they like Harry Potter to any extent. I would like to mention that we've seen less and less licensed titles over the years, and rarely there are those coinciding with a release. I haven't seen any Moana or Frozen standalone games. I suspect the mobile market and multifranchise titles like Disney Infinity were probably the reason why we haven't seen many attempts. It's also probably because games have since gotten too expensive to make (if they want to seem like a "professional" game, nowadays if you made something in pixel art you look like an indie title!) to even remotely consider cashing in on advertisement alone.
On the PC, the first two Harry Potter games by EA were excellent. The Sorcerer's Stone captured the atmosphere of Hogwarts well, while hinting at a bigger castle than you can access. The second game expanded both the gameplay and the environment, making it feel like you had really found your way deeper into the castle, and still hinting at more secrets to be found. Then Prisoner of Azkaban came out. I'm not really sure that it was actually finished: the castle was smaller than it had ever been, the mechanics were clunky, the graphics were glitchy, and the whole thing just felt empty and incomplete.
Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay is a great example of a really well done game. It doesn't follow any of the movies but instead slots in as a prequel to Pitch Black. Another favorite of mine is the Blade Runner adventure game for PC. This one simply borrows the world to tell a different story. You play as a different Blade runner in the same department as Deckard, so you get to see some familiar settings and charters from that world but experience a whole new story within it.
The tie-in game for the Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events film is actually a very fun action-adventure game, and I'm one of few people who really liked the The Thing tie-in game from 2002.
And then Starbreeze took to their pigs and flew from the glaciers of hell with the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a game that was actually far better than its source material
Man, very often I think about what would've happened if someone actually cared about making a good Daria game. To this day, I still love that show to death. I always think the saddest licensed games have everything you need within it (art direction, character voices, etc) yet completely destroy themselves because no one actually wanted to make a real video game in the first place. Gotta get them popularity dollars.
One of my own favorite games, The Wolf Among Us (another TellTale game, btw) is a licensed game as well, adapted from the Fable graphic novel series. I had no clue about this going into the game, of course, but I think that's what makes it truly shine as an adaptation; it gets newcomers hooked on its own separate story, but includes enough of the source material to make fans of the original enjoy it as well, since I've heard fans of the original comics do thoroughly enjoy the game.
My favorites are the Witcher Series, Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, the Ghostbusters Game (the modern one with the stars of the movie as VAs), Aliens vs Predator 2, Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis and Batman: Arkham City. My least favorite was a Lord of the Rings Game for PC i once had.It was based on the book but it played awful. Oh and Terminator 2 on SNES but I never bought that myself. There might be some other Games I love or hate where I don't know that its licensed.
The most pleasant surprise I had was when I played a couple of games based on Gremlins. The 5200 game based on the first film was a blast, and the NES game based on the second film was awesome, too!
Starsky & Hutch was a decent game -(WATCH THE SCENERY, STARSKY),- Spiderman (both the 2000, 2002 & the sequel) was great, and my obscure choice: Monster House... Haven't played it for about a decade, so I can't tell if it's really that good or not.
Great video! I thought "Blade Runner" by Westwood was a pretty good effort. I think I've heard you say that you like detective stuff. Did you play it? Also licensed, but from a non-well-known comic, but also a great game, and detective-y - The Wolf Among Us...
Having recently found this channel I wanna say you are awesome! Also I want to thank you for the Genesis love. So many channels act like there was SNES .... and that other thing.
My all-time favorite license game is Spider-Man 2 - also I had no idea Simon The Sorcerer was a love letter to Discworld in that way. My love for it just skyrocketed!
I've always loved the Batman: Arkham games simply because they do some amazing things with Batman. Not only do they get the excellent DCAU voice cast, with Kevin and Mark, but they bring all sorts of fan favorite characters for you to go up against. Everyone is portrayed perfectly. It also helps that the gameplay itself is quite solid!
I really enjoyed this, and learned a lot. As a fan of both Terry Pratchett and Eric Idle, its a wonder I haven't heard of that game until now. Y'know I discovered this channel ages ago, and not sure why I didn't explore it more back then. Your videos are a delight, your voice is very nice to listen to, your general appearance and aesthetic are goals af, and I enjoy your sense of humor. Honestly, go for that exploding controller sunglasses intro sometime. I think you can pull it off. ;b
My overall favorite video game interpretation of something out of a movie is Jason Voorhees in Mortal Kombat X. Which I know probably sounds ridiculous at a glance, but everything from his move sets to his ending in arcade mode perfectly encapsulates what Jason is better than a lot of games do with characters they're completely based on. You can tell that the people in charge of putting him in the game were more than just casually acquainted with the franchise, which is something I feel a lot of games with guest characters fail to do. Freddy Krueger in MK 2011, on the other hand, wasn't used nearly as well,.
I remember what surprised me the most when i first started playing The Lion King licensed game, was that Westwood Studios developed it. They would go to completely switch genre by making the Command & Conquer games.
I was just thinking about Callahan's Crosstime Saloon right before you showed it here on the video. (Note: I am still looking at your playlist to this game as well. I'll get back to it soon!). And I hope to answer what you were wondering soon. Pizza break!
Most I can think of are the licensed titles for X-Box: Peter Jackson's King Kong got a really good survival action-game (with not-so-great parts as King Kong), and Revenge of the Sith is a surprisingly fun fighting game. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 also worked pretty well, by not only turning Star Wars into an RPG, but expanding the universe by introducing a completely new era to the public at large.
Discworld will always have a warm spot in my hearth, if only due to the fact that it introduce me to Terry Pratchett writing and made me start reading the Discworld books. Beside that I would say The Witcher trilogy, they manage to capture the spirit of the books and at the same time creating an excellent games that would appeal to people who didn't read the books. Have you tried "Emerald City Confidential"? It an adventure game with a film noir setting taking place in the Wizard of Oz world, it's really fun little game and I have a feeling you will enjoy.
favorite: vampire bloodline, Blade runner, The wolf among us. favorite: Harry Potter games in any incarnation, What makes a good game to me: I usually like stories set in the same universe and not just a repetition of a story I already know.
One of my favorite licensed games is Alien: Isolation. It's one of the few horror games I have played that actually gave me nightmares. For something more colorful and nostalgic, Tiny "Toons Adventures" for the NES and "Tiny Toons Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!' for the SNES are my childhood favorite. The most obscure one I have played I think is "Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future" for the Commodore 64.
I'm a huge fan of Disney games, and i love sandbox style games. Toy Story 3 for the Xbox is the best licensed game i have ever played, it is so freaking good. There's a story mode that's plenty of fun and true to the story, but the highlight of the game for me is the town building and quests sandbox mode. It's like two games in one. I also really enjoyed the Disney Infinity character sets. Those worlds all feel true to the stories and people upload cool sandboxes all the time.
Parasite Eve is one of my favorite licensed games and most people probably don't even know it is one. It's based on a novel of the same name. One of the main aspects to make a decent licensed game probably is if the gameplay makes sense in context of the source material, a bad example of this would be Wayne's World on the SNES, who thought making Waynes World into a platformer was a good idea? Turning Lord Of The Rings into an RPG makes sense, Turning Batman into a Beat Em Up/Stealth game hybrid also makes sense. A solid base idea can go a long way.
spiderman 2. little did i know playing it as a teen on my ps2 that it would be the best spiderman game, and that its throne wouldnt be shaken until many many years later. also it had a seamless open world. also loved divebombing enemies from the tallest tower. good times
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, I love this game so much, played it for the first time when I got my classic Xbox for christmas on a demo disc that came with it, didn't even know what it was based on at the time.
As for some license games that I have enjoyed: Star Wars Episode III on PS2/Xbox for its well-executed Jedi combat (despite some questionable level design) Star Wars Battlefront I and II for PS2/PC (the old ones, great at simulating the battles from the movies) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on Gamecube/PS2 (just because you get to hack and slash through the battles of the film) Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth on PC (RTS version of said big battles) Harry Potter 1-3 on PC (being surprisingly great action platformers while also making a recreation of Hogwarts that felt alive and explorable) Asterix & Obelix XXL (Action platformer based on the European comic book, recreates the over the top fighting from the comics really well) Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 Mission: Las Vegum (not that good as a game, but it's a weird thing worth checking out for riffing as all the enemies are spoofs of other video game characters... for some reason) Toy Story 2 on PC (Mario 64-esque platformer, though it probably hasn't aged well) Extremely Goofy Skateboarding (Tony Hawk clone with Disney characters, also probably hasn't aged well)
The PS2 era had some pretty good-great licensed games. King Kong, The Warriors, Matrix Path of Neo, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Punisher 2005, Jedi Outcast and Academy and Spider-Man 2.
The two Pink Panther PC adventure games are one of my favorite licensed games out there, Passport to Peril and Hokus Pokus Pink. You can't go wrong when the voice of Dean Venture himself is the voice of Pink.
Some of my favs are Koei Tecmo's Attack on Titan, SAO: Hollow Fragment (though I know it is flawed), Alien Isolation, and the LEGO games by Traveler's Tales. I also love a lot of the Telltale games like TWD
It seems like the majority of my childhood games library was licensed games. Some of my favourites (for some reason) were: the spongebob Square pants movie for PS2, several of the Disney activity center games for PC, and skrek super slam for the PS2 (I have no idea why).
Both Riddick games (Escape from Butcher's bay and Assault on Dark Athena) are amazing games that complete the experience and integrate seamless with the movies, because they tell a new story that explains more of the character.
The first licensed game (and video game) that I ever played was Bratz: Rock Angels for the PS2. In hindsight it wasn't very good, but oh GOD I loved it, especially the soundtrack. I sometimes will play Rush by Ally and AJ and my mum will comment that it feels like she's on rollerskates (based off of the rollerskating minigames from that series).
The Discworld games were difficult because of how well they adapted the Discworld. The some of the more complex puzzles made no real sense at first, but as I got further through the books and went back to the game, they became far easier to solve. The better understanding of the Discworld and the books, the easier the puzzles seem because they make more sense the more you read of the books. I believe this makes the Discworld games to be of some of the best games I have played, but would seem terrible to anyone not as familiar with the series of novels.
A bit of a guilty pleasure for me Is Pirates of the Carribean: At world's end for the PC. Just because of all the fun gambling minigames and how it bridges the gaps between the 2nd and 3rd movie. So it's like you start out at Dead Man's chest and end at world's end. I bet the combat and customizable swords can be boring and standard for some people, but it has a nostalgic place in my heart for me.
I suspect that many, if not, all devs working on license-based mainstream games are told something like, "This game has to be finished by this day." regardless as to whether or not it's meant to be promotion as the higher-ups see games as business first and foremost. They might feel that the faster they can have one game finished, the faster they can get to the next one, thus making more money. I think that there needs to be a balance of priority between business and fun gameplay less bad licensed video games to come out.
I never finished Alien Isolation. Not that I didn't like it. In fact, I was terrified! So much so that it was hard for me to stay at it for long periods of time because it was physically and emotionally draining. But, it was everything a true Xenomorph fan would love. I heard that they had unprecedented access to Fox's vault of stuff from the original film which included props and audio effects. Now, I think I'm going to have to finish it! ;)
I personally really liked the X-Files adventure game, although I see a lot of bad reviews about it. And Blade Runner was also great off course. Some of the Star Wars games, especially Jedi Knight and KotOR I played a lot.
... Is that Adore Delano at 3:45?! I had no idea there was a Rocky Horror licensed game! Now I want to play it and maybe use it as a basis for a Sims building project...
I love the Back to the future telltale game, I loved all the episodes and I'm really sad that they didn't continue that. Though, I think what got me into it was my small knowledge about the movie before I saw the game. I was 8 and watched some parts of the Back to the future movie but watched the full thing until 4 ish years later (fyi, I was born in 2001)
I can't think of any new adaptations that I have played recently, but I loved the Disney NES Capcom platformers like Ducktakes and Rescue Rangers, but that's probably largely because I liked Capcom platformers. As for one I shudder just thinking about? Home Alone 2.
my personal favourite licensed game would have to be disney's enchanted for the ds. you could use giselle's dresses as power-ups and it had an overworld and stuff... it was pretty lit.
My first encounter with Telltale was with The Wolf Among Us. It got me into reading the Fables series even the author is all over the place with his "views". Luckily I didn't pay for the books I just checked then out from the library.
Favorites: Atari arcade Star Wars. Aliens v Predator 2, Alien Trilogy, AdnD Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds. Warhammer 40k Final Liberation and Space Marine. Super Robot Wars V.
I like Batman Returns on the PC. An Adventure game with fighting mechanics. You can select the bat-things on the bat-belt then you can use the bat-things to bat-beatup the bad guys, all while collecting clues to solve a mystery (that I never managed to work out)
I played some really good licensed games growing up. An early favorite of mine was a computer game based on Blue's Clues developed by Humungous Entertainment that essentially played like an episode of the show with minigames and interactivity also added in. The first game I ever got for my GameBoy Advance was Kim Possible 2 that I have played and replayed A LOT. The worst I've played is probably Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- clunky mechanics and bad graphics; I don't know if I ever even finished it.
I liked Toy Story 2, the early Harry Potter games, The Incredibles, anything made by Lego, Wolf Among Us (which is an adaptation based on the Fables comics), and (imo) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Yeah I grew up with Licensed games.
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (especially it's remake, Dune 2000), Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, and Star Wars: KotR are also good examples of excellent licensed games (especially with Dune II, considering it helped pioneer the Real-Time Strategy genre). With Dune II being based off of a Sci-Fi book series, Dawn of War being based off of a tabletop board-game, and do I really need to explain Star Wars?
Some of my favourite licensed games are the Sunsoft's Batman games on NES, Game Boy and Genesis from 1990. All of them unique from one another but all still very playable. The NES version kinda dispensed with the movie's story, though.
