Top 10 Movie Licensed Video Games

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johnthegoat

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Edited By johnthegoat

It’s a running joke within the industry that movie tie in games just aren’t very good. Well, here we try to prove some of that wrong with our favorite movie video game tie ins of all time.

10 Toy Story 3

Console 360, PS3.

Release Date June 15th 2010

Publisher Disney Interactive Studios

Developer Avalanch Software

Metacritic Score 76

User Score 8.9

A fun little game that took players completely by surprise. A direct movie tie in, that opted to avoid following the events of the film. This is a lesson for modern game designers in how to make kids games that can appeal to a whole spectrum of players.

Even adults who picked this up found themselves strangely drawn into its beautiful simplicity. Design a town and play with the residents. Players who felt compelled to could chase down bank robbers and help find Bo-Peep’s sheep, but the real magic came when you just messed around.

9 X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Console 360, PS3

Release Date 1st May 2009

Publisher Activision

Developer Raven Software

Metacritic Score 75

User Score 8.4

An enjoyable title. The story was generic and relatively uninteresting, but the mechanics and sheer brutality of the kills more than made up for any narrative shortfalls. Flying around the map chopping up your foes with big claws sprouting from your knuckles is great fun, and the added dynamic of killing everyone whilst avoiding their gunfire added an element of strategy that was most welcome. This game won’t win any awards, but those looking for good time smashing stuff up can’t go far wrong here.

8 The Lion King

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 8th December 1994

Publisher Virgin Interactive

Developer Westwood Studios

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Simple in premise with a quality result. This side scrolling adventure included all the familiar faces of the movie, and incorporated them into a platforming experience that was just brilliant. Although the modern day graphics will put it to shame, it came during a period that the 16 bit era was really getting into its stride, providing a level of detail and character animations that were just unheard of previously.

7 Michael Jackson

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 1989

Publisher U.S. Gold

Developer Emerald Software

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Used as the poster boy to the launch of the SEGA Megadrive, Michael Jacksons movie tie in game saw him storming around various levels, killing people with his dance moves and grabbing his crotch all in an effort to save the children from the bad guys. Leaving that thought there to linger in your mind, it’s also important to mention that this was one of the first console games to include fully digitised voices, a major step for the industry. In its day, this was one of the best looking and well designed games around.

6 Lego Star Wars

Console 360, PS3

Release Date 6th November 2007

Publisher LucasArts

Developer Travellers Tales

Metacritic Score 80

User Score 6.2

Stating a craze that appears to be showing no signs of abating, Lego Star Wars was and is a game that brings the hardcore and casual fan bases together. Deep enough for hardened gamers to sink their teeth into, but simple enough that anyone can play along. If you have kids and want to play games with them, then you really have to get into the Lego games, with the Star Wars iterations at the top of your list.

5 Aladin

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 11th November 1993

Publisher SEGA

Developer Virgin Games

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

This is one of the few game to film tie ins that, providing you like games, is every bit as good as the film. Great visuals, and a wonderful balance of gameplay that constantly kept things fresh. Those who have played the game before will undoubtably remember the challenge of the flying carpet level, a standout moment in many peoples gaming life. Anybody that wants to look back over the history of gaming should definitely get hold of this along the way. Sheer class.

4 The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

Console Xbox

Release Date 1st June 2004

Publisher Vivendi Studios

Developer Starbreeze Studios

Metacritic Score 89

User Score 8.8

This game is brilliant, and to think that it;’s a movie tie in is astonishing. This is a brutal game with fantastic visuals for the time. Chronicling the main characters time leading up to and just after him getting that funky stuff done to his eyes, allowing him to see so well in the dark. The game has you breaking free from a violent prison where the guards mostly leave people to sort their own problems out. Soon enough you escape and are aggressively pursued around the prison interior as you make a bid for freedom. Want to know how the developers behind The Darkness games learned their trade? Start here.

3 The Warriors

Console Xbox, PS2

Release Date 21st October 2005

Publisher Rockstar Games

Developer Rockstar Toronto

Metacritic Score 85

User Score 9.2

A bit of a stretch to call this a movie tie in game because it was released so far after the original film, its coincidence with remastered the re-release allows it to make its way onto our list. Rockstar grabbed the franchise and brought it into the modern era with a brutality that far exceeds the film. Smashing players heads into walls and defending your turf against the quite honestly terrifying ganges is a blast. Let down by periodically shoddy boss battles is more of a product of the games era than it being a movie tie in. A personal favorite from the original Xbox generation.

2 Spiderman 2

Console Xbox, PS2

Release Date 9th July 2004

Publisher Activision

Developer Treyarch

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Anybody that has played video games for any amount of time will have memories of this game. Probably not from the campaign, but from flying around the open world environment. Fantastic fun and a standout memory for most. Spiderman 2 was a major improvement from the first Spiderman, as it was the first time the franchise went open world. One of a small selection of open world games in its time, players were drawn towards the nice visuals and sheer fun that could be had from climbing as high as they could and free falling to earth only to swing off at the last moment. Doing this and finding collectables was easily the best part of the game.

1 Goldeneye

Console N64

Release Date 25th August 1997

Publisher Nintendo

Developer Rare

Metacritic Score: 96

User Score 9.1

No surprises to see this sitting atop the pile, however it commands such esteem in our hearts that theres just no way anything released so far can usurp Goldeneye from its rightful place.

Great visuals for its time and a solid control scheme were only part of the attraction. What this game was really about was the fantastic multiplayer component. Utilising the Nintendo 64′s then revolutionary four controller ports, friends would huddle round tiny televisions for hours and fight fiercely contested battles, until things descended into arguments at the end because someone had been watching your screen or cheated by using Odd Job.

Goldeneye didn’t really do anything new, but it brought the multiplayer deathmatch to the home console in style. Friends would become enemies, and a small but devout core of players used to invent their own games to be played in the multiplayer map. This is a game that any gamer worth their salt needs to have played.

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johnthegoat

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#1  Edited By johnthegoat

It’s a running joke within the industry that movie tie in games just aren’t very good. Well, here we try to prove some of that wrong with our favorite movie video game tie ins of all time.

10 Toy Story 3

Console 360, PS3.

Release Date June 15th 2010

Publisher Disney Interactive Studios

Developer Avalanch Software

Metacritic Score 76

User Score 8.9

A fun little game that took players completely by surprise. A direct movie tie in, that opted to avoid following the events of the film. This is a lesson for modern game designers in how to make kids games that can appeal to a whole spectrum of players.

Even adults who picked this up found themselves strangely drawn into its beautiful simplicity. Design a town and play with the residents. Players who felt compelled to could chase down bank robbers and help find Bo-Peep’s sheep, but the real magic came when you just messed around.

9 X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Console 360, PS3

Release Date 1st May 2009

Publisher Activision

Developer Raven Software

Metacritic Score 75

User Score 8.4

An enjoyable title. The story was generic and relatively uninteresting, but the mechanics and sheer brutality of the kills more than made up for any narrative shortfalls. Flying around the map chopping up your foes with big claws sprouting from your knuckles is great fun, and the added dynamic of killing everyone whilst avoiding their gunfire added an element of strategy that was most welcome. This game won’t win any awards, but those looking for good time smashing stuff up can’t go far wrong here.

8 The Lion King

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 8th December 1994

Publisher Virgin Interactive

Developer Westwood Studios

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Simple in premise with a quality result. This side scrolling adventure included all the familiar faces of the movie, and incorporated them into a platforming experience that was just brilliant. Although the modern day graphics will put it to shame, it came during a period that the 16 bit era was really getting into its stride, providing a level of detail and character animations that were just unheard of previously.

7 Michael Jackson

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 1989

Publisher U.S. Gold

Developer Emerald Software

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Used as the poster boy to the launch of the SEGA Megadrive, Michael Jacksons movie tie in game saw him storming around various levels, killing people with his dance moves and grabbing his crotch all in an effort to save the children from the bad guys. Leaving that thought there to linger in your mind, it’s also important to mention that this was one of the first console games to include fully digitised voices, a major step for the industry. In its day, this was one of the best looking and well designed games around.

6 Lego Star Wars

Console 360, PS3

Release Date 6th November 2007

Publisher LucasArts

Developer Travellers Tales

Metacritic Score 80

User Score 6.2

Stating a craze that appears to be showing no signs of abating, Lego Star Wars was and is a game that brings the hardcore and casual fan bases together. Deep enough for hardened gamers to sink their teeth into, but simple enough that anyone can play along. If you have kids and want to play games with them, then you really have to get into the Lego games, with the Star Wars iterations at the top of your list.

5 Aladin

Console SEGA Mega Drive

Release Date 11th November 1993

Publisher SEGA

Developer Virgin Games

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

This is one of the few game to film tie ins that, providing you like games, is every bit as good as the film. Great visuals, and a wonderful balance of gameplay that constantly kept things fresh. Those who have played the game before will undoubtably remember the challenge of the flying carpet level, a standout moment in many peoples gaming life. Anybody that wants to look back over the history of gaming should definitely get hold of this along the way. Sheer class.

4 The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay

Console Xbox

Release Date 1st June 2004

Publisher Vivendi Studios

Developer Starbreeze Studios

Metacritic Score 89

User Score 8.8

This game is brilliant, and to think that it;’s a movie tie in is astonishing. This is a brutal game with fantastic visuals for the time. Chronicling the main characters time leading up to and just after him getting that funky stuff done to his eyes, allowing him to see so well in the dark. The game has you breaking free from a violent prison where the guards mostly leave people to sort their own problems out. Soon enough you escape and are aggressively pursued around the prison interior as you make a bid for freedom. Want to know how the developers behind The Darkness games learned their trade? Start here.

3 The Warriors

Console Xbox, PS2

Release Date 21st October 2005

Publisher Rockstar Games

Developer Rockstar Toronto

Metacritic Score 85

User Score 9.2

A bit of a stretch to call this a movie tie in game because it was released so far after the original film, its coincidence with remastered the re-release allows it to make its way onto our list. Rockstar grabbed the franchise and brought it into the modern era with a brutality that far exceeds the film. Smashing players heads into walls and defending your turf against the quite honestly terrifying ganges is a blast. Let down by periodically shoddy boss battles is more of a product of the games era than it being a movie tie in. A personal favorite from the original Xbox generation.

2 Spiderman 2

Console Xbox, PS2

Release Date 9th July 2004

Publisher Activision

Developer Treyarch

Metacritic Score N/A

User Score N/A

Anybody that has played video games for any amount of time will have memories of this game. Probably not from the campaign, but from flying around the open world environment. Fantastic fun and a standout memory for most. Spiderman 2 was a major improvement from the first Spiderman, as it was the first time the franchise went open world. One of a small selection of open world games in its time, players were drawn towards the nice visuals and sheer fun that could be had from climbing as high as they could and free falling to earth only to swing off at the last moment. Doing this and finding collectables was easily the best part of the game.

1 Goldeneye

Console N64

Release Date 25th August 1997

Publisher Nintendo

Developer Rare

Metacritic Score: 96

User Score 9.1

No surprises to see this sitting atop the pile, however it commands such esteem in our hearts that theres just no way anything released so far can usurp Goldeneye from its rightful place.

Great visuals for its time and a solid control scheme were only part of the attraction. What this game was really about was the fantastic multiplayer component. Utilising the Nintendo 64′s then revolutionary four controller ports, friends would huddle round tiny televisions for hours and fight fiercely contested battles, until things descended into arguments at the end because someone had been watching your screen or cheated by using Odd Job.

Goldeneye didn’t really do anything new, but it brought the multiplayer deathmatch to the home console in style. Friends would become enemies, and a small but devout core of players used to invent their own games to be played in the multiplayer map. This is a game that any gamer worth their salt needs to have played.

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NTM

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#2  Edited By NTM

Chronicles of Riddick, The Bourne Conspiracy and Goldeneye. That's all. And yes, The Bourne Conspiracy is a great game. Oh, and The Warriors was pretty good too.

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MarkWahlberg

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#3  Edited By MarkWahlberg

King Fucking Kong, man! C'mon. That shit was waay better than it had any right to be. Best Dinosaur game of the decade (which really, isn't saying much).

Motherfucking T Rex will take none of your shit, good sir
Motherfucking T Rex will take none of your shit, good sir
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Sursh

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#4  Edited By Sursh

for the first time ever; i agree with a top ten list.

sidenote: this is my 100th post, pop the champagne.

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#5  Edited By LastNinja

RoboCop and T2 for the NES blew me away back in the day. I was stupid. These days I mostly stay away from movie games but that Wolverine one was awesome. One of the few games I have platinum on, just wish it was more free from the movie.

And lets not forget Bladerunner.

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deactivated-61665c8292280

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breadfan

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#7  Edited By breadfan

The Warriors was such a great game. My favorite movie based game is Battle for Middle Earth. If that qualifies because you know, books.

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#8  Edited By DarthOrange
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#9  Edited By me3639

Nice job. I really liked Captain America Super Soldier and wish someone would take that game to the next level.

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johnthegoat

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#10  Edited By johnthegoat

@NTM: I liked the fighting mechanic for that game if i remember correctly. Very short though.

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johnthegoat

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#11  Edited By johnthegoat

@MarkWahlberg: hah, i have to admit, i never played that one.

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#12  Edited By JohnstonThistle

The Two Towers video game was utterly badass, this list needs an LotR title.

I also enjoyed Batman Returns for the SNES. It's no more than Streets of Rage dressed up as Batman but... well, what else do you need?

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donchipotle

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#13  Edited By donchipotle

The SNES Aladdin was better.

Someone had to say it.

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#14  Edited By SathingtonWaltz

@DonChipotle: I like them both a lot, though I personally prefer the Genesis version. You can't go wrong with either really. Hell I could say the same thing about the Genesis or the SNES in general, whichever one you had you were guaranteed to have some great games to play.

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#15  Edited By donchipotle

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@DonChipotle: I like them both a lot, though I personally prefer the Genesis version. You can't go wrong with either really. Hell I could say the same thing about the Genesis or the SNES in general, whichever one you had you were guaranteed to have some great games to play.

That's fair. Aladdin on SNES was pretty much the game of my childhood. I played it all the time. That and NBA Jam. So it has a special place in my heart that makes me call it superior.

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#16  Edited By FearMyFlop

I would bump Riddick up to number one but it's hard to argue against Goldeneye.

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#17  Edited By Bourbon_Warrior

Walking dead and Batman Arkham Asylum should be on that list.

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#18  Edited By Vexxan

LOTR The Two Towers and Return of the King were two pretty badass games.

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#19  Edited By joshthebear

@DonChipotle said:

The SNES Aladdin was better.

Someone had to say it.

FUCK YES. I've always thought the SNES version was far superior, but it seemed like I was in the minority. Good to see someone with the correct answer.

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#20  Edited By johnthegoat

@Bourbon_Warrior: Both fantastic games i agree, however i don't think the Arkham games are directly tied into a movie, and the Walking Dead certainly doesn't have a movie so they don't qualify in my rules. Maybe someone should do a top 10 comic book tie in games?

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#21  Edited By DelroyLindo

Aladdin and Lion King, fuck yeah.

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#22  Edited By MooseyMcMan

I don't think Riddick should count as a movie licensed game. It's not directly based on either of the Riddick movies, it's a separate story in the same universe. Otherwise shouldn't stuff like KoTOR be on this list, because that's set in the Star Wars univserse?

Or maybe I'm just being crazy.

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#23  Edited By emem

Escape from Butcher Bay, Arkham Asylum/City, KotOR, Indiana Jones (Last Crusade and Atlantis), and pretty much all the LEGO games.

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#24  Edited By Little_Socrates

I believe the two Genesis/Mega Drive Disney games are too high on the list! Aladdin is a fine game, but it's just another decent platformer in an era full of decent platformers. Lion King has graphics and music on its side (turns out those songs just sound totally rad in MIDI) but its logic and platforming are just too insane to ever be a reasonable Top 10 pick. I mean, just look at that clip you chose! Half of it is spent on a single log climbing sequence, and the next level opens with Simba killing a seemingly indeterminate number of leopards before Rafiki shows up to clear the path.

I'd say my favorite Disney Mega Drive game would have to have been Pinocchio; even if the actual gameplay doesn't feel that good, the level design, intensely gorgeous graphics and animation, and the more reasonable difficulty always appealed to me.

Anyways, I agree that the Lord of the Rings action games for either Two Towers or ROTK should be on the list. I personally preferred ROTK because it had co-op and waaaay more levels. I think the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World game that came out right after the movie's release was on the money. It's definitely based on the comics, but it also came out a month after the movie, so I can't decide if that should count or not. I also liked Enter the Matrix a whooole lot more than the rest of the world, but that's a fight I'll only win with history, just like my fight against GoldenEye.

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johnthegoat

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#25  Edited By johnthegoat

@MooseyMcMan: You make a good point sir.