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captainofthestars

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The Movie Tie-In Video Games that don't suck

Much as movies based on video games are often disasters, so too have there been many examples of the reverse: movies based on video games that, regardless of the actual quality of the movie they're based on...stink. However, despite having a reputation for being cynical, hastily put together cash grabs that eventually went extinct for a reason, the truth is that there are some movie tie-in video games that are actually good. That's these, ranging from the "not great but not broken or awful" to the "legitimately good". For clarity, I will not be including LEGO games or the 2005 Punisher game, since though the latter has Thomas Jane reprising his role, it takes far more from the comics than the actual movie, and so is really more of a Comic Book video game than a Movie Tie-In one. At least in my opinion. I similarly will not be including original stories that happen to be set in universes that are movie franchises, like Alien: Isolation or the video game for The Thing.

All that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the list.

List items

  • Though it differs greatly from the movie proper (owing in part to licensing issues), the game still got overall solid review scores for a movie tie-in game, earning it a place here.

  • This is one that successfully adapts *three* movies for the price of one!

  • Considering how bad the movie itself was (not to mention a criminal squandering of the late David Bowie), the PS2 and PC versions are surprisingly decent, making this a case of the game being better than the movie itself!

  • Yes, surprisingly. At least the Gamecube and PS2 versions anyway.

  • As I noted in my ranking of Superhero video games, this one's largely been rendered obsolete by the Batman Arkham games. But having said that, it is *still* one of the better movie tie-in video games. It's worth mentioning that Gameinformer, which was generally very hard on movie tie-in games, gave Batman Begins a decent score of 7.25. Much of what makes Batman: Arkham Asylum great is present here, albeit in a significantly watered down form. But really, compared to the likes of Batman: Dark Tomorrow and the Batman Beyond tie-in game, that's still pretty solid. And hey, most of the movie's cast reprise their roles for this one, with the unfortunate exception of Gary Oldman as James Gordon.

  • While the Arcade Beat-Em-Up for Batman: Forever got a more mixed/middling reception, the beat-em-up that was released for Batman Returns fared much better, at least on the Genesis and SNES. Pity Catwoman wasn't playable alongside Batman.

  • As incredulous as I am about it, the fact is that the Xbox 360 version actually got multiple 8/10 scores, and even its lowest scores are 6.5/10s from Gameinformer and Gamestop, which is far from the worst scores a movie tie-in game's gotten. I may still think the movie itself is inane and not for me, but apparently it produced a solid tie-in game on the Xbox 360.

    And heck, the Wii, PS2, and PC versions all got overall decent reviews too. Who'd have guessed?

  • Another one that isn't anything stellar, but it does at least have the modest honor of being the only remotely good tie-in video game the MCU got before the concept of movie tie-in games went the way of the Dinosaurs. Until someone gives Captain America a fantastic, lovingly crafted solo game, this is the best we've got as far as Captain America solo games go. If nothing else, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell reprise their roles, and that's always a welcome thing for me.

  • Both the console and GBA versions, at least in my opinion. Not as great as the Lord of the Rings games, but better than the Eragon game (much like the movie proper!)

  • The SNES/Sega version

  • This seems to be a more polarizing one, given that it got a dismal score of 3/10 from Eurogamer, but an 8/10 from Gameinformer. Other review outlets seem similarly divided on this one. So this one's a good movie tie-in game or another failure depending on who you ask.

  • Similar to Alien Trilogy (which came out around the same time), this one successfully adapts three movies instead of one.

  • AKA Sega's Aladdin and Virgin Game's Aladdin. Generally, most of Disney's forays into video games during the 90s era were simplistic, "edutainment" computer games, which honestly isn't surprising given the limitations of the day (we're a long, long way from the heights of PC gaming here). But Aladdin shows what was possible when Disney dared to let a proper game company and console play host to one of their properties. It also helps that Aladdin is a story with more adventure and action in it than some other Disney films, making it a more organic fit for a video game in the first place. Basically, this is an oldie but a goody, and also pre-dates the more famous Goldeneye: 007 by a few years.

  • And here's another successful platformer born out of a 90s Disney film!

  • Much as I love The Emperor's New Groove, I'd have never, ever figured it would make for a good video game. But if the surprisingly solid reviews this title got overall are any indication, it seems like it did.

  • As much as I really hate the 2000s Fantastic Four movies and regard them as some of the worst films I've ever seen, it has to be said, that the tie-in game for the first movie actually isn't the worst. Maybe it's just because the FF get very little love in video games, but this one actually does have a basic understanding of how to do an FF video game, capturing the different powers and abilities of the superhero quartet relatively well. Worth mentioning that it got some decent reviews at the time, getting a 7.5 from Gameinformer and an 8.5 from Gamezone. IGN was less impressed, but even a 6.5 is far from the worst score a movie tie-in game's ever gotten. Either way, I figure this game can't be any worse than the movie it's based on.

  • Since I did say "no original stories", I'm rather cheating including this one here, but I felt I could make an exception because, while the game IS an overall original story, it does intersect with the events of the actual movie throughout, meaning that its still kind-of-sort-of an adaptation of the film. At least in my opinion. Either way, it did alright for itself.

  • Arguably the first and best good movie tie-in video game, at least in terms of its critical reception and legacy. It did spawn its own franchise after all, and is cited as one of the best and/or most influential FPS games ever. How many other movie tie-in games can claim that? It shows its age a good bit nowadays, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still got a special place in the hearts of many gamers and Bond fans alike.

  • More the PC versions than the console versions, which had infamously bad graphics even for the time that spawned multiple memes. But even those versions have a certain charm to them, and feel like they were made with more care than many Potter games to come.

  • Same as the above entry.

  • Judged fairly harshly by critics at the time of release, but as someone who spent a great deal of time playing it, I'd honestly argue it's one of the better Potter video games we've gotten so far. I love the inclusion of Chocolate Frog card collectibles that features profiles on many characters never mentioned in the movie proper. This and other things, including the appearance of Peeves, makes this feel like it's as much of an adaptation of the original book as it is the movie. One particularly dark touch that I like is how, whenever Dementors close in on or attack Harry, audio of his parent's last moments play, which helps add to the menace the Dementors are supposed to have. It also helps that the game remembered to keep them unstoppable to anything not a Patronus. The puzzles are also decent. Nothing super sophisticated, but pre-Teen me never much minded.

    Again, it's no Hogwarts Legacy, but compared to the painfully rushed, phoned in, and soulless games for the final three entries in the Harry Potter series, I'd say Prisoner of Azkaban holds up reasonably well. Basically, not as mediocre as the critics said.

  • Actually got some decent reviews from a few different outlets, receiving 3.5/5 from GameSpy, 7-8 range scores from GameZone (depending on the specific version), and 7.2 scores from IGN. For a movie tie-in game, that ain't bad, and suggests that the Harry Potter films managed to squeeze out one last decent tie-in game post Prisoner of Azkaban.

  • Another one that falls squarely into the "good but not great" category. Unfortunately, Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter did not reprise their roles for it (but they did at least get Samuel Jackson back).

  • SEGA CD version, which was very well-received for a movie tie-in game, and would also prove to not be the only Jurassic Park video game that stuck the landing.

  • And here's the SEGA Genesis version, meaning SEGA put out two different, good Jurassic Park video game tie-ins. Impressive.

  • SNES and NES versions. Jurassic Park sure did spawn a lot of solid tie-in games, didn't it?

  • Classifying this as a "tie-in game", may be a bit of a stretch, but if one counts it, I'd say its another good video game to come out of the Jurassic franchise. Basically gave people the experience of managing their own dinosaur zoo that we always wanted. And it got a sequel that refined the gameplay and ironed out the kinks, which was good.

  • Considering this was a tie-in game for a terrible cinematic rendition of King Arthur, that it got a 6.9/10 from IGN and a 7.25 from Gameinformer is pretty impressive I'd say. Basically a case where the game was better than the film itself!

  • Haven't played this one myself, but I've heard good things.

  • An iconic 90s platformer alongside the aforementioned Aladdin. One wonders if Disney maybe shouldn't have committed more to video games given early successes like these.

  • Covers the events of the War of the Ring, and has the movie's visuals/art-style and came out around the same time as the movies, so yes, this one counts. Less so the sequel though, which deals with battles in the North (though it does still feature characters and aesthetics from the Peter Jackson movies). While I personally consider the sequel an improvement over the first on just about every level (the Nazgul aren't confined to their Fell Beasts anymore and can fight on foot, for starters), we wouldn't have gotten that sequel without this game, and its a good RTS regardless.

  • Much of what was great about The Two Towers applies to this one, but with the added awesome of getting to play as Gandalf, who does become somewhat OP the more you level him up, but...it's Gandalf. He SHOULD be OP. Honestly, I kind of wish Gandalf in the movies had let loose with the magic badassery a bit more after playing this game's levels over and over.

  • OK, I did say "no original stories". But in my defense, I think this one isn't entirely so, since the main characters, though made for the game, follow the Fellowship through the same places and participate in most of the big battles from the trilogy proper. So I think it adapts enough of the actual Lord of the Rings trilogy to qualify as a tie-in game. Others may disagree, but oh well. Either way, this is one of the better Lord of the Rings video games, with solid turn-based combat, a good amount of customization, and visuals and special effects that, while dated by today's standards, look pretty good for the year the game came out.

  • Solid mix of melee and ranged gameplay, a bevy of levels taken from the first two Lord of the Rings games, and an actually fairly impressive and rewarding leveling / experience system (especially for the time) adds up to a pretty solid Lord of the Rings game that has aged far better than is typical for movie tie-in games.

  • 7.25/10 from Gameinformer, 7.3/10 from Gamespot, 7.8/10 from IGN, and a spot on a Watchmojo Top 10 PS2 movie games list. For a movie tie-in game, its hard to get much better than that.

  • While the handheld DS version was atrocious, the console version was surprisingly well received. And as someone who loves the 2005 King Kong movie a ton, I'm definitely pleased by that. You can even get an alternate ending where Kong lives!

  • The DS and Wii versions anyway, which actually got some decent scores from most review outlets.

  • While definitely overshadowed by its sequel, I would still argue that Spider-Man 1 honestly holds up as one of the better movie tie-in games. It ranked fairly high on my Superhero Games list, and while I won't repeat everything I said there here, I will nevertheless remind everyone that this game has a playable Green Goblin that has yet to be topped by any subsequent Marvel game to date, and really makes me wish a fully tricked out Green Goblin was playable in more Marvel games.

  • One of the ONLY movie tie-in video games to be widely acclaimed and adored to this day. Often cited as one of the best superhero video games period, and with good reason. Many later Spider-Man games did things this one did better and added more, but it was this one that established the formula and got the ball rolling. And that's still worth something. Plus, Black Cat is in it!

  • As widely disliked as Spider-Man 3 the movie is, I really do think its tie-in game is solid. Not the best Spider-Man game by any means, but decent for what it is. That it barely touches on the movie's events at all may actually have something to do with that, instead telling its own original stories that include many villains who sadly never appeared in the Raimi movies proper like Scorpion and Lizard. And you can play as New Goblin, which suits me, since I always did think New Goblin was cool despite being underdeveloped and underused in the movie proper.

  • This is another one where it's being a good one or a stinker depends on who you ask, but it definitely has a following to some degree. And I think it's actually the very first Star Wars game where you could play as Mace Windu, so there is that.

  • A solid hack-n-slash adaptation of the best of the Prequel Trilogy, its biggest asset is a wonderful Versus mode that lets you do lightsaber battles between several different characters, including an unlockable Darth Vader who can actually use Force Lightning! But really, Star Wars lends itself to video games so much better than many other movie franchises, so this one being a superior movie tie-in game shouldn't come as a surprise.

  • Ah, the nostalgia this one brings back for me personally. While I never was able to beat Boba Fett and Darth Vader owing to the, in my opinion, not very intuitive lightsaber controls (then again I was just a kid at the time), the FPS and vehicle levels were simple-but-effective joys to play through. I think it's a crying shame that this arcade game has (to my knowledge), never been ported to consoles or computers when I think it absolutely deserves it.

  • This game and its sequels technically follow the events of the Original Star Wars Trilogy, albeit in a highly exaggerated and wildly inaccurate way, but they are generally considered fun (if challenging!) Star Wars games.

  • The GBA version anyway. Console versions were nowhere near as well-received.

  • A game that actually does a good job of conveying the sense of scale that comes with being a toy, and being an overall charming platformer that managed to get much better reviews than is typical for a movie tie-in game. Also proof that Traveler's Tales was great before they ever did a single LEGO game.

  • Two words: Toybox Mode.

  • Another one that's better than the movie it's based on...maybe. While not without flaws that were noted at the time, it still got (for a movie tie-in game at least), respectable scores from some review outlets, though also savage reviews from others. So a debatable one.

    But hey, at least it's got a dedicated evil campaign along with a good one for all the Decepticon fans.

  • Much like an entry soon to follow this one, it's a video game based on a terrible Hugh Jackman-led film that is better than the film itself!

  • PS2 version (which got 7-range scores across the board) only. All of the other versions were mediocre at best, and awful at worst.

  • Yes, shockingly, this one actually got respectable reviews at the time of its release, including a 9/10 from Gamespot. Talk about exceeding expectations.

  • The worst movie in the entire Fox X-Men franchise (yes, even worse than the honestly not THAT terrible X-Men 3) manages to spawn a really good, viscerally satisfying Wolverine solo game? What are the odds? And with Insomniac's own Wolverine game still not yet released, this remains the only option for those looking for a good Wolverine solo adventure. Yes, Barakapool is in it, unfortunately, but look at it this way: you get to take him down. That's a good thing, right?
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