Video game adaptations of films were often quite bad, as I think we all know. I did a list highlighting the exceptions to this rule, but now I think it's time to list some movie video games that were bad despite being based off of movies that were good or great. Proof that success in one medium doesn't always translate to success in another.
A collection of James Bond's greatest hits in video game form. What could go wrong?
Oh, right. THAT.
While the original 300 movie attracted some amount of controversy at the time of its release and after, its still generally considered an excellent sword-and-sandals action film, and one of the better movies to come from Zack Snyder. The tie-in game though? Almost no one likes it.
All of the different versions of this game got their share of negative reviews, but special mention goes to the Gameboy Color version, which had the overall worst reviews.
Unless you're up for something that is EXTREMELY primitive and simplistic, you're better off skipping this and just watching the movie again instead (or playing Alien: Isolation, that works too).
One of the greatest Batman movies ever made, and also one of the greatest animated superhero movies ever made. And it gave us the Batman video game with THE LOWEST score on Metacritic. Yes, even worse than the infamous Batman: Dark Tomorrow.
This is admittedly a case where calling the movie "great" would be a serious stretch, but the movie's mixed/lukewarm reception looks great compared to how the tie-in game fared.
Granted, the movie itself actually didn't get great reviews at the time either, but the difference is that it managed to get a cult following and is now generally considered a solid sequel to the first Blade movie.
The Coppola movie is generally considered one of the more faithful adaptations of the Dracula novel, and is also a favorite of mine personally. The Dracula/Mina love story may not have been to everyone's tastes, but I'd imagine even the film's harsher critics would still admit it's better than the ill-advised Gameboy and Sega video game adaptations that it got. The NES version fared better, but still not great.
The movie won Best Picture. The game meanwhile, got negative reviews from almost everyone (except Edge and PC Gamer anyway).
Suffice to say, not all movies make good video game material.
While some versions actually got solid reviews, that mostly wasn't the case for the Gameboy Color version, making it another case of an animated movie with a terrible game for that console.
Similar to the aforementioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this is a helpful reminder that not all good movies translate well to video games.
This one depends on who you ask, as while some outlets like Eurogamer gave it scathing reviews, others like Gameinformer were very positive.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire may enjoy a cult following (as many early 2000s Disney films do), but this tie-in game is a mediocre shooter that got mostly poor reviews.
Though mostly forgotten today, Disney's Bolt was mostly well-received when it came out. It's tie-in game, not so much.
Basically the same situation as its fellow Pixar movie A Bug's Life, in that all of its video game adaptations got at least some negative reviews each, but the Gameboy version (in this case the Gameboy Advance instead of Gameboy Color), had it the worst by far.
Probably the single most notorious example of this. Ever. Period. Moving on.
It looks great, and its 8-bit/16-bit renditions of the movie's music numbers are charming...but those are also pretty much the only nice things that can be said about this one, as it ended up being a rather lousy platformer that has more in common with the Silver Surfer game than any of the greats. Ended up getting recalled too (albeit not actually because of its bad reception).
Granted, The Fifth Element is a somewhat divisive movie that inspired some brutally negative responses as well as positive ones, but where the tie-in game is concerned, only the former really happened (except for Gameinformer and Gamepro, weirdly enough). Gamespot's reviewer even said it was "quite possibly the worst game I've ever played". Oof.
The title of the movie might have made it SEEM like good material for a fighting game, but of course the point of that movie was never really the fighting, but the existential angst, psychological drama, and examinations of nihilism, among other things. The video game's got none of that, and was critically mauled something fierce, in contrast to the movie, which is generally seen as one of the best ever made. So a real case of contrasts.
While the Gameboy Color version actually got some surprisingly decent reviews (unlike so many other animated movies that got games on that console!), the PC and Playstation versions were overall duds. Notably, the latter got a 1/10 on Gameinformer, a score they almost never give out. Ouch.
Yet another case of a movie that didn't make good video game material, and it shows.
The sad fact is, that post-Goblet of Fire they really stopped trying when it came to the Harry Potter video game tie-ins. This over-short game with poorly implemented wand combat is proof enough of that.
15 years since the MCU began, and Iron Man 1 still enjoys one of the highest RT Critic scores of all the many MCU films. Sadly, its video game tie-in was a dud. This despite the fact that Iron Man is a perfect fit for video games. For shame.
Easily one of the worst Lord of the Rings video games to date, even if the more recent Gollum game currently reigns as the absolute worst. This one's still not worth one's time, especially not when the Two Towers and Return of the King games did everything this one did better plus having more.
I actually do have a soft spot for this one and don't think its as awful as its reputation suggests, but there's no getting around the fact that this game got POUNDED by critics something fierce, so I figured it was probably worth including.
Held up as a Shakespearean masterpiece online it may be, but the fact is, Megamind produced a lot crummy tie-in games (even though technically none of them are direct adaptations of the film itself).
Nintendo DS version only. Console version is great, especially by movie tie-in game standards.
This one managed to botch three movies for the price of one!
The Wii and DS versions, at least according to most who reviewed them. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions fared much better, but even those got a few negative reviews too.
Let's just say, that if you absolutely have to play a Ratatouille video game, stick with the Wii or DS versions of the main tie-in game.
It's safe to say that, unlike the movie itself, I doubt this game has anyone holding out hope for an eventual sequel.
OK, so calling the first Thor movie "great" may be a bit of a stretch, but its generally considered to be at least a *good* movie rather than a bad one. Sadly, like with Iron Man, the tie-in game was just no good. Small wonder the MCU quickly gave up on these.
Nintendo DS and PS2 versions. Also the Wii version, depending on who you ask.
They did a ton of WALL-E games for different consoles, and alas, none of them were great, except for the PS2 version. But its the Nintendo DS version that was the worst of them all.
Ironically, one of the best X-Men movies got a mediocre video game tie-in, while one of the worst (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), got a good one!
