Good Licenced Games

[Covskin]

Its been a while since I mentioned this little gem - Sheep, Dog N' Wolf.

 

 

And if you've not seen any of the Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog cartoons, here's a short clip - typical Looney Tunes fare.

 

 

You would play as Ralph (Wile E's cousin), and just like the cartoons, attempt to steal sheep with a variety of ACME gadgets. The actual stealing takes inspiration from Metal Gear Solid of all things, with Sam turning his head just like a random guard, and a colour-coded warning system. Then, you would have several other puzzles (and some platforming) as you take the sheep to the goal.

 

Levels were quite big, and there were about 20 of them so plenty of bang for your buck, and later levels got quite tough. There were also cameos from Elmer Fudd, Gossamer and Marvin the Martian. Sure, the graphics are fugly as hell (and were at the time), but get past that and its pretty enjoyable.

 

Unfortunately, it was released after the PS2 had come out, so I'm guessing it was a flop.

[Crash]

You probably think that I just picked these because I love the franchise, well I picked them for more than that.

 

I think that most of the Star Wars games are good. The Force Unleashed and Battlefront 1 and 2 come to mind because they are great games. They have great gameplay, great visuals and are just joys to play. The Force Unleashed has a great story, the Battlefront games have one, but it's not exactly great, not bad though.

 

Oh, I like The Force Unleashed 2 but no one else does so I'll not bring that one up.

[Teoskaven]

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth

 

 

 

Combining a good RTS system with some RPG elements, this game was not only beautiful, but even addicting: other then the main campaig (covering the events of both the movies and the books) there was also a campaign for the forces of Isengard and Mordor as a "What if" type of story, though it's not as spectacular as the other because of the lack of special characters.

They also made a sequel (with an expansion), but in that case, it presented a complete parallel story made up for the occasion, introducing characters that didn't appeared in the movies like Glorfindel or the goblin king and also improving the gameplay with new races, naval combat and more freedom for the costruction (at the cost of a more shorter and simple campaign in both factions of good and evil); it had also a character creator system for multyplayer and the War of the Ring mode.

 

If you find out the 3 titles of this series, grab them and play it if you have the chance.

[Patticus]

Alien Resurrection (PS1)

 

 

This old title is probably somewhere close to the pinnacle of the absolute best games based on the Alien franchise, alongside Aliens vs. Predator 1 & 2 on the PC, and Aliens: Infestation on the Nintendo DS, each of which also deserve to be mentioned in here. I'll just do this one, though. This game was tense as fuck, with a soundtrack seemingly comprised mostly of objects scraping across floors in the distance, mixed with the occasional human crying out. The weapons felt reasonably meaty and powerful, you weren't constantly fighting for your life so there was plenty of time to get yourself all worked up, and Father's regular updates on what's going on elsewhere in the ship adds heaps to the atmosphere.

 

It was much better than the movie, and should be a must-play for any fan of the series.

 

 

Oh and while this game could actually make an excellent candidate for a remake, I wouldn't trust any developer/publisher not to "dudebro" the whole thing. Plus, I reckon the graphics add to the atmosphere of it as well. 

[Tornado]

This may surprise a lot of people, but there was actually a pretty good Home Alone game. Not the weird SNES platformer thing that starts off interesting but becomes nearly unplayable by the second level, and Jesus Christ not either of the NES ones either. Basically, if THQ made it and/or a "2" is in the title, stay away.

 

 

 

But Sega of America made this one:

 

 

 

This one is a hell of a lot of fun. Basically, you have to keep the Wet Bandits from robbing any of the houses in the neighborhood (as established in the movie, everyone in the area was gone on vacation) by setting traps in each of the houses (only can be done before they get there) or shooting them with weapons directly (that, other than the BB gun, you collect the parts for yourself around the houses). There were two difficulty levels. On Beginner, the bandits had a set order that they would go after the houses, all of the weapon parts were in a specific place, and you had to repel them for 20 minutes. If it was only Beginner mode, it would be perhaps a bit too simple to recommend.

 

Expert, though... You get much more powerful weapons, much more traps to utilize, everything (their path, the weapon parts locations, the weapon parts that show up in the game at all, etc.) was randomized and they even drove their van a lot faster; all over 40 minutes. The sheer amount of weapons parts the game throws at you encourages free thinking to try to come up with weapons; and while not all of them make that much sense (especially the snow bazooka compared to all of the other bazookas), it's a lot of fun figuring out new weapons for the first time.

 

 

Also a lot of resource management in play. Do you leave the house for a bit (at which point the bandits steal shit much faster and don't spring your traps) to collect more weapon parts, or try to tough it out until the end of the level? Do you set up your finite amount of traps in a house you think they will keep hitting (because on Expert mode, they tend to prioritize one house over the others), or do you spread it out more instead? Do you use the ammo on a launcher or mortar (which do more damage but are much harder to hit with) or a rifle or bazooka (which are pretty idiot proof in comparison)? Do you look for the hard hitting ammo types that do more damage and incapacitate for far longer with much less ammo or the reliable standbys like the BB guns that basically just knocks them down long enough for them to get back up? You only get a few super jumps in the game (place a tire and jump on it) without having to look for them. What do you want to use those on?

 

 

 

 

The spritework is much, much better than any of that atrocious shit that was in the SNES and NES, the music is all really catchy and with a wide variety of genres to fit each house, and the platforming controls are pretty good (though jumping is more Castlevania like than Mario like). It's a really complex game for the time with a lot of replay value, and one that people a lot of time fob off as shit automatically because of the really shitty ones for both movies THQ made for the other systems.

[Gabz Girl]

Emperor's New Groove on the PS1 is...EPIC.

 

 

 

It might be easy as hell (like most Disney games) but damn is it fun to play! The levels are great, the dialogue is funny and in tone with the movie it's based on and the music is really catchy. Seriously, this and Hercules are probably the best licensed games I've ever played and give me so much nostalgia. Totally recommended!

Edited May 13, 2013 by Gabz Girl

[Tornado]

Emperor's New Groove was basically Spyro-lite as I recall. Pretty good time, though I remember that whoever they got to play Kuzco did a particularly bad David Spade impersonation.

[Solkia]

ULTIMATE MUSCLE LEGENDS VS NEW GENERATION

 

 

Fuck yes, this game is so much fun, and it's based off one of my favorite things ever: Ultimate Muscle

It's a Wrestling game where you can use the moves and characters from the show, as well as being able to customize your own character.

 

This is so much fun to play with your friends, even if you don't like wrestling.

 

Edited May 12, 2013 by Solkia

[Tornado]

And the world welcomed Dik Dik Van Dik.

[Tailikku]

Does the fact that DuckTales getting a remake mean anything about the original being a great licensed game mean anything?

 

YES

[Cobalt_Bolt]

 

I am surprised that we talked about licensed games and didn't even mention the Rogue Squadron series.  It was 1998 and Nintendo's N64 had The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time released when a month later Rogue Squadron blasted onto the scene.  This game had solid action and gameplay causing it to reach one million sales landing it just behind Ocarina of Time in the US.  It also had one of the best kept secrets as this game came out six months before Star Wars Episode I which was the N1 Starfighter due to a complex scrambling system inside the cartridge. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following up from Rogue Squadron in 2001 the second of the series Rogue Squadron II Rogue Leader came out in November as a launch title for the Gamecube.  The first level of Rogue Squadron II was the Death Star Trench Run which made a huge impression on gamers due to the amount of enemies on screen and detail of the models plus high quality audio.  This game only had 15 levels but made up for it with the difficulty of several objectives ranging from time completed to targeting computer usage.  One of the most difficult missions I have played was the second Death Star mission in the game trying to avoid getting shot down by TIE Interceptors and avoid hitting the sides of the Death Star II's pipes plus doing it all again this time trying to outrun the explosion.  This game was the best of the Rogue Squadron series and still looks good even after twelve years something that can't be said for other games during that generation.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we come to the last of the series Rogue Squadron III Rebel Strike possibly the most controversial of the games due to the on-ground missions especially with the on-foot missions.  This game introduced co-op mode to the series with the second Rogue Squadron's missions on the disk save for two and Vs. with the usual assortment of modes.  This game had enhanced effects ranging from atmospheric to explosions and lighting plus more enemies on-screen.  The ground missions was the fly in the ointment due to the clunky controls especially the on-foot sequences with the targeting being very uncooperative.  It was enjoyable but I think that this game should've stuck with the flying missions only and expanded on the missions there.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Cobalt_Bolt

[JaidynReiman]

Pretty much everything I can think of has already been mentioned.

 

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Console)

Out of all possible licensed games this is easily my favorite. The Two Towers was ok, but it wasn't nearly as good.

 

Toy Story 2

One of my FAVORITE licensed games. Toy Story 2 is excellent, though ironically I never did manage to beat it (I couldn't figure out what to do in the airport).

 

Disney's Aladdin (GEN)

Absolutely love this game. Took me forever to beat it, but it was definitely enjoyable.

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Console)

This one is questionable. I personally thought The Third Age was great, I really think that LOTR is an excellent choice for a turn-based RPG title. I'd rather have had the storyline follow the main cast, though, than follow a separate cast. I also hate how these generic fancharacters repeat numerous things throughout the main storyline.

 

In addition I hate the ending as well. The final boss is so ridiculous. Ok, so its cool who we have to fight... but how the hell did we get there?! Moreso, too, I hate how these generic fancharacters defeat him when the main cast never do (other than a small little hobbit of course).

 

All in all... its a good game, I like it, but the plot is laughable. It'd have been better using the main cast.

 

007 James Bond: Nightfire

Well, I'm primarily listing this here because its one of the few James Bond's I've actually played. I have both Agent Under Fire and Nightfire. Never did get Russia With Love, but I have played it; its not bad. From what I've seen, the plot of Nightfire is basically Moonraker with some changes (never seen Moonraker personally).

 

As I'm not too fond of shooters, I consider the game ok. However, I had far, far more fun playing the multiplayer with my friends. Well, primarily my sisters. I haven't hung out with any of my irl friends in years and haven't even seen them, but when we did hang out more we had a lot of fun in the multiplayer of this game.

 

The story mode isn't that bad, either, but again, I'm not too fond of shooters. Eventually I started trying to actually get the high scores on the stages and did decent for a few of the earlier fights. I have NEVER beat the final boss to date, though, and probably won't. I have beaten the final boss of Agent Under Fire, but I'm not listing that here because the multiplayer isn't as good.

[PeanutButterDimond]

Star Trek Twenty Fifth Anniversary

 

 

 

There have been many bad Star trek games, some good but most bad. One good one was The 25th anniversary game that starred the actors of the original series. It's fun point and click gameplay along with it's openness in handling things makes it very endearing. It scored very well with critics upon release.

 

But of course, the one that's really held in high regard is none other than...

 

Star Trek Bridge Commander

 

 

Yeah, who thought that what many considered to be the best Star Trek game would be made by Totally games, the guys behind The X-Wing and TIE-Fighter series. What many games failed to do was to capture the slow, vessel-like combat of Star Trek. Most games(Including 25th Anniversary) tended to make ships handle like TIE-Fighters and X-Wings.

 

This game however kept the slow tactical ship combat.

 

 

This game is basically what every Trekkie dreamed of. You are the Captain. Just like KIrk and Picard, you are in the chair on the bridge and give the orders. Tell your crew where to warp, what subsystems(Yep, Subsystems!) to fire at, Call for a damage report and so on. You spend the whole game here and the level of detail is amazing. While the graphics may be dated, the story and everything else in the game sticks as closely as possible to the franchise. Hell, there are even points where you can get a more peaceful solution instead of fighting!

 

 

 

Picard and Data also make brief appearances voiced by Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner respectively. They give you help on what to do and then are gone to leave you to captain your very own starship! This game garnered high reviews upon release and still holds a large modding community. It also has a multiplayer mode. It's a shame that a game like this has never been made since.

Edited May 13, 2013 by PeanutButterDimond

[Teoskaven]

Well, come to think of it, almost all Disney games from the NES era to the end of the PlayStation era were pretty solid titles: Atlantis, Hercules, Tarzan, Toy Story 2, Emperor's New Groove, Aladdin Nasira's Revenge, Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck... a very long list.

Edit: Even The Little Mermaid 2. It's incredible that Disney successfully managed to do a good Little Mermaid action game.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Teoskaven

[Autosaver]

Anything WayForward puts out is pretty good. Loving how publishers are picking them for licensed games (Adventure Time, Aliens, etc).

[Vec]

Well, I also played Battlefront II and it was an awesome game.

 

But I also liked:

 

-Batman Arkham series: What can I say? This game series is awesome. The story is great, the gameplay, the combat system...it's a great experience.

 

Speaking of Batman...

 

-Batman & Robin (Sega Genesis): This game was based on the cartoons, and it was difficult yet it was fun. It also had a great soundtrack.

 

-Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: I never played the 1st 2 (I got the PS3 later). This game has great storytelling (Of course it's based on the story of the manga) and awesome boss battles. And some of the OST is great. The one that stood out while I was playing through the story mode was this one

 

 

 

Also some of the secret factors you get from completing all the requirements are good like the one from that battle^^

[Nintendoga]

Nah nah nah nah, you can't go 3 pages into a thread like this without mentioning this baby

This was a fucking awesome game made by Radical Entertainment back in 2005 for the GCN, XBOX, and PS2. And what exactly did you do in it?

"D-d-drink tea and talk about our feelings-"

NO! YOU SMASH!

SMASH!

Boring missions? Well I guess if you wanted to be a pansy you could do them...or you could
SMASH!

This shit was SMASHING! Let's ignore the (mediocre) story and writing. Let's pretend for a second that you're a 15 foot monster with incredible strength and agility dropped into a city and  everything wants to kill you. What the fuck do you do?
This
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAsK1uEhOx0

DID YOU SEE THAT SHIT!? 
No of course not. If you did actually watch that video, you'd probably be having a seizure right now.

You could SMASH people into people, tear stop-signs and streetlights from the ground and whack them while singing "Take me out to the ball-gameeee!"

You could fucking stomp on-top of buses and cars and actually SURF on top of them in the streets.
SURFING

You could rip apart a god-damn ANYTHING and turn it into boxing gloves.
Boxing gloves of DESTRUCTION

 

Did I also mention GIANT ROBOTS!? That shoot missiles that you could GRAB and throw back at them!

Remember that awesome shit the Hulk did in the Avengers? You know, when he was jumping from building to building doing all that crazy awesome shit like smashing aliens into the sides of buildings?

YEAH YOU CAN DO THAT HERE TOO!

Wanna grab a person and climb to the top of a building only to throw them across the city and see how far they go? Wanna super-jump into the air and the slam down on the ground creating a massive shockwave? Wanna grab a bus and use it as a shield as you charge right into the military? Wanna throw a pipe-line at a gas station only to walk away slowly while it blows up like in the fucking movies?

GO RIGHT AHEAD!

Fuck man, I need to replay this game. So. Much. SMASH!

Play.This.Game.

 

 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I know there are probably more, but the one's I can remember best are the games based off the first 3 Harry Potter movies. The PC versions of these games are what introduced me to video gaming in general, believe it or not. I'm not going over the stories, just know about Harry Potter's existence as a franchise and you've got the whole setup.

 

Philosopher's Stone is definitely the roughest around the edges. It's basically a third person shooter and platformer. When you start out, you can't do a single spell. As you progress through the story, you'll go to different classes, and each time you learn a new spell you go through a level or challenge to train you in it's use. The controls kinda suck for this game, though. You can only go forward, back, and jump. It has tank controls. Ugh. It's more of an adventure game than a TPS, I suppose, but it's still really easy, so.

Chamber of Secrets was the first one I played. You can strafe now, jumping isn't incredibly stiff and awkward, and you have every spell you had from the last game. The graphics are pretty much the same here, but now characters move their mouths when they talk, so yippee. You now have to do a very simple DDR puzzle when you learn a spell, but it's really easy. Now you have house points, and the game is far, far less linear than the first, because Hogwarts acts more as a hub than as a transition level. You can access almost everywhere from anywhere.

The third game is definitely the most dull. The graphics are better, but also grittier. You don't keep half the spells you had in the last game, and now you are occasionally forced to control Ron and Hermione. Also, each character has one spell exclusive to them, but they all go to the same classes. How does that work?

Actually how do challenge-based lessons work anyway? Do they just watch Harry run through shouting incantations at Gnomes or something?

 

Anyway, these games are all really short and easy, but I like them and they're not total garbage. Are there any movie tie-in games that you guys know of that aren't horrible? I know most are, but the Harry Potter PC games aren't.

 

"Hang on Shadyk, wasn't there a PC version of the fourth game, too?"

"..."

"GET OUT."

[KHCast]

A lot of the Classic Disney movie game come to mind. Aladdin (Genesis), Lion King, even up to the PS1 era we had some great PS1 games like Bugs Life and Toy Story 2! I remember having a blast with those titles. I should really get to playing them again at some point.

[Blue Wisp]

... Well.

The Transformers 2007 game was pretty legit, honestly. It was really fun, and had a great gameplay.

[Chaos Incarnate]

 

For an adpatation of a shit film, X-men Origins:Wolverine really did a damn fine job capturing the brutality and gritty nature of fan favorite X-Man Wolverine. Mutilating enemies in various ways, alternate costumes from comics history, and a relatively decent challenge factor and upgrade system- I would say it's one of my favorite Movie Tie in games, and it's a damn fine title in its own right.

[Dejimon11]

The spongebob squarepants movie. Man that game was awesome ill post a full impressions later

[Tori Himemiya]

Oddly enough I did enjoy the Ghost Rider game to be fun.

If I remember right its supposed to be a sequel to the movie which explains why the plot isn't an reenactment of the movie. It plays a lot like Devil May Cry and God of War where you can make combos and get a bigger score from getting big combos and such. It actually feels like your playing as Ghost Rider, even if its a GoW ripoff. There are motorcycle sections but it kind of controls like ass and its actually pretty easy to win if you just spam fireballs, though the only hard parts is the platforming and navigating between spaces and such.

Oh and Blade is in it too. Yes Blade the vampire hunter and he's unlockable too in which he plays different from Ghost Rider obviously. I dunno if people enjoyed it like I did but I liked it for the most part.

[Crash]

Shrek 2

 

 

Shrek 2 is actually a really good game, in the game you have four characters you control in each stage. These vary from characters like Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss In Boots, Human Shrek, Gingerbread Man, Big Bad Wolf, Lil' Red, Horse Donkey and Tinkerbell. At the end of each stage there is an event called 'Hero Time', these events are probably the only downside to this game as some of them can be hard (I last played this when I was like 8 so maybe it's easy I dunno.). I think this is actually a very good game.

[Nattala]

A lot of the Classic Disney movie game come to mind. Aladdin (Genesis), Lion King, even up to the PS1 era we had some great PS1 games like Bugs Life and Toy Story 2! I remember having a blast with those titles. I should really get to playing them again at some point.

I had a PS1 Tarzan game and it was a pretty good 2.5D platformer. There was also a Monsters Inc game that served as a prequel to the movie and was set during Mike and Sully's time at Scare Academy, years before Monsters University came out.

 

I had the PS1 Harry Potter games and they were pretty good. Not great but for a young Harry Potter fan I loved being able to explore parts of the castle, even when the locations were incongruent with the books. They were consistent with each other though, with you exploring the same castle each game, the second game just added more areas.