And these are just a few off the top of my head that I’ve played.
Although to be fair, I guess we could just as easily reel off a list of garbage equivalents, but I think the throwaway that licensed games suck is a misconception.
KOTOR is such an amazing game… I’ve replayed it recently hoping it would ruin my childhood recollection of it being god tier. It didn’t, it’s still an amazing game after all these years
I wouldn’t put the LEGO games on that list. Traveller’s Tales just basically copy-pasted most games, to the point 3 were releasing within the same year.
If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.
LEGO games are the comfort food of games IMO, you know exactly what you’re getting and it’s satisfying.
If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.
Rushed games suck. Movie tie in games tended to be made with tight deadline and budgeting. On top of that, the developers were supposed to make a game of a movie that don’t exist yet.
Thankfully, the trend of making movie tie in games stopped.
The trend has stopped for modern films, but tons of releases are retroactively showing how it could have been done. Games that capture the creative intent of great films really well like pretty much any of the Alien games from the last decade, those terminator and robocop ones, even Dead by Daylight directly invokes specific director’s visions on characters, scenes, and even campy acting.
All of which are not rushed and who’s scope have appropriately matched their budget.
Usually. Enter The Matrix was one of the rare exceptions. That game genuinely slapped. The gameplay was crazy fun; it took all the slow-mo coolness of Max Payne and added wall-running, super jumps and martial arts. The combat was lots of fun, and the story was all written by the Wachowski’s to tie in with the second and third movie, including actual scenes that they filmed as part of the process. They took it really seriously, to them it was an essential part of the story.
Obviously the whole Matrix 2 & 3 saga has some problems, it’s not the Wachowski’s best work (how could it have been, they had a plot for one movie that they were told to expand into two), but the game is still a really fun entry in their ouvre.
I certainly thought I wanted to play Enter the Matrix but as Neo, but I felt Path of Neo jumped the shark with things like MC Escher, fire ants, and giant Smith.
Licensed games suck, there, I said it
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
Goldeneye 007
Alien Isolation
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer
Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith (the game)
The Chronices of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Mad Max (2015, the game)
Robocop Rogue City
SpiderMan 2 (2004, the game)
Basically every LEGO game
Toy Story 2
Unreasonably good is the perfect description for cool spot.
I also remember a great LOTR Two Towers game that game out around the movie
To be fair, those are the exception to the general rule that licensed games suck.
And the LEGO games are sort of cheating. They have no right to be as good as they are.
X-Wing
Tie Fighter
X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars: KOTOR
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Hogwarts Legacy
The Thing
Aladdin
Blade Runner
And these are just a few off the top of my head that I’ve played.
Although to be fair, I guess we could just as easily reel off a list of garbage equivalents, but I think the throwaway that licensed games suck is a misconception.
Your list here and the one above it are all full of great examples, and we didn’t even mention Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Goddammit, I loved that game too!
And Arkham City.
KOTOR is such an amazing game… I’ve replayed it recently hoping it would ruin my childhood recollection of it being god tier. It didn’t, it’s still an amazing game after all these years
those suck
I wouldn’t put the LEGO games on that list. Traveller’s Tales just basically copy-pasted most games, to the point 3 were releasing within the same year.
It made them horribly bland.
Nah, all of the one’s I’ve played are fun. I’m sure there are duds, but here are my favorites:
Any LEGO game can be good if it’s your first LEGO game. None of them are badly made, with the exception of a few, but they’re all made the same way.
If you’ve played one…
If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.
LEGO games are the comfort food of games IMO, you know exactly what you’re getting and it’s satisfying.
If you’ve played one, you want to play another. There’s not a ton of gameplay differences between them, but that’s not what I play them for, I like the silly take on the story, the puzzles can be fun and satisfying, and the collectibles are fun to find.
I’m going to save this as an example of cherry picking
Rushed games suck. Movie tie in games tended to be made with tight deadline and budgeting. On top of that, the developers were supposed to make a game of a movie that don’t exist yet.
Thankfully, the trend of making movie tie in games stopped.
The trend has stopped for modern films, but tons of releases are retroactively showing how it could have been done. Games that capture the creative intent of great films really well like pretty much any of the Alien games from the last decade, those terminator and robocop ones, even Dead by Daylight directly invokes specific director’s visions on characters, scenes, and even campy acting.
All of which are not rushed and who’s scope have appropriately matched their budget.
*Most licensed games suck. There are some good ones.
Like the Batman Arkham series.
Usually. Enter The Matrix was one of the rare exceptions. That game genuinely slapped. The gameplay was crazy fun; it took all the slow-mo coolness of Max Payne and added wall-running, super jumps and martial arts. The combat was lots of fun, and the story was all written by the Wachowski’s to tie in with the second and third movie, including actual scenes that they filmed as part of the process. They took it really seriously, to them it was an essential part of the story.
Obviously the whole Matrix 2 & 3 saga has some problems, it’s not the Wachowski’s best work (how could it have been, they had a plot for one movie that they were told to expand into two), but the game is still a really fun entry in their ouvre.
The game was glued together with duct tape. And not the good kind. The cheap Chinese knock-off brand that’s been sitting in the hot garage for 5 years.
The level design was crazy repetitive and the run animation (which, being a 3rd person game you watch a my) was laughable.
The combat was pretty solid and the story and cutscenes tied in directly with the movies which was cool.
I enjoyed both Matrix games.
I certainly thought I wanted to play Enter the Matrix but as Neo, but I felt Path of Neo jumped the shark with things like MC Escher, fire ants, and giant Smith.
I preferred path of neo personally. It just played better in my opinion and i found the extra bits fun padding for a game i wanted more of