When a movie tie-in game is announced, the first thing most gamers do is groan. The second thing they do is take a peek at the screenshots and trailers for it anyways, just to see what is being done with their beloved franchise, and this eventually convinces a small part of them that hey, maybe this time things will be different, and this will be the licensed game that bucks the trend. Once you get your hands on the game, you will realize you have been fooled: it’s buggy, it’s short, it’s pointless, and oftentimes–unless the movie is so awful that it’s impossible to be worse (I’m looking at you, X-Men Origins: Wolverine)–it pales in comparison to the flick.

That doesn’t mean all licensed games suck though. In fact, many licensed games are developed and released completely independently of their source material. There are far more Star Wars games than Star Wars movies, after all. With Ghostbusters releasing yesterday on all of the major platforms, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at some of my favorite licensed games from my childhood and today. I excluded traditional sports titles from the mix, as well as wrestling games. If I had kept wrestling, I may have listed either Wrestlemania 2000 or NWO vs. WCW: Revenge, since I spent much more time with them than I want to admit. On to the list!

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About The Author

Marc Normandin was gaming editor of Blast from 2008 to mid-2010. You can reach him via e-mail at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @Marc_Normandin

4 Responses

  1. Eddie Makuch

    awesome list! loving the Star Wars love. Personally I loved the Simpons games. I know they had some uber flaws at times, but with 100% authentic voice acting, even in today’s games, jeeze that’s a feat in itself.

    I would have put Goldeneye as #1, but only because I played that game religiously in my youth. Before school, every morning for years, honestly. The varying levels of difficulty, the FREAKIN’ sweet multiplayer that is today a point of reference for all multiplayer enabled titles, the classic and awesome weapons, and the total bad-assery of the level design. I mean really, how can it not be on XBLA, or the VC yet?? I would buy a copy for myself, and for anyone who hasn’t played it!!! Also, somehow enable it to be online multiplayer? and I promise you, you’d have millions of gamers playing a 10 year old game over the internets!.

    Reply
  2. herc

    man you should have herucles action game for ps1 on here it was great!
    and it followed the movies story to the teeth!!

    Reply

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