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!