Licensed Games Appreciation Thread - Why yes, a Scooby-Doo game is better than a Resident Evil game

[Calandrino]

Everybody knows licensed games actually aren't bad, but how about unlicensed games

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Wacky Races on the DC is my favourite adaptation and one of the most fun racing games I've played.

The game was 10/10

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Shoutouts to Treasure and their absolute deathgrip on the Tiny Toons license in the 90s. There was a solid 8 years of them using it as their dumping ground for really bizarre gameplay ideas they didn't want to write lore for, and all of them are good if not great games, especially Buster's Bad Dream which explores what a beatemup would be like if every single attack was a juggle combo.

In the Dreamcast era they were working on a Tiny Toons arena fighter similar to Powerstone but never managed to ship it, supposedly due to them implementing all sorts of strange cartoon physics/world deformation to let characters do things like squash and stretch procedurally. An alpha of the game got dumped a while back and is playable, but most of the cool visual tech is nonfunctional and characters just t-pose when it would kick in.

Everybody knows licensed games actually aren't bad, but how about unlicensed games

Tengen Tetris owned, solely because of that pictured "multiplayer" mode, which is about as cooperative as your average round of Spacestation 13. I played the crap out that with my mom as a gradeschooler.

 

[Coolio55]

Shoutouts to Treasure and their absolute deathgrip on the Tiny Toons license in the 90s. There was a solid 8 years of them using it as their dumping ground for really bizarre gameplay ideas they didn't want to write lore for, and all of them are good if not great games, especially Buster's Bad Dream which explores what a beatemup would be like if every single attack was a juggle combo.

In the Dreamcast era they were working on a Tiny Toons arena fighter similar to Powerstone but never managed to ship it, supposedly due to them implementing all sorts of strange cartoon physics/world deformation to let characters do things like squash and stretch procedurally. An alpha of the game got dumped a while back and is playable, but most of the cool visual tech is nonfunctional and characters just t-pose when it would kick in.

What the fuck was it with Konami and Tiny Toons? (Treasure was a group of ex-Konami developers)
This could just be me underestimating the show's popularity but it got a fucking boatload of high quality games for various retro consoles. Way more than anticipated.

Most Konami licenced games were pretty good actually.

 

[KingofSomething]

Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lego Batman, hell a lot of the licensed lego games are pretty solid. I don't even like Star Wars and had a good time with the games.

Looney Tunes games have always been a mixed bag, but I have a soft spot for this game ever since I played it on a demo disc. It's based on the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog shorts and you have to sneak around the map using various gadgets to steal all the sheep without getting punched in the face by Sam. Controls are a little stiff, but definitely worth a go if you're a fan and makes it feel like you're in one of the episodes.

 

[Michael Wade]

007 blood stone was actually pretty good for a ps3 era third person bond game.

Also Jedi survivor was not half bad.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

TMNT was the king of licensed games when I was a kid, they captured the feeling of the show perfectly. Disney of course had a solid lineup everybody knows about.

Anime games are usually at least decent but are often really good, DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh had an incredible run from the SNES through the PS3 era especially. Yu-Gi-Oh in particular being based on a manga that was about card games is almost like cheating because it translated extremely well.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Anything by Treasure is a safe bet. Even their McDonald's game is pretty good.

Also Heavy Metal GeoMatrix is a fun brawler by Capcom.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Even their McDonald's game is pretty good.

and based.

This is a stage 3 enemy you face. of course it was censored in the US version to more generic looking ones

 

[BrunoMattei]

This is when I take a moment to talk about my favorite NES game Shatterhand.



An action platforming masterpiece and my most favorite game. Plus the difficulty is just about perfect without cheap instant death shit but once you learn the boss patterns and which bots to use you can blast through it. The American version is not licensed but the JAP version is and is based on Super Sentai or some other Power Rangers thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdF9yqUgYKE

The graphics and music is different plus one stage is completely different. So it counts.

Other classics:

NES Batman and Batman: Return of the Joker (Batman Returns is okay).

Micro Machines. Very fun racer and the best bootleg NES/Genesis game. The Genesis version is basically the same but the graphics are slightly different. This is good because the NES version is bitch to get working on emulators.

Gremlins 2: the New Batch. This game kicked the absolute shit out of me as a kid but I can beat it now. REALLY GOOD fucking top down action/platformer. Well worth a look. The difficulty might really kick your ass.

Nightmare on Elm Street NES. I will defend this one and fuck James Rolfe because he's wrong. This is a pretty decent to good game. It has some flaws but god damn did the devs try and it's very loyal to the movies. I think it's a solid 7/10 game personally. The Friday the 13th game is ass.

Does Mike Tyson's Punch Out count? Serious question?

Monster in My Pocket (that's what she said). I love this one. Another action/platformer but you can play as a vampire or Frankenstein's monster and it's based on these super obscure rubber toys that I had. If you like the Chip and Dale games you might like this one because it is similar in that you play a miniaturized thing in a normal world so you're jumping around on tables and stoves and fighting other toys. A true cult classic for the system.

The Punisher NES. Fuck you James Rolfe, this one is good. I will die on that hill. Very good gallery shooter but the boss fights are pretty bullshit until you do some trial and error.

Sweet Home NES. Based on a movie so it counts. A classic RPG and one of the very few horror RPG's. And one of the few RPG's that I didn't think was gay and took it's story too fucking seriously.

TMNT 3: the Manhattan Project NES. The best TMNT game on the system.

Top Gun 2: the Second Missions NES. Fuck you again James Rolfe, this one is great and highly recommended if you like combat flight sims or Star Fox.

Zen: Intergalactic Ninja NES. The most obscure licensed game that came super late for the system and based on an equally if not more obscure comic book. The only things that came out for Zen is this game and a single action figure. That is it. But the game is fucking amazing. It's a variety action/platformer similar to Battletoads or another title I'll mention. Really fun but requires some trial and error to figure out what you're supposed to do.

Bucky O'Hare NES. I liked this cartoon but it came and went. The difficulty is tough as nails but it's very lenient at the same time; there's infinite continues, infinite lives and even passwords. Plus, if you die on a screen you just respawn on that screen rather than restarting the entire level over. Fun action/platformer that's like Mega Man + Castlevania 3 + Battletoads.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Parasite Eve, I forgot to mention that one. It's in that subcategory of "great games that are technically licensed titles but nobody knows".

and based.

View attachment 5577122

This is a stage 3 enemy you face. of course it was censored in the US version to more generic looking ones

View attachment 5577128

Shit, we were robbed.

 

[Ventrue]

Scarface: The World Is Yours was good and only improved with the PC mod Scarface Remastered Project. The game is an alternate outcome to the film where Tony Montana survived the mansion assault against Sosa's hitmen.

The Godfather: The Dons Edition is the best version of the godfather 1 game, more missions, better textures, better weather and variety of cars. The compounds are unique to each family, rather than being the same model with a different texture. And thanks to emulation and mods you can have the DLC that was removed from the PS store when the license ran out.

The Godfather 2 was okay it has some mechanics that improves the game such as don's view, where the player can promote their men in the family or send them to takeover businesses or protect the ones that the player owns and because of mods the DLC is available.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

MAD MAX
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Car go vroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

 

[NoonmanR]

I really enjoyed Robocop: Rogue City recently. The combat was satisfying, but also its nostalgia pops and its portrayal of the Detroit of the movies. Peter Weller voiced Robocop and he was really perfect. One of the highlights of the game is his deadpan delivery as you walk around doing minor sidequest stuff like busting guys for graffiti. I always got a kick off him calling people 'creep'

Man i gotta try that at some point, it's amazing how far the developers have come after making the bomb that was Rambo: The video game.

TMNT was the king of licensed games when I was a kid, they captured the feeling of the show perfectly. Disney of course had a solid lineup everybody knows about.
Anime games are usually at least decent but are often really good, DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh had an incredible run from the SNES through the PS3 era especially. Yu-Gi-Oh in particular being based on a manga that was about card games is almost like cheating because it translated extremely well.

Man, that and Konami X-Men were always the games i looked for whenever i got the chance to visit the arcade, especially the latter with it's super wide cabinet that let you play 6 players, oh it's so good.

DBZ was also solid, way more than you'd expect from Atari most of the time(Yu Yu Hakusho got fucked raw). Yu gi oh though, it took them a long, LONG time to get a decent rendition of the card game going. Like, i don't think it really happened until GX. Forbidden Memories in particular is fucking brutal man, because not only is it based on a prototype of the game that comes with it's own bullshit, it immediately puts you in a duel with Kaiba, who is so OP that i don't think you can win without grinding for better cards in Free Duel.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Shrek Extra Large. Yes I said it. You get a fucking burp and gas command buttons. It's what the essence of Shrek is all about. Plus you can kick everyone and I mean everyone.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I just played Batman Returns on SNES as a Christmas game. It's a fun brawler. Like Xmen, Batman has a number of decent games. The Arkham games, there's the NES games people seem to like.

Also the Wanted game, which was a pretty budget feeling standard third person cover shooter, but being able to just bend the bullets and shoot behind corners and covers was quite fun.

I only played the demo, but I liked the way that if you took cover opposite a guy, you could tap a button to reach over and stab him.

I remember people complaining at the time that the game mocks and insults you throughout, calling the player a loser. I heard that about the film too, but I've been told since that it's not taking swipes at the viewer. I'd have to play/watch myself to see for sure.

 

[Weltraumfürst]

We got really spoiled with Lord of the Rings movie tie-in games, to the point where I could believe that Jackson had something to do with it, given how hands-on he was with the King Kong game. I think, with the exception of a few shovelware titles on Nintendo handhelds, there was no outright bad game.

I haven't played either, but I heard that TT and ROTK are some pretty good action games.
The Battle for Middle-Earth games are awesome strategy games, the second one especially. I believe that old talent from Westwood was involved, so that would figure.
The Third Age didn't feel like it was written by a human, but playing as another fellowship following the fellowship of the Ring, taking part in pivotal events like the fight against the Balrog and the major battles, was great.
War in the North was also a fun little action game that added a certain amount of grit to the look of the movies, which really worked for me.
I think the Battlefront II reskin by Pandemic was a bit lackluster, but I haven't heard it called outright bad, either.
I haven't played the Shadow of Mordor games because they shit all over the lore, but I've heard that, gameplay-wise, they're pretty decent.

What's even more baffling is that EA was involved with most of these.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

Does it count as a licensed game if we're only talking licensed from other game formats? Because there were a lot of good D&D licensed games... Some real stinkers too, but the Baldur's Gate games, the Capcom brawlers, the Eye of the Beholder games... Even the gold box games were pretty good for the time, although they certainly don't hold up so well now.

Similarly, you've got the original Crimson Skies game, the Heavy Gear games, the two Shadowrun 16 bit games and the three more recent CRPG, you've got a bunch of pretty good Mechwarrior games...

A lot of folks have mentioned a lot of the big names... The old Lucas Arts Star Wars games were mostly great, Dark Forces, the X Wing / Tie Fighter series, etc. Happy some love for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. The TMNT games, most of them. Honestly if you had Capcom or Konami doing the game, chances are it was at least "good", if not amazing. Similarly, most of the Disney 8 and 16 bit games were really quite good games. I may not really care about the IPs behind them, but I can appreciate the attention to detail and skill that went into making them.

One thing that I haven't seen talked about is that Star Trek actually had a few pretty good games. There were three FPS games - Two Voyager: Elite Force games, and Klingon Honor Guard - that were pretty good, and the Star Trek: Armada games were solid.

 

[A-Stump]

Star Wars Rebellion

Galactic Battlegrounds is extremely underrated too and is an Age of Empires II clone. It's amazingly fun and each of the factions have a very unique look/playstyle unlike AoE's system of having everything tied to regional appearances.

 

[A-Stump]

We got really spoiled with Lord of the Rings movie tie-in games, to the point where I could believe that Jackson had something to do with it, given how hands-on he was with the King Kong game. I think, with the exception of a few shovelware titles on Nintendo handhelds, there was no outright bad game.

I haven't played either, but I heard that TT and ROTK are some pretty good action games.
The Battle for Middle-Earth games are awesome strategy games, the second one especially. I believe that old talent from Westwood was involved, so that would figure.
The Third Age didn't feel like it was written by a human, but playing as another fellowship following the fellowship of the Ring, taking part in pivotal events like the fight against the Balrog and the major battles, was great.
War in the North was also a fun little action game that added a certain amount of grit to the look of the movies, which really worked for me.
I think the Battlefront II reskin by Pandemic was a bit lackluster, but I haven't heard it called outright bad, either.
I haven't played the Shadow of Mordor games because they shit all over the lore, but I've heard that, gameplay-wise, they're pretty decent.

What's even more baffling is that EA was involved with most of these.

Lord of the Rings Online is a surprisingly competent MMO too.