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Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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It's been almost a month since Hogwarts Legacy released. Despite the last two Harry Potter games releasing as cover-based Gears of War shooters that entered and exited the gaming world with all the energy of an underpowered fart, Hogwarts Legacy has taken the world by storm. It's possesses one of those rare qualities that licensed games new and old struggle to maintain: it's actually good.

But it's hardly the first licensed game or piece of tie in media to hit the market. From Star Wars to James Bond, games have been directly adapting material from other sources for years. While the direct adaptation of movies has fallen largely out of style (unless you count the rare Marvel Cinematic Universe mobile endless runner), there was a time when new released saw a deluge of licensed titles or movie adaptations.

Do you have any fond memories of licensed video games? Are you one of those aging millenials with fond memories of Golden Eye's clunky split screen multiplayer? Are there any franchises you wish would be adapted?
 
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MightyMario

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I still love the Lilo and Stitch 2 video game I have on the GBA. I also love Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated and Cars 3 Driven to Win
 
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I have enjoyed the Star Wars games over the years. Republic Commando is probably my favorite Star Wars game, but I also enjoyed the OG Battlefront games, Jedi Academy, Fallen Order, and KOTOR of course.

Also, I enjoyed the Middle Earth games. Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War were both fun Assassin’s Creed-like games. The nemesis system especially is one of the collect mechanics in a video game.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

wah
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I have enjoyed the Star Wars games over the years. Republic Commando is probably my favorite Star Wars game, but I also enjoyed the OG Battlefront games, Jedi Academy, Fallen Order, and KOTOR of course.

Also, I enjoyed the Middle Earth games. Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War were both fun Assassin’s Creed-like games. The nemesis system especially is one of the collect mechanics in a video game.
Republic Commando is definitely one of the licensed game gigachads. It's so much better than it has any right to be, and the lack of a proper sequel haunts me even to this day.
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

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I feel like modernly a licensed game has way more chance to be good, whereas in the past a licensed game being good was very rare.

I pretty much think of it like pre-Arkham Asylum era and post Arkham era for licensed games. Before Arkham Asylum there were jewels in the rough. Stand outs for me being Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom, and the Lego Star Wars games. The majority of licensed games at the time were horrible though.

Then Arkham Asylum released and was really good, following it was Arkham City which turned out as one of the best games of that era. People talk about it alongside Assassin's Creed and Skyrim. That really pushed the bar, it's now not uncommon for a licensed game that hasn't been rushed to turn out being good. The Shadow of Mordor games come to mind, Spiderman (2018) was highly praised, a lot of people liked Jedi Fallen Order. That's just a few that come to mind.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
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Star Wars games are a no brainer since there's a lot of good ones, but the primary game that comes to mind for me for awesome licensed games is The Simpsons Hit & Run, I love it so much and it's a big highlight for me for that generation

I should also mention Batman on NES, which I'd even say is one of my favorites for that system
 

Jimmu

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I haven’t played a great deal of licensed games - the only one I remember enjoying was The Simpsons: Hit and Run on the PS2 but it has been many years since I’ve played it. Perhaps there are more I could have enjoyed, I just haven’t really given many a chance when there are so many games still to be played in the video game series’ I know I like.
 

Stitch

AKA Patrick
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Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie

Do I need to say more? **** was literally revolutionary, the developers went way too hard.
 

twilitfalchion

and thus comes the end of an era
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Some of them might just be because I played them as a kid, but the licensed games I had were pretty great. Star Wars goes w/o saying, especially Rogue Leader and the Jedi Knight games. Spider-Man 2 on from the PS2/GC/Xbox gen is still one of the best super hero games of all time, tbh.

Also, I don't see them mentioned much but the War for/Fall of Cybertron games were some of my favorites back when I was a kid and really into Transformers as an franchise. Need to revisit them for kicks someday.
 
There are a lot of great Star Wars games. The classic Battlefront games for Xbox and PS2 are my favorites. The Lego Star Wars games and Episode I Racer are great too.

I also really liked Buzz Lightyear of Star Command for the GBC and Monster's Inc. for the GBA. The first is a fun side scrolling shooter, and the latter is a platformer.
 

CynicalSquid

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Goldeneye 007 was one of my favorite games when I was younger. Spider man 1 and 2 (the ones based off the Raimi movies(even though they weren’t really)) were a big part of my childhood too.

I feel like licensed video games work better when they aren’t trying to recreate the story from the source material. The only ones I can think of that do it well are the Lego games. I like it more when they try and do their own thing with the universe rather than try and copy it
 
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I know many people didn’t like it as much, and it does most definitely has its issues, but I did generally enjoy the unfortunately mistitled ‘Berserk and the bank of the hawk’ for the most part. I feel in a slightly different universe it could have easily been much better, though. If it were simply a bit more like Drakengard(especially since it’s directly inspired by Berserk) than your typical Warriors game, just focusing on the story and gargantuan amount of slaughter, I feel would have gone a long way to meeting its potential.

Lost: Via Domus was pretty terrible, but not impossible to enjoy, if at least for the detailed environments, knowing how intricate places like the Swan station were designed for the show. I remember thinking the game itself could have been far better if it went for something of a Fallout model with much more freedom, and if they’d waited til after the show was done. Sadly these things have to make money and I think forcing it between the 2nd and 3rd seasons just turned out really awkward. Voice acting is super goofy at least, only really good performance was Steve Blum doing a nearly perfect Matthew Fox.

Veering off of anime, DBZ has a ton of games. I think it was Budokai 2 I had for GameCube? Might be confused on that. Loved both the Legacy of Goku games…well, honestly more the second one. The first was really basic in retrospect, whereas the 2nd I feel was far more fleshed out. Even went to the trouble of unlocking Hercule and his secret ending thing. Always been interested in Buu’s Fury as it would seem an unofficial sequel but I’m afraid it might not be. FighterZ was fun but not really into fighting games as much now. Lastly I’ve been meaning to go through Kakarot which on the surface would seem perfect for me, but I got stuck on Raditz and from what I’ve read there’s a ton of tedious grinding sadly.

K-on got a Japan only rhythm game for PSP that subsequently got rereleased for PS3. I’m not very good at it, it’s real short, and it doesn’t have all my favorite songs, but it’s still pretty neat just to have and there’s tons of collectibles.

I’m not so sure I’d enjoy it now, been many long years, but back when Harry Potter was new to me, I got Chamber of Secrets on the ps1 and for all it’s frustrating moments I somehow got past them all and pretty sure I 100% the game. Maybe I had more patience back then, or it was just cool to me I could explore the castle and all. Hogwarts Legacy is clearly better but I’ve barely got into it still tbh.

Transformers Devastation was a really fun one. Really regret selling it, such is the case with some of these more niche titles not getting reprinted. Also very short but many of Platinum’s games are.

I’m not exactly sure if this is a licensed game exactly, at least not in the same way - different information I can find on it is a bit muddled or conflicting - but Child of Eden was an interesting one to say the least. This is where I’m not certain whether the group that did the music, Genki Rockets, were technically before or after, given the intentions to monetize both. I’d first heard one of their songs in No More Heroes so I always thought that obviously the game came after, but I don’t know now.

Goldeneye I think is a pretty popular one, and I feel for good reason, but I have to admit I don’t really care about the IP as much. All the quirks and tropes are fun and give character but I’ll be damned if I could answer any questions about any particular movie. Kind of odd since my brother and I spent one summer borrowing them from our library every week and I guess not much of it really stuck. Maybe I was already spoiled by Austin Powers. The Wii adaptation made years later I was not as fond of…felt more like CoD with light stealth elements and I feel they weren’t real upfront about whether it was a remake of the n64 game or just another movie adaptation.

I think the last one worth mentioning I’ve played is Jojo stuff. All Star Battle R is neat, definitely fits but like I said, kinda meh on fighting games, especially this one. Really wish Eyes of Heaven was rereleased as well. This unofficial one, a fan game called “the 7th Stand user”(or was it 6th) was really fun to watch Woolie play, very retro and creative.

I think if there’s any I’d like to see, it would really depend. I’ve thought for a while it might be cool to get a Sailor Moon game by Platinum, especially since I always felt the combat on the show would get incredibly redundant and formulaic. It could be much more fleshed out this way. But a big part for me is the original English dub which I sadly learned had been all but wiped from the internet. I could see something like an open world adventure game for Inuyasha but don’t have many concrete ideas for that.
 

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