Licensed Games That Were Actuaslly Good

We all know that licensed games are notorious for being slapped together for the sole purpose of making an easy buck off the popularity of a show or movie, but which ones did you find to be well-made and enjoyable? For me, Chip n' Dale's Rescuse Rangers (NES), Batman: Return of The Joker (NES) and Aladdin (Genesis) were all good games.

There are a lot of horrible licensed games out there, hence the reputation. Unfortunately, because of that reputation, a lot of actually good games have been overlooked and left to rot in bargain bins. Some of my favorites:

• Batman
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Dragonball Z: Budokai series
• DuckTales 1 & 2
• Marvel Super-Heroes
• Marvel Super-Heroes: War of the Gems
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of the Super-Heroes
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2
• Spider-Man games (Most of them from the 16-bit era onward were good)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2-4
• Tony Hawk series
• X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse
• X-Men 2: The Clone Wars
• X-Men Legends 1 & 2
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine

You named some of my favorites, I'd also include the duck tales games (NES) and Lion King (SNES & Gen). Some of the Lord of the Rings games for the PS2 were pretty dang good as well.

Capcom did a lot of good work back in the day. So did Konami, with the TMNT games. There's also NBA Jam, and GoldenEye.

I'm a fan of DBZ Budokai 3, which was the closest thing to a legit DBZ fighting game I've played. The Bleach DS games are solid fighting games, especially the sequel.

I like Victorious Boxers 2, which is a boxing game using the characters from Hajime no Ippo. It was the first time I've played a boxing game with actual footwork involved.

I would really like to see a One Piece fighting game made by a reputable developer. Rurouni Kenshin would be good too, as well as Fullmetal Alchemist. The potential is there.

Well, there's a number of good games based on broader licenses (superhero games, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.), but in terms of smaller brands/more specific tie-ins: Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is a masterpiece. One of my all-time favorites.

• Aladdin
• Duck Tales series
• Mickey Mouse: Illusion series
• Kingdom Hearts series
• Asterix
• Batman: Arkham series
• Super Back to the Future 2
• Dungeons & Dragons Collection
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series
• Megami Tensei series
• GoldenEye 007
• Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode
• Initial D: Arcade Stage series
• X-Men: Children of the Atom
• Marvel Super Heroes
• X-Men vs Street Fighter
• Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter
• Marvel vs Capcom series
• Tatsunoko vs Capcom
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series
• Pokemon Yellow

the Capcom Marvel themed and Vs games were some of the best 2D fighters imo , so that counts.

Lets see, of the top of my head (not including this Gen):

• Batman Returns
• The Adventures of Batman and Robin
• TMNT IV: Turtles in Time
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
• The Lion King
• The Warriors
• Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions
• Animaniacs
• Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage
• Aladdin (Mega Drive)
• Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3
• Dragon Ball Origins 1&2
• NBA Jam & TE
• GoldenEye 007
• Mickey's Speedway USA
• The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
• Spider-Man the Movie 1&2
• Ultimate Spider-Man
• Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace
• Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage
• Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety
• Star Trek: Bridge Commander
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - Starship Bridge Simulator
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
• Star Wars: Rogue SquadronII: Rogue Leader
• Star Wars: Rogue SquadronIII: Rebel Strike
• Star Wars: Episode I Racer
• Super Star Wars
• Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords

There are a load more but I can't think of any right now.

Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers. Return of The King was ok too.

Butcher Bay poops on all of them.

There have been a lot of good Star Wars and DBZ ones. The LOTR games were pretty solid as well.

I'll add

Alien vs Predator (Jaguar) Also the original 2 PC games were good as was the awesome Aliens arcade game.

Alien 3 (SNES)

Guess the up coming Prometheus has Xenomorphs on by brain lol

spiderman for the sega cd

Two that are good despite being the most crassly commercial tie-ins I can think of are Cool Spot which I always thought of as Genesis game but is apparently multi-plat and Pepsiman for PS1. Either of these are basically an advertisement for soda pop but both are fun and play quite well.

• Star Wars: Episode I Racer
• Super Star Wars
• Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

KnightSkull

I forgot those in my list.

Nice to see Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, more people need to play that.

HULK: Ultimate Destruction (PS2)

Ultimate Spiderman (PS2)

The Punisher (PS2)

Ghost Rider (PS2)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (NGC)

Simpsons Hit'n'Run (NGC)

HULK (2003 - Xbox)

James Bond: Everything or Nothing (NGC)

James Bond: Nightfire (PS2)

James Bond: Agent Under Fire (PS2)

Peter Jackson's KING KONG (Xbox)

The Transformers (PS2)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (PS2)

X-Men Legends I & II (PS2)

... My personal list goes on quite a bit further, but those are a few that I rarely see (and the systems I have them for, personally), mentioned in threads such as this. The idea of a licensed game being guaranteed garbage is an exaggeration brought on by some key games in history, but it's far from a rule.

I like a LOT of licensed games!

:)

I feel like the bad games are usually the ones based on a movie scheduled for a tandem release and therefore rushed. Goldeneye was movie based and rocked it also was released close to 2 years after the movie and had plenty of development time.

Lord of the rings for last gen. Fantasy games need to go back to epic levels like castle seiges and caves. Not all of this open world crap, it's stupid and ends up being boring.

• Tony Hakw 1-3
• Harry Potter 1-3
• Lego Star War II
• Harry Potter Quddich World Cup
• Star Wars BattleFront
• Aladdin (Sega MegaDrive)
• Lion King (Sega Mega Drive)
• Micro Machines 2 and Turbo 96
• Nightmare Before Christmas Oogie's Revenge
• The Simpsons Hit and Run
• Toy Story 2
• Lord of the Rings The Third Age (Could have been better if it was alot like a Final Fantasy game but on the PS1)
• Ducktales

I've honestly like most of the STAR WARS games I've played.

also, I know its not aged well, but as an ALIEN(S) fan I actually really liked Alien Trilogy on PSX/SAT.

Lord of the rings for last gen. Fantasy games need to go back to epic levels like castle seiges and caves. Not all of this open world crap, it's stupid and ends up being boring.

Hatiko

A little OT here, but you need to find a copy of "Drakan: The Ancients' Gates". You'll LOVE it.

:D

It's my absolute-favorite fantasy game ever made.

How can you forget this game?

How can you forget this game?

brucecambell