What franchises have the best and worst licensed games?

[Prowler]

I guess The Simpsons is the first example of bad licensed games in general? What even is the ratio of good:bad Simpsons games? It seems to me that nearly every single Simpsons game is either mediocre or flat out trash. I grew up with Bart vs. The Space Mutants and Bart vs. the World on the NES. Those are not good video games, even if I had some fun with them. Bart's Nightmare (SNES) is a little better but still rather mediocre.

As a big One Piece fan, it saddens me a little how the amount of good One Piece games isn't very big compared to the amount of good DBZ video games. Pirate Warriors 3 and 4 are fun and all, especially 3, but they're not masterpieces by any means. Hell, they're not better games than the Hyrule Warriors games or even Fire Emblem Warriors, imo.

Surprisingly, Tiny Toon Adventures had a really good track record of video game tie-ins. NES Tiny Toons, Buster Busts Loose (SNES), ACME All-Stars (Mega Drive) and Wacky Sports Challenge (SNES), Buster's Hidden Treasure (Mega Drive) and Babs' Big Break (Game Boy) are all very fun and solid games.

TMNT? Eh... hit and miss? The best TMNT games were made during the Turtlemania days, really. Shredder's Revenge is pretty good as far as modern TMNT games go.

[Andrew NDB]

Electronic Arts.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Electronic Arts.

I'm ALL FOR sh*tting on EA at any given chance, but that's not what I'm asking in this thread

[sdp]

Simpsons had some pretty good games in the 2000s. People constantly ask for Hit & Run remaster. Road Rage was a more entertaining Crazy Taxi because of the characters. The Simpsons game was no Mario but it was a decent enough platformer.

People forget that with licensed games half the fun was playing the characters you loved in a game, so it didn't need to be the best game ever to love it. Turtles in Time is a great beat em up because we love the turtles, that automatically makes it better than some random Streets of Ragers even if that one could be the better game. Sadly licensed games are dead now for the most part as development is too expensive for shovelware, so we don't get those gems anymore. Sure a lot of them were mediocre or bad but some could be a lot of fun or some could take the essence of the show/movie.

Are any of the Scooby Doo games fun?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by sdp

Simpsons had some pretty good games in the 2000s. People constantly ask for Hit & Run remaster. Road Rage was a more entertaining Crazy Taxi because of the characters. The Simpsons game was no Mario but it was a decent enough platformer.

People forget that with licensed games half the fun was playing the characters you loved in a game, so it didn't need to be the best game ever to love it. Turtles in Time is a great beat em up because we love the turtles, that automatically makes it better than some random Streets of Ragers even if that one could be the better game. Sadly licensed games are dead now for the most part as development is too expensive for shovelware, so we don't get those gems anymore. Sure a lot of them were mediocre or bad but some could be a lot of fun or some could take the essence of the show/movie.

Are any of the Scooby Doo games fun?

Maybe, but there's a ton of Simpsons games. You gave 2 examples of good Simpsons games that came out in the 2000s already. They've been making Simpsons games since the NES days. a few good games in an ocean of mediocre and crappy games is not a good track record.

Well, yeah, of course. I know the console versions of TMNT 2 Battle Nexus are not good at all, but I did have fun with that game on the GameCube as a teen just because it was Ninja Turtles. Also, the characters and the license can only carry a game to a certain degree. Turtles in Time in itself is a good game. Even if it's not better than the best Streets of Rage or Final Fight games. Had Turtles in Time been a game for a new video game series of the beat 'em genre, it would have been considered a good game too, even if it might have ended up being rather obscure.

Never played any of the Scooby-Doo games, so I can't say.

What about Looney Tunes games? Sunsoft made a couple of good ones for the SNES like Duck Dodgers and Rabbit Rampage. Those were fun games.

[sdp]

Well to be fair the last 3 simpsons games basically were the good ones, EA which already mentioned in this thread just milked Springfield Tapped Out on mobile for the last 15 years before finally shutting it down. If the franchise wasn't already dead perhaps we'd see more games. But then again it's a sitcom it's not like they lend themselves to a video game well.

I think WB characters had some decent games in the 90s right? Bugs Bunny had a bunch of those crazy castle games which people liked, and people always play that road runner PS1 game on twitch. People also seemed to love the Mickey Mouse platformer games on Genesis and the ones on SNES too which were different. Never played any Bugs/Mickey so I really can't say.

Personally I love some of the Jurassic Park games that they've made. the VR game that came out was good. The Park Builders are fun as well. The ones from the 90s? Hit or miss, ironically usually the Game Boy Game Gear ones were the best ones. I do think the music of the Ocean one is top tier though.

For fans of Teen Titans I love the Gamecube game, it's just an ok beat em up but it tells an original story, has the characters act like they do in the show, the voices, overall it feels like the show. Didn't need to be the best game ever.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Prowler

I'm ALL FOR sh*tting on EA at any given chance, but that's not what I'm asking in this thread

Sorry, that's my answer for anything a bit sh** in video games.

But I don't know. Terminator has had some crap games.

[neatoman]

The Atari 2600 version of ET is considered one of the absolute worst games ever made and the other game based on the movie... Uh... Has its own weird controversy. So I guess ET is a contender for the worst?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by neatoman

The Atari 2600 version of ET is considered one of the absolute worst games ever made and the other game based on the movie... Uh... Has its own weird controversy. So I guess ET is a contender for the worst?

I have never played that game. And honestly, I'm not sure if it truly is as bad as people say it is or if its bad reputation mostly comes from being blamed for the video game crash in the early 80s.

Even when AVGN reviewed it in the movie, he wasn't that harsh on it, despite ceremoniously being so scared to even utter the game's name while leading to it. And AVGN is known for exaggerating the flaws of many of the games he reviews. The fact he's rather mild on E.T. for the Atari 2600 tells me it might actually not be nearly as bad as people say it is...

[Mad Dog McMutt]

The Lord of the Rings have some pretty good games. Even the GBA games are pretty good. From what I know about 50% of the LOTR games are bad and 50% are good. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have some pretty good games out there too. I can't speak on any of the Rangers outside of the Mighty Morphin ones though. Even the movie gameboy game that the Angry Video Game Nerd shat on is pretty good. Biker Mice From Mars had the best racing game on the Snes in my opinion, but the PS 2 game wasn't very well received.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Mad Dog McMutt

The Lord of the Rings have some pretty good games. Even the GBA games are pretty good. From what I know about 50% of the LOTR games are bad and 50% are good. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have some pretty good games out there too. I can't speak on any of the Rangers outside of the Mighty Morphin ones though. Even the movie gameboy game that the Angry Video Game Nerd shat on is pretty good. Biker Mice From Mars had the best racing game on the Snes in my opinion, but the PS 2 game wasn't very well received.

I remember when some of the TLOTR games came out. I never played any, though.

[Powder]

The Matrix, TMNT, Batman, Spiderman, a few that come to mind.

[CyberCubed]

I guess The Witcher should count since its based on a book series. I don't read so I don't know anything about it till the games came out.