Movie Games

[psychospacecow]

There have been a lot of movie games. Most of them have been pretty bad. A few of them are awesome. So, what are some good movie games and why?

I'll start with The Punisher. It was made alongside the 2004 movie and was pretty good for a third person shooter in 2004.

[Koh]

A Bug's Life on PS1. I'd consider it a classic collectathon; it's got all the right elements there. Exploring your surroundings, gathering everything for 100%, and unlocking movie clips and such for doing so, your platforming and puzzle solving, etc. Best part is you don't HAVE to gather all that stuff either; you can just head straight for the goals. Soundtrack's pretty neat too c:.

Spoiler

[Dolphman]

Can't leave out the Lion King and Aladdin by Virgin Interactive. two of the best Disney movie games made during the 16-bit era.
It also helps that Disney was heavily involved with the production of them. Helping out with the graphics so they matched the films' quality.
To tell you the truth, I prefer the Virgin Interactive version of Aladdin since we had it for PC. Never heard of the Capcom one until in my teens.

[Jermungandr]

Literally the only movie video games I've ever played were the SNES Aladdin and Lion King games, and the Jurassic Park games for both the SNES and the Genesis.

I didn't own the SNES Aladdin game, I only played it for a weekend when my stepsister had a friend staying over who brought the game with her, but I did completely beat it and I remember it being a pretty solid game.

The SNES Lion King game was pretty okay. I wouldn't describe it as "difficult", just very "tricky". Once you know the tricks of every level it was pretty easy to cruise through the game. I could never beat the final boss of the game, though. Scar had some sort of gimmick you had to utilize in order to defeat him and I could never figure out how to pull it off.

The Genesis Jurassic Park game was pretty entertaining, despite having some flaws. Getting to play as a raptor murdering all the humans was kind of a neat gimmick. The SNES game was not so great, mostly due to having really vague objectives that I could never figure out. Basically I would just wander around the island killing everything that moved until something ate me. On the plus side, though, the game did have some pretty awesome music.

I did have quite a few games based on television cartoons, though.

[Ark Kuvis]

Spider-Man 2 for GameCube, Xbox, and PS2 was a surprisingly solid romp. This was the early days of sandbox games, so they decided to focus mostly on making Spider-Man's web swinging fun as hell. They gave you all of New York City to explore, and there was a lot of hidden goodies for the player who tried exploring it all. The combat was bare bones, and doesn't really hold up, but for what it was, it wasn't UNPLAYABLE. They added some more villains, like Rhino, Black Cat, Mysterio (lmao) and the Shocker came back from the first Spider-Man movie game, which was some neat continuity. Even Toby Macguire and Kirsten Dunst reprise their roles as Spidey and MJ, and the tutorial is humorously read by Bruce Campbell.

I remember it getting pretty good reviews, but it was my younger brother who rented it. It became a huge favourite for me, so much so that I'd probably wasted too many hours just swinging around NYC.

[Yawackhary]

Truth to be told, I haven't played many movie based games since when I was younger unless a game came from a good publisher/developer (Nintendo/Sega/Infogrames/even EA), I avoided license based games due to their quality and was way too young to play on Aladdin (something that I wanted to do back then, got to play it much later though and it was quite good). There are a few that want to try though like Spider-Man 2.

My first movie game is perhaps Die Hard Trilogy and still holds up well in the gameplay department due to the variety. It has 3 different modes; Die Hard 1 is a 3rd person shooter saving hostages, Die Hard 2 is a Virtua Cop clone that is actually pretty tricky (never got past Stage 2) and Die Hard with Avengence is an early sandbox objective/time based racer also tricky. Music is actually quite good and still remember the tracks. For a Probe game, it is one of their better games and also a good early PS1 game (from 1996). It has aged really badly graphically (look at the draw distance in Die Hard 1!) and was released in the days before analog controls were on the console (affecting Die Hard 3 the most) so it can be pretty hard to recommend however there is no slowdown, apart from some intentional replay stuff. I haven't seen the Die Hard movies though and still haven't. Not to be confused with Dynamite Deka, also known as Die Hard Arcade.

Another childhood one is GoldenEye on the N64. Probably won't have to explain this one but for the younger people, it is a FPS that popularised the genre especially on consoles and breaking out from Wolfenstein/Doom-style games to something more story and objective based that plenty of FPS today take for granted. Even though it has been years since I last played it (N64s don't work on HD TVs without a mod...), I still remember the music, the weapon selection (do not use the Klobb) and the stages especially the Facility/Silo/Train/Cradle. It is hard to recommend for younger people due to the slow frame rate and the Max Payne 1 esque faces of the characters though but the gameplay is still there and even has a dual analog mode (requires 2 controllers though).

My favourite movie game is Star Wars Trilogy Arcade by Sega. It is the first 3 Star Wars movies (as in A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) and arcade shooter with lightsaber boss battles. Graphics are fantastic and still hold up really well today, music is pretty much from the movies so it has that John Williams score and really smooth to play. While I never beaten the game, every time I play it really enjoy playing it. Sadly due to being arcade only, the game never got an arcade port that was a shame since I would have happily bought it and would have been great on the Wii.

A surprising one is The Godfather. It is a GTA like game but with the extra elements of businesses to take over, compounds to destroy and create a character to play has. The combat system was handled really well by using the right analog stick to punch/kick people (the Wii version uses gestures instead but played it on the original Xbox). As for the story, it is a side story to the movie to prevent either following it too close and end up limited or to cause plot holes even if a few parts got shifted however you still get to do a few moments from the movie. The only problem with the game was that many of the businesses and compounds look the same due to recycling graphics so expect some repetition.

I enjoyed the game so much that I actually then got to see the movie, liked it and got the Blu-ray of it.

Another great one is The Warriors. A 3D beat em up done by Rockstar and not only follows the movie but also gives some backstory as well (the movie part is something like 30/45 minutes long by comparison). It isn't just beating gangs up but also stealing radios and even a bit of Jet Set Radio with graffiti to paint on. Graphics fit in with the environment as in the bleak mean streets of New York, music is licensed fitting well and controls really well with plenty of moves to choose from. It even has a Double Dragon style of beat em up to unlock (that is fitting since Renegade its prequel was based off The Warriors).

Even though I fairly recently got it, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King seems like a decent hack and slash game.

[Koh]

Oh you know what, I totally forgot about the three Harry Potter RPG games on Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance.

GBC: Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets
GBA: Prisoner of Azkaban.

They're pretty good RPGs that loosely follow the movies/books, while adding the necessary things for gameplay. Also, they've got some pretty good music, especially CoS GBC.

Spoiler

In fact, CoS may be one of the earliest examples of an RPG that gives you multiple regular battle themes for different areas, rather than just one or two regular battle themes that play throughout the whole game.

[miyabi95_]

Not many for me...I played Shrek 2 on my GBA way back when...Buuuuuuut there was Star Wars Episode III for the PS2 which was actually a pretty fun hack-n-slash/versus fighter. I remember having tournaments with friends.

[Kosheh]

Probably my favorite-ever game-movie tie-in game has to be TMNT, on the GBA. It's the only Ubisoft game I've ever played that wasn't absolutely terrible, and it returned the turtles to the realm of beat-em-ups.

I'd actually go as far to say that it's better than Turtles in Time (despite the fact that game holds a special place in my heart, and I still play it completely through, annually. I'm that guy who barks orders at the other 3 players on who picks up the pizza in the level and when) as it plays more like River City Ransom with a combo/juggle system than it does a TMNT game. You can pick up items off the ground and use them as a weapon (either like a baseball bat, or something you could throw. You could throw mailboxes. MAILBOXES) Every Turtle has individual stats that can be improved by consuming items so you can really customize your squad as you see fit. There's also an assist-call feature that works like MVC, where one of your Turtle brothers jumps down, does an attack, and then jumps back offscreen. You also learn more attacks as your Turtle levels up. It's actually really, REALLY great and only $6 because everyone thinks it's a shitty movie tie-in game.

Does it sound familiar? Of course it does. Ubisoft Chengdu recycled the engine for the Scott Pilgrim VS The World game.

Of course, that ran on next-gen systems which were capable of handling many more characters onscreen, so you had full-out multiplayer and online play and whatnot. But it was still equally great!! (and I can't believe not a single person mentioned that game instead!!)

[Ark Kuvis]

Eh, I guess I always figured the Scott Pilgrim game was more true to the Graphic Novels, and therefore never considered it a movie game. That game is definitely dope.

[Gors]

I didn't own the SNES Aladdin game, I only played it for a weekend when my stepsister had a friend staying over who brought the game with her, but I did completely beat it and I remember it being a pretty solid game.

SNES Aladdin is literally 16-bit Le Parkour simulator, I love it

[TomGuycott]

Two NES movie games I enjoyed as a kid were Willow and Little Nemo. Both were bone-crushingly difficult for a child (the first a lengthy RPG, the second a collect-keys-and-exit platformer), but the graphics and music were enjoyable for each. I think both were also done by Capcom.

Also, when I was a kid the Little Nemo movie came out later in America than the game, so there was a short short time where I believed they made an animated film based on a game, and that feeling was magical.

[Kosheh]

that happens a lot actually with games now, and it's further echoed by the upcoming Ratchet and Clank tie-in movie game

so yeah they're making an animated film based on the game...which is based on an animated film, that's originally based on a....game.

@__@

[miyabi95_]

that happens a lot actually with games now, and it's further echoed by the upcoming Ratchet and Clank tie-in movie game

so yeah they're making an animated film based on the game...which is based on an animated film, that's originally based on a....game.

@__@

Aren't we supposed to see something similar with the Sonic franchise?

[Arcrom]

Spider man 2 from PS2. This game still provides a lot of fun everytime I decides to revive this console. The game provides many things to do like a simply free roam with no frame drops at fast speed, challenges, gang hideouts, quests and collectables.

Star Wars games are in general pretty good for me. I remember playing some from SNES and they made just few minutes of the movie into a full scale challenge like Luke’s training in Dagobah, the game turned it in a big fight against the planets hazards.