Movie-Licensed Games That Might Not Suck 125
Thanks to GameSpot for their new mini-feature discussing movie licenses that might actually make decent games, as opposed to "every big-budget blockbuster getting a cheap and dirty game that is less a game and more a lackluster piece of promotional material." The suggested movies include Run Lola Run as a game "with hundreds of available outcomes", Battle Royale as a "twisted and sadistic" action title, and Fletch with "a Max Payne style of narration.. to represent Fletch's internal dialogue." But, the big question - do Slashdot Games readers have any better suggestions?
Blade Runner (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Blade Runner (Score:1)
A game with a narrative style like the movie "Memento" would be pretty innovative. For those who've not seen the movie, I'm not spoiling anything by saying the story is told backwards. You get a scene in color, then a black and white scene (which is basically background on the lead character) then the next scene in color is set BEFORE the first color scene, and e
Re:Blade Runner (Score:1)
Re:Blade Runner (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Blade Runner (Score:2)
I think it was Rise of the Dragon [lysator.liu.se]
Re:Blade Runner (Score:1)
Re:Blade Runner (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Blade Runner (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course it didn't follow the storyline. It wasn't supposed to. It was a completely new story that ran parallel to the events of the movie. It actually had several elements from the book (Do Androids Dream of electric sheep) that weren't in the movie. The interesting thing about was that each time you started a new game, it randomized a few elements. So you never knew if the person who was a robot in the last game is this time around, or if your own character
Re:Blade Runner (Score:1)
Also, did you ever read the so-called sequel to Do Androids Dream of ELectric Sheep? Written by another author 'in the spirit of PKD'. Its a travesty of literature justice.
Cool as Ice (Score:5, Funny)
They're missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
Making movies from licenses from good movies isn't necessarily hard. I think the main factor in explaining why almost all movie licenses suck is that most movie-licensed games must be released, ready or not, at the same time as their respective movies. Add to that the fact that the production cycle of a typical movie is shorter than that of the average game, and you have a recipe for disaster that smells vaguely like most of what Acclaim releases.
There's no reason that licensed games have to suck. Some [gamefaqs.com] don't [gamefaqs.com]. (Goldeneye was released years after its movie counterpart, and didn't really have a strict deadline to meet.) It's just that rushed games tend to suck.
Producing a good game nowadays requires more time and money than most licensors realize. When licensed games are treated less as a marketing tie-in and more as separate entities, their quality will improve dramatically.
Re:They're missing the point... (Score:2)
However, the good licensed games frequently pass under the radar of games news sites. Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak [hamtaro-games.com] is one of the only license-based games I've ever run out to buy on release day. (The kids' storybooks came first, then a TV series and movie, so it had full potential to suck.) It's a great non-violent GBA game with heavy puzzle elements, an RPG-style story and super happy fun everywhere. (There is stuff resembling violence, but it's nicely balanced out by the scat jokes.)
Since the game
Re:They're missing the point... (Score:1)
Re:They're missing the point... (Score:2)
Aliens vs. Predator is great fun. That's based off of movie stuff that there isn't even a movie for. It was cool because they did it at their own pace, and it was something that fit the genre.
However, most of the movies this guy suggests in his article are retarded ideas for video games. The article's mainly a failed attempt t
Fletch? (Score:2)
Re:Fletch? (Score:2)
Hey, I happen to like Fletch (Score:2)
Exception to the rule: (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd like to see a Fight Club or Big Trouble In Little China game. Just to see what they'd do with them.
Battle Royale (Score:1)
SW Episode I Racer (Score:2)
ground rules (Score:5, Insightful)
By then, the biggest factors that work to make a movie game SUCK are gone:
1) the movie is finished, and the game cannot increase hype for the movie, therefore there is no reason to rush or cut corners. There is no pressure to get the thing out the door before the movie is out.
2) the movie is finished, and therefore the movie's name on the box won't be enough to sell the game. Thus the game will actually have to be good on its own merits.
It isn't a guarantee of success, but it sure helps avoid failure.
Re:ground rules (Score:1)
Re:ground rules (Score:1)
But for _old_ movies that haven't had games made for them yet... we've got a few decades of untapped material with potential.
Street Fighter (Score:3, Funny)
Why no, I don't know what I'm talking about. Why do you ask?
Re:Street Fighter (Score:2)
Re:Street Fighter (Score:1)
Re:Street Fighter (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Good Movie, Good Video Game (Score:1)
Re:Good Movie, Good Video Game (Score:1)
Weird suggestions (Score:2)
Brrrr
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:2)
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:1)
The problem with licences fall into two categories:
The Rush Job: Game is rushed to coincide with the movie. See the piss poor "Enter The Matrix" and "Hulk".
Too Old: Then you get a game like the upcoming "Starsky and Hutch". YEAH! A game based on a 25 year old TV series... Only one that can pull that off is Star Trek,
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:1)
So you pick one of the few movies anyone could ever point to as a decent movie from a game license, and call it 'shite', and then ask for more movies from game licenses, riight. Come on, where's Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 3? Maybe if we can find more games based on movies to make new movies from we can get more great movies like Resident Evil...
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:1)
I don't know a single website or person who saw that movie who thought it was anything other than crap.
As for Resident Evil... Let's see, Res Evil, Tomb Raider, either you're a troll, or wouldn't know a decent movie if it bit you on the ass since BOTH movies were panned by fans of the games (well, in TR's case those who only went to see Lara's tits were probably not disappointed.) Unless you're being sarca
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:1)
I don't know a single website or person who saw that movie who thought it was anything other than crap.
I'm simply going by the fact that I know several people who did like the movie, though many (if not most) didn't know it had anything to do with a video game.
As for Resident Evil... Let's see, Res Evil, Tomb Raider, either you're a troll, or wouldn't know a decent movie if it bit you on the ass since
Re:Weird suggestions (Score:1)
Not all suck.. (Score:4, Interesting)
To completely buck the CW, on a lark I rented Enter The Matrix the other day. I avoided it because of the bad reviews. I shouldn't have. Quite frankly, it is one of the best pure action games I've played in a long time. The good action game has pretty much died in the 3d era..it's good to have a fun one to play. The camera does suck sometimes, but it's not the worst I've seen. The driving stages are somewhat cheap, but they as well are fun. The game on hard is somewhat short, but provides a refreshing skill based challenge...something I havn't had in a long time.
I get the feeling people just expected more from it. I expected a simple beat-em-up with some cool cutscenes. I got what I was looking for. (And more, to be honest.)
To pick a nit... (Score:4, Insightful)
To pick a nit, I'd submit there's a major difference between movie license and franchise license. Of the games you list, the only one that might be considered truly movie licensed is Golden Eye, and given the enduring popularity of the James Bond franchise, even that is stretching it.
X-Wing and Tie Fighter were emphatically not movie licensed; there isn't a Star Wars movie five years either side of the original X-Wing (maybe more, I'm being conservative). GI Joe was popular for decades. I don't recall if TMNT had any movie-specific games, but it did have a lot of non-movie specific games.
Now, this [gamespot.com] is a Star Wars movie-licensed game. It is not immune to licensing crapiness.
Actually, Star Wars does have one of the few truly movie-based games that I did not read uniformly bad things about, and that was the Pod Racer games. Still, an exception does not a trend make.
Anyways, just a little nit, but when seen this way, the movie license sucks trend holds very strongly, whereas franchise licenses sometimes work out OK. (The best Star Trek games were set in the Original Series universe, 20-25+ years after the show went off the air, for instance.)
Re:To pick a nit... (Score:2)
Okay, Golden Eye was definitely a movie-based game. Had the same basic plot and everything. It was a good game though. The Pod Racer game was only semi-movie-based. It took a small portion of the movie and made a game out of it. I wouldn't consider it to be a movie-based game myself. X-Wing was a movie-based game, it just wasn't released anywhere near the same time as the movie. That is probably why it didn't suck. As long as they aren't trying to rush crap out the door to cash in on the popularity
Re:To pick a nit... (Score:1)
Re:Not all suck.. (Score:1)
Repo Man (Score:2)
GTA style controls, you go around and reposses cars, people shoot at you, you get a 1-up for every 100 pine air freshners you grab.
They wouldn't even have to make the game good, all they need to do is include a few hits of acid with it and nobody will know the difference...
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Score:1)
Screenshots [shacknews.com] look promising. It's a good thing the movie is already out, so there's no pressure on the development team. This may help them accomplish most of what's in the press release [yahoo.com], at least...
I guess only time will tell, but I actually set my hopes high on this one.
RLR! RLR! (Score:2)
I can't believe this hasn't been done. (Score:1, Offtopic)
A strategy one player game where you are the
President of the USA. I shouldn't have to go
into to much more detail. You can imagine how
cool it could be made. Imagine an online version
where you have to compete with others and run
a full campaign. It would be the same type of deal
where college kids and unemployed people would have
a lot more time to campaign, but it could still
be made very cool. Taking your country to the
brink of war and back. Consulting with FBI and
other sources on
THANKS! (Score:2)
for free from HERE. [mosw.com]
Re:I can't believe this hasn't been done. (Score:1)
The game was called "Yes, prime minister". You can view some screenshots here [vgmuseum.com] .
Re:I can't believe this hasn't been done. (Score:2)
Got it backwards (Score:2)
Bzzzt, sorry try again. The game is being made to capitalize on the hype surrounding the movie. The amount of money spent on developing the game gets a miniscule return (if any) in advertising for the movie, and any company that is investing the money with that expectation is bound for disapointment.
Movies that should have games (Score:2, Interesting)
Drunken Master [amazon.com]. Learn Kung-fu. Get money and hire a master. Fight battles. Master drunken fighting and other forms. It seems to really lend itself to a good game.
Spaceballs, the Video Game [amazon.com]. Play the game as Lone Star, dodging Dark Helmet.
Yellow Submarine [amazon.com]. Avoid the Blue Meanies. Get the Beatles. Save Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Highlander [amazon.com]. Battle through
Re:Movies that should have games (Score:1)
Problem is, will you get stronger with more kills? I'd see people making new characters just to be sacrificial lambs for their friends... alternately, if you don't get stronger, then you could lose your score to some newbie who's a bit better with his sword tha
Re:Movies that should have games (Score:1)
Reverse question (Score:2)
Re:Reverse question (Score:1)
Re:Reverse question (Score:1)
Some people will say the Final Fantasy movie was pretty good....
Re:Reverse question (Score:1)
The first Mortal Kombat movie wasn't that bad. The ones after that were aweful. The Street Fighter movie was bad, but the original Japanese Anime movie was awesome. The american dub isn't very good IMHO.
If you ever get a chance to watch the original Japabese Street Fighter Anime movie (not the TV series) check it out. It has an awesome fight scene between Chun li and Vega which ends with Chun li kicking Vega through a brick wall and down 6 stories. A cool Charli
it depends (Score:2)
I only expect one of two things from a videogame movie, e.g. either:
A - the movie is faithful to its origins, even if it sucks if you don't know the game (Wing Commander is a good example, so I don't consider it to be so bad).
B - the movie stands on its own merits but maybe alienates the hard-core fans.
Sometimes you can get
More Gangster Movie/Games (Score:1)
Greatest movie to make a Video game out of. (Score:3, Interesting)
KOTOR (Score:2)
My advice: Don't rent. Buy! Now! Go!
Re:KOTOR (Score:1)
And if you want to lose more faith in movie-game ports, go buy Star Wars Galaxies!
the persistent dude.. (Score:1)
We say this only because everyone we know that plays EverQuest, etc.. is a pot smoking, drunk, unemployed loser. It's so perfect. People online bickering over rare creedence bootlegs and attacking with +5 ferrets. Ahhhh.
Cannibal: The Musical (Score:1)
Play the "ARE YOU LOOKIN AT MY EYE?!?!" mini-game!
Get help from the Eeeeeeeedians!
Fight ze Trappers!
Consume Human Flesh!
Re:Cannibal: The Musical (Score:1)
The Matrix (Score:1)
But who reading games.slashdot.org wouldn't like to see a decent Matrix video game? If ETM didn't suck so horribly it would've been great (yeah, that last sentence sounds real intelligent I'm sure). The game concept was there, everything else just wasn't. Numerous graphical problems, engine
I have a great idea.... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh wait....
28 days later (Score:4, Informative)
Typical: has been done on the Mac already (Score:2)
From firearms to facials, aromatherapy to assassinations, Beaches: the First Person Shooter could have it all. Using the Soldier of Fortune II engine with advanced sound features from Undying (to catch not only the hiss of flying lead but also the spirit-lifting cuts f
Tron 2.0 (Score:1)
ET Go Home (Score:1)
In any case, there are some good movie licensed games out there. However, I have yet to play one game that was made especially for a movie that introduced innovative concepts, gameplay, or level design. I think if a developer/
8-bit classics (Score:2)
Short Circuit - where you had to use hacked CCTV cameras to plan your route; a proto-stealth title.
Cobra - the Stallone movie. A simple side-on shooter, very hard without being unfair.
Alien / Aliens - the first was a fairly abstract team-based game using a top-down plan on the Nostromo - like seeing the tracking system used when the captain gets killed in the
Home Alone (Score:1)
I actually loved the home alone NES game. You had to run around and pick up/set traps in a house while two goons chase you for 15 minutes until the police get there. I never beat it though...but it will make you paranoid as all getout from all that running...oh yeah...and you can hide behind furnature and the like.
Ideas (Score:1)
Pitch Black could make a great survival horror type game, and I would have loved to have seen a point'n'click adventure like Dark City, or maybe any Jackie Chan film being made into an update of the classic scrolling beat'em'up (ala Double Dragon)
Anyone remember.... (Score:1)
Golden Eye (Score:1)
game suggestions (Score:2)
1) Legend
The most underrated fantasy film ever. Great RPG opps.
2) @))!, I mean 2001...maybe. maybe better make it the next one Dave. 3) Ran, by Kurosawa
Everybody loves Samurai. and its Shakespeare too. Lots of political intrigue.
Now the good stuff: books and radio plays:
4) Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe.
A radio play that doesn't suck. at www.zbs.org Listen to Ruby 1. Its a cyberpunkish radio play.
5)Snow Crash
6) Neuromancer
7)Memory,Sorrow, Thorn
8)and of course, the Foundation se
Big Trouble in Little China (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Big Trouble in Little China (Score:1)
Books? (Score:1)
Fear and Loathing.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why settle for one addiction when you can have twenty? The ideas of drug experimentation and mixing alone would make for a unique gaming experience (with pretty colors and oodles of famous quotes). Graphics designers could g
Night of the Living Dead (Score:1)
Death Race 2000 (Score:2)
Oh wait, they did that already in spirit but not name. (Carmageddon).
Re:Death Race 2000 (Score:1)
Battle Royale? (Score:2)
The Warriors (Score:1)
Re:The Warriors (Score:1)
The had a huge poster at E3 this year announcing the game.
Check out this old article [ign.com].
Re:The Warriors (Score:1)
Cowboy Bebop (Score:1)
Give the player the ability to switch between characters so that while Ed and Ein are hacking, Faye and Spike can be off hunting, while Jet is off getting information from his sources. Maybe a mix of RTS and FPS.
If they can pull off a real-time 2-D cell anima
Re:Cowboy Bebop (Score:1)
The Road Warrior... (Score:1)
Weekend at bernies 2 (Score:1)
or dead, but in one piece.
Jet Li's "The One" (Score:1)
Battle Royale: The MMOG (Score:1)
The conclusion I reached was that it would work a lot better as a MMOG - and here's how it would work:
Instead of having persistent servers, each server would have a life of three game days or up to an hour after there was only one survivor. (The last hour would be for participants to talk about the game that just happened, swap strategies, congratulate, etc.) Afterwards, the server would return to a "waiting" state until it had another 40 pl