Are there any movie tie-in video games worth playing?

[enomaj]

I've been burned by Tron and Clash of the Titans. Plus Thor is getting underwhelming reviews.

[Bosstone]

Die Hard Trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Hard_Trilogy) is an oldschool Playstation game that was actually pretty fun.

For more recent games, the Lego Star Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Star_Wars:_The_Complete_Saga)/Indiana Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Indiana_Jones:_The_Original_Adventures)/Batman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Batman:_The_Videogame) games are fun. I've only played the Star Wars version, but I see no reason Indy and Batman would be different.

The recent Ghostbusters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters:_The_Video_Game) game was said to be fun but not entirely satisfying.

And, of course, Star Wars games in general have a 50/50 chance to be a lot of fun.

[FinnAgain]

The Riddick games got pretty good ratings if you like the whole stealth thang.

[Miller]

Goldeneye is not just a good movie tie-in game, it's generally held to be one of the best shooters ever made.

But generally speaking, movie tie-ins are trash by definition. The main problem is that they're tied to a specific release date: the premiere of the movie. Software development is a tricky process that runs on a very different track than film production, and it's very difficult to hit an exact date like that. So, most tie ins are either horribly buggy and incomplete, because the studio ran out of time to finish it, or are ridiculously dumbed down from the start, to make it easier to create and guarantee that they have a functional product on the shelves before interest in the movie wanes.

Games that are tied to an on-going intellectual property (such as Star Wars) tend to fare better, because they're not tied to a specific event like a movie release. Even there, you can see the same thing in action. Out of all of the classic Star Wars games - stuff like X-Wing, or Knights of the Old Republic - how many have been directly tied to the release of a new film? The only one I can think of is the original Lego Star Wars, whose release was timed to coincide with the premiere of Revenge of the Sith. And even there, only a third of the game was directly related to the new film.

[Miller]

(It's also worth noting that the Goldeneye video game came out two years after the release of the movie, and so wasn't handicapped by trying to match the movie's production schedule.)

[Tanbarkie]

Perhaps not surprisingly, the "Scott Pilgrim" video game tie-in on Xbox Live Arcade is fantastic - an old-school 2D side-scrolling beat-'em-up with 16-bit graphics and an awesome chiptunes soundtrack. It's a better adaptation of the comic book than the actual movie (which was still pretty great).

[Quartz]

My nephew is hugely enjoying the Lego Star Wars games. He's 8, though.

[Invisible Chimp]

(It's also worth noting that the Goldeneye video game came out two years after the release of the movie, and so wasn't handicapped by trying to match the movie's production schedule.)
Plus, if you don't want to play a 14 year old game(I can't believe it's that old), it's so good, they remade it for this gen's consoles.

[villa]

My nephew is hugely enjoying the Lego Star Wars games. He's 8, though.

42 here and still enjoy them. I mean my son enjoys them.

[Push You Down]

The Warriors by Rockstargames is pretty awesome. Prequel story takes you into the movie storyline.

[Gukumatz]

- Both Chronicles of Riddick games were very competent shooters and very good games on their own.
- The original Alien VS Predator game was pants-shittingly scary.
- The Ghostbusters game was solid, if largely unremarkable outside its' IP.
- The second Godfather game was, well, not bad.
- As mentioned, GoldenEye is a top-tier shooter popular enough to be remade in current-gen.
- Some of the Lord of the Rings games were surprisingly good. Notably, LOTR Online and the Battle for Middle Earth series. Of course, it's debatable if these were born from the movies or the books.
- Some of the Star Wars games have been playable, although as a whole the games based on that IP have been extremely hit and miss. Notably good ones have been the X-Wing series, the Jedi Knight series, Republic Commando and the first Force Unleashed game.

[Sierra Indigo]

Seconding the recommendation for the Riddick games. They're tough too, but well worth it.

AvP was good, AvP 2 was better. But then they weren't based on the movies, because the movies hadn't come out at the time. They were based around canon, but not tied in with any particular film.

The new AvP game that came out recently is okay-ish, but the AvP movie tie-in game is pants-shittingly horrific.

So much love for the Lego Star Wars games. They stay true to Canon and keep things well tied in to the story, but are accessible for all ages.

[Palooka]

GoldenEye was pretty goddamn far from a top-tier FPS, even by 1997 standards.

[Miller]

The new AvP game that came out recently is okay-ish, but the AvP movie tie-in game is pants-shittingly horrific.

Considering that it's based off of two horror movie franchises, I'm not sure if "pants-shittingly horrific" is intended to be a warning, or a recommendation.

[Sierra Indigo]

Considering that it's based off of two horror movie franchises, I'm not sure if "pants-shittingly horrific" is intended to be a warning, or a recommendation.

Horrific is never good :D It's a very poor game.

[Justin_Bailey]

GoldenEye was pretty goddamn far from a top-tier FPS, even by 1997 standards.

Bwuh? GoldenEye practically invented the concept of missions in FPSs.

[Kamino Neko]

For more recent games, the Lego Star Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Star_Wars:_The_Complete_Saga)/Indiana Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Indiana_Jones:_The_Original_Adventures)/Batman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Batman:_The_Videogame) games are fun. I've only played the Star Wars version, but I see no reason Indy and Batman would be different.

There's also Harry Potter.

The 4 titles are all different, due to the requirements of the source material - you don't need to put magic into a Batman game, for instance - but they're all good...I assume, anyway. I'm not a fan of Indiana Jones and the Lego Star Wars games left me kind of cold (may be bad DS conversions, or may be that I'm not an enthusiastic Star Wars fan), but Lego Batman and Lego Harry Potter both rock. (Lego Batman is based on the comics with a touch of the old TV series and 90s cartoon, though...the movie connections are pretty much just cameos of the costumes.)

[Palooka]

Bwuh? GoldenEye practically invented the concept of missions in FPSs.Well, I don't know what you mean by "mission" but I can't see how what you're saying is true by any reasonable definition of "mission." It's not like people were running around in mazes just shooting stuff until 1997. Regardless, I don't see how that's the be all and end all of first-person shooters, games of the genre require far more than "missions" to be good.

GoldenEye isn't top-tier because it had terrible controls, movement, and slowdown in multiplayer. The only things it did well were presentation and existing on a console.

[willthekittensurvive?]

Their is some buzz that the upcoming Tie-in game for Captain America could be a winner....

[Mijin]

GoldenEye isn't top-tier because it had terrible controls, movement, and slowdown in multiplayer. The only things it did well were presentation and existing on a console.

It's certainly regarded (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/top-10-screwattack/34978) as top tier, I agree that it's not as sophisticated as most PC FPS games (although it was close at the time), but it plays very well indeed, and gets my vote. And I'm very much a PC gamer.

[Mekhazzio]

GoldenEye isn't top-tier because it had terrible controls, movement, and slowdown in multiplayer. The only things it did well were presentation and existing on a console.The latter is, of course, the important part. The people that rave about Goldeneye do so because it was their introduction to the FPS genre. It's just like the reception Halo got later, even though both were mediocre by the standards of the time. You don't have to be amazing when you're breaking ground in new markets.

[llcoolbj77]

LOVED all the Lego games. And I enjoyed most of the LOTR games that I played... (though that might be because I played them with my brother when he still lived near me, and we had such an awesome time together). Arkham Asylum was pretty good.

[Mijin]

The latter is, of course, the important part. The people that rave about Goldeneye do so because it was their introduction to the FPS genre. It's just like the reception Halo got later, even though both were mediocre by the standards of the time. You don't have to be amazing when you're breaking ground in new markets.

So why were both games applauded by video game magazines / websites, including multi-platform outfits like Edge and Gamespot?

[Palooka]

Probably because they were some of the best games on their platform and game journalism is pap, I'd imagine.

[Miller]

The latter is, of course, the important part. The people that rave about Goldeneye do so because it was their introduction to the FPS genre. It's just like the reception Halo got later, even though both were mediocre by the standards of the time. You don't have to be amazing when you're breaking ground in new markets.

I never actually played GoldenEye myself. I wasn't into consoles when GoldenEye came out, being a big PC gamer snob at the time. I did, however, play the hell out of Halo, which I found to be an excellent FPS. And I'd been playing shooters since the days of Castle Wolfenstein 3D. So I don't agree that the appeal of Halo was due entirely to people never having played the genre of game before. I suspect the same applies to your theory about the popularity of GoldenEye.

[Jragon]

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers for Gamecube was pretty good, except for some infuriating sections (mostly involving Hobbits). But it was a decent game at least.

[TBG]

Spider-Man 2 was a pretty good "sandbox" type game. Think GTA with webswinging instead of cars, and crime to fight instead of hookers to beat to death. And Bruce Campbell providing the voice of the tutorial. This is the console version, btw, the PC version was a dumbed down POS.

[Mahaloth]

Spider-Man 2 was a pretty good "sandbox" type game. Think GTA with webswinging instead of cars, and crime to fight instead of hookers to beat to death. And Bruce Campbell providing the voice of the tutorial. This is the console version, btw, the PC version was a dumbed down POS.

Fun to swing around, but I really did not like any of the missions. Still, neat to swing around NY.

[Max Torque]

Oddly enough, they say that the game X-Men Origins: Wolverine is actually pretty good. I remember hearing that it wasn't even originally planned as a movie tie-in game, but rather some independent game; when the movie came out, they slapped some new graphics in there and called it a tie-in. That means that the mechanics and story didn't suffer from the usual "rush job" that plagues other movie tie-in games.

[Justin_Bailey]

Oddly enough, they say that the game X-Men Origins: Wolverine is actually pretty good. I remember hearing that it wasn't even originally planned as a movie tie-in game, but rather some independent game; when the movie came out, they slapped some new graphics in there and called it a tie-in. That means that the mechanics and story didn't suffer from the usual "rush job" that plagues other movie tie-in games.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was awesome (except for that mandatory stage in all superhero games where you lose your powers). It totally nailed the feeling of being Wolverine.

[Mahaloth]

Oddly enough, they say that the game X-Men Origins: Wolverine is actually pretty good. I remember hearing that it wasn't even originally planned as a movie tie-in game, but rather some independent game; when the movie came out, they slapped some new graphics in there and called it a tie-in. That means that the mechanics and story didn't suffer from the usual "rush job" that plagues other movie tie-in games.

Even for the PS2?

[Justin_Bailey]

Even for the PS2?

There were three versions of Wolverine. There was the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 "Uncaged Edition" (considered the real version of the game by Raven Software). the DS/PSP version (outsourced to Griptonite) and the PS2/Wii version (outsourced to Amaze Entertainment).

But the Uncaged Edition was much, much better.

[VarlosZ]

Fun to swing around [in Spider-Man 2], but I really did not like any of the missions. Still, neat to swing around NY.
Yeah, but that last thing you said is by far the most important part. A sandbox game like SP2 succeeds or fails, to a huge degree, just on whether or not it's fun to get around town. Take the GTA games, for instance: the writing is good, but aside from that there isn't much about them that's notable in a good way, and there are some things (e.g. combat mechanics) that would just be unacceptably bad in most games ... except, of course, that it can be such a blast just getting from Point A to Point B, so it's hard not to have a great time playing it. Ditto SP2.

[Kobal2]

Spider-Man 2 was a pretty good "sandbox" type game. Think GTA with webswinging instead of cars, and crime to fight instead of hookers to beat to death. And Bruce Campbell providing the voice of the tutorial. This is the console version, btw, the PC version was a dumbed down POS.

That's what I came in to say. Spidey 2 was quite a decent game on its own merits. Not spectacular perhaps (where superheroes are concerned, Freedom Force held my attention for much longer), but it's a'ight by movie tie-in standards.

ETA: for that matter, the Wolverine game was also a'ight as a God of War substitute.
ETA2: OK, so I was beaten to the punch thrice or more. I'm feeling like Ant Man over here.

[Munch]

Arkham Asylum was pretty good.

That wasn't a movie tie-in, though (thank god).

[TBG]

Fun to swing around, but I really did not like any of the missions. Still, neat to swing around NY.

I never get around to playing missions in that type of game anyway.:D