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Quick– think of a licensed game. Whatever you thought of, it probably had something to do with the poll question today. Did you think of Batman: Arkham Asylum, or Epic Mickey? You’re probably a new licensed gamer. What about Superman 64, or E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? You probably gave up on licensed games quite some time ago. And Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers, or Disney’s Magical Quest Starring Mickey? You’ve been playing licensed games longer than many current gamers have been alive. (Yay?)
Licensed games are something that polarizes us as video game enthusiasts, and for good reason– a lot of them are just plain bad. But then again, there are a few diamonds in the rough– Nintendojo’s been known to review quite a lot of licensed games itself. What about you, fellow Dojoites? Tell us about your licensed game habits– we won’t judge, though Nester might bite– and our editors promise to play a few in honor of your pain. (Or pleasure.)
[poll id=”87″]
Lately they have been actually quite good.
Gameplay Over License
I liked Superman 64. I remember, somehow, having invincibility and all of the powers available. I played through the entire game and loved it. It’s my favorite Superman game after the 2 player arcade game. Another favorite licensed game is Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for Gamecube. Hulk and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee were both much better on the GCN than the newer versions that came out for the Wii. That really disappointed me, very much. I liked those GCN games so much that I was really looking forward to the new Wii versions. Arg. Basically, There are licenses that I like, but I only play them when the gameplay looks good to me. Just like with any other game, if it looks interesting, I’ll check it out, maybe rent it, and then decide if it’s worth buying. But, it usually needs to have some appeal gameplay-wise rather than simply because it is a license that I like. A good example would be the Dragonball games; I like some of the console games, but none on the DS. I also liked Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, but I have not bothered to try Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes yet. Another disappointing game was Transformers War for Cybertron Adventures. I was really looking forward to this game, but then it turned out to be very different for the Wii than it was for other systems. Certainly, just being Transformers was not nearly enough. I wanted Gears of War type gameplay using the Wii Remote’s pointer capabilities. Again, gameplay over license.
Well, Epic Mickey was pushed to the limit at E3 and back, so we had a pretty good idea what to expect (as far as quality goes). Not bad. I wouldn’t put it in the bin with the r~e~g~u~l~a~r licensed games. You know the ones I’m talking about…The ones that come out the same time as the movie. The ones that make you say, “Did they ACTUALLY make a game for that show?” The ones that make you wonder how could gameplay work for that?
But yes, there have been a few decent ones lately. Madagascar 1&2 blew me away (not amazing games, just really good in a genre that’s usually nauseating). Then there’s Telltale Inc. As former (BEST) developers of Lucasarts, they make licensed games all the time. They haven’t made a crappy game yet.
Some of my favourite Wii and GameCube games are licensed, like GoldenEye, The Force Unleashed, Spider-Man 2, X-Men Legends 2 and, my personal favourite, DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3.