Best license-based games

[electricmastro]

A lot times licensed-based games based on movies, TV shows, etc. are talked about, it's usually the worse ones which are brought up, so I thought to make a thread focusing on the better ones. To start off, I think some of the top examples would include:

 

GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64)

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)

 

Shadowrun (SNES)

 

Dune: The Battle for Arrakis (Genesis)

 

The Adventures of Batman & Robin (Genesis)

 

DuckTales (NES)

 

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64)

 

Biker Mice From Mars (SNES)

 

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (SMS)

 

Phantom 2040 (SNES)

 

Bucky O'Hare (NES)

 

True Lies (SNES)

 

The Lone Ranger (NES)

 

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure (Genesis)

 

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)

[pacman000]

I’ve enjoyed Jurassic Park for the Game Boy. It’s a nice little action/adventure game. Exploring the park, dodging dinos, & finding what I need to get outta there is fun. The graphics aren’t too bad either.

Edited May 15, 2022 by pacman000

[Razzie.P]

Popeye (multiple) 

 

Rambo 3 (Genesis)

 

Batman (NES)

[Punisher5.0]

Star Wars Trilogy on SNES

 

Star Wars Episode One Racer

 

Batman Returns on SNES

[electricmastro]

4 hours ago, pacman000 said:

I’ve enjoyed Jurassic Park for the Game Boy. It’s a nice little action/adventure game. Exploring the park, dodging dinos, & finding what I need to get outta there is fun. The graphics aren’t too bad either.

The second game on SNES is prob one of the better ones, amounting to being a solid platformer:

 

 

[+jeremiahjt]

As a kid, and adult, I greatly enjoyed both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game on the NES.

 

I did not have either, but I rented and had fun with Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and Jurassic Park on the Sega CD.

 

I loved Alien Vs. Predator on the Jaguar.

[Steven Pendleton]

McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure. Yes, seriously.

 

This is also an excellent excuse to mention the excellent The Two Towers and The Return of the King on GBA. Don't miss them.

 

Oh, yes, and Magic Knight Rayearth on the Saturn, which is an okay game and deserves a mention.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

You forgot Dick Tracy (Genesis) again !

And my favorite, Die Hard Arcade (Saturn), even though the license was added for the western market.

 

Demolition Man (Genesis & SNES) is fun too, but I haven't been very far.

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

Game Gear brigade reporting for duty.

 

True Lies is once again really solid:

 

I rather liked Hook on Game Gear even if apparently others don’t, but the Sega CD version is where it’s at!

 

Conversely, the Bram Stoker’s Dracula games were all bad (hilariously so in the Sega CD rendition) except for the Game Gear/Master System version:

 

 

Predator 2 is better than the movie on both Genesis and Game Gear/SMS:

 

 

I’m not going to say it’s great, but Cutthroat Island has an interesting swordfighting mechanic that makes it worth playing, even if the Game Gear port is not the best way to play it:

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

One very awesome game I can't believe that I forgot: Star Trek Bridge Commander.

 

That also leads to the obligatory X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, Rogue Squadron 1+2, Galactic Battlegrounds, and Dark Forces/Jedi Knight mentions.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 5/15/2022 at 11:27 PM, jeremiahjt said:

I did not have either, but I rented and had fun with Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and Jurassic Park on the Sega CD.

 

21 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Conversely, the Bram Stoker’s Dracula games were all bad (hilariously so in the Sega CD rendition) except for the Game Gear/Master System version

It was not Sherlock Holmes I rented and liked, it was Dracula Unleashed. I know it is a different game than Bram Stoker's Dracula, but it jogged my memory none the less.

[Tanooki]

NES: Batman, Batman Return of the Joker, Popeye, Duck Tales 1+2, TMNT1-3+fighters, Rescue Rangers 1+2, Darkwing Duck, Star Trek 25th, Little Nemo the Dream Master.  Add Famicom then there's Goonies, Astro Boy, Gundam, quite a few other anime/toy franchises.

Super Famicom largely the same, lots of Japanese anime, manga, toy lines covered with exceptional works, but then you do have Batman Returns, Indiana Jones and 3 Star Wars titles, Doom, 2 Magical Quest(Mickey Games), the other Disney stuff like the superior Aladdin and then Jungle Book, Lion King, etc. Mech Warrior(battletech), Sim City, Star Trek STarfleet Academy (but also DS9 and TNG had stuff), UN Squadron, Ultraman, TMNT4+fighters, Terminator was fine too.

[electricmastro]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

Super Famicom largely the same, lots of Japanese anime, manga, toy lines covered with exceptional works, but then you do have Batman Returns, Indiana Jones and 3 Star Wars titles, Doom, 2 Magical Quest(Mickey Games), the other Disney stuff like the superior Aladdin and then Jungle Book, Lion King, etc. Mech Warrior(battletech), Sim City, Star Trek STarfleet Academy (but also DS9 and TNG had stuff), UN Squadron, Ultraman, TMNT4+fighters, Terminator was fine too.

There's a series of Japanese superhero games Banpresto put out that never made it out overseas. It's too bad too. I think a lot of people would have gotten a kick out of them.

 

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

Getting a bit more modern and a bit more obscure, there is Rurouni Kenshin Enjou! Kyoto Rinne on PS2, which is very good, but also very short.

 

Lots of people like GunHed on the PC Engine, and that's a licensed game.

 

There are a few Sailor Moon games that range from pretty decent to good: the RPG on SFC is supposedly pretty good, the fighting games on the SFC are pretty good (but extremely unbalanced, with Saturn being completely broken), and the beat-em-ups on the SFC and Mega Drive are decent. The MD one is a bit unbalanced and sadly lacks multiplayer, though it's playable and has great color use. I've heard the arcade beat-em-up is actually really good.

 

If you really want to push it, the entire Castlevania series exists, and Vampire Killer/Bloodlines is a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, as weird as that seems. Dracula is public domain in the USA, though, and I'm not sure about how other countries' laws deal with that sort of thing.

 

Continuing to really push it, Daytona USA is a licensed game, as it has the Daytona International Speedway license, and Sega Rally Championship and Out Run use licensed cars, but that's probably not what you had in mind and the list will become stupidly huge if you list every good game with licensed vehicles.

 

One that I've been actively looking for is Curry House CoCo Ichibanya Kyou mo Genki da! Curry ga Umai!! on PS2. Yes, everyone's favourite curry restaurant has its own game and I have heard it's actually very good, which is why I have been looking for it.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[electricmastro]

10 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

There are a few Sailor Moon games that range from pretty decent to good: the RPG on SFC is supposedly pretty good, the fighting games on the SFC are pretty good (but extremely unbalanced, with Saturn being completely broken), and the beat-em-ups on the SFC and Mega Drive are decent. The MD one is a bit unbalanced and sadly lacks multiplayer, though it's playable and has great color use. I've heard the arcade beat-em-up is actually really good.

That series had at least one of Bandai's beat em ups making it overseas to Europe I recall. I hear the RPG Another Story is pretty good too.

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by electricmastro

[Steven Pendleton]

43 minutes ago, electricmastro said:

That series had at least one of Bandai's beat em ups making it overseas to Europe I recall. I hear the RPG Another Story is pretty good too.

Yeah, the first one (which is what the Mega Drive one was loosely based on) got released in France, but I am not sure if it got released anywhere else. Not surprising considering France has historically been the largest consumer of Japanese media outside of Japan. I do need to try that RPG some day.

 

I do have the MD game CIB, and the art and sound are actually really damn good (well, the voices are scratchy as hell as usual on the system, but everything else is good). Too bad the gameplay isn't all that great. I do want to try it again some day. Maybe I'll give it a try this week. Lack of multiplayer really hurts it, as well, I think.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Conversely, the Bram Stoker’s Dracula games were all bad (hilariously so in the Sega CD rendition) except for the Game Gear/Master System version:

But Jonathan Harker doesn't do somersaults in this one, that sucks! ? I'll stick to my James Bond game then.

 

 

Since Gunhed has already been mentioned, I'll add Sweet Home, Famicom RPG by Capcom based on Kiyoshi Kurosawa's first movie (that I'd really like to see one day, even though it's not very good apparently).

[electricmastro]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Game Gear brigade reporting for duty.

I understand that Sega's Illusion series was consistently good, Game Gear included:

 

[newtmonkey]

4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I'll add Sweet Home, Famicom RPG by Capcom based on Kiyoshi Kurosawa's first movie (that I'd really like to see one day, even though it's not very good apparently).

It's actually pretty entertaining, if you like 80s supernatural horror movies with some gory effects. 

[+jgkspsx]

Despite some turds, I am pretty sure Star Trek has gotten many more good games than bad. The PC point and click adventure games for TOS (25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites), Next Gen (A Final Unity), and DS9 (Harbinger) are all very worth playing and are strong additions to their respective series. I do quite like the console games too - 25th Anniversary on NES and Game Boy, TNG Holodeck Simulator on Game Gear, TNG Echoes of/Futures Past on SNES and Genesis, Crossroads of Time on SNES and Genesis.
 

That said, Star Trek games have to be at least partly adventure games for me to really love them. If they’re just space combat they don’t really get the job done. Sorry, Starfleet Academy.

 

 

[Tanooki]

6 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Getting a bit more modern and a bit more obscure, there is Rurouni Kenshin Enjou! Kyoto Rinne on PS2, which is very good, but also very short.

 

Lots of people like GunHed on the PC Engine, and that's a licensed game.

 

There are a few Sailor Moon games that range from pretty decent to good: the RPG on SFC is supposedly pretty good, the fighting games on the SFC are pretty good (but extremely unbalanced, with Saturn being completely broken), and the beat-em-ups on the SFC and Mega Drive are decent. The MD one is a bit unbalanced and sadly lacks multiplayer, though it's playable and has great color use. I've heard the arcade beat-em-up is actually really good.

 

Gunhed I've had that when I had the PCE, had the US release when I had that, not sure it's exactly obscure since it was localized and popular back then.

 

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Another Story is fantastic.  When that was freshly translated I played that out entirely.  I never owned it, emulator there.  I can speak to many others.  I had and re-acquired both the Final FIght style brawlers, first one is a bit more generic, but the second one is really solid based on the R storyline.  The fighting games, neither stands out, they're both fantastic SF2 style play games with good balance and lots of fights, I'd recommend them if you want an anime brawler and i've not got those back (yet) thinking of just 1 because I'm not into that genre as I once was.  I also had one of the puzzle games the one with the little squares, not the heart gem one, and it oddly is kind of unique and plays nicely, cheap grab too.  I also had both the GB releases, they're not bad, fairly decent for the era that's for sure.  Up on Gamefaqs I did write a Sailor Moon / Sailor Moon R faq that covers both them and the SM/SMR brawlers as a 4 game guide back in the 1990s.  It'll get around any minor language barriers in the GB side of things (not that you need it but others would.)

[Steven Pendleton]

26 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Another Story is fantastic.

Yeah, I have heard it's really good! I might go see about picking up a copy if I can find one. I honestly need to get into SFC anyway.

28 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I had and re-acquired both the Final FIght style brawlers, first one is a bit more generic, but the second one is really solid based on the R storyline. 

Yeah, the first one is okay, but the second one is a lot better, although the one I have put the most time into is the Mega Drive one. Definitely try the Mega Drive one as well. It's basically a modified version of the first SFC one, but it's different enough to call it a different game. Hard mode gets really hard, and not in a good way, and I think it's one of those games where you have to play it on hard to reach the final boss or something like that. I'd have to check.

30 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

The fighting games, neither stands out, they're both fantastic SF2 style play games with good balance and lots of fights, I'd recommend them if you want an anime brawler and i've not got those back (yet) thinking of just 1 because I'm not into that genre as I once was.

Yeah, the first one is more balanced than the second one is, which has the super-broken Saturn in it. I think there are a few other broken characters in the second one, but I know the first one is actually played at fighting game tournaments even now, as it's actually really good. I think there was a copy of the first one at the Book Off down the street from my house. It was there for like a year and I sort of regret never picking it up, and I think it's gone now. Maybe I'll go pick up that one and Another Story if I can find them when I go to Akiba. I need to get more SFC stuff anyway, as I have only like 6 games for the system.

20 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

It'll get around any minor language barriers in the GB side of things (not that you need it but others would.)

Actually for text-heavy games that don't have kanji (a lot of GB/GBC/FC/SFC games), I prefer playing them in English. Kana-only makes my brain hurt... I know a lot of Japanese people dislike it as well. That's one of those weird things where people are like "kanji is too hard! They should get rid of it!" but then you go try reading without kanji and you realize that kanji actually makes it easier to read instead of harder.

 

IknowyoustudiedJapanese,butforthosewhohaven't,basicallyJapanesewithoutkanjiislikewhatwouldhappenifyoutriedtotypeorwriteinEnglishwithoutanyspaces.Yeah,youcanstilldoitandmoreorlessreadit,butit'ssuperawkwardandnobodylikesitlol

[youxia]

I've nearly finished my quest to play every single Megadrive game. Most of the licensed Disney et al fare is pretty solid, I must admit, even though these platform games aren't exactly my cup of tea.

 

Some highlights that I know are licensed, and which I put in my FAV directory along the way:

-Death and Return of Superman

-TMNT: Shredder / Heist

-CutThroat Island

-Dungeons & Dragons - Warriors of the Eternal Sun

-BattleTech

-Shadowrun

-Demolition Man

-Doraemon - Yume Dorobou

-Garfield - Caught in the Act

-Judge Dredd

-Lost World, The - Jurassic Park

-Pocahontas

-Predator 2

-Phantom 2040

-Punisher

-Rambo III

-RoboCop versus The Terminator

-Scooby-Doo Mystery

-SeaQuest DSV

-Star Trek DSN / TNG

-Taz in Escape from Mars

-Technocop (MobyG says licensed - on what?)

-Tom Mason's Dinosaurs for Hire

-True Lies

 

[Tanooki]

@Steven Pendleton See that I didn't know, I thought it was a cut and dry SFC port on the MD version of BSSM, I'll check it, I think I have it on this multicart I got fairly recently.  And yeah you're in the prime spot to not get screwed on costs, SFC is amazing, happy to have recovered the carts I have so far.

I'd be tempted to get a special cart made of that SM RPG it's that good, some day though, and FF5 would come first when time allows.  I can't just sink the dough into it to sit, not good.  I got some RPGS recently I'd rather tackle, some never before like Phantasy Star IV which arrived yesterday.

 

Back on BSSM (S vs SuperS fighters) now that you mention it I would have to agree.  I remember liking S far more, SS was a bit prettier/nicer sounding but I vaguely recall playing the S game more, probably what you said with Saturn.  Oh wow I had no idea that BSSM S fighting was tourney level appreciated, that's nice to know.  Also nice I can get that for like $30 these days while the less nice one is oddly double.  I can recommend some SFC games, some usually that don't hit peoples radar like Zenki for one.

 

oooohghghs...short circuit, yeah if kanji is like that for you vs kana doing word pasta I totally get the love of the english.  I only at my peak had a couple hundred kanji, full kana, and I had grammar at a jr high/high level down with a vocab of a thousand or so words...nothing crazy, but enough to skate by if I had a dictionary for something confusing which I had picked up with 1yr of college courses and self struggle before.

[Steven Pendleton]

21 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

@Steven Pendleton See that I didn't know, I thought it was a cut and dry SFC port on the MD version of BSSM, I'll check it, I think I have it on this multicart I got fairly recently.  And yeah you're in the prime spot to not get screwed on costs, SFC is amazing, happy to have recovered the carts I have so far.

I'd be tempted to get a special cart made of that SM RPG it's that good, some day though, and FF5 would come first when time allows.  I can't just sink the dough into it to sit, not good.  I got some RPGS recently I'd rather tackle, some never before like Phantasy Star IV which arrived yesterday.

 

Back on BSSM (S vs SuperS fighters) now that you mention it I would have to agree.  I remember liking S far more, SS was a bit prettier/nicer sounding but I vaguely recall playing the S game more, probably what you said with Saturn.  Oh wow I had no idea that BSSM S fighting was tourney level appreciated, that's nice to know.  Also nice I can get that for like $30 these days while the less nice one is oddly double.  I can recommend some SFC games, some usually that don't hit peoples radar like Zenki for one.

 

oooohghghs...short circuit, yeah if kanji is like that for you vs kana doing word pasta I totally get the love of the english.  I only at my peak had a couple hundred kanji, full kana, and I had grammar at a jr high/high level down with a vocab of a thousand or so words...nothing crazy, but enough to skate by if I had a dictionary for something confusing which I had picked up with 1yr of college courses and self struggle before.

Yeah, the MD game is definitely different. It does have some very good color and sound, aside from the voice quality being a bit scratchy. From what I understand, they took the first SFC beat-em-up and used it as a base for the MD game. They took the sprites and basically reused them, but the stages are extremely heavily modified versions of the ones in the first SFC game. You might have to look up the commands for the special moves, though.

 

That first fighting game does have something of a tournament-level following, though. I do want to see about picking it up eventually, along with Another Story. The fighting game torunaments typically don't like the unbalanced second game, and when it is played, Saturn is banned because she's ultra-broken to the point of being totally unfair to fight against. I think she has an extremely easy instant death combo that works on everyone and is impossible to break out of or something like that, but I forget the details. Yeah, she's broken as hell.

 

Well, I checked and it turns out that Saturn's kicks are unblockable. lol. This game was done by a different development team and had nothing to do with the original game. They apparently either rushed it, didn't know what they were doing, or both, as the original game, which already had some flaws, was made even worse with the sequel, which broke the already unbalanced first game even further.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Steven Pendleton