Video games have always been a mixed bag, but the introduction of Indie games has really helped to reshape the gaming landscape as we know it. But it wasn't always refreshing ideas and floods of interesting and original content. Back in the 90s, a lot of Nintendo's creations were licensed, helping the studio to receive funding and popularity from a wide array of great characters and hip intellectual properties. Designers tried their best to ride the wave of popular films and kids entertainment, porting releases that were based on everything from Star Wars to Robocop to, and even the Dominoes Pizza mascot, the Noid. Unfortunately, ames that were based on movie franchises, or any “licensed” video game for that matter, usually end up being a bad time.
But, that’s not always the case. In some very rare instances, a miracle occurs, and a game will come out based on a movie series that is way better than it has any right to be. Let's take a look now and give those games some credit.
10 John Wick Hex
First up it's likely the most recent game on this list to come out (December 2020), John Wick Hex. This game is a “prequel” to the movie franchise, in which players will take control of the legendary assassin himself and attempt to be as efficient as possible while taking out all the enemies on the map, using a grid system of sorts. There's a lot to love about JWH, but most of all it just does a fantastic job making the player feel like they’re John Wick with little gimmicks like the innate "double-tap" he does or the level replay at the end similar to something like Superhot.
9 Mad Max
The Mad Max open-world game that came out in 2015 was incredibly unique in a few specific ways, though its Metascore might not make it seem that way. For one, it was successful in slowly giving players to option to create their dream machine of a car as they cleared more of the map. Two, it did a great job rendering the setting of Mad Max in both a visual and gameplay sense, with the vehicle combat and the sprawling desert environments. And lastly, the hand-to-hand combat was just so much fun! For their first AAA game made outside of the Just Cause series, Avalanche Studios did a pretty stellar job.
8 The EA Games Lord Of The Rings
There have been quite a few Lord of the Rings games that have come out over the years. Of course, there are the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War games that came out in 2014 and 2017 respectively. But, these games use a character that's specific to Tolkien’s books (aka Celebrimbor), the EA-developed LotR games of the early 2000s used a lot of the same cast, characters, and events from the movies. In particular, there’s The Two Towers from 2002, and then there’s The Return of the King from 2003. Both games were focused on hack n' slash mechanics, something that seemed to work well, considering they did pretty well in both their sales and reception from the gaming community. Luckily, there's so much amazing content from the source material that could easily be adapted into new games down the line as well.
7 The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
Up next is a video game set in The Chronicles of Riddick universe. Escape from Butcher Bay is canonically a prequel to the Vin Diesel films, and amazingly enough, Vin himself plays Riddick in the game. But that’s not all, EfBB actually has a lot of celebrity voice actors, such as Ron Pearlman and even Xzibit. In terms of the gameplay, Escape from Butcher Bay has nothing unique compared to anything coming out in the modern-day. Players are meant to slowly escape from Butcher Bay, using Riddick's "eyeshine" (it's just night vision) to get the jump on opponents by taking out all the lights in the room.
Frankly, the game sort of became a cult classic and would actually go on to win the “Best Game Based on a Movie” title at the Spike Video Game Awards in 2009.
6 Alien: Isolation
Over the years, there have been a decent number of games that have tried to capitalize on the popularity of both the Alien and Predator IPs. For example, there’s a lot of people out there that fondly remember Predator: Concrete Jungle from 2005. Though, on the Alien side of things, there wasn’t anything too notable until Alien Isolation in 2014. This game takes place, canonically, 15 years after the events of the original Alien film, and follows Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda, as she investigates her mother’s disappearance. It's a slow-burn, exploration-based game that gives off a constant feeling of dread from the minute it starts up. But, the incredible lighting, the high-fidelity graphics, and the well-made enemy AI all combined to make something incredibly memorable. And, if it seems too scary to play at home, there's a well-regarded Switch version too!
5 Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order
Being able to enjoy a Star Wars game created by Respawn, the very same team behind amazing games like Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends is truly a luxury. But, based on their past work on FPS games, most would assume Jedi: Fallen Order would be more about laser guns than lightsabers...right? Absolutely wrong. Fallen Order is actually more of a Dark Souls-like type of game. But, where Respawn’s expertise comes in, is in the movement. Cal Kestis, the protagonist, can double jump, run on walls, pull himself towards objects, hover, and much more. Fallen Order is like a futuristic Dark Souls-type game where the Chosen Undead is also an expert in freerunning. All in all, it’s a fantastic game even compared to games not based on movies, and it also has one of the best versions of Darth Vader in existence (hoping there's more in an eventual sequel).
4 The Lego Licensed Games
The Lego Games are such a gift to the world. Seriously, there are just so many of them, and most are made with such quality, care, and passion. In fact, in recent years, they've even been trying some open-world games too! There's Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, Lego Avengers, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Jurassic Park, and many more after that. And, the crazy thing about all these games is that 99% of them have 50+ hours worth of content in them and thousands of little references. Plus, most of them re-tell the story from the film, but with adorable Lego-style humor.
3 Kingdom Hearts
It both makes sense to include and not include Kingdom Hearts on this list. Technically, Sora, Riku, Kairi, or any of the other KH-specific characters aren't from any film franchise. But, all the Disney and Square Enix icons they visit are! And, a lot of the time, when Sora visits their worlds, it's just to retell the events of their moves with Sora retconned into it. Though, for some reason, a lot of the villains get it worse in the KH re-telling. Just look at the Frozen world in KH3, where Sora basically just runs up and down the mountain over and over while Elsa sings “Let It Go”.
In any case, compared to most of the other games on this list that got praise for being “good for a game based on a movie”, the Kingdom Hearts games are just good in general.
2 The Harry Potter Games
There are quite a few Harry Potter video games. There’s a game for each of the books, sometimes even multiple, tons of mobile games, a few spin-off games, and even a Kinect game. The experience in each Harry Potter game differs greatly, but there are certainly a few gems out there. Most commonly, the well-received games tend to be the ones that let players explore Hogwarts in its entirety, streamline the method of “casting” magic, and include a bunch of fun-to-find collectibles.
1 Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Beat Em’ Up
And lastly, let’s talk about Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. No, not the comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley or the film directed by Edgar Wright, instead, let’s talk about the video game developed by Ubisoft. This beat em’ up title had a lot of fantastic creators working on it, such as Paul Robertson who did the visuals, Anamanaguchi, a very famous band, that made the OST, and it even had input from both Bryan and Edgar Wright for the script/plot. Of course, there was the whole issue of it getting de-listed from online marketplaces in 2014, but with the release of the Complete Edition in early 2021, there's no time like the present to go back and give this game a shot!