The Problem with Licensed Games: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has had quite a few great games; in fact, ''[[The Simpsons Arcade]]'' game is often regarded as a contender for "Best Licensed Game of All Time". Unfortunately, the franchise has also had quite a few stinkers:
** ''Bart vs. the Space Mutants'' and ''The Simpsons: Bart vs. The World'' were [[Nintendo Hard]] platformers with annoying controls that lead to a lot of [[Fake Difficulty]] and mediocre graphics. To spare explanation, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKnl0CvfeLs check out the Angry Video Game Nerd's review of the games.]
** ''The Simpsons Wrestling'', for [[Playstation]];
** ''[[Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly]]'' for [[Game Boy]]. The title of this game might suggest the show's season 4 episode
* The NES game based off ''[[Terminator|The Terminator]]'' deserves a more detailed description, awful sound, stiff controls, and ugly graphics. The first level is the ONLY level you have a gun and grenades (Unlike, well, EVERY other version.), as soon as you get to the past you have nothing but your fists (you can kick too, but whats the point?).
** The SNES ''Terminator'' game could use some mention too, the levels are brutally long (the 2nd level is INSANE) Sound Effects tend to drown out all two of the music tracks in the game, and it was just [[Nintendo Hard|cruelly difficult]].
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* The 16-bit version of ''[[Wayne's World]]'' is possibly one of the most loathed, least playable 16-bit games ever. Bad collision detection, hideous sprites and atrociously digitized voices (especially in the Sega version) are just part of the problem with this. Mainly considered [[Snark Bait|only worthwhile to mock]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100102101013/http://sega-16.com/review_page.php?id=966&title=Wayne%27s%20World Read this review for more details.]
* The NES ''[[Where's Waldo]]'' game (released by [[Acclaim]] in 1992), owing to the severe graphical limitations of the system, was barely playable (as all the people in the crowds are identical stick figures) and has none of the visual fun that made the books memorable.
* ''[[Fester's Quest]]'' was the first game to attempt to make an adaptation of ''[[The Addams Family]]'', but it failed miserably. It's even a mystery as to why this game was made; released in 1989, three years before [[The Addams Family (1991 film)|the movie]] came out, the franchise wasn't exactly popular at the time.<ref>In fact, that may have been the point. This was the first licensed game made by Sunsoft, they figured they'd need something recognizable, and while ''The Addams Family'' fit the bill, it wasn't popular, and thus the licensing rights would be easy to get.</ref> Notoriously [[Nintendo Hard]], ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKDOwzfRBwk the commercial for the game]] even warns you [[At Least I Admit It| that it's difficult]]) the gameplay and controls are pretty bad. Fester moves very slow, can't move diagonally; even the most basic enemies take a long time to kill, have a tendency to gang up and get in your way, and some of them use projectiles that make Fester even slower. The big problem is Fester's gun, which automatically upgrades (or downgrades) upon getting certain power-ups, but the erratic way it fires after upgrading makes it hard to hit anything with it, and there's no way to choose the setting. Worst of all, Fester has only one life and two units of health (you can get more later, but it takes a while). Adding to the frustration is [[Check Point Starvation|the complete lack of checkpoints]]; dying and using a continue sends you back to the starting point, although you do get to keep everything in your inventory. It's hard to even say,
== Fifth Generation (1995-2000) ==
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*** Very few reviews exist for the third game, ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Battle HIM!]]'' (which as the title implies, has Bubbles go up against HIM) possibly because nobody wanted to play it after playing the first two. Any masochist who ''does'' will feel the urge to throw their Game Boy Color away. Bubbles is a lot stronger and faster than Blossom or Buttercup was in the previous games, but the controls are still bad. This game also has bad level design and [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]; you never know whether the pit you're flying over has an item below that you need to fly down and take or whether it's a bottomless pit that will kill you if you try. The Boss Battle with the Boogie Man is even glitchier than the one with Fuzzy in the previous game; sometimes Bubbles' punches simply don't harm him at all even when the stun attack works.
*** In the end, these three games were pretty much three versions of the same game, and all were bad. More than likely it was a shameless cash grab done to exploit a popular series.
** ''[[The Powerpuff Girls: Chemical X-Straction]]''. This game was released in 2001, and the reason it's not under Sixth Generation titles is because it was released for [[Nintendo 64]] and [[Playstation]], meaning they released it when the superior [[Sega Dreamcast]] and ''[[PlayStation 2]]'' were already out and both [[GameCube]] and [[Xbox]] were only a few weeks away. But then, this game was little more than a shameless reskin of ''[[Tom and Jerry: Fists of Fury]]'' (a video game adaptation of a movie adaptation of a cartoon, made by the same company as this game) so at least they have that as an excuse. Again, the [[Excuse Plot]] of this game is pretty dumb; the Girls are baking pies, and Bubbles decides that, since the pies are made with sugar, spice, and everything nice (the three base ingredients the Girls themselves were made of) why not add some Chemical X (the accidental fourth ingredient) to make the pies
*** Now, if you're playing it on Playstation, the problems end there, but the Nintendo 64 version is much, much worse. First of all, it's way too easy. Each Girl has an
* As mentioned above, BAM! also released a ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' adaptation on ''[[Game Boy Color]]'' on the same day it launched the first of three Powerpuff Girls titles, and this was also the first of three. Were they any better? Sadly, no. ''[[Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage]]'', was, in fact, nothing but a reskin of ''[[Elevator Action EX]]'', another game from BAM! for the Game Boy Color. The objective was to move Dexter up and down floors in his mecha-suit, avoiding enemies, and opening as many doors as possible, something that may have reminded a lot of fans of ''[[Hotel Mario]]''. It had generic music, generic enemies (basically all were the same robot, but different colors) and Mandark as the main antagonist, which might have been cool if he didn't also act like nothing more than a generic bad guy.
* ''[[Addams Family Values (video game)|Addams Family Values]]'', released in 1995 for SNES. Slightly better than ''Fester's Quest'', but as this was a direct movie tie-in, and like most such games, was pretty bad. Moby Games described this as
== Sixth Generation (2001-05) ==
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** Worst of all, many very superior fan-made renditions were yanked off the internet by cease-and-desist orders so these abominations could be released. The fanbase, who had been consulted by Ludia about the ''PYL'' game and provided more than enough resources to let it surpass Curt King's unofficial PC rendition, became very disgusted at [[Fremantle Media]]...which didn't exactly have a good reputation with them as it was.
* Just pick any film made between 1988 and 1993, and there's a good chance Ocean Software made a side scrolling platformer (possibly with extra top-down levels) out of it...regardless of how suitable the subject matter was.
* Pack-in-Video developed a good chunk of video games based on either movies or TV shows in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Some were either [[So Okay It's Average|otherwise average]] or just bad. Some of those games include ''Knight Rider'', ''[[Friday the 13th (video game)|Friday the
* Radical Entertainment was responsible for quite a number of bad licensed games in their early years; the aforementioned ''Terminator'' for the NES was their first game, no less. It makes one wonder how the hell they went from dreck like ''Bebe's Kids'' to great games like ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]''.
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