Tie-ins: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[King Of Nowhere]

If there's a thread like this, i don't care.
The games section here needs a swift kick up the arse, or possibly some smelling salts.

Alright, so they make a movie, a few months or years down the line they get the idea of turning the movie into a game.
Extending a franchise through a series of video games isn't always a good thing.

EXAMPLE?

How about this piece of shit on the C64

Can you tell what it is?
It's Evil Dead of course.

So over 10 years later they decide to try again, bringing out this:

Evil Dead: Hail To The King for the PS1 & various other formats.
Just bad.

then came this:

Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick for the PS2.
& while it wasn't the greatest game ever, it was fun.
Ash looked like ash this time, he sounded like ash & he moved like ash.

So why the hell did they decide to bring out something like this:
?
Evil Dead: Regeneration for the PS2.
It looked like shit, they turned ash into a skinny caricature.
It was full of bugs & repetitive as hell.


It's worth mentioning that the last three games completely ignore the proper ending of Army Of Darkness.



And that's just one franchise, out of what? hundreds?

another example-

Home Alone on the Mega Drive/Genesis.
Great for 5 mins, shit for the rest.


Home Alone 2 on the SNES.
Awful.

& i haven't played it yet, but they released another Home Alone game last year for the PS2, i'm willing to bet that it's 100% shit.

i guess this post wouldn't be complete without mentioning possibly the worst tie-in ever:




so erm, discuss.

[CeeBeeUK]

I seem to recall Robocop was one of the worst ever tie-ins, repetitive side scrolling shooter that bore almost no resemblance to the film.

It may have even won awards for it's rank-ness.

[thebostonlocksmith]

There was a game tie-in for the mega drive that was really the worst game of all time... It was a Mortal Combat spinoff that was a Rayden centric turd pile...

There was alos a blade game which i think was on the x-box... It was almost as bad as the above, the music was even worse...

[Al Shut]

I liked the robocop game (Amiga)

Mostly because of the music. And with the mini games between the levels I wouldn't call it repetitive.

[ThisIsTheGirl]

The games section here needs a swift kick up the arse, or possibly some smelling salts.

Dude, you should see the knitwear enthusiasts section! It's like a mausoleum in that place.....

Home Alone 2 on the SNES.
Awful.

....but surely that doesn't surprise you? I mean, the movie wasn't exactly a masterpiece!

i guess this post wouldn't be complete without mentioning possibly the worst tie-in ever

LOL - good ol' E.T.
A great example of complacency brought about thru greed. But in the programmer's defense, he didn't do such a bad job considering he had only 5 or 6 weeks to make the game....

Practically the only decent tie-in was Goldeneye, and I sometimes wonder what set that game apart from all the other tie-ins? Well, decent level design and a superb multiplayer mode were pretty crucial - but why has that been so hard to re-create? I was quite excited about the Matrix tie-in game, especially when I heard that it was going to feature cut-scenes that would tie in with the movies. But despite all this effort, they just didn't get the gameplay right, resulting in another forgettable game.

I never understood why no good games were made of Attack of the Clones either - especially considering that movie looked more like a videogame than a movie!

I seem to recall Robocop was one of the worst ever tie-ins

Them's fightin' words! I must have ploughed at least 50 quid into that cabinet when I was a youngster - Robocop was awesome, I won't have it desecrated in this way!

[DerLanghaarige]

Lethal Weapon 3 for Game Boy & Super Nintendo!

[papalazeru]

Great Thread. I'm going to have a think....waaaaaay back.....

Dust off the brain cells and the old tape games.

[Al Shut]

Practically the only decent tie-in was Goldeneye, and I sometimes wonder what set that game apart from all the other tie-ins? Well, decent level design and a superb multiplayer mode were pretty crucial - but why has that been so hard to re-create? I was quite excited about the Matrix tie-in game, especially when I heard that it was going to feature cut-scenes that would tie in with the movies. But despite all this effort, they just didn't get the gameplay right, resulting in another forgettable game.

Apparently making a realy good game is pretty hard in the first place. I wonder if the good vs Sucks ratio of tie in games is really worse than of overall games

[colonel_lugz]

the Jurassic Park game for the SNES was ok to play but it was damn impossible to actually get anywhere, mainly because the sprawling level design was incomprehensible and the fact it was a tough son of a bitch of a game

[Al Shut]

I just remembered how much I disliked the Discworld game. Endless back and forth dialouge doesn't fit adventure games especially with spoken dialouge.

[CeeBeeUK]

I seem to recall Robocop was one of the worst ever tie-ins

Them's fightin' words! I must have ploughed at least 50 quid into that cabinet when I was a youngster - Robocop was awesome, I won't have it desecrated in this way!

Calm down, calm down! (in best Liverpudlian twang!)

I was talking about the Atari (possibly spectrum!) version that I had on my home system.

It sucked, big time!

[papalazeru]

HAHAHAHAH!

[King Of Nowhere]

wasn't that on the C=64?

[ThisIsTheGirl]

I was talking about the Atari (possibly spectrum!) version that I had on my home system.

It sucked, big time!

There was a Speccy version, but no Atari one as far as I can remember. Trust me, there were at least one billion much worse games on the Speccy.


@ Papa: Fark you buddy, that TFs game was awesome!!! I remember waiting for what seemed like an Age for that tape to arrive via mail order - I absolutely loved it. Mind you, I felt a lot of love for anything bearing the TFs logo back then (I still do, tbh)

Although I have to say, that version of Transformers wasn't really any worse than the ones from the last couple of years, worryingly!

[papalazeru]

wasn't that on the C=64?

yeah. That's a speccy screenshot.

Thundercats was pretty dire too. Usually cartoon spins off games where terrible. Apart from Trap Door.

@TITG. Think back....it was dire. When you tried to fly you would alwasy end up going into some floating block in space and also, if you could fly, what was the point of tranforming into a vehicle?

K. It wasn't the worst but it was still kinda bad.

[ThisIsTheGirl]

@TITG. Think back....it was dire. When you tried to fly you would alwasy end up going into some floating block in space and also, if you could fly, what was the point of tranforming into a vehicle?

Hahahahahahahaha! Awesome. I tend to have trouble seeing through my own geek-jizz when discussing anything Transformers-related....

[papalazeru]

I know it was a good game but does Clumsy Colin count as a bad tie in as it was just about advertising the damn Skips crisps.

I suppose the first real advertised product in a game.

[King Of Nowhere]

wasn't that on the C=64?

yeah. That's a speccy screenshot.

Thundercats was pretty dire too. Usually cartoon spins off games where terrible. Apart from Trap Door.

Trap Door was good, there was a Scooby Doo game on the C=64 that looked just like the cartoon, astonishing at the time. The Road Runner game was murder. Cant remember any other cartoon based games from the 80's, there were a lot released for the NES, most played pretty badly.

i remember playing this
on the C=64 back in the day. Looked good, 1st level was awful, never got past it.

[DerLanghaarige]

Anybody knows the Home Improvement game for the SNES?
But I have to give the makers props for making a Jump 'n' Run our of a sitcom!

[King Of Nowhere]

Ah, Home improvement, the 1st game to feature a nail gun as a weapon.
It worth the price just for the bad jokes in the opening cut scene, if you could call it that.

[Spifftacular Squirrel Gir]

Anybody knows the Home Improvement game for the SNES?
But I have to give the makers props for making a Jump 'n' Run our of a sitcom!

Oh wow I was going to bring that up but I couldn't remember if that was a real game or did I just have a fever dream and imagine that someone made a game of this. Thanks for clearing that up.

[ThisIsTheGirl]

I know it was a good game but does Clumsy Colin count as a bad tie in as it was just about advertising the damn Skips crisps.

I suppose the first real advertised product in a game.

Which came first?

[papalazeru]

Clumsy Colin was '85 (a good year), Mcdonald land was 1992 (I know! That late)

[King Of Nowhere]

Clumsy Colin was about 85 or 86.
product placement was all over the 8 & 16bit games.
Coolspot was the 7up game.
James Pond advertised penguins.
Park Patrol had Coke cans everywhere...

[papalazeru]

Clumsy Colin was about 85 or 86.
product placement was all over the 8 & 16bit games.
Coolspot was the 7up game.
James Pond advertised penguins.
Park Patrol had Coke cans everywhere...

But there was one game to rule them all.....
Clumsy Colin.

[DerLanghaarige]

I remember one racing game that had lots of Snickers signs everywhere. I know it was for SNES but can't remember which one it was.

[papalazeru]

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml]Here was the best freakin' tie in game ever.
[/url]

Oh yeah!

[King Of Nowhere]

I remember one racing game that had lots of Snickers signs everywhere. I know it was for SNES but can't remember which one it was.

Biker Mice From Mars

[DerLanghaarige]

I remember one racing game that had lots of Snickers signs everywhere. I know it was for SNES but can't remember which one it was.

Now I remember. And the irony is: It was Biker Mice From Mars!


EDIT: The king beat me. But thank you!

[King Of Nowhere]

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml]Here was the best freakin' tie in game ever.
[/url]

Oh yeah!

That game was as hard as hell, you'd die straight away if you didn't remember your nuts.

EDIT:

I remember one racing game that had lots of Snickers signs everywhere. I know it was for SNES but can't remember which one it was.

Now I remember. And the irony is: It was Biker Mice From Mars!


EDIT: The king beat me. But thank you!

No problem.

[papalazeru]

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml]Here was the best freakin' tie in game ever.
[/url]

Oh yeah!

Now this is up here. Watch TITG get the sack for doing sweet FA at work and playing it.

[godzillasushi]

Hmm, bad tie-ins?

Well, for this year on the 360 alone, I have played some baaaad tie-ins.

Cars
Meet the Robinsons
Eragon
Looney Toons: Acme Arsenal
Avatar

And many more.

Last gen, you have Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, anything with Batman in the title, the awful Family Guy and Futurama games, even the stupid poker games. Jaws...Aqua Man.....

Then you have your instant classic ones like Robocop on the NES which someone mentioned. How bad was that? The challenge of going up some stairs was even hard.

The Gundam Wing series has always led the way with bad games. You have the one on the Dreamcast, and the one on the PS3, and the 25 or so titles on the PS2...bad bad bad.

Cliff Hanger for the Genesis was so hard I will put it here for just existing.

There have been bad hockey games since the beginning of time. Look anywhere to find them. The new ones are good though.

Give me another few hours and maybe I can come up with more.

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

MOD NOTE: We're gonna to merge a the "Favorite Tie-Innas" thread inna'to this a one, eh? Anna just a have a the "Tie-Innas inna General" eh?

The counter to the "Bad Tie-Ins" thread.

We know the "Ghostbusters" game is coming and a lot of you are excited, though some of these games we keep playing because we like them so much.

Case in point, "Eragon" for GBA. And the reason I like it so much is that-

1. It's a traditional RPG game
2. It's actually based more on the book, which Fox should've done with the film...


Okay, so Angela never did any fighting until the end of the story, but you find her in Terim, where she's supposed to be, NOT DARET. And her werecat is with her. That's how much the developers care.

The PS2 version is actually good. I normally don't play action games, but it's really well done.

And they employed most of the film's actors (Ed Speleers, Garrett Hedlund, Robert Carlyle and Sienna Guillory) for it. Same goes for "Van Helsing", which explains why I'm so distracted by the Count Dracula battle...

Anyway, another that comes to mind is "A Series of Unfortunate Events", BUT, the peppermint level is so damned hard, I wasn't going to include it at first. I do think that the EA people got the idea of Maggie crawling into small spaces to help in "The Simpsons Game" from this game, where Sunny the baby does the same thing.

But could you also call the "Kingdom Hearts" series a tie-in? They are based on a LOT of Disney films...

[King Of Nowhere]

i changed the name to Tie-ins & Cash-ins

EDIT: and you changed it again, damn you

EDIT 2: Ha!

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

If there's a thread like this, i don't care.

i changed the name to Tie-ins & Cash-ins

EDIT: and you changed it again, damn you

The Dino, he loves a the smell of a the banning inna the morning, eh?

It smells like.... KON.

[papalazeru]

My Good: GOLDENEYE

My bad: Tranformers.

My Ugly: Hmmmm......there have been so many stinkers in the cash in stakes that it's so hard. Ocean are the big culprits if we are going back through the years.

[King Of Nowhere]

If there's a thread like this, i don't care.

i changed the name to Tie-ins & Cash-ins

EDIT: and you changed it again, damn you

The Dino, he loves a the smell of a the banning inna the morning, eh?

It smells like.... KON.

what was wrong with "Tie-ins & Cash-ins" ?

[Cha-Ka Khan]

Traveller's Tales did a neat "Toy Story" tie-in way back when on the Sega Genesis. It featured some really nice 3D level-design effects, fully rendered 3D characters, and the variety of levels was fantastic, with each level being a completely different "type" of game, i.e. side-scrolling platformer, top-down racer, DOOM-like 3D levels, etc. Although the variety was probably also it's downfall, depending on your point of view.

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

what was wrong with "Tie-ins & Cash-ins" ?

Nothing nearly as a wrong as a your attitude, eh?

[King Of Nowhere]

what was wrong with "Tie-ins & Cash-ins" ?

Nothing nearly as a wrong as a your attitude, eh?

Well I'm sorry for trying to bring some life into the games section.
maybe it's not my attitude that's the problem

[thomasgaffney]

what was wrong with "Tie-ins & Cash-ins" ?

Nothing nearly as a wrong as a your attitude, eh?

Well I'm sorry for trying to bring some life into the games section.
maybe it's not my attitude that's the problem

No. It's your attitude.

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

Yes, just a so's as a to repeat a myself anna be clear onna the issue of a your attitude, eh?

If there's a thread like this, i don't care.

i changed the name to Tie-ins & Cash-ins

EDIT: and you changed it again, damn you

The evidence, she speaks a for a herself, no?

[King Of Nowhere]

sure, if you want to take things out of context.

The 1st post was

If there's a thread like this, i don't care. The games section here needs a swift kick up the arse, or possibly some smelling salts.

meaning im trying to bring back conversation to a quiet part of the zone & that if a thread existed & this one got locked, Id be discussing it in the other thread, thus bringing conversation back.

I wasn't saying "f**k the mods", i was saying "i can see tumbleweeds passing by".

& yeah, i noticed the other thread got locked, so i changed the name of this one & i was a bit pissed off that you'd chosen to cast aside the name id chosen.

Oh well, this is what happens when i speak my mind i guess.

[ThisIsTheGirl]

Mcdonald land was 1992 (I know! That late)

Well, burger me! I never knew it was a 90s game. The crass commerciality of it just screamed "80s" to me....

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml]Here was the best freakin' tie in game ever.
[/url]

Oh yeah!

Oh man, it's a good job my office PC only has a 1978 version of Flash on it - otherwise, I'd be all over that thing!

[DinoDeLaurentiis]

i changed the name of this one & i was a bit pissed off that you'd chosen to cast aside the name id chosen.

Hehehe... around a here, we call a that a the "Winslow Effect", eh?

[King Of Nowhere]

anyway, Aladdin for the MEGA DRIVE kicked ass.

[Cha-Ka Khan]

anyway, Aladdin for the MEGA DRIVE kicked ass.

Agreed. I had it for the Sega Genesis as well. That game seemed to go on forever! Great variety of gameplay too, for a platformer. And it had lots of little Disney Easter Eggs too, like the mouse ears on the clothesline, where if you lined up Aladdin just right, so that it looked like he was wearing the mouse ears, you'd get another life, etc.

Total quality, that game.

[King Of Nowhere]

anyway, Aladdin for the MEGA DRIVE kicked ass.

Agreed. I had it for the Sega Genesis as well. That game seemed to go on forever! Great variety of gameplay too, for a platformer. And it had lots of little Disney Easter Eggs too, like the mouse ears on the clothesline, where if you lined up Aladdin just right, so that it looked like he was wearing the mouse ears, you'd get another life, etc.

Total quality, that game.

Most of the Disney games on the Sega MEGA DRIVE/GENESIS we're good, except fantasia:

It looked the part, but the controls were horrible & wouldn't respond half of the time

[DerLanghaarige]

anyway, Aladdin for the MEGA DRIVE kicked ass.

If I remember right, it was made by the same guys who did "Earthworm Jim".

[Nordling]

There was a side-scroller for ALIEN 3 that was actually pretty kickass. Guns galore, unlike the movie.