8 Titles That Proved Licensed Video Games Can Be Awesome

Very occasionally a developer will license a franchise that they themselves love, and put the time and effort into making the best possible product.

Licensed games have had a somewhat negative history. Quite often they€™ll be a quickly-developed title designed to tie in with a movie or television release. Other times they€™ll simply be an attempt to exploit fans of a franchise by getting them to pay for a game set in that universe. We€™ve had numerous examples of terrible games based on movies such as E.T. and Fight Club, as well as a huge amount of poor superhero games such as Spider-Man and Batman. Very occasionally though a developer will license a franchise that they themselves love, and put the time and effort into making the best possible product. These are not only incredibly fun to play but also stay true to the original source material on which they are based. This list will countdown the eight best examples that prove licensed games can be really good. If you think there are other examples then feel free to let us know in the comments below.

8. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

This side scrolling beat €˜em up released in 2009 alongside the film of the same name, although it wasn€™t based directly on the movie but more on the graphic novels that began the franchise. It follows roughly the same story as the other adaptations as you battle all the previous boyfriends of your love interest. The game has many features that had set other side-scroller Castle Crashers apart as an excellent downloadable title, such as the RPG element of collecting items and levelling your character up. This helped to keep the game fresh and add more depth to the gameplay. Meanwhile the highly stylised art gave the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a very distinctive look. With a much smaller budget than is usual for licensed games, mainly due to the fact it was a low-risk download-only title available on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Although it did have some shortcomings, notably online multiplayer, it still took gamers back to the good old days of arcade beat €˜em ups. The fact that the game only costs around £8 only meant it was even more of a better deal.
 
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A sport, gaming and fiction enthusiast, I particularly enjoy Formula 1, rugby, tennis, athletics and football.