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[I remember licensed games being the bane of my existence when I was younger. It was like the glut of shovelware that plagues us nowadays, including Early Access games. I couldn’t look past a shelf without seeing some movie tie-in game. Since then, they’ve made a quiet comeback when I wasn’t looking. ~Marcel]
When I was a kid in the early aughts, licensed games were a dime a dozen. Many fondly rememberChronicles of Riddickon the OG Xbox,Spider-Man 2on PS2, and perhaps the best James Bond game ever inAgent Under Fire. Still, most were garbage, and I can only assume parents bought these games in droves because they were often budget priced and required zero research.
I avoided most of these games by being a picky asshole kid who wrote very specific Christmas lists, though I did somehow end up playing a copy ofDark Angelon the PS2. I still have a strong sense of nostalgia when I think ofDark Angel, though I remember absolutely nothing about it. Based on some cursory googling, it somehow wasn’t a masterpiece.
Perhaps it’s just my perspective speaking, but I feel like licensed games sort of died out at the beginning of the current generation. There were a ton of them on the 360, most of which I know about solely due to their achievement-hunting potential. Yet on the Xbox One and PS4, there’s comparatively little.
SomehowFrozendidn’t get a game, outside of a mobile match 3 port.Toy Story, a franchise with a long history of licensed software, didn’t release a game alongside movie number four. I feel like nary a decade ago, if a movie likeMoanacame out without a game at its side it would be a notable absence.
Now, in the year of our lord 2019, licensed games are making a comeback, but it’s a fucking strange one.
I want to get a few upcoming licensed games out the way before I dive in depth on a few of the stranger releases. Firstly we haveJumanji: The Video Game, which slots nicely into the old school kids movie platforming action game slot.
In less then a month we haveIce Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventurecoming out, which is weird because there hasn’t been anIce Agemovie in years.
Both are being put out byOutright Games, a developer established in 2016 who has managed to put out eight licensed products since their inception three years ago. They have another upcoming game that I’ll touch upon in the next paragraph, but needless to say they’re a very prolific studio.
Next we haveGarfield Kart: Furious Racing, a game that, as far as I can tell, is being made solely because of the popularity of the creepy Garfield meme.
Of course, I couldn’t write this piece without touching on the fucking bizarreKFC Dating Sim. All I can say is that it’s brilliant viral marketing, and I’m craving a Famous Bowl really fucking bad right now.
Let’s get back to Outright Games, and their third release for this winter,Race With Ryan.
Now, he’s getting a game based on his brand, and of course it’s a kart racer! You can race on six different tracks with all your favorite characters, and you get your weapons from literal copies of the mystery eggs you buy at the store. Watching the trailer, it could turn out alright, at least alright enough for young kids. As the copy says “With simple controls, optional auto-acceleration and a tutorial to guide younger players through their first video game, drivers of all ages will love to Race with Ryan.”
The game hits store shelves on October 31, and I might have to buy it for my niece. God help me.
Possibly the most out of place upcoming license game of them all isStreet Outlaws: The List.
Based on the hit Discovery show of the same name, this game seems to be a plain old racer featuring the actors and cars from said fake-ass reality TV series. This one really shook me up when I saw it on the list of upcoming games, because it’s so out of left field. When’s the last time there was a game based on a reality show hitting modern consoles?Duck Dynastyis probably the most recent, but I feel like that show penetrated the social zeitgeist in a way thatStreet Outlawsdefinitely hasn’t.
I’ve only seen glimpses of the show because my dad, who doesn’t play games, watches it. Of course the show has its fans, but are there really enough of them to justify this? I couldn’t find a single bit of video on this game, only screenshots, but it looks like an upscaled mobile game. We’ll see if all theStreet Outlawfans get there 40 fucking dollars worth on October 21.
Zombielandwas a surprisingly good movie.Zombieland 2might be a good sequel.Zombieland: Double Tapwill almost assuredly suck.
Once again, we have a game that I can find no video of, but the screenshots paint an unflattering picture, to say the least.Double Taplooks to be a four-player dual-stick shooter featuring the main cast of the movie mowing down wave after wave of the zombie horde. As you can hopefully see, the game looks horrible both graphically and stylistically. The photos of the actual actors contrasting the shitty action really bothers me for a reason I can’t quite put a finger on. It looks cheap, which it likely is, but it’s not free-to-play. It’s going to be 40 god damn smackers, and I’m just not seeing where the value is.
The game’s description says it will have both a story and a horde mode, with daily and weekly challenges you’ll definitely come back and do. I don’t want to shit on this too much, but there’s absolutely nothing I can find that sways me to say otherwise.Double Taphits three days before the movie on October 15, and I’m looking forward to rave reviews.
Last but (possibly?) not least we haveNarcos: Rise of the Cartelsfrom your friends and mine at Netflix.
There was previously aNarcosgame on mobile that had a surprisingly decent reception, but this is an entirely different prospect. This game even has an actual trailer with gameplay in it, easily putting it a step above the competition. It looks pretty cool, and shows what appears to be anX-Comlike combat system. The description on Steam is as follows: “Form your team from a variety of class-specific roles, join leading characters, upgrade your skills and take part in brutal turn-based combat, where your actions will have consequence.”
I’ve never seenNarcos, and yet I’m still a little interested in how this game turns out. The game has a tentative “Fall” release date with no price currently announced.
There are of course other licensed games, but they’re of the type that come out all the time. Games likeStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and evenMario and Sonic at the Olympic Gamesare all technically licensed games, but they belong to well-established gaming franchises at this point. The games I highlighted here seem to represent a new wave of licensed software, perhaps a replacement to the standard kids-movie platformers of the past.
There’s always the chance that one of these titles will be good, maybe even great. Regardless, I’m greatly looking forward to the various YouTube videos and articles that will be created in their wake. The Let’s Plays, reaction videos, sarcastic reviews, and in-depth editorials (please somebody do this) that will spring from some of these titles will be glorious. I don’t know if this resurgence of licensed games is a good thing, but it will certainly be interesting.
