They may not be quite as popular or ubiquitous nowadays as they were not many years ago, but tie-in games based on popular movies have always been one of the most popular video game genres. After all, why not capitalize on the success of a film with a game that usually doesn’t take up many resources but will still bring in the big bucks? This is why, since the infancy of gaming, developers and studios have taken advantage of big-name licenses and put out movie video games of varying degrees of quality.
These types of games usually come from the films one would expect. Huge action-centric franchises like Harry Potter and Star Wars have received a number of tie-in video game adaptations (sometimes with catastrophic results). Sometimes, however, a film one would never expect to translate well into interactive media somehow does get put into video game form. The results can go from the disastrous to the shockingly great, but the surprise factor of “really? This movie got a game?” always adds a lot to the experience.
10 ‘Scarface: The World Is Yours’ (2006)
Developed by Radical Entertainment
Although it was a critical flop upon release due to its treatment of taboo subjects like violence and drugs, Brian De Palma‘s Scarface eventually started getting a cult following. Now, it’s remembered as one of the most influential and popular mob movies of all time. It’s about a determined Cuban criminal who becomes the biggest drug kingpin in Florida, but he’s eventually undone by his own drug addiction.
Scarface isn’t the first mob film to get a video game adaptation (even The Godfather, one of the greatest films of all time, has one). What makes this instance unexpected is that—SPOILER ALERT—Tony dies at the end of the film, and this game is supposed to be a sequel. So, it just modifies the ending so that the mobster actually survives, and goes on from there. It’s a bizarre excuse to have a game that people weren’t exactly clamoring for, but at least it made for a phenomenal action-adventure game that people remember fondly in the end.
9 ‘The Cat in the Hat’ (2003)
Developed by Magenta Software and Digital Eclipse
Dr. Seuss movie adaptations weren’t exactly a new concept in 2003, but one as bizarre, crude, and almost surreal as Bo Welch‘s The Cat in the Hat certainly wasn’t what audiences were accustomed to. With a surprising amount of raunchy humor and sexual innuendos, this family comedy follows two bored children who have their lives turned upside down when a giant talking cat comes to visit them.
Somehow, Magenta Software (for PS2 and Xbox) and Digital Eclipse (for Windows and Game Boy Advance) found a way to turn Welch’s delightfully strange movie into a 2D side-scrolling platformer. The abundance of low-effort games based on family films around the time makes this instance a little less surprising, but enough to not raise quite a few eyebrows. The game isn’t all too bad, either, making for a relatively fun experience for those with some nostalgia for this surprising childhood classic.
8 ‘Napoleon Dynamite: The Game’ (2007)
Developed by 7 Studios
Nowadays a huge cult classic and one of the most beloved indie films of the 2000s, the 2004 teen comedy Napoleon Dynamite has aged extremely well. It’s about a lonely teenager who decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small high school, while he deals with his own bizarre family life back at home. It’s a fun slice-of-life gem with a quirky sense of humor that should please anyone looking for a funny teen comedy.
7 Studios, who’d had quite a bit of experience with bad movie tie-in games up to 2007, released in October of that year a mini-game collection for handheld consoles based on Napoleon Dynamite. The format certainly fits the episodic nature of the film at least somewhat, but still — the existence of a game inspired by such a low-stakes coming-of-age should be enough to surprise even the most avid of terrible tie-in gamers.
7 ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (1993)
Developed by Psygnosis, Traveller’s Tales, and Probe Software
Francis Ford Coppola, director of some of the greatest films of all time — from the The Godfather movies to Apocalypse Now — doesn’t really need much of an introduction. Another one of his most popular films, divisive though it may be in some respects, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s an adaptation of the legendary tale about a centuries-old vampire going to London to seduce his barrister’s fiancée and wreak havoc in foreign lands.
Not that vampire video games aren’t anything less than ultra-popular (and therefore, a game based on a vampire movie might be expected) but a game based on this particular vampire movie — not action-focused, very artistic, and directed by one of Hollywood’s greatest-ever directors — is certainly a surprise. Sadly, Bram Stoker’s Dracula in all of its presentations (it was a platformer, a beat ’em up, and a first-person shooter depending on the platform) was choppy and clunky more than anything else. Fans of the genre are probably better off playing Castlevania.
6 ‘The Godfather’ (2006)
Developed by EA Redwood Shores, Headgate Studios, and Page 44 Studios
Depending on who one asks what the best American film of all time is, one might get different answers. But there is one particular movie that’s guaranteed to always come up in that conversation: Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. This legendary crime epic is about the aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty, who has to transfer control of his empire to his reluctant youngest son.
Perhaps the fact that The Godfather ended up being such an outstanding mobster video game can make it easy to forget just how bizarre it is that what many consider the greatest motion picture of all time has a tie-in adaptation by EA. Even still, that’s the truth: This game makes itself worthy of the iconic brand whose name it carries, adapting the story in a unique way with some really entertaining gameplay mechanics.
5 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (2006)
Developed by Volatile Games
Nowadays, Quentin Tarantino is well-known as one of the U.S.’s greatest writer-directors. Back in the day, though, he was an up-and-coming indie filmmaker who audiences could tell had lots of neat tricks up his sleeve. He proved that with his debut, Reservoir Dogs, one of the ’90s’ best indie movies. It’s a briskly-paced heist thriller about a simple jewelry heist gone terribly awry. The surviving criminals, paranoid, begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Although Tarantino would later prove to be perfectly capable of delivering some of the most exhilarating action scenes imaginable, Reservoir Dogs is not an action-packed film. In fact, it’s almost theatrical in how much of its “action” it finds in dialogue and character interactions. As such, it might come as a bit of a shock that 2006 saw the release of a so-so shooter based on the film, showing all the nail-biting heist sequences that the movie chose to leave in the background. Whether that makes it a good or bad adaptation is up for debate. What’s not is that the game, while short and far from extraordinary, is a solid time for Tarantino fans.
4 ‘Sharknado: The Video Game’ (2014)
Developed by Other Ocean Interactive
Always strongly considered when talking about the worst movies of all time, the bizarre disaster extravaganza Sharknado is a film like no other. It’s a corny action B-movie about a freak hurricane assaulting Los Angeles. As a result, the ocean’s most ruthless predator also gets to rule air and land, as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace.
Sharknado is about as goofy as it sounds, and it even sparked a long-running franchise including several sequels, spin-offs, and a video game as goofy as itself. An iOS endless running video game released at the height of the genre’s popularity (now delisted from the App Store), Sharknado: The Video Game was as pointless, shallow, and quickly tiresome as it sounds. One wouldn’t usually expect a game based on a low-budget film like this one. But, then again, the Sharknado franchise has always been unpredictable.
3 ‘Wayne’s World’ (1993)
Developed by Gray Matter Inc. and Radical Entertainment
There aren’t many movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches — but there are still more than the average person would imagine. One of the best is Wayne’s World, a Mike Myers and Dana Carvey-starring comedy about two slacker friends trying to promote their public-access cable show. As iconic as it is funny, it’s one of the ’90s biggest comedy cult classics.
From that description alone, one would never expect Wayne’s World to have received a tie-in video game for third and fourth-generation consoles. Why would they? A game based on a slacker comedy based on an SNL sketch does sound like a joke from said movie rather than reality. Surprisingly enough, though, there was indeed a 2D action platformer based on the film, with players just jumping around and collecting things. For better or worse, it’s as charmingly simple as the movie it’s based on. What more could fans ask for?
2 ‘Little Nicky’ (2000)
Developed by Digital Eclipse
His modern-day reputation may make most people believe otherwise, but in fact, there are plenty of great Adam Sandler movies. The supernatural fantasy comedy Little Nicky, though, isn’t one of them. This story about the Devil’s third son having to travel to Earth to retrieve his two older brothers, who escaped, is far from the actor’s worst. However, it’s also not a particularly smart movie.
Even still, the powers-that-be found enough in the movie to justify making a tie-in game exclusive to the Game Boy Color. The result is as unpleasant as anyone could guess. The Little Nicky video game isn’t the worst platformer in history, with enough fun visuals and not-terrible-level design to make it tolerable. However, it’s anyone’s guess why someone would choose to make a tie-in video game for Little Nicky of all films; and it’s anyone’s guess who would willingly choose to play it.
1 ‘Mean Girls’ (2009)
Developed by Crush Digital
The “chick flick” to rule all “chick flicks,” Mean Girls is a delightful comedy cult classic that has aged like fine wine. It stars Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, a girl who becomes a hit with the A-list girl clique at her new school. However, Cady makes the mistake of falling in love with the ex-boyfriend of the alpha of the group, Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Bad things ensue.
It’s surprising enough that a teen comedy like this one would ever get a video game adaptation. But what makes this particular one even more shocking is the fact that it’s a legend among those fascinated by lost media. After all, this Nintendo DS-exclusive puzzle game was only released in Europe, since its release in North America was canceled. Nowadays, it’s considered lost. It was as clunky a game as one might imagine, but its infamy in the world of lost media is what makes it such an iconic case of puzzling movie tie-in video games.
