Some of the hottest upcoming video game releases like Gotham Knights, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed even Hogwarts Legacy all capitalizing on the success of their movie counterparts, there are far fewer true movie tie-in video games than there used to be. That’s a good thing.
Movie tie-ins are notoriously some of the worst and most disastrous video games of all time, like the legendary Atari 2600’s-for-all-the-wrong-reasons ET the alien. With more recent decades bringing panned cat lady and Ghostbusters video games, it’s easy to see why companies aren’t so excited about the concept anymore.
10 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
It might not be the worst Alien game – Aliens: Colonial Marines saw a much tougher critical reception – but there’s no worse game in the franchise in terms of direct movie links. Like the critically panned movie of the same name, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem hit a new low when it was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2007.
The game promised to fulfill the power fantasy of playing as the Predator in a third-person action experience, but poor graphics, terrible AI, and the fact that the entire game was way too easy for anyone old enough to play it. , meant critics were left unimpressed by the whole.
9 Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
the 2007 Alvin and the Squirrels The film also didn’t get a strong response from critics, but this rhythm-based video game pairing was received even more negatively. While it has some redeeming features, not least a solid pop soundtrack to match Rock bandstyle gameplay, it suffers from a similar problem to the movie.
That is, it assumes it can get away with a lot more because of its young target audience. It tried to exploit the film’s popularity, as well as the band-based video game trend that prevailed at the time, but critics agreed it was so sloppy in its effort that only the most impressed kids of it were. could enjoy it. Poor controls and lazy details make it an impossible game to love.
8 Cat Lady (2004)
It would have been more surprising if the draw for cat lady would have been good, but failing to deliver a technically polished game meant it couldn’t do justice to one of DC’s strongest female characters either. However, the game’s action-platformer style that loosely follows the plot of the film had some promise.
If there’s one single element that ruins the experience, it’s the in-game camera that is almost uncomfortably bad. It was singled out along with the game’s clunky controls for criticism. Even the most seasoned Catwoman fan might not enjoy playing as the feline anti-hero when it’s made so awkward.
7 Battleship (2012)
While the attempt to turn the board game into a blockbuster turned out to be a huge blockbuster and one that most people would happily forget, Battleship also produced not one but two separate video game links of the same name. While one, a turn-based strategy for portable consoles, wasn’t bad, an FPS link for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was a mistake to rival the film.
While some critics saw its potential and pointed out how the game linked naval and ground combat in a fairly unique way, most felt the two elements didn’t blend well at all. Worse, the game’s presentation was so uninteresting that it’s a hard game to get through, despite only lasting a few hours.
Many video games associated with movies fail, but few fail so badly as to wreak havoc on the video game industry as a whole. ET the alien however, can make this claim as one of the most documented failures in the video game industry. An attempt to cash in on the huge market for tie-ins as well as the film’s success, it’s proof that a game needs more than a popular title to sell.
Much of what makes it unplayable now, including the basic graphics and repetitive gameplay, may seem due to age, but critics had the same complaints at the time. While it may not be as terrible to play as its reputation suggests, there’s little to cash in ET The Alien.
5 Fight Club (2004)
fight club is a movie that fans often argue is misunderstood and it seems whoever ordered this over-the-top conventional fighting game didn’t quite get the nuance of the movie either. Released five years after the movie, it’s hard to say who the game is for, but it didn’t go down well with critics or fans.
Some interesting ideas, such as a Hardcore mode where injuries are carried over from each fight as the player tries to rise through the ranks of the club, can’t hide the awkward and dated mechanics underlying his 3D battles. Sloppy execution and full of strange details like an appearance of Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, fight club is bizarre, even by poor game standards.
4 Ghostbusters (2016)
While the 2016 film that inspired him has a huge following, it’s unlikely that even that much can be said in defense of the Ghostbusters video game. While a post-movie action game that focuses on an all-new group of four Ghostbusters could have been interesting, and even the core mechanics are solid, critics found the performance particularly uninspired.
The game lets players endlessly clear up ghosts in linear and repetitive levels, while the bad writing means even the story can’t help making things less tedious. With a $50 price tag, many felt the game couldn’t have been more plainly a lazy cash grabber.
3 Antz Extreme Racing (2002)
There are some great racing video games outside the Mario Kart franchise but Antz Extreme Racing goes down as one of the worst entries in the genre. Based on the 1998 movie, this clutch wasn’t released until 4 years later and, if there were any die-hards, antz fans left, even they would be disappointed by this poor attempt.
With only six characters and an overall premise of having to ascend through the races, the game wasn’t very promising in the first place, but ugly graphics and bizarre level design let it down anyway. Critics suggested the title, suggesting that even the youngest children targeted should never touch this game.
2 Bad Boys: Miami Takedown (2004)
It’s rare for a movie tie-in-game to be better than its movie counterpart, but it does happen. Unfortunately, Bad Boys: Miami Takedown couldn’t even look like a worthy effort, even next to the critically panned Bad Boys II. A two-player co-op mode could have made the game fun, but oddly enough, it chooses to switch between the two main characters through the levels.
The gameplay is chaotic and action packed, but attempting to be a serious shooter just puts more emphasis on how bland it is. Even critics at the time believed that the game was way behind in terms of graphics, gameplay, and even voice acting. It hasn’t aged well since then either.
1 Charlie’s Angels (2003)
With an average score of 23 out of 100 on Metacritic, Charlie’s Angels is in a league of its own, even among other bad attempts at movie tie-in games. A 3D beat ’em up, the game puts the player in control of the angels as they progress through stages, defeating every last enemy until invisible walls disappear allowing them to progress.
That alone is unbearable, but critics couldn’t find any redeeming features in the game’s awful graphics, clunky controls, clunky camera, and glitchy levels. While the 2000 movie wasn’t well received either, it still doesn’t deserve to be associated with the worst video game movie in history.
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