Image credit: Saber Interactive
If you played video games in the mid 2000s and early 2010s, you likely had several movie tie-in games. From Pixar titles to James Bond to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, it seemed movie tie-in games were as common as movies based on books.
But while watching the trailers for the new LEGO Batman game, which appears to use a lot of story elements from Christopher Nolan’s renowned Dark Knight trilogy, something occurred to me. Why don’t we see as many movie tie-in games anymore?
Translating from the silver screen
I think it’s appropriate to start by saying that, while many of these games are classics, most aren’t. It’s undeniable that many movie games were either “cash grabs” to capitalize on the release of a film or marketing for said films. A lot of these games were “under-baked” janky messes that were often simple retellings of the film’s story. While this was not always the case, using games to market the films they were based on was a standard practice.
To cherry-pick an example, the original Kung Fu Panda movie premiered in North America on June 6, 2008. The video game adaptation, which borrowed many story beats from the film, was released on June 3 of the same year.
This meant that if you picked up the game on the release date, you could have completed it by the time the film premiered. This showcases an obvious disconnect between the team behind the film and its game adaptation. This is a very specific example, I’m aware; however, this goes to show how often these games were treated not as games but as a marketing strategy.
Said desire to use the games as marketing for films meant they were often rushed through production, resulting in these underdeveloped projects getting shipped frequently. Paired with the approach to filmmaking at the time, this meant gamers were flooded with games that not only didn’t have time to be original, but often didn’t even have time to be good. All of this brings me to my next point.
Did movie tie-in games ever truly stop?
While one could say that games based on movies aren’t made as much anymore, and they would be correct, games based on movies are still made. There’s Terminator 2D: NO FATE, the upcoming John Wick game, and a litany of Robocop games, all of which can be classed as movie tie-in games. One thing separates them from entries from all those years ago: their quality.
Now that these games aren’t being rushed out to correspond with the release of a film, developers have ample time to make each game unique. But most importantly, they’re able to spend more time defining a unique visual style and feel that separates it from the film it is based on. As such, I don’t think movie tie-in games ever stopped releasing; they just aligned with what players actually wanted.
In conclusion, I grew up playing movie tie-in games, and I would be remiss not to admit I am somewhat blinded by nostalgia for a few titles. While I can comfortably say that, looking back, many of these games are quantifiably terrible, it appears that both the film and game industries have learned their lesson.
With more creative and interesting titles based on films releasing more frequently, perhaps we’ll see a sort of movie game renaissance. Until then, at least the LEGO game franchise does them justice.
FAQs
Movie tie-in games were at their peak in the mid 2000s. Specifically, many studios, such as Pixar, used gaming to market their movies to a larger audience.
There is the upcoming, yet untitled, John Wick game, but that is the most notable title. Hopefully, we see more from the genre soon. There is also the upcoming Terminator: Survivors, which has yet to get a release date.
Robocop had a game in Robocop: Rogue City. The Terminator franchise has two games in Terminator 2D: NO FATE and Terminator: Dark Date – Defiance. There is also a host of LEGO games from a variety of franchises, including Star Wars and the MCU.
They have certainly improved from the early days of movie tie-in games. Really, any made in the last five years are decent enough to be considered “good games” even if most are short adventures.
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