Six of the best movie license games that will likely never see a rerelease

These days, we don’t see a lot of movie license games — at least, they don’t tend to get a lot of buzz surrounding them. But it wasn’t always that way; the early days of gaming in particular were full of games based on hot properties of the time, with some developers and publishers like Ocean even going so far as to specialise in them.

While some of these movie license games were little more than cynical cash-grabs, some were genuinely excellent games. Unfortunately, their licensed nature means that we’re unlikely to see them rereleased — even though we are otherwise going through something of a golden age for retro remasters.

So what classic movie license games would it be lovely to see once again on modern platforms — but which, realistically speaking, you’ll only get to play again if you either pick up a copy for original hardware or emulate through morally questionable means?

Batman (NES)

Veteran Japanese developer Sunsoft, of Blaster Master fame, released a few different Batman games, all loosely based on the 1989 movie to varying degrees. Of these, the NES version is probably the most well-known, being both well-liked for being a solid, well-presented movie license game and notorious for being one of the most challenging games on the platform.

Sunsoft’s Batman for NES showed that a movie license game didn’t necessarily have to slavishly follow the plot of the movie in order to be a good game — in fact, it was often a good idea for developers to add a bit of their own creativity into the mix. This is still a really enjoyable game today — and one that we’re unlikely to see ever again, unless someone like Digital Eclipse manages to score the rights to a Batman-themed Cowabunga Collection-equivalent.

Robocop Versus The Terminator (Mega Drive)

Notorious for being one of the bloodiest games ever released when it first arrived on Mega Drive in 1994, Robocop Versus The Terminator isn’t a movie license game that is based on a specific film; rather, it was based on a four-issue comic book mini-series that, in turn, was based on the movies Robocop and The Terminator.

Opinions of the game were a tad mixed when it was originally released, with the American magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly only rating the game’s Super NES port 5.8 out of 10, but UK magazines Computer and Video Games and Mean Machines giving the game its highest accolades with scores of over 90. Popular opinion tends to sway somewhat towards the latter, with this being regarded as an enjoyable and violent 16-bit platformer, and a good example of Virgin Games USA’s typical quality output at the time.

Alien vs Predator (Jaguar)

Although an Alien vs Predator game is available on Steam right now, that’s the 2010 version by Rebellion and Sega. A good game in its own right, sure, but the Atari Jaguar version from 1994 is legendary — developed once again by Rebellion, but this time published by Atari. Casting players in the role of a xenomorph, Predator or Colonial Marine — and unfolding very differently depending on which you choose — the game is a first-person shooter with an intriguing open-structure design, in marked contrast to its linear level-based contemporaries.

While a little dated and clunky by modern standards, take the time to get to know this game and there’s a lot to enjoy. Given its popularity on its original release — and the fact that even the most ardent Jaguar-haters will admit that this game isn’t all that bad at all — it would have made an ideal inclusion in Digital Eclipse’s Atari 50 collection, but sadly licensing shenanigans made that impossible.

Die Hard Trilogy (PS1)

As the name suggests, Die Hard Trilogy is a movie license game that brings three different experiences together into a single package. Rather than simply applying the same game design to adaptations of the three Die Hard movies that existed at the time of its 1994 release, developer Probe instead decided to create a unique experience for each.

The Die Hard sequence was a third-person shooter, challenging players to explore the Nakatomi Plaza, eliminating terrorists and rescuing hostages. Die Hard 2: Die Harder unfolds as a lightgun-compatible on-rails shooter, where players challenge the terrorists invading Dulles Airport. And Die Hard with a Vengeance is a driving game that tasks players with haring around New York in search of explosives. All of the games were great fun, and having all three in a single package made for a great-value movie license game.

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (PS2)

There were a lot of really good movie license games based on Peter Jackson’s interpretation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Third Age was perhaps the most interesting of them all. Rather than attempting to slavishly recreate key scenes from the movie as in the case of the other Lord of the Rings games around at the time, The Third Age instead opted to take a more loose adaptation of the overall storyline and turn it into a full-on role-playing game.

The game was especially noteworthy at the time of its original release for being a western-developed game that felt very much like a Japanese-style game. A little too much so for some reviewers, who quite rightly pointed out that the game’s battle system had been lifted almost completely wholesale from Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X. Still, if you’re going to pinch mechanics, pinch from the best, eh?

Speed Racer (PS2)

Released to a somewhat middling reception back in 2008, the Speed Racer movie license game has become a bit of a cult hit in more recent years. Featuring high-speed futuristic racing reminiscent of Nintendo’s classic F-Zero series along with entertaining acrobatic car combat known as “car-fu”, Speed Racer is a lot of fun — though it’s worth noting that the PS2 version, which came out slightly later, has a bit more content than the Wii version, plus the ability to play with a conventional controller setup rather than motion controls.

Speed Racer is another great example of a movie license game that doesn’t rely too much on the original movie; in fact, it’s set a year after the 2008 film (written and directed by the Wachowskis of The Matrix fame) and is thus effectively its own self-contained thing that requires no prior knowledge. This is arguably an optimal approach to movie license games, as it allows even those who have never seen the film to enjoy the game! Sadly, as with everything else on this list, we’re unlikely to see an official remaster of this any time soon — though the Wii and PS2 versions can still be picked up pretty cheap.

^{Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!}

• Author
• Recent Posts

Pete Davison

Pete is Rice Digital's editor, and a proud champion of any and all games involving pretty girls hanging out, saving the world or both. His first waifu was Rit from Rod Land.

Latest posts by Pete Davison (see all)

• Letter from the Editor: passing the torch - June 30, 2023
• Super Woden GP 2 is looking promising - June 30, 2023
• Inti Creates is making a 32 bit-style Love Live action platformer - June 26, 2023