Licensed to Thrill
The Golden Age of licensed tie-in games is over - but there are glimmers of a comeback.
In our basement, we’ve got more Mario toys than I know what to do with. Bowser playsets, race cars, and Koopaling plushies are always strewn about. Of all the Mario toys, though, there are a particular set I have a fondness for: a set of Happy Meal toys from 2017. I remember buying the set from my local McDonalds and promptly setting them around my desk at work as a newly minted 30-year-old would do in a sign of maturity. I remember thinking maybe one day my future kids would play with them. What can I say: I love licensed tie-ins - especially if they are good video games.
Sure, “licensed video game” is frequently met with a healthy dose of skepticism, and for good reason. When most people think of a tie-in game, they expect half-baked mobile games that have little or nothing to do with the popular show or movie that spawned it. Would you care for a Minions themed endless runner? Worse yet, these basic apps games now frequently come spring loaded with in-app purchases or even subscription-based pricing for access. The popular Bluey: Let’s Play! App offers a recurring subscription at $7.99/month. That’s nearly $100.00 a year for access to the Bluey app - until service is terminated and you have nothing to show for it.
It wasn’t always this way. I don’t want to sling the term again, but just like Facebook, Google, and every other facet of online life, licensed games used to be good and plenty. Those of us who grew up in late 1980s and 1990s know the experience was different. It was the golden age of licensed video games, when game developers used their passion and creativity to make up for sparse graphics and processing power when adapting beloved - and not so beloved - franchises into gaming experiences. While we’ve strayed far from the path, it’s not too late to go back, with some recent releases giving hope for the future of licensed games.
From the NES through the PlayStation 2 era, we were simply eating. Admittedly, the original Nintendo’s offerings were basic, but the sheer number of titles is staggering. Home Alone, Roger Rabbit, Indiana Jones, Platoon, Blues Brothers, and Batman films were all met with tie-in games. Television shows like Flintstones and Chip ‘n Dale received games, and The Simpsons had four games on the console. While some of the NES games were incredibly limited by hardware, time constraints, or both, the Super Nintendo era is where these games really started to shine.
These titles didn’t settle for just haphazardly borrowing the names or images of popular franchises, but they strived to effectively convey the spirit of the original series. It’s difficult to exactly replicate the incredible artistry and filmmaking during the stampede scene or even the musical theatre of “I Just Can’t Wait to be King,” in Disney’s The Lion King, but holy hell did they come close. These games, a creation of art in their own right, deliver experiences that don’t seek to nakedly mimic the original IP. Instead, their interpretation of iconic imagery and moments compliment the original while also existing on its own as a derivative, companion work.
A true embarrassment of riches: you could not escape a major Disney release without there being some beautifully produced tie-in coming from Capcom. Hell, some releases saw multiple video games - which version of Aladdin do you prefer? Likewise, the fun-yet-frustrating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES was followed up with classic beat ‘em-ups like TMNT: Turtles in Time (1991). While anime games didn’t fare so well back in the Clinton administration, some made their way across the pond. Even still, there are a host of excellent anime games with fan-translations or just imported by hungry fans. Think stellar Dragon Ball fighting games during this era, and a few great JRPGs like Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth.
While the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation offered up some awkward entries (Superman 64 and Harry Potter come to mind) the next era of consoles continued this excellent tradition. The Xbox and PlayStation 2 eras served technical follow-ups to the creative heights reached with the 16-bit interpretations of these movies and shows. The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) was the twenty-second tie-in game for the series. It’s a sharp Grand Theft Auto clone that is largely considered to be one of the series’ best.
Even Harry Potter’s ugly ass outing on the PlayStation was course-corrected with superior games, including Prisoner of Azkaban for the PlayStation 2. While the only Lord of the Rings game I really remember is this SNES RPG, I slept on Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, the turn-based RPG that looks like an inspired Final Fantasy X clone. It’s not even the only great LOTR game for the PS2! Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is a great entry in a franchise full of them. Likewise, I remember swinging through Manhattan the first time in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and being as impressed by it as I was with the film. That’s cinema, kinda.
These games came at the perfect time. While gaming technology had advanced enough to produce finely detailed and immersive worlds, production costs were relatively manageable - especially when compared to today’s ballooned AAA production costs. Developers were free to experiment with various genres, gameplay mechanics, and art styles in ways that feel unfamiliar in modern game development where the focus has felt hamstrung by endless iterations of the same style of game or trashy live-service feedback loops. These games felt the same creative verve as the IP that drove you to the game in the first place, with consumers embracing these games as extensions of their favorite stories. It’s why many of these games hold up today - I’m still playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, twenty years later.
While the SNES and PS2 eras hit creative highs, the PS3 era is where the technical advancements outgrew the creative. Rising development costs seemed to limit the creative freedom that brought us now-classic spins on LOTR or The Simpsons. We continued to get Disney games that looked fine, but the gameplay was not as inspired. Toy Story 3 lets you play as a handful of characters, but the levels and collect-a-thon objectives felt like an aimless chore. I was excited to check out the video game tie-in for Pixar’s Up the other day, but my kids checked out within the first ten minutes due to clunky mechanics or having to do too much. If the action button does everything, does it really do anything?
Video games based on shows just didn’t hit as hard around this era. Do you remember the Atlus released Game of Thrones RPG for the PlayStation 3? Defiance was an MMO that was released in conjunction with a Sy-Fy produced TV drama that claimed to feature some crossover elements - neither were blockbusters. Additionally, increasing development cycles all but ruled out release date timing, something that seemed more prevalent a generation ago. There’s a new Indiana Jones game coming out this month with no relation to last year’s film, because in this day and age, how could they?
As the industry continued to evolve further, licensed games seemed to take a backseat to original IPs and dreaded live-service models. Why pay for a license when you can make one game with endless seasons? This economical shift led to the current trend where the bulk of tie-in games developed as free to play mobile games. They borrow the assets and little else, churning out an endless runner or some mostly auto-battle combat game where the primary objective is for the player to empty their wallet.
There are so many of these rudimentary games - tap this, swipe right, paint that - that it’s impossible to keep track of them (or how many of them you’ve accidentally subscribed to). Paw Patrol, Hello Kitty, PJ Masks - if there’s a recent children’s series, there’s going to be some in-app purchase garbage with the thinnest paint job pretending to be your kid’s favorite character with their hand thrust out so you can buy more pizza slices or whatever.
We've been held hostage by badly designed games released with a kid’s show logo slapped on for too long. The Bluey apps are bad, but their console counterparts - if they exist at all - aren’t much better. My kids might like Ryan’s World, but the endless runner app is a higher-quality experience than the console games: a clippy Mario Kart clone and a blindingly bright and glitchy platformer. These games suffer from poor production quality, but even worse: the absence of fun or wonderment that comes with the parent series.
Recent hits like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and the Spider-Man games suggest a potential comeback for respectable licensed IP tie-ins. Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland presents two version of the same game: an NES-inspired adventure game where you play as Tommy, Chuckie, Phil or Lil in 8-bit glory; or you can switch to a “HD Remastered” version of it at the click of a button. The game is crisp and fun, even if the gameplay mechanics are a touch basic. But it has that zeal for the series that brings the game world to life, rather than limping along across an endless array of swipes.
Rugrats is great, throwback fun; same with the TMNT game, and even next week’s Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind looks like a great time in the style of a 1990’s beat ‘em up. These games mimic the gameplay and aesthetic of the classic tie-in games from the 1990s to great effect. Similarly, we are lucky to have modern approaches with Spider-Man or Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. Perhaps we will never truly return to a golden era, but the last few years seem to suggest a resurgence, if not a renaissance, for the tie-in video game.
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“Can we go to McDonalds?” my son asks as I pick him up from school. As we drive to the restaurant, he relays his order to me: chicken nuggets, fries, milk, and…a toy! A former child myself, I know that’s what he is really after. We go through the drive-thru to collect our winnings, and my son clamors for the box. On the side of the Happy Meal box, splashed across, is a picture of the month’s toy: Mario Kart.
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I would love to hear your thoughts on this piece and what your favorite tie-in games are in the comments below or on Bluesky! Boss Fights will have one more release in 2024, so if we miss you, please have a happy holiday season and new year! - Paul
Great article, given the state and stakes of the industry, I admit the golden era is far from over, despite the quality of those games. But I wonder whether the next generation will consider this the golden era as all their favorite licensed properties under in Fortnite? Regardless I feel sorry for the lawyers who have to try and tackle all these deals.