Celebrity endorsements are a longstanding phenomenon in gaming. Many famous faces have made cameo appearances in titles or lent their likeness to advertising campaigns. However, here we are looking at games that have celebrities' names right in the title. From long-standing franchises to one-off titles, the range of available celebrity endorsed games is huge.
Recent trends for mobile gaming have vastly increased the number of celebrity name-bearing freemium titles available on app stores but we are looking at games from a wider range of platforms. Read on as we take a look at some of the very and worst celebrity endorsed games.
10 Best: Colin McRae Rally
This well-known racing franchise from Codemasters boasts the name of World Rally Championship driver Colin McRae, who provided the development team with extensive technical support throughout its creation. As is often the case when a celebrity expert is actually involved in the game's creation, the series has had great success.
McRae passed away back in 2007 but the franchise still bore his name until Dirt 3 in 2011, when Codemasters dropped it from the main games. However, it does still appear in the 2013 mobile title, Colin McRae Rally.
9 Worst: The Wacky World of Golf with Eugene Levy
Despite his name appearing on the game and his image in all of the marketing, this game doesn't allow you to actually play golf as Eugene Levy which is the first let down. Instead, Levy lent his voice to the golf ball, which shouts repetitive catchphrases, terrible golf-puns, and encouraging words constantly.
The game was released on the CD-i and features the worst controls ever seen in a golf title, with no way to alter the power of your shot. The whole thing is a great example of how not to make a golf game or in fact any game at all.
8 Best: The Sims 3: Katy Perry's Sweet Treats
This celebrity-endorsed Stuff Pack for The Sims 3 could just as easily be placed on the worst list, due to its tendency to split people into lovers or haters, but it remains here due to the fact that it retains a huge cult following amongst Simmers to this day.
It comprises a wide range of sickly sweet candy themed items, which bring tackiness and vibrancy to your game. Despite the title being retired from digital stores a few years ago, there are still many fans desperate to get their hands on this sickly sweet stuff pack.
7 Worst: PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator
This game is proof that sometimes a celebrity can sell almost anything. Despite being a fairly average at best, freemium mobile game with a retro style and plenty of microtransactions, this title's score on Google Play sits at 4.7/5 and at 4.9/5 on the App Store.
The game features numerous references to PewDiePie and his channel as players make their own YouTube career on the go. Despite the fact many other titles do this with more depth, less repetition, and a lot more style, this mobile title continues to rack up great "reviews" from PewDiePie's fans, most of whose opinions simply comprise of the words "subscribe to pewdiepie."
6 Best: Madden NFL
The Madden franchise is one of the longest-running series bearing the name of a celebrity. It began in 1988 and is still going strong today.
John Madden is a Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach and Commentator and the series which bears his name and is the only one to be officially licensed by the NFL. Despite retiring in 2009, Madden continues to lend his expertise to the series, helping it retain its realism and success. It is his involvement that has given the franchise a depth that others have been unable to replicate.
5 Worst: David Beckham, Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure On Soccer Island
If you were hoping this was a title featuring a likeness of the former England Captain and husband of Ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham then you're heading for disappointment. It's actually a 2D GBA platformer that sees you playing as a tiny pixel version of the co-owner of Inter Miami CF.
Tiny pixel Beckham must clean up soccer island using his super football skills; kicking footballs at enemies, and using them to unlock objectives. There's a reason most people will have never heard of this 2002 title.
4 Best: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
The Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series includes some of the greatest skateboarding games of all time. While the franchise hasn't always kept its stride over the years, these early titles especially remain as glorious examples of sports games done right.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was the early pinnacle of the series, featuring engaging missions, online play, a huge range of tricks to perform, as well as an amazing soundtrack. While Tony Hawk's name may have helped boost the series' profile initially, the games stand up as great titles, and it's this which makes them a true success.
3 Worst: Britney's Dance Beat
This celebrity collaboration encompasses everything you shouldn't do in a collaboration. It should have been fantastic. Britney Spears was at the height of her fame and dance games were hugely popular. The pairing was a no brainer. Sadly the game was the same.
Britney appeared in all her glory mainly in the menu's, while players mostly performed as and with generic backup dancers to earn a place on her tour. Britney does appear but often fleetingly. Performing a whole five of her songs and passing the "auditions" unlocked a few concert videos and a huge sense of disappointment.
2 Best: Guitar Hero: Metallica
While we've seen band endorsed rhythm games go terribly wrong, the Guitar Hero series has consistently delivered quality collaborations. There are several other fine examples but Guitar Hero: Metallica appears here due to its stand out efforts.
It features 28 master recordings of the band, as well as a further 21 songs selected by Metallica themselves. The band's avatars were created using motion capture footage that they performed and are used extensively. You can even watch some of this process as part of extras which also include other live footage from the band.
1 Worst: Make My Video
No list of terrible video games is complete without the most terrible of them all, the Make My Video series for the Sega CD. We still have no idea how there are three of these games, nor how they class as games. Despite the big names on the box, the titles were a total disaster.
Each one comprises pre-recorded clips from just three songs by the featured band; INXS, Marky Mark, and Kriss Kross, who were all very popular at the time. Players then use a range of stock footage, movie clips, and terrible special effects to put together a video using shoddy and basic editing software, which they can watch but cannot save or share. That's it.