Highlights
- Movies and games can merge in bizarre ways, leading to odd tie-ins like E.T. for Atari 2600.
- Street Fighter: The Movie game felt redundant and more like Mortal Kombat, straying from the original series.
- Warpath: Jurassic Park turned dinosaurs into fighters, straying from the movie's paleontological roots.
The union between the world of cinema and the world of video games can be truly fascinating. Thanks to movie tie-ins, audiences can re-experience crucial scenes from their favorite movies and/or explore some of the most beloved cinematic universes ever made. There’s a lot of value in these types of products, even though a good number of them can also be quite bizarre.
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Occasionally, video games based on movies actually end up outshining their source material. Here are ten examples of that happening.
Whether it’s because they were developed alongside their movie or because they were released decades after the film they’re based on, this business practice has led to the release of some infamous movie tie-in games that are particularly strange. Though countless unusual ones exist, these are some of the most egregious examples.
10 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
A Convoluted Mess Caused By Rushed Development
The E.T. game for Atari 2600 is the most infamous example of a weird movie tie-in game, and it has already been very well documented how it was a product of Atari buying the rights of this successful movie and rushing its development in order to release it during the holiday season. Because of this, it’s understandable why this game ended up the way it did.
What didn't help was that most Atari 2600 players were not used to the relatively complex gameplay that came with this title. That and the fact that the characters and the environments looked nothing like what they did in the movie made things even worse. It's no wonder why many copies of E.T. ended up buried in the desert.
9 Street Fighter: The Movie
A Game Adaptation Of A Movie Adaptation Of A Game
- Platforms: Arcade, PlayStation, Saturn
- Released: August 23, 1995
- Developers: Incredible Technologies, Capcom
- Genre: Fighting
As far as video game movies go, 1995's Street Fighter is one of the most infamous. But at least it seemed like it didn’t need to get a tie-in game if it was already based off of a popular video game franchise. However, it still got one in the form of Street Fighter: The Movie (The Game), which felt a tad redundant.
There was no real need for this game to exist, and the gameplay wasn't enough to save it. It shares absolutely nothing with the original Street Fighter series since it has completely different fighting mechanics and weird digitized graphics. All of this made it feel more similar to the franchise’s main competitor, Mortal Kombat.
8 Warpath: Jurassic Park
A Bizarre Fighting Game With Dinosaurs
- Platform: PlayStation
- Released: November 17, 1999
- Developer: Black Ops Entertainment
- Genre: Fighting
Jurassic Park is the biggest dinosaur IP in the world, which led to countless video games based on the movies, which covered many different genres. And the weirdest one of them all was Warpath: Jurassic Park, which is not a first-person shooter nor a survival game and is instead a fighting game.
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For a franchise that is mostly responsible for reigniting the public’s interest in paleontology, Warpath threw all of that science out the window in order to make way for a really silly and over-the-top fighter where players can control a vast array of dinosaurs that look nothing like they do in the movies. This odd title is still fondly remembered by many players, even though it was quite bizarre.
7 Little Nicky
A Cartoony Platformer Based On An Adam Sandler Comedy
- Platform: Game Boy Color
- Released: December 15, 2000
- Developer: Digital Eclipse
- Genre: Platformer
Adam Sandler’s Little Nicky is the last movie someone would expect to see adapted to a video game, as this was a raunchy adult comedy that was poorly received at the time. But it happened, as Ubisoft published a 2D platformer based on the film for the Game Boy Color.
The weirdest part is that the Little Nicky game was praised for its fun gameplay, detailed sprite work, and catchy music. It was nothing special, but at least it was better received than the original movie. Nevertheless, the fact that a cartoony platformer based on one of Adam Sandler's most infamous comedies exists on a Nintendo handheld is truly unbelievable.
6 Shrek
An Eerie Experience With A Strange Lack Of Humor
- Platforms: Xbox, GameCube
- Released: November 15, 2001
- Developer: Digital Illusions Canada
- Genre: Platformer
When a movie tie-in game is made at the same time as the movie and developers have little-to-no information on the content they have to adapt, it can result in some really strange products. And that was exactly the case with the very first Shrek video game.
The only characters from the movie are the Magic Mirror and Shrek, and the latter doesn’t have a single line of dialogue in the entire game, making things eerily silent. This game doesn’t have the charming personality or satirical sense of humor of the movie, so the whole experience feels very uncomfortable. And the weirdest part is that this was an Xbox launch title that Microsoft used to promote the release of the console.
5 Charlie’s Angels
Wasted The Opportunity To Adapt A Popular Movie
- Platforms: PlayStation 2, GameCube
- Released: July 4, 2003
- Developer: Neko Entertainment
- Genre: Beat 'em up
Charlie’s Angels was definitely one of the most popular action movies of the early 2000s, so it obviously had its own game adaptation a few years later. But this product didn’t live up to the hype, and it is now considered one of the worst video games ever made.
The Charlie’s Angels game is a repetitive beat 'em up that does absolutely nothing to capture the essence of the original movie. It also tries way too hard to appeal to a male demographic. Weirdly enough, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu lent their voices to the project, too.
4 Fight Club
A Dark Thriller That Became A Subpar Fighting Game
- Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox
- Released: November 16, 2004
- Developer: Genuine Games
- Genre: Fighting
Despite its title, David Fincher’s Fight Club is not so much focused on actual fighting, as it’s more of an intense thriller that delves into the psychology of a broken man. But, for some reason, Vivendi Universal tried to profit from this fighting element 5 years after the release of the movie.
The Fight Club video game has to be seen to be believed, as it’s a very clunky fighter with strange mechanics and a small roster made out of characters that play pretty much the same, which even includes an unexpected cameo by Fred Durst. To this day, it’s considered one of the worst fighting games ever made, which is a shame considering that it exists because of an incredible movie.
3 Jaws Unleashed
Playing As The Iconic Shark, 31 Years Later
The mid-2000s saw a rise in game adaptations of classic movies from the 70s and 80s that nobody saw coming, and one of the most memorable was definitely Jaws Unleashed, based on the cinematic masterpiece that put Steven Spielberg on the map, Jaws.
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This tie-in was made over 30 years after the original film, which is already odd. But what’s especially interesting is that, in Jaws Unleashed, players can control Bruce the shark as they terrorize the oceans and beaches of America by eating all sorts of people and animals. It’s basically Grand Theft Auto with a shark, and despite some fun elements, it received mostly mixed reviews.
2 The Warriors
Rockstar’s Underrated Masterpiece
The Warriors
- Platform(s)
- PS2 , PS4 , PSP , Xbox (Original)
- Released
- October 17, 2005
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Toronto , Rockstar Leeds
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure , Beat 'Em Up
It is mostly unknown what inspired Rockstar to develop a game based on the 1979 film The Warriors in the year 2005, but most people are quite thankful that they did because it ended up being one of the best movie tie-ins of all time.
Taking full advantage of the movie’s concept, The Warriors is a fast-paced beat 'em up that takes place on the streets of New York. With solid gameplay, a captivating atmosphere, and a great soundtrack – which was mostly taken from the original film – this is a true hidden gem, despite the fact that most people couldn’t comprehend why it was made in the first place.
1 Rambo: The Video Game
A Bad Arcade Shooter That Nobody Asked For
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
- Released: February 21, 2014
- Developer: Teyon
- Genre: Rail shooter
John Rambo is one of the biggest icons in action movie history, so most fans were hoping he would star in his own violent first-person shooter someday. So, when Rambo: The Video Game was released in 2014 instead, it was incredibly disappointing because this is an arcade rail shooter that reenacted different scenes from the Rambo movies, even using original voice recordings.
Nobody was asking for this type of game, and to make things even worse, it was a really dull product with boring gameplay and disappointing graphics. Ironically, developer Teyon would later release RoboCop: Rogue City, which was more in line with what most fans were expecting from the Rambo game.
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From Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to Shrek 2, these fun PS2 movie tie-in games deserve another shot in the spotlight.
