Celebrities will slap their face onto anything to make a buck or two. Like George Foreman and his grills, or the late Wilford Brimley and his Liberty Medical commercials. So, it's not a surprise that they've turned up in video games as well. Nowadays, celebrity tie-in games are more likely to pop up in the mobile market, since big console games take too long to develop.
Today’s hotness could become tomorrow’s old news by the time their game comes out. However, it was a different story in the past. Whether it was a big sports star, a music icon, or an action hero, their looks ended up in some weird video games.
8 Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee needs no introduction, especially as he’s appeared in so many games…somewhat. Games like Street Fighter, World Heroes, Tekken and more used different names for their proxies. But the similarities between Fei Long, Kim Dragon, Marshall & Forest Law and the Hong Kong legend were undeniable. However, how many games feature Bruce Lee himself? He turned up in EA Sports UFC 2, and in the Xbox brawler Bruce Lee: Quest for the Dragon.
The most inexplicable is perhaps his video game debut: Bruce Lee for the Atari 8-Bit machines and the Commodore 64. Players controlled a blocky version of Bruce as he went from chamber to chamber, jumping from platforms and beating up foes in search of infinite wealth and the secret to immortality. It was quite popular at the time too, and received a fanmade sequel, Bruce Lee 2, in 2013.
7 Jackie Chan In Fists of Fire
Jackie Chan hasn’t had as many game proxies as Bruce Lee (Tekken’s Lei Wulong is perhaps the most famous one), but he has appeared in more games as himself. Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu put him in a cartoony action platformer that’s rather charming. Jackie Chan Stuntmaster had him beating up thugs all around New York. While Jackie Chan J-Mat Fitness predated WiiFit by having Chan take the player through exercises. However, those games weren't as weird as Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire.
It was a fighting game by Kaneko that blended Fatal Fury-style controls with Mortal Kombat-style digitized graphics and fatality-esque finishing moves. The game was made to promote Chan’s film Thunderbolt, as all the characters were played by that film's actors, including Chan himself. He has three different forms that act as the final bosses, each representing one of his classic film roles (Drunken Master, Project A, etc.)
6 Wu-Tang: Taste the Pain
Does anyone remember Thrill Kill? It was going to be a bloody arena fighter for the PS1 that featured freaky characters slicing, dicing, and dismembering each other for the player’s amusement. While near-complete versions of the game can now be found online, it was never released. EA got the game’s publishing rights and decided to shut it down because of its bloody content. Or so the story goes.
But it wasn’t completely dead. Developers Paradox Entertainment would reskin the game with the Wu-Tang Clan in Wu-Tang: Taste the Pain. It saw the RZA, the GZA, the Ghostface Killah and the rest fighting each other in the same 4-way style as Thrill Kill. There wasn’t a drop of blood to be seen either, unless players looked inside the manual and found the cheat code. Play it with the Wu-Tang controller for maximum effect! Or stick to Def Jam Vendetta.
5 Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Imagine a game where the player has to complete objectives and mini-games to get their stats high enough to access a fun little place called the Pleasuredome. They have to explore such weird locations like the Sea of Holes, the Cybernetic Outbreak, and the Raid Over Merseyside. Then, just to spice things up, they have to solve a murder for a massive stat boost that can open up the Pleasuredome in one go.
That game was made all the way back in 1985 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC, and it somehow involved 80s group Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Aside from the name and cover, the connections aren’t particularly obvious. However, there are a few finer details here and there. ‘Relax’ and ‘Two Tribes’ got converted to 8-bit melodies for the game. The Pleasuredome is a reference to the song ‘Welcome to the Pleasuredome’, and the game takes place in Liverpool, the band’s home city.
4 Journey
If 1980s British synth-pop isn’t to one’s taste, maybe some good old-fashioned rock music will do. A lot of famous rock stars have lent themselves to videogames in one form or another. Brütal Legend had a veritable who’s who of metal legends in it, from Ozzy Osbourne to Lemmy Kilmister. Revolution X had the players blasting people with vinyl records to bring Aerosmith's music back to the people. While KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child did much the same, but with KISS and magic powers.
But why go for those softies when the hardest rockers of all had a game? Yes, there was an arcade game in 1983 based on Journey! Players would go to one of five planets, then play a mini-game where each member of the band would retrieve their stolen instruments from aliens. The action is all set to beepy versions of their biggest hits like ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ and ‘Wheel in the Sky’. Made by Bally Midway, it was the first game to ever use digitized graphics, which later games like Mortal Kombat would make famous.
3 Make My Video
Still, why listen to dusty old rock songs when the Sega CD has the latest hits from the hottest acts of 1992! Digital Pictures made a game each for Kriss Kross, INXS, the C&C Music Factory, and Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, each with the same aim. Players had to make new edits of music videos for three of their biggest songs per in-game request.
They were linked together by odd cutscenes, be it a brother and sister refreshing Marky Mark videos with a pre-fame Seth Green, or Phil LaMarr working in a literal music factory. Neither were any good as it involved editing random effects and stock footage into grainy FMV footage while it was running. Video editors don’t usually work live, and usually require more than 3-4 minutes per project. But that’s what the games asked of the players, which is probably why they bombed hard.
2 Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball
Sports games were rife with celebrity licenses, producing the likes of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and Shaq Fu. Even people more famous for commentating gained games, like the late John Madden lending his name and face to the Madden series. They can also produce oddities like Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure on Soccer Island or Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer…which didn’t actually have Chris Kamara in the game itself.
Still, how did Bill Laimbeer get a video game? The notoriously heavy-hitting Detroit Pistons player was one of the team’s ‘Bad Boys’ alongside Dennis Rodman back in the early 1990s. So, when a basketball game about slamming dunks and players came along, he was a fair (and comparatively cheap) choice to be its face. Set in 2030, he's somehow still young and athletic enough to take on younger players at this hard-hitting take on basketball. Still, there's one more futuristic basketball-themed game that one-ups Laimbeer's game.
1 Barkley Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden
Usually, unlicensed freeware games wouldn’t count. Otherwise, this list would just be a bundle of Flash games from early 2000s Newgrounds. However, Tales of Game’s Studios’ piece of work has gained notoriety beyond its original licensed forebear Barkley Shut Up & Jam! That was a simple 2v2 basketball game for the Genesis and SNES.
Their spin-off was a turn-based RPG about Charles Barkley and other ex-basketball players in the 2050s saving the planet from the terrorist organization B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. It’s basically a collection of gags and memes based on Barkley, Space Jam, and RPG conventions. For a fan game made in Game Maker, it's a fun and sturdy RPG, even if the gags are a little weird (one character makes the average otaku look like the Fonz).