Games based on TV shows

PostGames based on TV shows by **Moggy** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:14 pm

Rather than clog up the Grand Tour thread, I thought this post was interesting.

KK wrote:The potential for this to be amazing is immense, but television licenses really don't have the best track record at being turned into good video games. I remember going through an extended spell of getting excited for all these different licenses (Rugrats! Celebrity Wrestling! Who Wants To Be A Millionaire! The Simpsons! BBC Robot Wars!) and they were always poor.

I have been thinking about it and I the only one I can think of is The Simpsons platform game that was released back in the early 90s.

Have there been any other good ones?

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cheeky Devlin** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:22 pm

Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity was pretty good for the time.

Actually there have been a few good Trek games. Elite Force and Bridge Crew being examples.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cumberdanes** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:22 pm

There's a pretty good Famicom game based on the Anime that became Samurai Pizza Cats in the west.

Star Trek Voyager Elite Force was great too on PC.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Frank** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:25 pm

Wheel of Fortune 8-)

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Zartan** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:26 pm

Yeah Elite force was decent, quite a few Star Trek games were. Birth of the Federation was another one I liked a lot
Though my favourite will always be The Simpsons arcade game

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cheeky Devlin** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:27 pm

If we're including cartoon TV shows then Ducktales.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Lotus** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:30 pm

I thought The Simpsons Hit & Run was pretty good.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Ironhide** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:31 pm

The Turtles and X-men arcade games were good too.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cheeky Devlin** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:31 pm

I think a more interesting question is what TV Shows "should" have had good games but haven't?

Top of that list for me is Doctor Who. There's so much there that they could do something interesting with, but they've just never managed to get anything decent out of it. A Telltale style Doctor Who game has so much potential.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cumberdanes** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:32 pm

Cheeky Devlin wrote:If we're including cartoon TV shows then Ducktales.

I was wondering that, what are we counting as a TV license?

There's a pretty good Buck Rogers game on Atari 2600 if memory serves. It was considered rather advanced for that system.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by KK » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:32 pm

I only played the demo, but I think Futurama on PS2/Xbox may have been a serviceable platformer.

24 from Sony should have been good, but felt more like a reskinned The Getaway. It may have even come out of the same studio, come to think of it.

I still remember my birthday in 2000. I got given all 3 South Park games on PSone. They can't possibly be as bad as OPM said they were, I thought. Well they strawberry floating were...

The best Simpsons game I've ever played was actually Virtual Springfield on the PC. It wasn't much of a game, more of a point'n'click roaming affair where you just interacted with the characters and environments. But in terms of capturing the essence of the TV show I don't think anything else has ever come close. A few years later they released a derivative Crazy Taxi knock off, and then a diabolically bad Tony Hawks-inspired skateboarding game.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cheeky Devlin** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:33 pm

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:
Cheeky Devlin wrote:If we're including cartoon TV shows then Ducktales.

I was wondering that, what are we counting as a TV license?

There's a pretty good Buck Rogers game on Atari 2600 if memory serves. It was considered rather advanced for that system.

Well Moggy included the Simpsons in his post, so I'm assuming Cartoons count. Though I would say it should be limited to things that started on TV. So Star Trek would work, but something like X-Men or The Walking Dead wouldn't as they were based on Comics.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cheeky Devlin** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:35 pm

KK wrote:I only played the demo, but I think Futurama on PS2/Xbox may have been a serviceable platformer.

24 from Sony should have been good, but felt more like a reskinned The Getaway. It may have even come out of the same studio, come to think of it.

I still remember my birthday in 2000. I got given all 3 South Park games on PSone. They can't possibly be as bad as OPM said they were, I thought. Well they strawberry floating were...

The best Simpsons game I've ever played was actually Virtual Springfield on the PC. It wasn't much of a game, more of a point'n'click roaming affair where you just interacted with the characters and environments. But in terms of capturing the essence of the TV show I don't think anything else has ever come close. A few years later they released a derivative Crazy Taxi knock off, and then a diabolically bad Tony Hawks-inspired skateboarding game.

24 is a good shout for one that really had potential to be good but ended up as "meh" at best.

I'd forgotten about South Park which had so many gooseberry fool games before finally getting something really good with Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole.

They're a bit formulaic these days, but Telltale could knock out a game on basically any TV show these days. They're doing a Stranger Things one, right?

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Cumberdanes** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:37 pm

Cheeky Devlin wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:
Cheeky Devlin wrote:If we're including cartoon TV shows then Ducktales.

I was wondering that, what are we counting as a TV license?

There's a pretty good Buck Rogers game on Atari 2600 if memory serves. It was considered rather advanced for that system.

Well Moggy included the Simpsons in his post, so I'm assuming Cartoons count. Though I would say it should be limited to things that started on TV. So Star Trek would work, but something like X-Men or The Walking Dead wouldn't as they were based on Comics.

Well on that note there are two pretty good Bucky O'Hare games, one on NES and one in the arcade.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **OrangeRKN** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:38 pm

I quite liked 24, it was pretty varied and fun to blast through. No where near 24 hours long though!

Simpsons Hit & Run is what comes to mind for me, I really enjoyed that game.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Rex Kramer** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:38 pm

There were two games based on the Knightmare TV show. The first one was pretty good being similar in style to the TV show but the 2nd, goddamn that was a strawberry floating brilliant game. Was an Eye of the Beholder/Dungeon Keeper game on Amiga/ST. Had little to do with the actual show aside from the name though.

Bluesky · PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Kriken** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:38 pm

Simpsons Hit and Run. Played it through twice before, years apart. Might revisit it soon as I had a ton of fun both times.

Simpsons Road Rage. Yeah it's a rip-off of Crazy Taxi and I'm not going to argue it's a 'good' game because I can't be bothered, but I had a lot of fun with it and I like the Simpsons theme. Honestly I'd like more Crazy Taxi clones or echos. I haven't even played the original but I like the format.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Rex Kramer** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:39 pm

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:
Cheeky Devlin wrote:If we're including cartoon TV shows then Ducktales.

I was wondering that, what are we counting as a TV license?

There's a pretty good Buck Rogers game on Atari 2600 if memory serves. It was considered rather advanced for that system.

I played the hell out of a Buck Rogers game on the Megadrive, think it was a SSL type RPG.

PostRe: Games based on TV shows by **Ironhide** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 3:40 pm

The Expanse could work as an Elite style space trucker type game, think Euro Truck simulator but instead of hauling potatoes from Warsaw to Leicester you're taking air filters from Io to Ganymede in a ramshackle spacecraft.

Games based on TV shows

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