Licensed, too ill?

A word that will strike fear into the hearts of gamers the world over, a word so terrible that most of us scoff a hearty scoff when we hear it but really we fear it.  A word that sometimes means that a game will be dire before we have even seen anything of it, a word that means we might get an easy 1,000 achievement points but at what cost?  A word that nearly always means the game will be in the bargain bins within a short time.  What is the word? Well, unless you have sight problems it is right above, Licensed. Aaarghh, quick, run away, another licensed game rushed out to cash in on whatever event /film/book approaches. Am I sweeping in generalisation too much? Probably, but it is sad to say that most licensed games are utter trash – poorly made, rushed, incomplete etc. etc. Has this always been the case? Sadly, yes.

The game that most people will cite in reference to licensed games is E.T. for the Atari 2600.  It was programmed quicker than you can boil eggs and had as much effort poured on it as boiling a kettle; apparently the game had to be made and published in a very short space of time to meet deadlines.  The end result was appalling, sold terribly and if the rumours are to be believed, ended up as landfill in America somewhere.  My first licensed disappointment was the game of “A View to a Kill,” for the ZX Spectrum.  I had waited ages for it and had saved up my £10.99 (really dear at the time for a game) to buy it.  The day it came out I rushed to the shops, bought it and took it home to load up.  First level, a chase through Paris – tricky controls but very short.  I then had to load the next level from tape, it was also tricky and short and if I remember rightly, that was it finished.  I felt conned, the game was bad, overpriced and just plain rubbish, but the box was cool.  This started my love/hate relationship with licensed games.  I also remember the game of awesome TV series “V”, being just plain shit!  At the time I had no idea that these games were often rushed out and poor clones of other games, indeed I just found out recently that a great many licensed games were ports of already existing games from other countries with the film/books logo plastered all over them.

I am not going to ignore the fact that there have also been great licensed games, though.  Some that spring to mind are Teenage Mutant Turtles arcade, The Simpsons arcade, Star Wars arcade (hmmm I sense a running theme here) and of course X Men Origins Wolverine, to pick a few.  The reason the arcade games were so good was that they were not rushed out, they had some time and effort lavished on them and the end result was clear to see.  It is a great shame that more developers don’t take a little time over the licensed games, as the end results could be stunning.  In the not too distant future we have a new Transformers game to coincide with the new movie, going to be good?  Ghostbusters is coming out very soon, good or ball busting bad?  Alien versus Predator is out next year and looks like one to add to the great licensed game pile.

Over the past month or so I have played two of the most recent licensed games.  Both Wolverine and Terminator were released to be on the shelves at the same time as their relevant films.  One of the games was truly awesome and one was truly mediocre.  Wolverine had been in development for some time before the license was attached to it and it really does show.  There is an understanding of the character in the game, graphics are lush, blood is spilled lots and fun is had.  Terminator, on the other hand, didn’t have as much time in development and it does show.  It is not anywhere near as bad as E.T. was, but  it’s not as polished as Wolverine.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing through them both but there was just so much more to Wolverine that kept me coming back.  My call goes out to all developers, if you are working on a licensed game increase the dev time by a year and let us play a thoroughly decent game instead of a mediocre to be traded-in game.