Obligatory and probably superfluous "what would make a good licensed game" topic

This lazy question is asked in every podcast and magazine. In fact it's probably been asked on this forum before, and I just suck at remembering/finding things (a little sleep deprived at present - I need the Father Dougal Dreams/Reality diagram). So:

What TV show / film / etc. should be (or should have been) made into a video game? Whether it's a new thing that would catch fans that can't get enough of something, or something old that should've existed and would get nostalgic kickstarter campaigns ("lol thats so 90s lol").

If Aled Davies couldn't spell, discuss.

During the series I always thought Chuck would make a decent video game. For those not in the know, it was a comedy spy series where the lead character could - after a certain point in the show! - instantly develop any skill and then have it fade from his memory when he'd used it. A smart and willing developer could have used that to mix genres with wild abandon: lots of fighting, of course, but Chuck also perfectly played a guitar at one point in the series, so you could have the occasional rhythm game bit. Chuck would also never use guns, so you could get quite creative with that, too.

Great topic, Jimbob.  We could do with a couple more of these in the forum's downtime.  Been trying to think of one myself, but I'm drawing a blank.

The trouble is, how big a budget are we working with here?  Because there is an Attack on Titan game coming out (for the uninitiated: you fight massive creatures with creepy smiles that can only be killed by a blow to the back of the neck, using steam-powered jetpack-type thingies to get around), but I heavily suspect that you'd require a huge amount of money to do the fast-paced combat justice, while not making the landscapes bland and samey.  But if they can do that, all to the good.

James Cameron's James Cameron's Avatar by James Cameron would be another good one, solely because of the lush and interesting world you'd be exploring, and because it never had much of a plot in the first place so that wouldn't be sacrificed.

As I said all up in here we still need a truly great Godzilla game.

There is a Avatar game based on the film balla.

Really I would like something based on Firefly / Serenity I know theres a top downish mmo coming but a proper sort of adventure game in that world would be excellent.

Since the fine folk at creative assembly done so well with Alien isolation, it'd be interesting to see them do a Predator game.

Predator could work better, if anything. Shooting shooty men between the bits with the alien wouldn't feel so out of place and the Predator could up its game as you unlock weapons and stuff.

masofdas wrote:

There is a Avatar game based on the film balla.

Is it any good?

That was pretty much a rhetorical question, but I checked Metacritic, and surprise surprise: it's in the low sixties/high fifties, depending on version. I meant a good Avatar game, natch.

The_Jaster wrote:

Since the fine folk at creative assembly done so well with Alien isolation, it'd be interesting to see them do a Predator game.

But it'll never be as good as the original!
But yeah, it does make perfect sense for them to follow Alien Isolation up with this; you've got only one real enemy, but it's basically much cleverer than you.

Press F to GET TO ZE CHOPPAH


Answering my own question here like a jerk: The American Gladiators videogame was boringballs. But why was there never a UK Gladiators spinoff by Codemasters, or Rare? Admittedly I never hear any Americans talk about their show in Pop Culture circles, but you can't get through a "LOL 90s things" BuzzFeed article written by a British person without someone mentioning Jet/Lightning/Panther/Wolf/The Eliminator/Gauntlet/John Fashanu. Maybe it's a case of timing, but it seemed to have endeared itself more to us than the 'Muricans.

If a game was made at the time, it would try to mimic the show, and thus suffer the same Multi-load Dull Dull Player 2 Ready format as the original. But what about a slightly-ironic Charles Barkley 2 style adventure? Essentially Guacamelee.

I know they did some, but a modern version of a Robot Wars game would suit me, with the "build-it-yourself-ness" of modern games like Kerbal, Minecraft, Boomblox, Smash Bros et al. Bit of freehand decorating, bit of physics and some classic 90s BBC stylings.

Would make customisation less pointless than in SSB, anyway.

Balladeer wrote:

masofdas wrote:

There is a Avatar game based on the film balla.

Is it any good?

That was pretty much a rhetorical question, but I checked Metacritic, and surprise surprise: it's in the low sixties/high fifties, depending on version.  I meant a good Avatar game, natch.

But wouldn't it help if we based the game of something good to start with.

I would totally play an injoke-packed Gladiators metroidvania. Someone get on that.

Another one I'd like to see; a really good Star Trek game. I imagine it somewhat like Mass Effect but with much more of an open world and with far less of the planets one land on requiring a shoot out to solve. Or maybe they could all have a combat-based solution, but there could also be a puzzle solving, peace negotiating solution. That way you could choose whether to play like a Kirk or a Picard.

drunka wrote:

I would totally play an injoke-packed Gladiators metroid-like someone get on that.

Fixed that for ye.

What about Janeway, Drunka.

masofdas wrote:

What about Janeway, Drunka.

A: Come in peace
B: Shoot to kill
C: Gabber about coffee

drunkalilly wrote:

I would totally play an injoke-packed Gladiators metroid-like someone get on that

Samus, you will activate your heat-shields on my first whistle.
I need a side-project for Game Maker Studio, but it would be a disaster if I tried (can't draw). Can we get DrinkBox on it?
On a side-related note, how about cheating with a Wario Ware-style game which is basically this LOL article (where the Gladiators idea came from)?

Jimbob wrote:

masofdas wrote:

What about Janeway, Drunka.

A: Come in peace
B: Shoot to kill
C: Gabber about coffee

drunkalilly wrote:

I would totally play an injoke-packed Gladiators metroid-like someone get on that

Samus, you will activate your heat-shields on my first whistle.
I need a side-project for Game Maker Studio, but it would be a disaster if I tried (can't draw). Can we get DrinkBox on it?
On a side-related note, how about cheating with a Wario Ware-style game which is basically this LOL article (where the Gladiators idea came from)?

That article is all kinds of brilliant and had me smiling like this

I get about half of those. Shouldn't that article go in Retro?

Balladeer wrote:

masofdas wrote:

There is a Avatar game based on the film balla.

Is it any good?

That was pretty much a rhetorical question, but I checked Metacritic, and surprise surprise: it's in the low sixties/high fifties, depending on version.  I meant a good Avatar game, natch.

Probably not, and the other Avatar game (based on the animation) from Platinum Games turned out to be a stinker.

One of the biggest problems facing a promising licensed game seems to be budget. I've seen plenty of cases where Activision's licensed games for a work-for-hire developer (Firebrand Games, Platinum Games) have turned out to be rubbish.

From http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/28/fast-furious-showdown-review-slow-and-sedate-3810603/

"There are two kinds of Activisions in this world. There’s the blockbusting publisher of industry giants like Call Of Duty and Skylanders, and there’s the low budget cheapskate who excretes zero budget tie-ins like Battleship and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. There’s very little middle ground when it comes to the effort Activision puts into its game and although its top-end titles may have their detractors we think everyone can agree that Showdown is one of the worst racing games ever made."

And I still want to own it along with TWD:SI,

on TWD someone could make a good survival horror type game out of that series.

Well, overkill are doing one but it's not due until 2016

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/08/13/overkill-making-new-the-walking-dead-game

fronkhead wrote:

One of the biggest problems facing a promising licensed game seems to be budget. I've seen plenty of cases where Activision's licensed games for a work-for-hire developer (Firebrand Games, Platinum Games) have turned out to be rubbish.

From http://metro.co.uk/2013/05/28/fast-furious-showdown-review-slow-and-sedate-3810603/

"There are two kinds of Activisions in this world. There’s the blockbusting publisher of industry giants like Call Of Duty and Skylanders, and there’s the low budget cheapskate who excretes zero budget tie-ins like Battleship and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. There’s very little middle ground when it comes to the effort Activision puts into its game and although its top-end titles may have their detractors we think everyone can agree that Showdown is one of the worst racing games ever made."

Yep. Activision basically breaks things.

Balladeer wrote:

I get about half of those.  Shouldn't that article go in Retro?

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