Games based on film licences are often assumed to be rubbish, and mostly, yes they are. But there are also some amazing games based on films. Without further ado - here is my list of my top 10 games based on films ever!

10. Moonwalker (Megadrive)



The music is the very best thing about this game! I just wanted to get that point across first. Each level features a different famous Wacko Jacko song. So there is 'Smooth Criminal' for the Club level, 'Beat It' for the Street level, dissapointinly some cruddy song for the Graveyard level (it should have been Thriller!), 'Billie Jean' for the Cave level, and finally 'Bad' for the final level.

The game features Michael whose goal each level is to hunt down little girls who are hiding from him throughout the levels. Along the way you fight a multitude of enemies by kicking magical Jackson dust at them. Once you have found all the kiddies, the cheeky chimp Bubbles jumps onto your shoulder and leads you to a boss fight where you make the enemies dance themselfs to death.

A good use of the licence seeing as how completly shit the film was. (Plus not only can you turn into a robot, but the game features Zombies, and any game with Zombies is automatically fantastic!)

9. Batman Returns (Megadrive)



Playing this game is akin to watching 'Strawdogs' it wears you out with its sheer bleakness. The game is a platformer with levels very loosely based on the film. The level design is quite good actually. A prime example is level 2. The level starts in a half collapsed building, which rests at an odd angle. After that there is a mid-boss battle with 2 giant statues before a fantastic Cathedral section brings the level to a close.

The games is very dark, as in literally hard to see anything. It is a very hard game, really damn hard! I once managed to get to the end of game boss, but just the once. It's really hard not to get relentlesly punished by the dodgy controls. The music is original rather than follow the SNES route and use variations of the films score. A miserable game, but creates a real mood.

8. Batman (Megadrive)



An early Megadrive game released in 1989 the game is nonetheless a classic platformer for the system. The music is amazing, though results in the sound effects being really cruddy (somehow Sunsoft decided to use the exact same sound effects in the 1993 shite game 'Superman').

The levels follow closely the film locations, in between levels digitised film shots are used to good effect. To split up the pace of the game there are 2 side scrolling driving levels. One has you in the Batmobile, the other one has you piloting the Batwing. These help to keep the game feeling fresh without getting repetitive.

Batman can fire batarangs, as well as use a grappling hook to reach out of the way platforms, though most enemies can be dispatched by punching them or doing a knee drop on them.

7. Batman Begins (X-Box)



Hell I like Batman ok! Not apologising! Batman Begins is a 3d platformer. It features a mix of stealth and fighting. You are able to increase the fear of the enemies by blowing up oil drums and things near them.

I have only played through this once, so can't recall much, other then I really enjoyed it. Theres a great level where you have to escape Arkham and avoid SWAT members, a crap level where you as Bruce Wayne have to escape your burning mansion, and a ok'ish level with you driving the cool Batmobile. In between levels you get hidiously compressed clips from the film, could have done without them!

6. Die Hard Trilogy (Playstation)



As the title implies - not just based on one of the films but (at the time) all three. The films each have a different gameplay genre attached to them.

Die Hard sees you in a 3d action game, you travel to each level of the Office building rescuing hostages and blowing the crap out of enemies. The best thing about this game is the amount of destruction you can do to the environment. I never got tired of blasting windows to pieces.

Die Harder is a on-rails light-gunner. I actually brought a light gun for this game. The amount of destruction you can do to the scenery on this game is stupid! This was my fave out of the 3.

Die Hard with a vengence completes the package. This one is kinda like Crazy Taxi. It sees you crazily driving from one end of new york to the other defusing bombs before the time limit runs out, was very hard!


Oh! what is this? where are the rest? Well I decided to split this into two as I am blabbing far too much to keep anyones attention for so long a list as ten. If you have read this far then thanks, if you have not you won't be seeing this anyway : )

TO BE CONTINUED... (more Batman goodness next time)