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The worlds of video games and movies have been intertwined for decades. Usually, a video game will make the jump to the big screen with less than stellar fanfare. On the other hand, many films have video game adaptations based on them. Some of these are great, like Spider-Man 2 or Goldeneye. Others, however, are better left in the bargain bin. These bad video games are more often than not money grabs, and it shows. From the Ecto-1 to the deep blue sea, here are 10 bad video games based on movies.
[Updated on 20 Dec, 2023, and added an honorable mention]
Honorable Mention: Back to the Future
Even though I remember the trilogy through rose-tinted glasses and have a massive soft spot for the Back to the Future titles on the NES — especially, the second one — it’s safe to say that they were a rushed mess of bugs and boring gameplay that completely missed the point of what makes the films so great. Instead of recreating the exciting sci-fi story in any meaningful way, Beam Software opted for a side scrolling beat ’em up where you skate around and throw bowling balls at swarms of bees. Not sure I remember that bit from the movies, to be honest. The soundtrack was pretty rad, though.
10. Fight Club
Everyone knows the first rule of Fight Club is not to talk about it. This goes double for the video game. Many people may not realize this video game adaptation exists, and this is for the best. Those who have seen the film know it isn’t just about fighting. Clearly, those who have seen the film did not work on the game. The game is a tournament fighter using characters from the film. It’s a bad tournament fighter on top of it. The moves are incredibly basic, and the game only has a small mixture of fighting styles, meaning it grows old fairly quickly. The player can play as Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, however, so there is that.
9. Ghostbusters
Everyone knows about the recent bad video game released to coincide with the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, but that is not what we’re talking about here. Released the same year as the first movie, 1984, this famous NES stinker is as tedious as it gets. Much of the time, the player is forced to wait for things to happen. They have to wait to get enough ghosts to upgrade. They must wait for the Zuul house to allow them to enter. Once they are finally able to enter, they must endure the infamous stair level. The player must climb an infinite flight of stairs while mashing the A button. This is the perfect example of a mindless button masher and is key in this game’s failure.
8. E.T
A game that literally destroyed the entire industry must be truly bad. The ET game released on the Atari 2600 should be mentioned solely based on its infamy. Truthfully, it isn’t the worst game in the world. Is it good? Not at all. The best way to describe the game is monotonous and dull. The major issue is the confusion; nothing is explicitly explained. The game had one sole designer, Howard Scott Warshaw. He was under an extremely tight time crunch, so the infamous failure is far from his fault. Given the circumstances, there are many worse games to play. Especially in the world of video game adaptations.
7. Top Gun
If a movie was popular in the ’80s, odds are it received an NES adaptation. The odds were even greater; it was bad. Case in point, Top Gun. This is an example of a bad video game that is an adaptation by name only. Take away the title, and it would just be a bad fighter plane game that would likely be forgotten today. Instead, fans of the Tom Cruise classic were duped into buying this game. To those who have played it, the consensus is it is nearly unplayable. The controls rarely work, and there is little that can be said about the infamous landing segment that hasn’t been said already.
6. Jaws: Unleashed
Jaws: Unleashed is one bad video game that, to many, had so much potential. Taking control of an angry shark and simply causing underwater mayhem seems like a fun time. The issue is the controls and hit detection plague the game and make it annoying to handle. Something as simple as moving and attacking is made needlessly complicated. On top of this, the gameplay is fun at first but gets repetitive fairly quickly. The game has its fans and is considered a cult classic to many. However, the game does have some legitimate issues that make it more of a pain than it needs to be.
5. Catwoman
If a movie is bad, there is at least a slight chance the game will be good, like with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. However, with DC’s Catwoman, this is not the case. The film bombed for many reasons, and the video game adaptation was equally as panned. The camera is one of the most unresponsive in any game. It gets stuck on every little thing, and by the time the player readjust, odds are they are dead already. The combat is practically nonexistent. There are attacks, but enemies can’t be defeated unless they are tossed into stage hazards. To call the game unplayable would be an understatement.
4. Bad Boys: Miami Takedown
If readers aren’t even aware of this game, they aren’t alone. The game was supposed to be a tie-in with Bad Boys II, but it was released nearly a year later. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, naturally, don’t reprise their roles. This wouldn’t be a huge issue, but their replacements make no effort to sound like them. The levels are bland and extremely repetitive. If one level is played, then so are the others. The hitboxes are basically nonexistent, and pure luck determines whether or not an attack lands. Fans of the movies, or fans of anything really, should stay far away from this one. The game was released on PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube and makes the worst of lists frequently for all consoles.
3. Charlie’s Angels
This remains one of the most famous bad video games of all time. A game based on the Charlie’s Angels movie does have some potential, but it failed hard. The graphics could be the most glaring issue. The titular Angels just barely resemble themselves. The main actresses reprise their roles from the movie, yet the voice acting is terrible. The combat is some of the most basic in any game. Every single enemy, bosses included, are just as easy and boring to beat. There is also an infamous glitch on the Gamecube version. If a memory card is not inserted, a level will endlessly repeat, making it impossible to progress. Not that anyone would want to.
2. Street Fighter: The Movie
Street Fighter: The Movie may have been seen as a flop, but it is a cult classic with lots of fans. The game based on the movie does not. Making a game based on a movie based on a game is a disaster waiting to happen. The game should have just been a reskin of the classic game using sprites based on the film. Instead, the actors were digitized into the game, similar to Mortal Kombat. While those games were built around this, Street Fighter was not. The game is incredibly sluggish, which is a far cry from the fast-paced fighting of the classic games. The CPU enemies are also incredibly difficult regardless of the level.
1. Aliens: Colonial Marines
Alien: Isolation is one of the best-received survival horror games in recent years. Before that, the Alien franchise spawned one of the worst video game adaptations of all time. Aliens: Colonial Marines is a game that has oddly become a cult classic in recent years. The game is easy due to enemies barely functioning and being filled with bugs and glitches. The game took 12 years to develop and feels like it was made in a month. This is a fun game to play just to get some laughs at how bad and unplayable it is.
