Favorite Licensed Video Games

Licensed video games give us the chance to fulfill our fantasies of being a part of our favorite films, books and more. Inviting us to dive into the universes we love with a level of interactivity that can't be accomplished through any other medium, licensed games grant access to experiences that reward fans with the ultimate in immersion. Despite there being quite a few "cash-in" games that are heavy on hype and light on content, the sector does features quite a few gems. So, which licensed video games do you consider your favorites? Let's find out by having you rank them right now and then share you list on social to invite your friends to do the same!

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Conversations

  • 9 years ago
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    @Pape Badiane, what makes you think that Gran Turismo is a licensed video game series?
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    • MasterCrash
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      MasterCrash
      Editing … The cars? If that's the case I wanna add NFS Most Wanted as my fav licensed game :I
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … Ask @PedroJensen
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    • WoodrowShigeru
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      WoodrowShigeru
      Editing … First Papi, why do you approve something if you're unsure? Second Gries, yes, because of the cars. Polyphony couldn't release a game that uses all these brands without getting the appropriate licenses first, or otherwise they would've committed a crime. That's why Gran Turismo (and all the sequels) is a licensed game in my book. Third Crash, there are a ton of other racing games, sure, but I didn't get to edit those. I was busy editing sports games.
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … I knew they were licensed. I just knew that you would give a better explanation (more detailed) than mine :)
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    • WoodrowShigeru
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      WoodrowShigeru
      Editing … Good answer ;^p
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    • Gries He
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      Gries He
      Editing … So this basically just turned into my "Favorite Racing Game - The Sequel" list. Nice. Now add Forza and Need for Speed and Dirt and Grid pls!
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    • Nodley
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      Nodley
      Editing … Gran Turismo huh.... although they would all get on my list I think I'll skip adding them, they don't feel licensedy to me and I like some old games such as Platoon actually getting a chance at a list.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … I don't think games that use brands (cars, FIFA etc) or a name (Tony Hawk, Tom Clancy) are the same kind of licensed games as games that are built around the license to use a pre-existing fictional world and cast of fictional characters so I won't rank them.
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    • WoodrowShigeru
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      WoodrowShigeru
      Editing … You mean, you like these kind of games you just described because of their "Expanded Universe" nature. Should we then rather call it "Favorite Expanded Universe Games" ? The sports/racing games would then fall out of that pool. (Or rather create a new list instead of modifying this one).
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    • Wizzy
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      Wizzy
      Editing … Maybe we need another list, called "Favorite Games based on Movies" <3
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  • 9 years ago
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    I'm surprised #Deadpool is nowhere to be found on this list. In fact, average rating 5/10? Wow. I watched a friend play through almost the whole thing and it looked like a solid, fun action game.
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    • DjinnFighter
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      DjinnFighter
      Editing … It's the first time I hear something nice about this game
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … I thought it was good. Critics complained that it was repetitive, but so's the whole damn genre. It was no more repetitive than God Of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. All fun to play, but only Deadpool has the humour. I say it's very underrated personally.
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    • Filly Vanilli
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      Filly Vanilli
      Editing … Yeah, it seemed like a competent action game, and they brought the quirkiness of Deadpool's character not only in the dialogue but in the finer details, as well.
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Video game reviews seem really off nowadays. They'll praise Batman: Arkham Asylum for it's combat and give it a string of 10's, (I thought it was kinda average personally), but they'll complain when Deadpool does the same, plus it has guns, and has platforming, and has wacky humour... there's just no pleasing some people. Scores are meaningless; 7/10 means bad, 8/10 means average, 9/10 means good, and 10/10 means the publisher paid for advertising on our site. Number 1-6 are not used, unless a game is actually broken on release, then it gets the lowest score imaginable, a 4/10. It's got to the point where I feel I should be posting reviews myself just to counter-act the odd industry tropes but I'm too lazy.
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    • Filly Vanilli
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      Filly Vanilli
      Editing … I didn't like Arkham Asylum because the combat feels a bit heavy and clunky to me. imo the Arkham series got a bit of extra favor because it's 2dark&gritty4u and dudes eat that up. Just look at The Dark Knight. :P
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … That's true. Dark and gritty is far too commonplace now, we can only hope that as gamers grow up and the average gamer becomes a person in their early 30s that we'll get less teen male power fantasy and more substantive games, (not that I don't like teen male power fantasy at times, DmC: Devil May Cry is exactly that and I love that game, and Deadpool is that turned up to 11). I do feel a pang though, a need to defend The Dark Knight. I do love that film, though I sometimes wonder if I enjoy films for completely different reasons than the "movie-going masses". I thought Dark Knight Rises was a better film after all. I loved the political commentary of Bane, very well realised.
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    • Filly Vanilli
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      Filly Vanilli
      Editing … I haven't seen them (I'm not remotely interested in that kind of movie), I'm just poking some fun and I assume there are some parallels between TDK's success and the success of the Arkham series. But I do think that the "dark and gritty" archetype has greatly taken over games and, to a lesser degree recently, movies. It's why I'm mostly just into Nintendo consoles lately, lots of games that are just silly and fun instead of trying too hard to be serious and "mature." But I digress ^^;
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … I miss the days when you could be beating up gangsters with pink mohawks on a beach with a length of pipe, eating pork chops from bins to regain health, only to find the boss is a wrestler with knives strapped to his arms. That was 16-bit "gritty". Right now I'm loving my Wii U. Super Mario 3D World was fantastic. Here's hoping old style wacky beat-em ups, platformers, and the like make a return. Gaming was far more carefree when a magic ninja, a random object/alien creature with googly eyes, and an anthropomorphic rodent where equally likely you be your games protagonist. I'm kinda sick of gruff stubbly brown haired muscle bound caucasian guy or gruff stubbly brown haired muscle bound caucasian guy... in power armour. It's getting to be rather predictable and generic now :P
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    • Dr Eggnog
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      Dr Eggnog
      Editing … Steph, the Arkham games are more inspired by the style of the 90s animated series. The Dark Knight is actually rather different I think. It's a good film all on its own. I didn't expect to like it but it surprised me.
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    • Filly Vanilli
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      Filly Vanilli
      Editing … I mean, true, Arkham Joker and Heath Ledger as the Joker (from what I've seen) are quite different, and I'm sure that's just one of many differences. The link between the success of Arkham and the success of TDK probably just comes down to branding. I did still get that dark/gritty feel from Arkham, but I suppose that's just relative to the type of games I usually play.
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  • 9 years ago
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    Great list, but I'm hoping to have #South Park: The Stick of Truth added. Wouldn't hurt to have the rest of the South Park games on the list as well, even if they're not as popular.
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  • 9 years ago
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    Is there anyway we can manually add games to the list? Serious lack of Tom Clancy games here! (Rainbow Six in particular, which is a part of a licensed property unlike The Division which is more or less using the branding but its own IP)
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    • Gries He
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    • Gries He
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      Gries He
      Editing … Oh, and #Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is based on the book 'Digital Devil Story' by Aya Nishitani.
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … Just edit those pages and "Licensed Title" as a theme. You should be able to rank them once I approve your modifications.
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    • Mitchell Bennett
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      Mitchell Bennett
      Editing … Okay cool, thankyou sire
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Can you approve Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, and the original Neverwinter Nights please. They're based off the Forgotten Realms book series from Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks.
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … @billy I thought these books were written AFTER the games were released. Isn't that the case?
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Actually the first book by R. A. Salvatore was written in 1987. There's been over 40 novels in the series so far, and obviously there's the settings books for the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons RPGs as well. So yeah, there's like a dozen books in the series that pre-date the games, some by almost 10 years. Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate draw mostly on the five books in The Cleric Quintent as well as the Legacy Of The Drow series (good old Drizzt Do'Urden). I can give more info if you're interested.
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … Alright Billy, make the changes and I'll approve them :)
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Ok, changes made :)
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    • MasterCrash
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      MasterCrash
      Editing … The original Megami Tensei games are based on the novel, the Persona series is completely original.
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  • 9 years ago
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    Planescape: Torment, Shadowrun Returns, and the Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Icewind Dale series should all count as licenced games as they're all based off book licences.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … They're all dungeons and dragons, right? I'd say that counts
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Yeah, except Shadowrun which is a seperate book series, but owned by the same company I believe.
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    • Billy McKenna
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      Billy McKenna
      Editing … Just edited them, but only Planescape appears in the listing... weird.
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  • 9 years ago
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    Pretty decent list so far! Can't say I disagree with anything in the current top 10.
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    • Bob GutSmasha
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      Bob GutSmasha
      Editing … yeah, funnily enough
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    • Nodley
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      Nodley
      Editing … I disagree with Batman being there but not many people have superior taste like me.
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    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … I disagree with Arkham City being below KotOR but I guess there are a few nodleys out there with strange tastes ;)
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    • Aramonde
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      Aramonde
      Editing … Well Kotor wasn't on all platforms so that hurts it.
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  • 9 years ago
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    it auto-added #Kingdom Hearts, #Kingdom Hearts II and #Alice: Madness Returns for me. I'm guessing those need to be untagged as licensed, @Pape Badiane?
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    • Husky Wing
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      Husky Wing
      Editing … One could argue that KH is licensed because of the presence of Disney characters, but I'd say they have to be untagged.
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … Agreed! KH should be considered an original gaming franchise... with a lot of cameos
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    • Husky Wing
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      Husky Wing
      Editing … Should we have a "Licensed > Literature" option for stuff like Metro and Lord of the Rings?
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    • Papissama
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      Papissama
      Editing … I was thinking the same thing :)
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    • Gries He
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      Gries He
      Editing … Alice is based on the book by the same name and the sequel 'Through the looking glass' by Lewis Carrol. And Kingdom Hearts IS a licensed game. Without Disney's permission to grant SquareEnix the license (!) to use their characters, Square would've infringed Disney's copyright and would've faced severe legal consequences. So by definition, Kingdom Hearts is a licensed video game. QED ... Also, thanks for the list Pape!
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  • 9 years ago
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    Don't troll and vote for #E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial :p
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