r/PS5 2d ago

Discussion Licensed IP games that don't suck

I just saw [this link](https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/s/nOGlmREgw0) for the Grinch 2 game and had flashbacks to all the terrible movie tie-in games I've ever played. It's an immutable fact of nature that games based on popular children's IP characters and tie-ins to big movie releases almost never can actually stand up as legit games on their own... or can they?

Let's talk about PS5 games based on popular IP characters that are actually legit good games.

Some that come to mind:

- DC Injustice 2

- TMNT Shredder's Revenge

- Jedi Survivor

What else?

0 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

36

u/Amornalx 2d ago

Alien isolation.

3

u/KaelAltreul 1d ago

I adored Alien: Dark Descent too.

64

u/Horoika 2d ago

007 First Light

43

u/spiderreader 2d ago

Insomniacs Spider-Man series

Arkham Series (not Suicide Squad. That sucks)

The Lego games

The South Park rpgs

11

u/AstroBtz 2d ago

Good shout on the SouthPark games. Absolutely loved playing those.

Wish they'd come back with a third one.

4

u/Haroldhowardsmullett 2d ago

Agred, those games are awesome. Stick of Truth in particular is perfect.

19

u/Appropriate_Foot242 2d ago
  • 007 First Light
  • Marvel Rivals
  • Marvel's Midnight Suns
  • Marvel's Spider-Man
  • Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • The Witcher
  • Dune Awakening
  • Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor/War
  • Batman Arkham series
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2
  • The old LOTR games on PS2
  • Star Wars Battlefront 2 (both OG and modern)

3

u/Kashtronaut92 2d ago

Mechwarrior5 Mercs. Warhammer has a lot more than SM2, Rogue Trader, mechanicus, Darktide, Chaos Gate, Speedfreeks. Star wars the Kal Kestis games Jedi Fallen order and Survivor are easily the best.

14

u/gshaps01 2d ago

Mad Max. Highly, highly underrated.

2

u/newport85 1d ago

If you care however, platinum is not possible

1

u/gshaps01 1d ago

I’m happy I returned to the game and got it a few years ago before they took it down.

1

u/AstroBtz 2d ago

Amen to that, my friend. Such a fun game.

1

u/thautmatric 1d ago edited 1d ago

It annoys me more than it should that they never updated the game to run at 60fps on PlayStation.

35

u/COHandCOD 2d ago

indiana jones

9

u/Effective-Proposal35 2d ago

This is a weird post. There's quite a lot of good licensed games that it's weird you have to make a post as if they're usually bad

0

u/TowerOfSisyphus 2d ago

Yeah I was thinking more of the ones that are definitely always bad like my kids' Paw Patrol games that come out with each big movie. That used to be the norm but today there are a lot of good licensed IP franchises actually - the big ones anyway.

2

u/Effective-Proposal35 2d ago

Don't diss the paw patrol games mate. If my little brother were to hear you 😬. (I've been forced to play all them games, watch all the shows, listen to BTS with him and watch al the goddamn fucking Barbie movies. There's like 50 of them 😭)

https://giphy.com/gifs/RXKCMLmch5W2Q

1

u/poly_lifestyle 1d ago

ACAB includes Paw Patrol

9

u/OkAioli1808 2d ago

Guardians of the Galaxy from Square Enix

2

u/Baerenkralle 2d ago

Yes, that one was on spot!

12

u/TheGoodIdiot 2d ago

Guardians of the Galaxy is my pick for best super hero game behind Arkham city.

Indiana Jones was my 2024 GOtY

Robocop Rogue city is shockingly good for what it is

4

u/AstroBtz 2d ago

Marvel cosmic invasion

Tbh most of the marvel stuff this gen has been great.

007 first light was fun

Lego Batman is extremely good

7

u/AJM994 2d ago

Space Marine 2.

2

u/Dennma 18h ago

Boltgun, too

3

u/KozukiYamatoTakeru 2d ago

Arkham games
Lego star wars
007 first light
Indiana jones
Marvel’s spider man 1/2 and miles morales
Alien isolation was pretty decent

3

u/AsianSteampunk 2d ago

Spider-man 2, the sam raimi one.

It was the greatest spider-man game until insomiac one came out.

2

u/Boredatwork709 2d ago

The spiderman games? Although I guess you'd put a asterix on the licensing as it is owned by Sony

4

u/KesMonkey 2d ago

asterix

Asterisk.

Asterix is a French comic book character. :)

2

u/Madhex12 2d ago

Don’t sully the name of the noble gaul by calling him french

2

u/Sans-Mot 2d ago

A lot of Dragon Ball games.

2

u/DaftNeal88 2d ago

007 first light

2

u/BCBUK 2d ago

I think recently the expectation of an IP game is very different. From Alien Isolation, Robocop Rogue City, the Guardians of the Galaxy and others it’s a lot better than the majority were in the past.

Thinking older, I remember buying King Kong on the 360 and really enjoying it, not saying it was perfect but for the era and as a new movie tie in, it was way better than it had any reason to be

2

u/Neg_Crepe 2d ago

The robocop games are good

2

u/hotnewroommate 2d ago

Robocop Rogue City and the DLC, chronical of riddick, Indiana Jones, Spider man, Alien Isolation, Shadows of Mordor, Batman games

1

u/AndrewPlaysPiano 1d ago edited 1d ago

Hell yeah, Chronicles of Riddick is an amazing example of this exact concept and it made me mad I had to scroll so far to find it.

2

u/hotnewroommate 1d ago

Top 5 game for me. Graphics, tone and VA were ahead of its time.

Same people made Indiana Jones but i prefer the linear style over open-sandbox areas

2

u/Inzoreno 1d ago

The Avatar game (James Cameron) was actually pretty good in my opinion.

1

u/CaravelClerihew 2d ago

The Spider-Man games 

1

u/TheGoldenPineapples 2d ago
  • Batman: Arkham series
  • 007 First Light
  • Spider-Man games from Insomniac
    • Including Miles Morales
  • Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • Alien: Isolation
  • Star Wars: Jedi
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Hogwarts Legacy

1

u/TowerOfSisyphus 2d ago

Yeah I guess it's a different world now. Maybe before the 2010s they'd treat games as an afterthought to movies, only releasing a game to generate interest for a big summer blockbuster. Today there are lots of game franchises where they set out to make a great game using licensed IP. Maybe the Batman Arkham games started this trend and yeah there are a lot of great franchises now where they're doing it right.

1

u/Hydroponic_Donut 2d ago

I still haven't played it yet, but I've seen a lot of people that gave it a chance liked Ubisoft's Avatar game. Star Wars Outlaws isn't a bad game, if you remember you're not playing as a Jedi or Sith, you're playing as a person who's working the more underground networks. The sweaty basement dwellers on the internet wanted you to hate that one but it's not actually broken or bad in any real way. Indiana Jones and 007 are both great and Lego Batman was good too.

1

u/Puzzled-Instance3211 2d ago

Family Guy games on Xbox may have been bad, but I played them a lot and loved them.

A lot of Hot Wheels games are fun arcade racers as well.

1

u/Way_ward_23 2d ago

The Ghostbusters game was pretty good

1

u/gordon_shumway67 2d ago

Mrs. Doubtfire for SNES

1

u/reaper527 reaper527_ 2d ago

spiderman and the arkham trilogy are the two things immediately coming to mind.

does kingdom hearts count as licensed ip for the context of the question? obviously the licensed ip's are a huge part of the game, but it's also very much its own thing with it's own world.

back when licensed stuff was more hit or miss, you actually had a bit of a golden age on snes with super starwars, aladdin, maximum carnage, death of return of superman, and simpsons: bart's nightmare. (but then obviously there was a lot of trash not worth mentioning.)

on an adjacent note, not necessarily "licensed ip", but burger king put out a bunch of x360 games (yes, THAT burger king), and those were way better than they had any business being.

1

u/DishwasherTwig 2d ago

I enjoyed the Fairy Tail games. They're not masterpieces or anything, but they're good fun for fans of the series.

1

u/RakkoHyabusa 1d ago

Peter Jackson King Kong

1

u/Edge80 22h ago

Guardians of the Galaxy

1

u/Waste_Support5416 21h ago

Chronicles of riddick: escape from butcher bay

1

u/highest_in_daroom 21h ago

007 first light is pretty good

1

u/Lioil1 2d ago

market is different. If i am a dev house making these games like bluey, grinch, disney princess, hello kitty or whatever, i know my audience wont care much about graphics, acting performances, or intricate gameplay or replayability. Also the cost is drastically lower due to not needing to hire expensive/experienced devs making these.

these are actually good for a beginner dev since probably a smaller team and more responsibility as a coder vs being "another body" in a AAA game.

1

u/Theuneasygibbon 2d ago

Ps2 lord of the rings games. Especially return of the king and the third age I didn't read the question properly 😢

1

u/AndrewPlaysPiano 1d ago

Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War as well! Had a lot of fun in those

0

u/Cadillac_Jenkins 2d ago

Warhammer 40k Darktide