A License to Kill Franchise Thrills

Gaming’s newest tradition is indeed a sad one—every year, all the top game publishers in the industry trip over themselves in a mad rush to acquire the biggest blockbuster TV and movie licenses with which they hope to produce the next game industry sales blockbuster. In a veritable “Running of the Bullshit,” each publisher hopes to grab a Harry Potter or Spiderman license—but in a pinch, Spongebob or Happy Feet will have to do.

A perusal of the Nintendo DS shelf at the local GameStop reveals an impenetrable wall of licensed Disney products, from Hannah Montana to High School Musical. Though the various licensed games range from the maturely themed Alias game to the Ice Age baby game, they all have one thing in common: they’re terrible. Indeed, for years now the industry has been overrun by games that will most likely never grace your disk tray.
But it wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the term “licensed game” didn’t evoke images of babies crying and men gnashing their teeth in the minds of gamers.

Back in the Super Nintendo days—before publishers realized that they could cash in with a cheap Transformers game that would make even Mickey Mouse reinterpret his optimistic worldview—they handed licenses to experienced game developers who churned out quality titles that were as good as the original, non-licensed games on the system. So what’s gone wrong since then, and is anything changing now?

It isn’t just nostalgia talking when gamers fondly remember the licensed games of yesteryear. Disney’s Aladdin, which was developed by Capcom, a company also known for Mega Man, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter, is probably one of the first truly noteworthy licensed games. Released for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis during the early ’90s, Aladdin was a great game with varied gameplay and beautiful graphics.
Even better, the Super Nintendo and Genesis versions were entirely different games. Capcom actually created two completely original titles using the license, instead of making just one game and then adapting it to every conceivable platform, as is the trend today.

Most of Disney’s licensed properties were in fact fantastic games, including Mickey Mania, which some might be surprised to learn was David Jaffe’s first game. He went on to create the awesome and critically acclaimed God of War franchise some 10 years later. The Lion King game, developed by industry veteran Westwood Studios, was also an entertaining experience, in addition to being faithful to the source material.

It seems that, in the past, bad licensed games were the exception to the rule and not, as they are today, the standard. Bad licensed games certainly existed, of course—my howls of hatred for M.C. Kids, a McDonald’s licensed game, will not be soon forgotten. But in general, the licensed fare of old was better in every way.

Perhaps everybody’s favorite licensed game is Rare’s James Bond game, Goldeneye, for the Nintendo 64. At the time, Rare was a fairly accomplished game studio with a great track record. It’s no surprise, then, that nearly every college student who studied from 1996 to 2001 has images of Goldeneye emblazoned in their memories.

Sadly, Goldeneye was probably the beginning of the end for the licensed game. After seeing the game go platinum several times over, Electronic Arts—a mainstream studio not always known for its quality—decided to steal the license away from Nintendo and proceeded to produce approximately 600 absolutely dreadful Bond titles. Meanwhile, Rare went on to create the exquisite Perfect Dark, an original property created out of necessity—without the Bond license, they simply needed something to do.

The lesson that everyone should have learned from the Bond fiasco was that it’s the quality of the game and not the license on the game’s box that determines whether or not a game will be successful. Unfortunately, though, consumers still bought—or perhaps were tricked into buying—the licensed Bond games and game developers did not learn their lesson.

THQ, a big publisher, acquired the license to create World Wrestling Entertainment games and has been cranking out abysmal Smackdown games annually—that is, when they aren’t cranking out awful Nickelodeon games. Electronic Arts has put out more Harry Potter games than there are Harry Potter movies, and, predictably, they are all at the very bottom of the gaming barrel. Activision’s Spiderman games have become progressively more disappointing—but perhaps, given the movies, this is appropriate. And Midway’s Happy Feet on Wii was possibly the worst game I’ve ever had the pleasure of chucking out the window.

Why are publishers still making these terrible games? The answer is simple: consumers simply haven’t stopped buying them. In 1995, a sizable majority of the top selling games were original games, including widely loved games like Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. The numbers are now considerably more balanced—or even slanted toward—licensed games like the Madden and Tony Hawk franchises, so publishers continue to put out uncreative games that sell.

As cost of game development rises, publishers look to secure properties they think will be guaranteed sells. And in reality, while the big name original games still control the largest piece of the sales pie, there are entirely too many original games that completely bomb. Why should a game publisher risk an Okami—a creative 2006 title that failed miserably in terms of sales—when they can just put a mediocre development team on the next Superman property?

There are, however, a few developers today looking to break the cycle. Electronic Arts, surprisingly enough, has been proactive in trying to break the curse of the licensed game. The Simpsons Game by EA represents perhaps their first licensed property that doesn’t feel like a quick cash-in—it’s well made, feels just like the show, and is actually a bit funny. Square Enix’s famous Kingdom Hearts series fuses the Disney license with original Square Enix content to create an original experience bolstered by Disney fan service. Hopefully these games sell well enough to convince their publishers to keep at it.

In the end, licensed games have a long way to go before gamers can view them in the same way they viewed their Super Nintendo ancestors. If poor licensed games continue to be made and continue to sell so well, that copy of the superlative Super Mario Galaxy in your hands may become a particularly rare breed.