Discussion
What are some lesser popular licensed games you enjoyed growing up?
Licensed games are a kicking bag when it comes to retro gaming collections. Everyone has owned them but most don't get talked about unless they're above and beyond (like Goldeneye or The Lion King).
Some choice memories of mine:
Everyone online talks about the Spiderman 2 game. I don't know about that one. I owned the first one though. It was ace. Never did beat it, though.
The first games I bought for myself as a kid were licensed games. I was a PS1 kid, so no Mario Kart 64. Instead, I had Smurfs Racer and Looney Tunes Racing. They're not nearly as polished, but they're enjoyable mascot racers
The Simpsons: Road Rage is a better game than Crazy Taxi. I say this as a Crazy Taxi fan. It has more content by far. The only bad part is the loading (due to a rushed development cycle).
Scooby-Doo : Night of 100 Frights could do with a remaster or remake. Licensed games rarely get these though.
Scooby Doo's movie GBA game hurt my head. I hated it as a kid. I beat it a few years ago. I don't know how. The graphics are interesting. There aren't many 3D GBA games (probably less than three dozen)
I'd die for a sequel to The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. Gimme an adaptation of the second or third book.
I had this on Sega and the stuffed plush lol. This game was really hard, I remember my dad getting absurdly good at it but I don't think anyone ever beat it.
James Bond Nightfire. For some reason O only hear about Golden Eye a lot, despite Nightfire being a very fun game with some cool mechanics and an amazing intro for that time. It reminded me of No One Lives Forever though, when it came to gameplay.
Personally, I feel like Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed is a spiritual successor to it. It's the only other kart racer that gave me the same feeling as DKR.
A personal top 5 for kart racers doesn't even have a Mario Kart anywhere on it, but Diddy Kong Racing is #3, behind CTR: Nitro-Fueled and Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed (That's a mouthful). Rounding it out are LittleBigKarting, and Stampede Racing Royale (Sadly, shut down)
I loved both. I remember back in the DS Lite came out, My Sister and I were on a Nintendo forum where you can exchange friend codes to play with other people. I had this friend on there named Eddie. He decided he was done with Mario Kart and was going to play Diddy Kong Racing. Well, I just had gotten it in the mail from GameFly and he's like no way lmfao. So I linked up with him on there too. We played for a good while, before we headed off to eat lunch or dinner haha.
Parasite Eve 1 and 2. Omfg. So much time on that. This is kinda unfair because there’s so many I played the shit out of. Legacy of Kain was amazing because you got to be a vampire and just slaughter fools. Slave Zero for the Dreamcast was the best for split screen PvP. I spent a lot of time playing all kinds of games.
Got that in some dual game pack from Sam’s Club when I was younger. Wanted the other game initially, but can’t remember what it was. Ended up loving Threads of Fate.
Actually have it loaded onto my Miyoo Flip V2 with all my other old games I loved (as well as others I never got around to).
I bought one of the re-releases of the classic line then too. My original Tamagotchi disappeared at one point years and years ago (I suspect it involved my mom and spring cleaning venture) and I always regretted it. I work in an environment where unfortunately personal electronics are restricted so I can't really play with it the way you need to for a Tamagotchi, but it's nice to have for the nostalgia of it.
I played the hell out of this game as a kid. As a kid of divorce I was blessed with game options from Nintendo (consoles and handhelds), to Playstation, to pc. This was a mom's house on the weekend staple.
To add on to your comment I really enjoyed The Simpsons Hit and Run. Driving the busted monorail car was hilarious and just seeing all of Springfield in 3D was cool.
Sheep Raider was mine on the PS1. We had an NES, Genesis, N64, PS1, GameCube, PS2 then a Wii growing up.
Sheep Raider on the PS1 was basically you playing as the Wile E. Coyote and you had to be sneaky and grab sheep's without getting caught. We had a demo of it, and finally got the full game a little later on.
Ninja Turtles and Excite Bike for the NES and SNES. In college I played the .hack//sign games on the ps2 that no one seems to remember. I also loved Fire Emblem when it was ported over to the GBA.
Played this one tons, knowing full well that it's not very good or fun. I just loved Beast Wars so much. They didn't use the original voice actors, and the missions bear little resemblance to anything that happens in the show. Music was good though. It must have started life as an unrelated action platformer.
This was an awesome racing game that doesn’t get remembered enough. The track designs were awesome. Unique, big variety, and very fun and well thought out shortcuts. I remember one shortcut in the snowy mountain level where you need to hit a small ramp while crossing a big bridge, fly off the side of the bridge, dodge a helicopter midair, fall all the way under the bridge and land inside a cliff face, and drive through the cave system, coming across a huge crashed ufo, before eventually returning to the track. Game had all kinds of wild things to discover.
I just played it again for the first time in a LONG time on an emulator. It's much more difficult than i remember in the later races. The one you're talking about is on Mount mayhem. I'm glad someone else recognizes how great this game was
Avoid the Noid! I had it on DOS in the early 90s. Yes, the Dominos mascot had it's own video game. You were a pizza delivery guy and you had to, you guessed it, avoid the Noid. He would try to steal the pizza.
The Myst series for 90s PC. At the time I had no idea how to 'beat' the games, so just wandered around the digital world exploring clues. But now that I'm more mature I see the value in the "zen", meditative aspect to a puzzle game like that. Would play again, and appreciate more now. But ain't nobody got time for vidya games nowadays
For console/PC gaming in the early 2000s, Rayman was super underrated. Even better than Zelda
Definitely wouldn't consider it retro although it came out in 2003. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System was such a good game that I never heard about at the time.
My grandparents bought it for my sister and it was too hard. I was like how can little mermaid be hard. Turns out its an action rpg-lite with skill points. You level up Ariel... o.o
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