The 10 WORST Modern Licensed Video Games

10 Worst Modern Licensed Video Games

Welcome to MojoPlays and the golden age of licenses video games may well and truly be over but that doesn’t mean that developers aren’t still pumping them out for a quick cash grab.

“Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier” (2017)

The reboot of the Planet of the Apes series has proven to rival that of the originals and in some respects surpass them, but sadly the video game adaptation didn’t measure up to the film counterparts. Even calling this title a “game” is a reach as it’s more like an interactive movie with various “choices” than anything resembling real gameplay. Taking place between the events of Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes, players follow a tribe separate from Caesar’s, as well as a group of human survivors and the choices the player makes can result in different outcomes and relationship statuses with the various characters the player interacts with. Yet despite the impressive graphics as well as Andy Serkis’ involvement, the Last Frontier just couldn’t nail the landing and ended up losing the war before it even began.

“Ghostbusters” (2016)

It’s honestly a stretch to call this a tie-in game as it features none of the film’s characters or plot or any sort of connection to the movie, but it WAS released to coincide with the 2016 Ghostbusters, so it does technically count. A twin-stick-shooter, you and up to three of your soon to be ex-friends can slog your way through uninspired and ugly levels, horrible characters, and unfunny “humor” all for the low, low price of $50 at launch. Presented as more of a hero shooter reskinned as a Ghostbusters game, there’s very little that even evokes the feeling of a Ghostbusters experience besides the characters uniforms and the game telling you it’s a Ghostbusters game. Not only would the game have been better off left in the spirit realm to begin with, the developer FireForge Games filed for bankruptcy only three days after its release and joined the game in the afterlife.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan” (2016)

What should have been a match made in heaven of the Heroes in a Half Shell and Platinum Games known for their stellar Bayonetta series ended up stinking worse than the sewers the Turtles call home. With uninspired combat, boring boss fights, bland level design and a quite honestly unsettling redesign for the Turtles, the lack of a couch co-op multiplayer was the least of this title's problems. Mutants in Manhattan just screams “cash grab” and doesn’t come anywhere close to the quality fans have come to expect from both properties. The only saving grace of the game is that it’s relatively short.

“Rambo: The Video Game” (2014)

After First Blood, the Rambo series became increasingly more over-the-top focused more on turning Rambo into an action hero rather than the PTSD stricken vet he was in first movie, but still the prospect of becoming Rambo and reliving the original trilogy was intriguing enough of a prospect that the game should have been an easy albeit shallow way to kill some time. However, instead of giving players the definitive Rambo experience, developer Teyon locked Rambo to an on rails shooter with ridiculous and unexciting quick time events to give players the sense that their actions had any kind of meaning. Coupled with the PS2 quality graphics and myriad of bugs and glitches, the player was more likely to experience Rambo’s PTSD than any of his true action hero moments.

“South Park: Snow Day!” (2024)

South Park experienced a renaissance in gaming with the back-to-back bangers The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole, but their latest release skews closer to the N64 garbage players were subjected to in the series’ infancy. Swapping the near perfect recreation of the show’s art style for bland 3D models that don’t capture the same energy as the previous two titles and are instead lifeless representations of the familiar South Park residents. Everything from the humor to the gameplay just feels phoned in and instead of having the entirety of South Park to explore, players are limited to basic combat arenas barely indistinguishable from one another. With recycled dialogue and the series’ trademark humor severely toned down, Snow Day barely feels like a South Park game at all and is a severe step down from the quality that fans had come to expect.

“Fast & Furious: Crossroads” (2020)

It’s almost shocking the Fast and Furious series hasn’t seen a slew of video game tie-ins over the franchise’s two-decade long race to the finish line, but if they all could have turned out like Crossroads, we should consider ourselves lucky. From developer Slightly Mad Studios, whose credits include the Project Cars and Need for Speed series, the actual gameplay is remarkably bland, especially based on a series that continually pushes the envelope of believability. Not even the numerous gadgets and unlockable vehicles from the franchise’s history can make the gameplay remotely as entertaining as the movies. With abysmal mechanics, a bland and uninteresting story full of dull new characters, even Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez seem to be phoning in their performances - even by the film’s standards - leaving very little if anything for even the most die-hard fans to find enjoyable about the game.

“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” (2023)

Out of all the games on our list so far, this is the one with the biggest question of “Who wanted this?”. Admittedly Gollum has become a pop culture icon due to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies and Andy Serkis’ brilliant portrayal of the tortured and jewelry obsessed creature, but no one, and I do mean NO ONE was really clamoring for more of Gollum’s backstory especially one not written by Tolkien himself. Already facing an uphill battle, the game was delayed numerous times and still released with so many bugs and glitches that it made the game nearly unplayable even with subsequent updates. Horrendous gameplay, muddy and blurry graphics, a completely unnecessary and nonsensical story, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum turned out to be even more of a disaster than anyone could have predicted and was so horribly received, the studio even gave up on creating games altogether.

“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” (2024)

Our expectations were low but holy shit. The Batman Arkham games are not only some of the best superhero games ever created but also some of the most influential in the industry and Rocksteady has become renowned for their tight single player experiences with the Arkham trilogy. So why then, would they take all that player goodwill and churn out one of the worst and most insulting live service games of the last decade. Arkham Knight released in 2015 and we waited 9 years for this? Besides the story’s mistreatment of beloved characters, the game itself was just a microtransaction, battle pass laden mess with no clear road map for their upcoming seasons besides rinse and repeat gameplay that stopped being fun after the first 15 minutes, there’s almost nothing redeeming about another sorry excuse of a game simply created for no reason other than corporate greed.

“Marvel’s Avengers” (2020)

The poster child for failed “live service” games, Marvel’s Avengers had the potential to stand alongside the recent high mark of Insomniac’s Spider-Man had the game simply been a polished single player experience. However, SquareEnix decided to set the IP on fire before it had even had a chance and forced another studio known for the single player experiences into creating and maintaining a live service game featuring some of the most iconic and popular superheroes of all time. Bogged down by a ridiculous number of currencies for cosmetics that did virtually nothing to change up gameplay and a battle pass whose cost would make even the “whales” balk at its absurdity, the surprisingly engaging story was completely overshadowed by corporate decisions and the game suffered along for an additional 3 years before support for the game was halted and the game was delisted entirely.

Everything GameMill

Many gamers would be surprised to learn that GameMill has been churning out duds for over 2 decades, but the spotlight of shame has only been shown on them recently with a string of laughable tie-in games throughout 2023. Notorious for giving developers unrealistic deadlines, the horrendous reception of the likes of Skull Island: Rise of Kong, The Walking Dead: Destinies, and Avatar the Last Airbender: Quest for Balance has brought attention to these practices and sympathy for the poor developers forced to work under these conditions. Nearly every game that GameMill has been involved in has been some kind of easy cash grab licensed game that has negatively affected the property the game is attached to. How and why they continue to be allowed to create these crimes against gaming is beyond all reason.

What was the worst licensed video game you spent your hard earned money on? Share your regrets in the comments.