Ten movie mobile games that AREN'T rubbish

by Stuart Dredge

Remember the days when movie games were guaranteed to be a load of dog-eggs? We're talking about the 8-bit days, when the first sniff of a film tie-in would send Commodore 64 owners screaming for the hills.

Why? Well, they were unimaginative, tedious, and usually whacked together in a matter of weeks. And although we'd like to say things have changed since those days, there are still plenty of poor-quality movie games clogging up mobile operator portals today.

But thankfully, there's also some good ones. So to celebrate the fact that developers don't have to switch off their brains when working on a film licence, here's ten of the best worth downloading.

Let's start with Cars, which could have been a twee load of old rubbish, but is actually one of the most enjoyable driving games available for phones. (Really!) It combines family-friendly action with an innovative free-roaming structure, and is a pleasure to play even if you're not a Disney fan.

Another unlikely hero of the movie tie-in world is Garfield 2: Royal Adventure.

We wouldn't subject ourselves to the film, but the game was genuinely great fun, shambling round on a quest in an almost Final Fantasy stylee. The lesson: don't assume that because you're not excited about a film, you should ignore the game.

To wit: King Kong. In the cinema, it's a sluggish behemoth of a film, which could have done with having an hour or more chopped out (or, alternatively, just stretching the bits where he fights the dinosaurs out to two hours and leaving out the boring plot bits).

However, Gameloft's game was a playable, accessible platform adventure that left you wanting more when you finished it. The ideal movie game, in other words.

If there's a criticism that can be levelled at the publisher, it's that its film games are starting to fall into a familiar pattern of platform action mixed with set-pieces. Mission: Impossible III fits that pattern, but it's still high-quality stuff.

Big screen heroes

For us, making a decent movie game shouldn't just be about trying to cram the plot in while mixing up about three gameplay genres into one unsatisfying whole. It should be about capturing the atmosphere or spirit of the film, in a way that works within the restrictions of mobile.

Take the just-released Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for example. The scenery looks like Hogwarts, so you do get the feeling of running round a Harry Potter film (albeit an isometric one, with less special effects. But you know what we mean.)

Another great example is Pirates Of The Carribbean: At World's End, which also came out recently. It shouldn't be any good, being based on the third film in a series that's losing its lustre. But Disney came up with a polished and slick platformer where the joy was in the detail, right down to the rats and seagulls that lurk throughout the levels.

New age golden oldies

Sometimes, the reason movie games are poor is down to time pressures, because the publisher signed the licensing deal late and had to get the game finished before the film comes out. That's why games based on older cult movies can be good – they don't have that immovable release date to hurry them along.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Tron 2.0 3D are two examples: they both trade on nostalgia to get people to buy them, but crucially won't leave fans feeling disappointed.

We're not sure how many fans of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift there are out there, but that's another example of a mobile game where the pressure was off, helping I-play's The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift 3D to be a corking 3D racer.

Last, but not least, there's Casino Royale. Another example of how you don't have to reinvent the wheel when tackling a movie licence, as long as you spend time and effort making a decent genre title (in this case, platform again). Like Daniel Craig as Bond, it defied expectations.

So there you have it. Ten movie mobile games that won't leave you wishing you'd spent your £5 on something more rewarding (like paying a passer-by to kick you in the unmentionables). Film tie-ins are always going to be around on mobile, but hopefully more publishers will take their lead from the good examples above, rather than the stinkers.

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