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No one wants to play Spongebob over Mario, and here's the reasons why

We've all experienced licensed games to a certain degree. Perhaps as a kid you unknowingly bought a terrible licensed game because the box art was cool or you liked that character. The truth is, most licensed games are bad. First, a licensed game is simply a video game based on an existing property, usually a movie, TV series, or comic book. For example, if a developer wants to make a Mickey Mouse game, they have to get permission from Disney, which makes the game a licensed game. Certainly, there are good licensed games, but the bad out-weighs the good. The most notorious are movie-based games, which rank the highest on the bad side of the spectrum. It seems that licensed games are cursed. 

Of course, this isn't true. There are logical reasons why licensed games are often terrible, and that's what this article is about. When looking at licensed games, I believe there are five main reasons why so many of them turn out bad. So set aside your bias and get ready to look at the facts. 

Capitalize on a Popular Franchise

A big reason why many licensed games are terrible is because the developer just wants to capitalize on the success of a franchise. Their thought process is "Spongebob is really popular; anything Spongebob-related makes lots of money; ergo, we can make a lot of money making a Spongebob game!" The dollar signs are in their eyes, and this means they're not very concerned with making a good game. Spongebob is a good example of this, as the guy has starred in over 20 games of his own over the years and has been featured in many Nicktoons games as well. That's more games than most big-name contenders can claim, and most of these are pretty bad. 

This problem was especially evident during the NES era, when developers attempted to make popular franchises into games, but weren't sure how to do it. The result was such atrocities as The Transformers: Mystery of Convoy and A Week of Garfield. However, these can be more or less forgiven due to the fact that developers were still learning how to make good video games. Still, their intent can clearly be seen in taking such popular franchises. 

Just a Cheap Cash-in

Even worse, the intent of some developers is just greed. They simply want to use a certain character to make lots of money. This was probably the case with such games as Thor: God of Thunder and Iron Man 2, both of which seem to have been thrown together just to make money along with the rest of the Avengers hype. When a licensed game is really, REALLY bad, odds are it was a cheap cash-in. This could also be said for LJN's The Uncanny X-Men on NES, a game that is so bad that you have to wonder if the development team was drunk while working on it. More likely just a cheap cash-in. 

Aimed at Kids

Another reason is certainly the fact that many licensed games are aimed at kids. Now here's the sad part: the developer says, "Well, this game is for kids, so we don't need to put much effort into it." While it's true that kids are not picky like adults, it's just wrong to lazily throw a game together just because your core audience is easily entertained. Due to this, many cartoon characters star in bad games. Spongebob, Scooby-Doo, Bugs Bunny, and Mickey Mouse are just a few that come to mind. Kids deserve better than this, you greedy developers! 

A Rushed Development Time

This is a big reason for many bad licensed games, especially movie-based games. Usually a developer is under pressure to get their game out in time to coincide with the release of the movie in theaters. This means that they have to be finished by a certain date, even if they feel that they need more time. Too bad. Thus the game is released with bugs and glitches intact. The games are so numerous on this fact that I need not mentioned any. 

Except one: perhaps the most infamous movie-based game ever: E.T. The Extra-terrestrial on the Atari 2600. The rushed development time doomed this game. It was decided to make the game after the success of the movie, but the team had less than two months to complete the game in order to get it out in time for the holiday season. Due to this time limitation, Atari decided to skip audience testing, and the game was released in December 1982. Every Atari kid at the time wanted the game, but when they got it, they discovered it was hot trash. And this was one of the contributing factors to the video game crash of '83. It's never good to be rushed. 

The Developer Just Doesn't Care

Yes, this is a real possibility. You might ask, "Why would a developer make a game that they don't care about?" Simple: they were given the task by a higher-up company and so they have no choice. To make things worse, the people making the game might not know much about the franchise they are working on. . . and they might not care. They have to kick out a Micky Mouse game, so they do just to make Disney Interactive happy. This is probably the rarest of the reasons for bad licensed games, but it is still one. 

Thank Goodness for Exceptions!

While there are a LOT of bad licensed games, there are also a lot of good ones. Mickey Mouse actually has a pretty good track record when it comes to games. There are some really good movie-based games out there, the most notable ones being Goldeneye 007 (N64), Spider-Man 2 (GCN/PS2/Xbox), and a whole slew of great Disney games (the best ones being developed by Capcom). Rocksteady has made a whole franchise of great Batman games. So it's plain to see that licensed games are not cursed, and the world is not as dark as it seems.