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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and the golden age of licensed video games may well and truly
00:15be over, but that doesn't mean the developers aren't still pumping them out for a quick
00:20cash grab.
00:26Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
00:30about our latest videos.
00:34Planet of the Apes Last Frontier
00:45The reboot of the Planet of the Apes series has proven to rival that of the originals
00:50and in some respects surpass them, but sadly the video game adaptation didn't measure
00:55up to the film counterparts. Even calling this title a game is a reach as it's more
01:00like an interactive movie with various choices than anything resembling real gameplay. Taking
01:06place between the events of Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes, players follow a tribe
01:11separate from Caesar's, as well as a group of human survivors and the choices the player
01:16makes can result in different outcomes and relationship statuses with the various characters
01:21the player interacts with. Yet, despite the impressive graphics as well as Andy Serkis's
01:27involvement, The Last Frontier just couldn't nail the landing and ended up losing the war
01:32before it even began.
01:41Ghostbusters
01:42It's honestly a stretch to call this a tie-in game as it features none of the film's characters
01:56or plot or any sort of connection to the movie, but it was released to coincide with the 2016
02:02Ghostbusters, so it does technically count. A twin-stick shooter, you and up to three
02:08of your soon-to-be ex-friends can slog your way through uninspired and ugly levels, horrible
02:14characters, and unfunny humor all for the low, low price of $50 at launch. Presented
02:21as more of a hero shooter re-skinned as a Ghostbusters game, there's very little that
02:25even evokes the feeling of a Ghostbusters experience besides the characters' uniforms
02:30and the game telling you it's a Ghostbusters game. Not only would the game have been better
02:35off left in the spirit realm to begin with, the developer, Fireforge Games, filed for
02:40bankruptcy only three days after its release and joined the game in the afterlife.
02:51Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutants in Manhattan
03:04What should have been a match made in heaven of the Heroes in a Half Shell and Platinum
03:08games known for their stellar Bayonetta series ended up stinking worse than the sewers the
03:13Turtles call home. With uninspired combat, boring boss fights, bland level design, and
03:19a quite honestly unsettling redesign for the Turtles, the lack of a couch co-op multiplayer
03:25was the least of this title's problems. Mutants in Manhattan just screams cash grab and doesn't
03:32come anywhere close to the quality fans have come to expect from both properties. The only
03:37saving grace of the game is that it's relatively short.
03:51Rambo the Video Game
04:01After First Blood, the Rambo series became increasingly more over-the-top, focused more
04:06on turning Rambo into an action hero rather than the PTSD-stricken vet he was in the first
04:12movie. But still the prospect of becoming Rambo and reliving the original trilogy was
04:17intriguing enough of a prospect that the game should have been an easy, albeit shallow,
04:22way to kill some time. However, instead of giving players the definitive Rambo experience,
04:28developer Teyon locked Rambo to an on-rails shooter with ridiculous and unexciting quick
04:34time events to give players the sense that their actions had any kind of meaning. Coupled
04:38with PS2-quality graphics and a myriad of bugs and glitches, the player is more likely
04:44to experience Rambo's PTSD than any of his true action hero moments.
04:59South Park Snow Day
05:18South Park experienced a renaissance in gaming with back-to-back bangers The Stick of Truth
05:23and The Fractured But Whole, but their latest release skews closer to the N64 garbage players
05:29are subjected to in the series' infancy, swapping the near-perfect recreation of the
05:34show's art style for bland 3D models that don't capture the same energy as the previous
05:40two titles and are instead lifeless representations of the familiar South Park residents. Everything
05:46from the humor to the gameplay just feels phoned in, and instead of having the entirety
05:51of South Park to explore, players are limited to basic combat arenas barely indistinguishable
05:57from one another. With recycled dialogue and the series' trademark humor severely toned
06:02down, Snow Day barely feels like a South Park game at all, and is a severe step down from
06:08the quality that fans have come to expect.
06:22Fast and Furious Crossroads
06:29It's almost shocking the Fast and Furious series hasn't seen a slew of video game tie-ins
06:34over the franchise's two-decade-long race to the finish line, but if they all could
06:39have turned out like Crossroads, we should consider ourselves lucky. From developers
06:44Slightly Mad Studios, whose credits include the Project Cars and Need for Speed series,
06:49the actual gameplay is remarkably bland, especially based on a series that continually pushes
06:55the envelope of believability. Not even the numerous gadgets and unlockable vehicles from
07:01the franchise's history can make the gameplay remotely as entertaining as the movies. With
07:06abysmal mechanics, a bland and uninteresting story full of dull new characters, even Vin
07:12Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez seem to be phoning in their performances, even by the film's
07:17standards, leaving very little if anything for the most diehard fans to find enjoyable
07:22about the game.
07:32The Lord of the Rings Gollum
07:42Out of all the games on our list so far, this is the one with the biggest question of who
07:48wanted this? Admittedly, Gollum has become a pop culture icon due to Peter Jackson's
07:54Lord of the Rings movies and Andy Serkis' brilliant portrayal of the tortured and jewelry-obsessed
07:59creature, but no one, and I do mean NO ONE, was really clamoring for more of Gollum's
08:05backstory, especially one not written by Tolkien himself. Already facing an uphill battle,
08:12the game was delayed numerous times and still released with so many bugs and glitches that
08:17it made the game nearly unplayable even with subsequent updates. Horrendous gameplay, muddy
08:23and blurry graphics, a completely unnecessary and nonsensical story? The Lord of the Rings
08:29Gollum turned out to be even more of a disaster than anyone could have predicted, and was
08:34so horribly received, the studio even gave up on creating games altogether. Suicide Squad
08:54killed the Justice League. Our expectations were low, but holy shit. The Batman Arkham
09:05games are not only some of the best superhero games ever created, but also some of the most
09:11influential in the industry and Rocksteady has become renowned for their tight single
09:16player experiences with the Arkham trilogy. So why then, would they take all that player
09:21goodwill and churn out one of the worst and most insulting live service games of the last
09:26decade? Arkham Knight released in 2015 and we waited 9 years for this? Besides the story's
09:34mistreatment of beloved characters, the game itself was just a microtransaction, battlepass
09:39laden mess with no clear roadmap for their upcoming seasons besides rinse and repeat
09:44gameplay that stopped being fun after the first 15 minutes. There's almost nothing redeeming
09:50about another starry excuse of a game simply created for no reason other than corporate
09:55greed. Marvel's Avengers. The poster child for failed live service games, Marvel's Avengers
10:21had the potential to stand alongside the recent high mark of Insomniac's Spider-Man
10:26had the game simply been a polished single player experience. However, Square Enix decided
10:32to set the IP on fire before it even had a chance and forced another studio known for
10:37their single player experiences into creating and maintaining a live service game featuring
10:42some of the most iconic and popular superheroes of all time. Bogged down by a ridiculous number
10:48of currencies for cosmetics that did virtually nothing to change up gameplay and a battlepass
10:54whose cost would make even the whales balk at its absurdity, the surprisingly engaging
10:59story was completely overshadowed by corporate decisions and the game suffered along for
11:04an additional 3 years before support for the game was halted and the game was delisted
11:09entirely. Everything Game Mill. Many gamers would be surprised to learn that Game Mill
11:31has been churning out duds for over 2 decades, but the spotlight of shame has only been shown
11:36on them recently with a string of laughable tie-in games throughout 2023. Notorious for
11:42giving developers unrealistic deadlines, the horrendous reception of the likes of Skull
11:47Island Rise of Kong, The Walking Dead Destinies, and Avatar The Last Airbender Quest for Balance
11:53has brought attention to these practices and sympathy for the poor developers forced to
11:58work under these conditions. Nearly every game that Game Mill has been involved in has
12:03been some kind of easy cash-grab licensed game that has negatively affected the property
12:09the game is attached to. How and why they continue to be allowed to create these crimes
12:14against gaming is beyond all reason. What was the worst licensed video game you spent
12:24your hard-earned money on? Share your regrets in the comments.