The Great Licensed Game Flood of 2005

Written by John Scalzo  on April 29, 2005

Specials: If the Bible were licensed: "Noah! Quickly! To the high ground, the flood is making all of the animals zombies!"

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Maybe the curse is what kept Japanese publishers out of the licensed game race for so long, but that is changing as the video game industry grows. Case in point is Square-Enix, who will put out two licensed games this year, and both of them sequels. Fullmetal Alchemist 2 will feature the continuing anime adventures of Ed the Alchemist and Kingdom Hearts II reunites Sora and his Disney pals for another trip through the Final Fantasy Magic Kingdom.

After Enter the Matrix, it's easy to see why some people might be disappointed in any future Matrix games. The Matrix Online is still getting all the bugs worked out of it, but Atari and Shiny aren't letting that hold them back. This fall they'll give gamers everything they wanted in a Matrix game as they finally let people play as Neo in The Matrix: Path of Neo. All I have to say is after Conker's Bad Fur Day (which coincidentally is being re-released this year for the Xbox), they'll have a lot to live up to when they remake The Lobby Scene.

EA has pumped out a yearly James Bond game since 1998's Tomorrow Never Dies on the PSone, so naturally 2005 will be no different. Except it kind of is. After being in circulation for years as a rumor, EA is bringing Sean Connery back one more time for From Russia With Love. He'll say a lot more than never say never again as Indy's dad will be supplying his voice and his famous face to the title. For his part Connery is actually really excited to be working on a video game of his early cinematic adventures. Bond purists think From Russia With Love is the high point of the series (I'm a Goldfinger man myself), so let's hope the game can live up to that.

The kiddies will get their fair share of licensed fare as well this year when Johnny Depp dons the purple suit in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Harry Potter and friends return to Hogwarts and the final battle will be against He Who Shall Not Be Named himself in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And Disney has a trio of movie-based games on the way including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Chicken Little and a sequel to the first Incredibles movie in video game form, The Incredibles 2.

To close out the year VU Games will be releasing King Kong on the same day as Peter Jackson's epic movie. After several problems with EA and the Lord of the Rings games, Peter Jackson has involved himself very closely with the day-to-day production of this game. But how exactly they're going to make a game out of King Kong remains to be seen. The final dogfight sure, but what will the rest of it be?

If all that weren't enough, several rappers have licensed their faces and their voices to act in-game as original characters. Not surprisingly, all of them are gritty urban warfare titles that are supposed to be authentic representations of the street. There will be Midway's Fear & Respect starring Snoop Dogg, VU Games' 50 Cent: Bulletproof starring 50 Cent, Konami's Crime Life: Gang Wars starring D12 and Ubisoft's 187: Ride or Die starring Larenz Tate (not a rapper) and various rappers.

I'm not sure how many gritty urban warfare games we need, but by the end of this year there will be four starring rappers, one based on The Shield and one based on The Warriors. And both of those games have been pushed back several times already before, so who knows if they'll make their current release date. I'm not sure, but it's possible Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (which looks like the best of the bunch) qualifies for this list as well.

Of course, we all know the true crime lords are Scarface and The Godfather and as cinemaphiles have been debating for years over which is the greater crime film, video game fans will also get to decide who is the star of the best game adaptation. They'll be blood, they'll be swearing. Shootouts and drugs. Orders and business. It'll all be just business and as much as I fear both adaptations (the curse and all), this is THE reason to keep track of the licensed game flood in 2005.

You know, after going over this list, two things come to mind. One, the oddest thing of all (no, not the Jaws game) is that there is not a single Simpsons game known to be in development right now. Simpsons games are rarely great and maybe VU Games will surprise us with an announcement, but it's just strange. Second, be glad two iconic American TV shows from the 80s won't be able to escape the UK. Miami Vice and Knight Rider 2 were developed by the UK team Davilex and released there late last year. They were planned for a US release as well but they got some of the lowest scores a video game has ever gotten. So I think it's safe to say that both of them will never escape the UK. Sometimes the curse just can't brainwash the right publishers into thinking these things are good ideas.

Like I said before, I probably missed some, but that is the licensed game lineup for 2005. And don't worry (or worry, if you hate them), 2006 should probably be just as big on the licensed games front. If for nothing else than the chance to play the official Romero Zombie Game as big George drops Land of the Dead in theaters this summer and then gives us City of the Dead for our PS2s next spring. Make me a believer Georgie.

And really, that's all I'm looking for in a licensed game and is probably why I like them so much. I want to believe. I want to be those characters and live in that world. Maybe someday we'll get our 2005 Red Sox and break the curse...

Wait, isn't David Ortiz the coverboy for Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball? It must be a good sign.