The 10 WEIRDEST Licensed Video Games Ever
“Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi” (1997)
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A fighting game in the Star Wars universe actually makes a lot of sense but Masters of Teras Kasi was certainly not the best way to start what could have been a great genre for the series to adapt. The game attempts to tie itself to Star Wars canon by placing it between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi as fan favorite characters duke it out in 1v1 battles using the style of Teras Kasi, or unarmed combat, which would explain the lack of immediate dismemberment. However, the slow and jilted character movements meant players fought the controls more than each other, so just playing the game requires the patience of a Jedi but is frustrating enough to turn anyone to the Dark Side. The only saving grace is the inclusion of fan favorite “Expanded Universe” characters but that’s not enough to make it worthy of redemption.
“Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit” (1994)
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While the show within a show “Tool Time” could have made for an interesting time, building the biggest and most over the top creations know to man filled with so much power and torque they’d be likely to rip open a hole in the universe, developer Imagineering took a different approach that really made the game stand out and made a.. generic 2D platformer. As Tim “The Toolman” Taylor, players set off to find his missing tools and battle everything from zombies, to dinosaurs, and even robots but thankfully they gave an in-universe reason for these outlandish encounters in that Tim was traversing the various other sets on the Tool Time studio lot. Despite this as well as the wave of other weird adaptations of popular series in the 90s, Home Improvement still ranks among the strangest.
“Chester Cheeta: Wild Wild Quest” (1993)
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While many games on this list copy the tried-and-true gameplay of other popular franchises at the time, Chester Cheeta: Wild Wild Quest is the only one to take the “Gotta Go Fast” Sonic the Hedgehog formula and quite literally run with it. Everything from the bright and colorful environments to Chester biting the Cheeto dust if he’s not holding one of his iconic Cheetos, and even the blurring of Chester’s feet as he sped through the levels would be familiar to anyone who’d stepped into Sonic’s sneakers. Sadly, the one thing this “homage” forgot to add was Sonic’s tight controls and gameplay as many found the game unfairly difficult even without the controls working against them. Seems Chester was just “too cool” to study the basics needed to make a fun video game.
“Taco Bell: Tasty Temple Challenge” (2000)
Admit it: until I read that title, you didn’t know this was a real game. Oh, it’s real, and it only gets weirder from here. This time instead of exploring the depths of your plumbing system after a late-night Taco Bell adventure, you’re exploring a temple overrun with snakes and scorpions as Baja Bill -yes really- and your only line of defense is the many Taco Bell hot sauce packets you find within its walls. Again, not making this up. That’s not even mentioning the ancient Chalupas scattered around that regain your health or that your end goal is to unearth the legendary “Grande Meal”.
“Cap’n Crunch: Crunchling Adventure” (1999)
I suppose if you’re going to adapt a product that has virtually no backstory to it, why not go all in? In a game where you don’t even play as the Cap’n himself, you need to raise a Crunchling by feeding it different Crunch Berries to keep them happy before sending them off to three different challenges to increase their speed, jumping, and strength so they can compete in an athletic challenge against the leader of the Crunchium Thieves who are trying to steal the crunchium that makes Crunch Berries. Kingdom Hearts has got nothing on this. Despite the deep lore, the game still revolves around completing the same activities dozens of times over as your custom little Crunchling needs to get strong enough to challenge the big boss. Entire lore books could be written about the world of Cap’n Crunch and the Crunchlings, if only players didn’t get so bored playing it.
“Gotham City Imposters” (2012)
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So here's the pitch: It’s a game set within the Batman universe but you don’t play as any of the Bat-Fam. Or the villains. Instead, it's a first-person competitive shooter where you play as convicts dressed in bad Batman or Joker cosplay. While the concept itself might seem strange, the game was actually a lot of fun and predated many of the “free to play” shooters we’re flooded with nowadays. On the surface the game appears as nothing more than a more colorful COD clone, but Gotham City Imposters kept things interesting with the inclusion of gadgets and verticality. With well designed levels that nailed a more lighthearted take on Gotham as well as its punchy guns and clever use of gadgets, it’s a shame the game didn’t take off and is now just a fever dream of an Arkham inmate.
“M&Ms: The Lost Formula” (2000)
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“If you’re going to steal, steal from the best” must have been the slogan hanging on the wall of the developers of M&Ms: The Lost Formula. An almost carbon copy of the Crash Bandicoot games, Wumpa fruits might be M&Ms now but there’s no mistaking the DNA of the game from the original. And while the game itself still plays well thanks to the Crash formula, the developers thought it would be fun to include a “Math Mode” that taught players numerous facts while making them solve simple math problems. While there have been other attempts to bring the candy into the video game space, The Lost Formula is oddly enough the only one worth playing.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1989)
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“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” is one of the greatest films of all time and a technical marvel for its time. The video game adaptation however should have had an anvil dropped on it. While far from a simple cash grab, the game suffered from poor controls and obtuse gameplay objectives. Players guide Eddie Valiant around Los Angeles and Toontown with Roger Rabbit in tow, talking to various citizens and picking up random items that will help him uncover the mystery of Toontown and the four pieces of Marvin Acme’s will. The game’s world was surprisingly detailed for the time and even featured an overworld map for players to freely explore but approaching the game from an investigative angle when Roger’s more ACME inspired antics would have made a better fit is just an odd choice.
“Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood” (1996)
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Believe it or not this is actually the FOURTH game based around the little red dot in 7Up’s logo and a sequel to the SNES and Genesis game Cool Spot. Whereas the first console adventure of the titular Spot was a side scroller, Cool Spot goes to Hollywood moved the red dot into an isometric platformer in which Cool Spot gets sucked into a movie projector and must navigate his way out of the numerous movies playing in the theater. Points for originality at least. However, it seems the move to Hollywood wouldn’t be as well received as the Spot’s previous outing as the new angle made the platforming far more difficult than its predecessor which was nowhere near as refreshing as a cool crisp 7Up.
“Garfield Kart Furious Racing” (2019)
Garfield is one of the longest running comic strips still in print today and likewise has numerous adaptations but also a surprising amount of video games too. Trust us we checked. But out of all of them, the one that stands out the most is Garfield Kart Furious Racing. Not because of the premise alone but because out of all the tie-in to the license, THIS is the one fans have seemed to rally around. Currently sitting with a “Very Positive” reception on Steam as well as most other aggregator sites, on the surface, there’s not a lot that makes this title stand out from other Mario Kart clones. Its cast of familiar characters race around tracks that have almost nothing to do with the lasagna-loving feline while using various power ups and shortcuts but who are we to argue with the fans? Let them race as far away from Mondays as they like.
“X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse” (1997)
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Although this is mostly a reskin of Quake itself, it doesn’t make it any less odd why someone thought this would be a good idea. Built using the original Quake Engine, players enter the Xavier Mansion and find the entire school overrun with cyborg versions of the iconic heroes and it's up to you to blow them to bits. The heroes themselves are impressively detailed for the time and make decent use of the various mutants’ abilities, granting different X-Men buffs and debuffs to your attacks, but players will still mostly find themselves running around endlessly looping identical corridors blasting the titular X-Men into bloody messes. Keep in mind this was officially licensed by Marvel.
“Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker” (1990)
When it comes to pop stars, there will never be another quite as iconic as Michael Jackson. His music and moves remain instantly recognizable and infinitely imitated but even still, a video game in which Michael uses his famous dance moves to defeat enemies is admittedly a bit odd. Mostly following the events of the “Smooth Criminal” segment of Michael’s film of the same name, the arcade version used an isometric perspective while the home console versions adapted the game into a side scroller. In all versions, Michael uses his moves and music to rescue children from an evil conglomerate and Mr. Big and can even use a special move that causes all the enemies on screen to break out into a choreographed dance sequence.
“Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing” (2001)
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Mascot racers are surprisingly common as you’ve already seen but whereas something like the Star Wars Episode 1: Racer made sense within the realm of the license; a bobble head inspired kart racer seems oddly out of place. Seemingly making the most out of the popular “Big Head Mode” of the 90s and early 2000s, numerous characters from the extensive Star Wars universe race one another through familiar locations from the movies along with your standard assortment of weaponry familiar to any seasoned karter. While the game itself was.. fine.. it remains an odd experiment for a series mostly known for their more faithful adaptations to the source material.
“The Ring: Terror’s Realm” (2000)
These days every horror movie fan is familiar with “The Ring” series as well as its use of the video tapes and seven days timeline. Based on the original Japanese film and novel, The Ring: Terror’s Realm has almost nothing in common with the popular horror franchise besides its name being slapped on the box. Instead of finding a way to survive before the little ghost girl gets you, players are sent to an alternate dimension to find out why a computer program called RING is killing employees at the CDC. Forgoing anything even remotely terrifying, players battle skinless monkeys while navigating bland corridors in between puzzle solving in the real world. At least the ghost girl does actually appear in the game. At the end. And by then you’ll welcome her putting you out of your misery.
“Darkened Skye” (2002)
Taking just a passing glance at Darkened Skye, you’d assume this to be nothing more than another dark medieval-style hack and slash RPG and most likely have no clue this was a promotional tie-in game for Skittles. Yep, Skittles the candy. While the product placement isn’t as outwardly obvious as most of the other games on our list, main character Skye uses the different colored Skittles she collects while exploring the world to use their corresponding magic attacks in numerous combinations. The game’s combat and exploration were nothing to write home about and had it not been for the strange collaboration with Skittles, the game most likely would have faded into obscurity shortly after release.
“Chex Quest” (1996)
While even today there’s no shortage of “Doom Clones”, Chex Quest is still something special. While the game honestly has very little to do with the cereal itself, outside of the Chex Warrior’s Chex armor, Chex Quest took the gameplay and exploration of Doom and made it a bit more “kid friendly”. Sent in to stop the invasion of the Flemoids -gross- instead of ripping and tearing everything in sight, the Chex Warrior uses his many “zorchers” to zap the alien species back to their home planet. The game instantly became a fan favorite and spawned two sequels as well as an HD remaster in 2008 and won multiple awards for its promotional and advertising efforts. Although the game might not have done much to reinvigorate interest in the cereal, the legend of the Chex Warrior stands tall alongside Doom Guy himself all these years later.
“Shaq Fu” (1994)
Standing over seven foot, the last thing you would think you’d see the behemoth of a man Shaquille O’Neal in is a game in which the basketball legend uses Kung Fu to battle martial arts masters from another dimension. The one on one battles have a decent amount of detail in their sprite work but Shaq and his opponents move so fast it’s oftentimes difficult to land intended hits. Even despite the game’s relatively lukewarm reception, players still had a lot of fun with the absurdity of the concept and in 2018, a sequel Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn was released and ditched the 1v1 fights for a more beat ‘em up style approach, but was unfortunately even more poorly received than the original.
“Burger King Trilogy” (2006)
Normally most obscure or weird games take years or even decades to reach the “cult” status, but with Burger King’s trilogy of games featuring the titular “Burger King”, a concept that seemed outrageous on paper became a hot commodity that immediately sold out at nearly every location. Each game was tailored around a different genre from stealthily surprising unsuspecting patrons with your hot steamy meat sandwich, to pocket bike racing, and even destruction derby using bumper cars. And most surprising of all, they were actually good games! While not as difficult to find as some of the other games on our list, due to their relative obscurity, the only way to play this strange piece of marketing history is to dig out your Xbox 360 if you’re lucky enough to still have one.
“Pepsiman” (1999)
The only title on our list not released outside of Japan but too good to leave off; Pepsiman has become not only the stuff of legend when it comes to absurd licensed video games but also a mascot that remains popular in Japan even today. Even without a man wearing a full body spandex suit displaying the Pepsi colors, this is hardly the most outrageous thing in this game. Played in the style of an endless runner, Pepsiman avoids obstacles while chasing down and sometimes being chased by Pepsi cans while an American man drinking Pepsi offers words of encouragement between levels. Yes, really. Oddly enough, the game is actually a surprisingly good time and still maintains a cult following for its sheer absurdity alone.
“E.T.” (1982)
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One of the earliest demonstrations of “not everything needs an adaptation”, E.T. for the Atari 2600 is also widely considered the catalyst for the video game crash of the 1980s. With much of the development time and money being spent just trying to acquire the license, sole developer Howard Scott Warshaw was given only 5 weeks to create the game in time for a holiday release and the results have become the stuff of legend ever since. For those who didn’t bother to check the game manual, E.T. is nearly impossible to comprehend. Attempting to collect pieces of a phone to “phone home”, E.T. will need to avoid pitfalls as well as scientists and the FBI and collect his precious Reeses Pieces for health. To be completely honest, the story behind the development and aftermath are far more interesting than the game itself.
