10 Best Licensed Games of All-Time

As gaming has become more and more popular, developers and publishers have made increased efforts to make licensed games based on some of the biggest properties in the world. While there have been some notable disasters as a result of that, there have also been genre-defining entries with larger-than-life superheroes, iconic action heroes, and cinematic legends at the center of them. Of course, movie tie-in games have a bad rap for being rushed cash grabs, but there were still some great tie-ins that managed to have a long-lasting legacy. With that said, we’ve decided to rank what we feel are the best licensed games ever made.

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This list could easily be all Star Wars games or focused on one particular franchise, so I’ve decided to limit it to one franchise per entry. That means there won’t be multiple Spider-Man, Star Wars, or Batman games on this list; instead, I plucked what I feel is the best one from each series.

10) The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

By far and away, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is the best game based on Marvel’s green giant. The game lets you let loose in a bustling city, where you’re free to leap from building to building, pick up things and throw them, and smash the hell out of everything in sight both as part of the story and for fun. You can even pick up people and launch them into the stratosphere. It’s a remarkable power fantasy, and it’s disheartening that it never got a true follow-up, or even a remaster or remake. Few games have truly let you embody a superhero as you’d imagine them, especially a character like the Hulk.

9) Mad Max

Mad Max is a massively underrated action game, released not long after Mad Max: Fury Road. The game puts you in the shoes of The Road Warrior himself as he searches for peace and tranquility in the Wasteland, but of course, that is rudely interrupted by the savages that roam it. Max is forced into survival mode, where he uses brutal hand-to-hand combat, limited yet powerful firearms, and a fully upgradeable war machine to conquer any challenge that comes his way. The game released at the same time as Metal Gear Solid V and had a lengthy, complex development, so it got overshadowed and mostly ignored on release, unfortunately.

However, thanks to various sales over the years, it has been discovered by newcomers and evaluated as a gem. It has some of the best vehicle combat out there, allowing you to violently slam into other cars or rip them apart piece by piece with a harpoon. There’s nothing else really quite like it, and it’s a shame it will never get a sequel.

8) X-Men Origins: Wolverine

It’s rare for a crappy movie to get a tie-in game that absolutely blows it out of the water, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine did just that. This game more or less justified the terrible 2009 Wolverine spin-off film by giving us yet another excellent Marvel game. Inspired by the frenetic and violent combo of the God of War games, Wolverine is able to hack and slash his way through his earliest adventures with visceral action that sees enemies being torn limb from limb. Wolverine himself could also be shot and sliced up, causing his body and clothing to degrade before slowly repairing itself with his healing factor.

It was a shocking move, as Marvel had relegated most of its characters to T-rated experiences, but for some reason, Raven Software was given the green light to go all out and make an M-rated experience. This may have inadvertently also paved the way for Insomniac Games to go all-in with Marvel’s Wolverine, due out in 2026.

7) The Simpsons: Hit and Run

The Simpsons: Hit and Run is a classic PS2 game. Players were able to freely explore sections of Springfield as different members of the titular family, all while progressing through a hilarious and wacky story. The gameplay itself was loosely inspired by the Grand Theft Auto games, which was rising to prominence at the same time. You could steal cars, beat people up (mostly by kicking them while they rolled around on the floor), and get into car chases with police. It remains the gold standard for Simpsons games and one that fans want to see revived to this day.

6) Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation finally gave the sci-fi horror series the video game it deserved. The terrifying first-person survival game has you hunted by a highly intelligent Xenomorph, forcing you to outsmart it as much as you possibly can by hiding, fighting, and creating distractions so that you can slip by it. It would’ve been easy to just make a game based around this idea, but the team at Creative Assembly also added other foes like androids, which allow for more direct combat to keep things interesting.

The game also nails the cassette futurism aesthetic that defined the look of the original film. It’s one of the best horror games out there, but also one of the best licensed games out there. And thankfully, unlike other games on this list, Alien: Isolation is finally getting a sequel.

5) Marvel’s Spider-Man

Let’s make one thing clear here: Spider-Man 2 (2004) crawled, so Marvel’s Spider-Man could run. Insomniac’s take on the webhead utilizes lessons learned from past games, such as how to implement satisfying web swinging and a fun open-world with petty crimes, to make something totally refined and thrilling to play. It’s cliché to say, but it’s absolutely true that this game makes you feel like Spider-Man, thanks to the bouncy combat, slick acrobatic movement, and emotionally-charged story.

Insomniac took big swings with this Spidey story, killing off a beloved icon (which Marvel even initially pushed back on). However, the heartbreaking fallout between Peter and his mentor, Otto Octavius, drives the story to multiple painful conclusions where Spider-Man saves the day at the cost of crippling Peter Parker’s personal life. Marvel’s Spider-Man blends the gameplay we deserve with the rich storytelling fans have come to expect from a Spider-Man film.

4) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

BioWare had already made some legendary games at this point, such as the original Baldur’s Gate, but Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic took them to new heights. This is still one of the best sci-fi RPGs ever made, which is saying something given they made the Mass Effect games after this. Knights of the Old Republic perfectly chronicles the story of someone walking the tightrope of the light and dark side while immersing players into the Star Wars universe in ways never before seen in a game. You get to see thriving, civilized life on top of the grimy underbelly of this universe, all while playing a role in the stories that populate it.

We can only hope that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic‘s remake successfully captures all of the things that made this game so great. It’s held so dearly by fans that any misstep will be seen as highly controversial and result in a lot of pushback. Only time will tell where the remake lands, though.

3) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Almost 11 years later, The Witcher 3 remains one of the best RPGs ever made. While the games are significantly more popular than their source material, they are still licensed as they are based on a series of books. The Witcher 3 elevated this series to new heights with a compelling journey for Geralt and Ciri, a rich and layered open-world, and some of the best written quests (including side quests) the genre has ever seen. Rumor has it, The Witcher 3‘s run isn’t over as new DLC is reportedly coming in 2026. It has set a high bar for future CD Projekt Red, including the highly anticipated The Witcher 4.

2) Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City remains the pinnacle of the Batman gaming experinece. Of course, Arkham Asylum set the tempo by creating the riveting rhythmic combat system and leveraging the talents of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, but Arkham City perfects it. By leaving the claustrophobic asylum and moving into a walled-in portion of Gotham City, Arkham City is able to tell a much more ambitious and expansive story featuring Hugo Strange, Ra’s al Ghul, and of course, The Joker in one of his most interesting stories to date.

The Clown Prince of Crime is dying and infects Batman with his blood, forcing Batman into helping Joker as they are now on equal grounds. They both face death and if Batman can’t find a cure, it’s game over for both of them. However, there are a variety of other obstacles for him to overcome, such as Strange’s plot to kill all of the inmates, and the various misdeeds of other Batman villains, such as Hush, Two-Face, and The Penguin. It’s an all-time classic Batman story that’s amplified by massively influential gameplay.

1) GoldenEye 007

GoldenEye is the GOAT of licensed games. The N64 classic’s legacy is arguably larger than Bond himself, as this game is widely regarded as one of the best shooters of all-time. Of course, it’s quite dated by today’s standards, but for the time, it was a masterpiece. GoldenEye takes the basic story of an already great James Bond film and expands it with layered level design, satisfying FPS gameplay on a controller (pretty revolutionary for the time), and one of the most iconic multiplayer modes of all-time.

While not the only great shooter during this era, it certainly helped pave the way for future classics in the genre. GoldenEye‘s enduring legacy in the industry makes it one of the best licensed games of all time.

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