The 50 Worst Video Games Inspired By Movies + TV

The 50 Worst Video Games Inspired By Movies + TV

It seems that no matter how cool or popular a movie or TV show is, there's invariably a video game version that sucks the joy right out of the franchise. While it's common knowledge that a large majority of properties just can't make a quality transition to the game world, there are a few exceptional failures that deserve to be highlighted.

Whether it's bastardizing the source material, providing broken and glitch-laden experiences, or just cashing in with the cheapest adaptation possible, the games on this list stand head and shoulders above the rest as the worst video game adaptations of popular TV shows and movies.

50. Gargoyles (1995)

Platforms: Sega Genesis
Inspired By: Gargoyles [Series] (1994-1997)

Gargoyles was an awesome show that beautifully blended old world occult and faerie lore with a future that had lasers and robots. The game took the characters Goliath and Demona and put them in storyline that grace, structure and cohesiveness.

It's basically Goliath running around fighting no-name villains loosely based off those seen in the show. It only focuses on the sci-fi aspect of the show and completely disregards the fantasy (except for the brief stint Goliath has in the old world bitch-slapping Vikings with his tail).

The story is delivered in such a dead pan, unexcited way it is clear how little thought the creators put into their recycled “Eye of Odin” plot. This was a game born from a really cool idea and got rid of the best parts with no apologies.

49. Alias (2004)

Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC
Inspired By: Alias [Series] (2001-2006)

Ignoring the fact that the creators managed to make Jennifer Garnier look even more like a man, the game fails most in how hard it tries to be sexy. With an awkwardly erotic soundtrack that sounds like it was stolen from a cheap porno and masculine women running around in awkwardly fitting outfits, it seems the creators forgot the show wasn't a straight sex-romp. Perhaps it was because they ran out of cash or just lacked the talent, but the characters barely seem to be invested in the rote combat exchanges that pepper the game.

Animations are shoddy and the voices hardly ever match up with the characters' mouths. In fact, the only thing keeping the gamer conscious is the constant, loud clip-clopping of the heroine's heels that insists on being present every time she moves. Cheers for that piece of realism.

48. American Idol (2003)

Platforms: PlayStation 2, PC, Game Boy Advance
Inspired By: American Idol [Series] (2002-2011)

This is one of those times where it should have seemed like a bad idea before it was even pitched. Most people do not even like the show's judges ripping into their favourite contestants, so why they would want Simon degrading their ability to push a button in time is a mystery. The game loses its appeal fast, even for the hardcore fans.

Not all of the singers have good voices, but so long as the player keeps in time with the scale, they can still get a good scoring from the judges. Obviously the creators thought this would ride the coattails of games like Guitar Hero but they forgot that when you screw up in that game, you can hear the difference; in American Idol all you hear are canned biting remarks making you question your worth.

47. Lost: Via Domus (2008)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Inspired By: Lost [Series] (2004-2010)

Basically, this is a chance for the fans to rub elbows with their favourite characters, without resorting to fan fiction. The player is a character who never existed on the show, has no memory of who they are and they run through the same story line that appears in the show. Nothing new is created for the game, except for bad voice-overs trying to disguise the fact that the show's actors couldn't be bothered to take part.

Worst of all, it also assumes that the player needs their hand held. Rather than letting the gamer explore the game and figure out what their character can access, the tools or plot devices light up, so there is never a need to use your own intellect. It's hard to care about a character who never mattered to the series, it's even harder when you barely even get to play him.

46. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2003)

Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC
Inspired By: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation [Series] (200-2011)

Part of what makes this game suck is that there isn't just one, there are eleven and they're all equally dull. With one for just about every game system including Facebook there's more iterations than the actual show. Once again the player takes control of a brand new Joe Shmoe put in with the big guys (because no fan should ever overshadow the main characters).

The game is so pathetically easy that most times, the player just has to click in the right place and the other characters solve the game for them. The real frustrating part is that it has all the makings for a good, dark detective game, but its overzealous railroading takes the fun out of it.

There is never a moment where the player's character can say the cool, clever line, because the other characters are too busy making sure he doesn't screw up the case.

45. James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (2009)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS
Inspired By: James Cameron's Avatar [Movie] (2009)

The most obvious problem here is that the game designers couldn't really decide what kind of game Avatar was supposed to be. Part MMO, part RPG, part action-adventure, and part platformer it's a medley of genres that just don't come together as a whole.

The game lets you choose to play as human or Na'vi but despite the fact that the blue aliens are magical, and badass in the movie, they're way underpowered in the game. You don't really get the chance to be the hero because the good guys are weak and the humans are destructive jerks. Like the film it's aesthetically pleasing, but it just falls short of gripping.

44. Home Alone (1991)

Platforms: SNES, NES, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, PC, Game Boy
Inspired By: Home Alone [Movie] (1990)

Despite being a clever kid every young filmgoer envied, Home Alone the game manages to turn the hero into an annoying fop. Because he only ever walks like he's tip-toeing through glass, it makes Kevin painstakingly slow.

Avoiding the stairs is recommended because the ten-year-old seems to develop a serious case of arthritis when he goes up them. He can barely get a full floor ahead of the criminals before he is caught by both of them, one of which climbed a gutter faster than Kevin could walk up stairs.

There are times where Kevin can't (won't?) go in certain places, not because of game protocol; you just have to try 5 times in a row before he will. It would appear the petulance of youth knows no bounds.

43. Bébé's Kids (1994)

Platforms: SNES
Inspired By: Bébé's Kids [Movie] (1992)

This game takes an all-black animated comedy and pulls a Tyler Perry on it – turning a laugh into tragedy out of nowhere. Right off the bat, you're assaulted by park employees who refuse to die and the player can't move on until they are defeated. Watch out for that time limit too, it takes 35 hits to bring down one villain and they put a game-ending clock on the scene.

Many things don't make any sense and there are even more little things that are annoying. Every level is basically the same, which isn't at all frustrating when the time limit constantly runs out and death always means starting at the very beginning (or maybe not, again it's hard to tell when everything looks the same). It's just another good old pay cheque with no imagination, sense or purpose.

42. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC
Inspired By: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 [Movie] (2011), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [Book] (2007)

For every Harry Potter movie there has been a game and each has been thoroughly uninspired but one would assume that by the time they got to eight titles the developers would get a clue. With an absurd reliance on combat the game feels like a remake of Area 51 with the guns disguised as wands.

The battles just don't fit the tone of the movie at all and most spells that are cast cause massive damage unparalleled anything in the book or film. Seems the curriculum at Hogwarts really picks up with that final-semester arcane destruction class.

The irony is that it's not even a very good shooter. Addled with bodyguard missions where you escort Hermione around and a clunky spell casting system that takes forever to do anything, it's a sorry ending to the series.

41. Project Runway: The Video Game (2010)

Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Inspired By: Project Runway [Series] (2004-2011)

It hurts as much as the name would suggest. The game wants to be fashionable so bad that more thought was given to the color of the title screen than the actual challenges of the game. As each level of the game loads (very slowly), uninteresting quotes from the show that make no sense or offer any sort of advice will wait with you.

The active portion of the Wii game has the player standing around like an idiot, trying to follow the poses they are told to do on screen, which is odd considering the show's about designing not modeling. There is no room at all for the would-be fashion designers to create or customize.

The player is told exactly what to do and can only choose garments from a specified list. This would be completely uninteresting to anyone interested in fashion design, and the average game fan wouldn't be caught dead near it begging the question, “Who the hell is this game for?”

40. The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (1992)

Platforms: SNES, Sega Genesis
Inspired By: The Simpsons [Series] (1989-2011)

The two things that stand out most about this game is that it is really hard and must have been created on acid. For a show that has a ton of interesting population of characters and history's worth of plots, the game was weird without needing to be.

The actual plot is really boring for such a psychedelic game; Bart falls asleep while studying and must collect all the pages of his homework in his dream or fail his class. Rather than relying on the show's trademark irreverence, the game has players walk down the street with a constant barrage of attacks from random Simpsons iconography.

You're never quite sure what will attack you so it's best to assume that everything will. Most who endured it look back on this game as one of the most frustrating things they ever played, and a smaller portion can even say they saw its ending.

39. Independence Day (1997)

Platforms: PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC
Inspired By: Independence Day [Movie] (1996)

Despite the fact that you play a jet pilot charged with saving the human race from aliens, flying all over the world through the rescue operation, there's no doubt you're going to be bored. Each mission is relatively the same requiring you to blow something up, not get killed by aliens and then blow some more stuff up.

This would be fine but the missions start to blur together and after a while, no matter what backdrop you're flying in, you will feel like you're stuck in Milwaukee. What's worse is despite the simplicity of what's demanded of the player the game becomes more frustrating as what needs to be destroyed is never visible until it is almost too late to react thanks to poor rendering issues.

38. Ghostbusters (1984)

Platforms: NES, Sega Master System
Inspired By: Ghostbusters [Movie] (1984)

It's very likely the developers of Ghostbusters were going to be quitting Activision when they got the project, because this game had to be created by people who had no love for the film. The game will make you hate Ghostbusters, especially the theme song which is a considerable task considering its greatness.

A lousy 8-bit cover of it plays the entire game – on loop – forever. In the video game version of the Ghostbusters universe there is a store to buy your bizarre ghost-catching equipment. It's confusing because if I can just buy the equipment to capture the ghost in my attic, wouldn't I just do it myself?

Whether the developers actually watched the final cut of the movie is debatable, the only elements of the movie in this game are ones that also appeared in the trailers and from the way this game is constructed, they likely grabbed some images and made an educated guess.

37. Wayne's World (1993)

Platforms: NES, SNES, Game Boy
Inspired By: Wayne's World [Movie] (1992)

Playing this game it can be hard to believe it was made by people, it's so basic you'd think some dull computer AI spat it out. Starting off with a weird picture of the heroes in glowing green, Wayne says a pointless quote from the movie and that's it.

The random quote does nothing to set you up with a scenario, or plot or any definable reason for him to exist. This doesn't happen once – it happens each time the player moves on to a new level. But the developers decided this wasn't enough to piss off anyone looking for a real game, so they threw in super annoying music that plays on loop and terrible character animations that makes everyone look like rednecks.

36. Dick Tracey (1990)

Platforms: NES, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Game Boy
Inspired By: Dick Tracey [Movie] (1990), Dick Tracey [Series] (1937)

Dick Tracey the game is about as interesting as the movie, but without the clever pop-art style or Madonna bent over on a desk, so it's infinitely worse. The game relies heavily on driving scenarios where the car automatically goes in the right direction, giving no room for exploration. This means if the player presses right when they need to go left the car will spin in circles making annoying tearing tire noises before going the charted course.

There is a constant barrage of attacks from random guns on the buildings for which there is no defense or return fire, so basically just getting to the place to begin the game loses the player a ton of points.

Then the characters' sprites will change at random and the game will give you clues which requires you to write it down in real life because there is no way to save clues in the game. Make sure you hold onto that scrap paper too because the clues are also necessary later on, so you're screwed if you forget. But then I guess you would have a reason to quit playing, so maybe not all bad.

35. Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000)

Platforms: PlayStation, Dreamcast, PC
Inspired By: The Evil Dead [Movie] (1981), Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn [Movie] (1987), Army of Darkness [Movie] (1992)

All of the Evil Dead movies are awesome because they are so terrible, that they become good again. The developers started on the same path, but stopped before the gracious rebound. The graphics convey the visual style of the film, but the gameplay mechanics are just awful.

For starters, the controller commands never seem to be in-tune with how Ash should respond to them. For example, press left and he pirouettes, never moving in any direction. The game then goes and adds to the Evil Dead experience with its own bizarre ideas. Like, despite the fact that none appeared in any Evil Dead film, Ash has to mostly fight ghosts.

Naturally his chainsaw never seems to affect them much – perhaps, because they're incorporeal —unlike the zombies one would expect. Add in the glitches where the game will freeze in mid-combat and you'll feel everything inside your skull tighten. Fans looking for the chance to spill gratuitous amounts of evil zombie blood should resign themselves to only seeing Ash's blood – as he is the only character dense enough to be cut.

34. The Karate Kid (1987)

Platforms: NES
Inspired By: The Karate Kid [Movie] (1984)

Even if you can get over the fact the game and the film barely has anything to do with one another, it's still an impossibly hard challenge to play. It might actually be easier to actually go out and learn karate than to finish this one. Touching a villain sends you flying back every time, so forget close combat, and you can only jump one way - up.

No jumping back from a punch, Michael-san actually has to turn his back on his enemies which breaks the first rule of martial arts. Then out of nowhere, the villains drop any pretense of fair play and start packing weapons. They stab at Michael-san with knives, knock him back and there is no defense.

You don't pick up any protective gear along the way, the game just expects Michael-san to stop being a wuss and get stabbed repeatedly. You don't have to be a karate master to beat this game; you have to be a damned Kami-sama!

33. 24: The Game (2006)

Platforms: PlayStation 2
Inspired By: 24 [Series] (2001-2010)

This game didn't know what it wanted to be. Like an 8-year-old asked what they'll be grown up, 24: The Game tries to be a crime-fighting fireman/astronaut who also solves mysteries. In one day the player will have to face so many different scenarios, that it becomes overwhelming after a while – and there's no real getting used to it either.

Despite that, the villains are not much of a challenge; usually they seemed too stunned to know to move out of the way of gunfire, which makes picking them off a lot less satisfying. The game's version of Jack Bauer isn't too smart either, during a barrage of bullets if the he comes across a dead body, he'll instantly start looting the corpse for weapons – while being shot to death.

Other times, the camera will start to seizure to completely disorient the player (in order to seem life-like) but mostly it just makes it impossible to aim.

32. Rocky Super Action Boxing (1983)

Platforms: ColecoVision
Inspired By: Rocky [Movie] (1976), Rocky II [Movie] (1979), Rocky III [Movie] (1982)

Despite decent graphics for the 80s, Super Action Boxing doesn't do a lot to keep the player interested. The training stage of the game is one repetitive round of hit A and B to make Rocky punch a bag. Nothing about footwork or defense, just punch the bag. When the fights finally get going there isn't a whole lot of strategy going on, it's mostly just a session of light button-mashing.

Weren't the Rocky movies about inspiration and overcoming the odds? There isn't even much of a challenge for Rocky to overcome; players barely control Rocky as he seems to move of his own will. In fact, there doesn't seem much point in the player's existence, because Rocky's just doing his own thing and you're along for the ride. Forget the manual by the way, that passive aggressive little read is basically telling you to piss off in the most indirect way possible.

31. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1992)

Platforms: NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy
Inspired By: The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show [Series] (1959-1964)

The show is famous for its colorful characters, light-hearted humor and being really inane in the greatest way. The game delivers none of that. The plot revolves around Bullwinkle collecting inheritance from some random dead kin and many clones of Boris trying to stop him. Bullwinkle's attacks consist of headbutting and tossing bombs, exactly what you'd expect a moose to do. Funnily enough, the creators seemed to think that since it's based off a show that had subpar animation, it wasn't worth trying to make the game's any better.

On top of that, the game will occasionally glitch and leave the player suspended in mid-air until they're hit by an enemy. If you manage to power through and beat this one the ending is a single screen that has the heroes poorly drawn and a scrawled "You Win". It doesn't move, and there is no animation. They might as well have just put in a pixelated Rick Astley – it would be slightly less insulting.

30. Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle (1989)

Platforms: NES
Inspired By: Looney Tunes [Series] (1930-1969)

The Crazy Castle series has taken a lot of cartoon characters and adapted them to similar video games. The North American release of Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle actually starred a different rabbit entirely. Originally titled Roger Rabbit (yes, the one that was framed) in Japan, the game was changed slightly and turned into a Looney Tunes game for North America.

Somewhere in that transition though the game fell apart and despite being a rabbit, the developers decided that Bugs doesn't need to jump. Even if he has villains coming right at him and he's backed against a wall, his only options are run or die. Naturally there was little room for plot in the translation, so it's as simple as bunny likes carrots, go get carrots. The poetry of it all kills me.

29. Grey's Anatomy: The Video Game (2009)

Platforms: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC
Inspired By: Grey's Anatomy [Series] (2005-2011)

For a show that's about a lot of good looking people, this is one ugly game. It's like the developers just got finished watching Scanner Darkly but couldn't quite grasp the concept of rotoscoping. Designed to be like interactive fan fiction for the hardcore fans, the player's objective is to help Meredith make decisions (usually romantic), and that's about it.

Nowhere do these doctors ever actually do any life-saving, they're all too busy wondering “How should I get Derek's attention?” and waiting for the player to decide between flirting or playing hard to get.

28. Top Gun (1986)

Platforms: NES, Commodore 64, PC
Inspired By: Top Gun [Movie] (1986)

Welcome to the danger zone, this game is treacherous. The dogfighting combat is a fun aerial combat experience, with the player feeling awesome because a single shot can completely destroy a jet. You'll feel like a predator in the sky, until you have to land that is.

Landing on the air carrier portion is nearly impossible and it takes a miracle to make it happen. Everyone always dies here and it makes it impossible to progress once you run out of lives, meaning you're stuck enjoying that basic early portion over and over again.

Then if you manage to survive long enough to need refueling in the air you have to play this bizarre coupling game with another plane and if you miss, buddy just takes off and lets you run out of gas mid-flight. Hope you enjoy watching pixelated fighter jets burst into flames.

27. The Wizard of Oz (1993)

Platforms: SNES
Inspired By: The Wizard of Oz [Movie] (1939), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz [Book] (1900)

Someone forgot to tell the creators of this game that it wasn't Disney who mad the film, there is no reason the villains needed to be angry furniture. She's in Oz, they couldn't come up with something better than an upset dining chair?

Also, we don't remember everything in Oz being lethal, but in this game the player should count themselves lucky that the sky doesn't burn them alive. Only equipped with a wand and a feeble kick to defend herself, Dorothy basically has no ability to protect herself in a world that wants her dead.

Worse yet, if Dorothy jumps and does not land dead center on platforms, she will fall through and usually on to something that will kill her immediately. We really hope the creators of this game do not have kids, because they are obviously not a fan of them.

26. Friday the 13th (1989)

Platforms: NES
Inspired By: Friday the 13th [Movie] (1980), Friday the 13th Part 2 [Movie] (1981), Friday the 13th Part 3 [Movie] (1982)

For a game about a serial killer let loose on a bunch of kids at a summer camp, this game had no gore to speak of. The game is mostly about, collecting lighters and walking around at night until you die.

The scariest thing about this game is that if you don't find Jason and take him down, he slowly kills the camp counselors the only notification of this is a small window with faces getting crossed out. Oh, and if Jason kills all your friends, you die too. The player never receives help from any of these people, so why does the ability to fight go away if they all die? I guess the game is trying to make you value your fellow man, but really it just winds up infuriating.

25. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1992)

Platforms: Atari ST, Amiga, PC
Inspired By: Plan 9 from Outer Space [Movie] (1959)

You can only poke fun at yourself for so long before people start to genuinely feel bad for you. Such is the strange case of Plan 9 from Outer Space, an irreverent and self-aware parody/tribute to the horrible Ed Wood-directed film of the same name.

In all its effort to be humorous and reference all the quirkiness of the film, the developers never managed to do more than poke fun at something that had already been ridiculed to death in the 33 years since it released. It's hard to tell if they were ever being serious about making it a playable experience or if they were just trying to match the movie's level of rubbish.

24. Tunnel Rats (2009)

Platforms: PC
Inspired By: 1968 Tunnel Rats (2008)

In a weird twist of events, Tunnel Rats is the first time that hated director Uwe Boll tried his hand at making a game rather than ruining them on the silver screen. Set in the Vietnam War players are tasked with combing through poorly rendered trenches to mow down reams of poorly rendered enemies.

The game's voice acting is by far the most grating this decade, but it's not really surprising considering that in the film adaptation that was made – yes, Uwe Boll made a terrible film to coincide with his terrible game – there was no script and the actors all just improvised.

23. Mean Girls (2009)

Platforms: Nintendo DS
Inspired By: Mean Girls [Movie] (2004)

Why did a Mean Girls game need to be made 5 years after the film released? Nobody really knows. The game is a strange mix of Bejeweled and a combat RPG, similar to Puzzle Quest, but instead of swords and spells players hurl disses and burns.

Of course, because the developers doubt the female brain could ever grasp a decent stat system, the game doesn't progress in the same fashion as others in the genre. It just stays simple and bland right through the whole thing. Some might call that a little misogynistic, but considering the lapse in brain activity you'd need to buy this one they might just be on the money.

22. Space Jam (1996)

Platforms: PlayStation
Inspired By: Space Jam [Movie] (1996)

You think it would be really easy to take the NBA Jam concept and adapt it to include Michael Jordan and some Looney Tunes characters, but apparently it's not as easy as it sounds.

With a bland and somewhat unfair basketball game as the meat and potatoes of the experience, the rest of Space Jam is peppered with odd minigames between quarters that have players running around collecting water bottles or uniforms so they can keep playing. The only problem is that the core game is barely exciting enough to play without the added work.

21. Seven Samurai 20XX (2004)

Platforms: PlayStation 2
Inspired By: Seven Samurai [Movie] (1954)

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai was a poignant look at feudal Japan's samurai class being outdone by modern weapons technology was a beautiful and engaging film that managed to capture the essence of the period while weaving in a coming of age story and plenty of memorable characters.

Flash forward 50 years and some jerk decided to take the idea, turn it into a bland brawler and set it in a sci-fi future. With poor pacing and a thoroughly unnecessary combat system the game was a flop in every regard. Thankfully they skipped out on the voice acting, so players only had to endure the terrible writing in text.

20. Jumper: Griffin's Story (2008)

Platforms: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2
Inspired By: Jumper [Movie] (2008), Jumper: Griffin's Story [Book] (2007)

When he's not ruining the Star Wars prequels, Hayden Christiansen fancies himself an actor in poorly made magical-realism films about douchebags who can teleport. When he's not doing that, he's busy lending his likeness to horrible adaptations of said films and ruining more game collections by taking up valuable space.

All the usual culprits are present here; bad camera, poor controls, and a poorly weaved narrative that barely follows the mostly incomprehensible film. Xbox 360 players who picked this one up expecting to see some high-quality graphics were sorely disappointed, the game was barely ported over from the low-resolution Wii and PlayStation 2 version adding to the travesty just a little more.

19. The Smurfs Dance Party (2011)

Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Inspired By: The Smurfs [Movie] (2011)

On what smurfing planet did we need a smurfing dancing game for the smurf smurfing Wii? With players grabbing hold of their Wii remotes and striking a pose as Papa Smurf, Smurfette and Gargamel, the game is as basic as you can go while still being playable.

All of the tracks are Smurfs-oriented remakes like “Smurf This Way” or “We Like to Smurf It”, bastardizing both video games and music in one fell swoop. The game was such a disaster they didn't even bother bringing it to the rest of the consoles – apparently only Wii owners are willing to subject themselves to this sort of torture.

18. Saw (2009)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Inspired By: Saw [Movie] (20054)

Konami's attempt to revive the fading survival horror glory they had with the Silent Hill series, Saw is a weird attempt to turn a series of independent puzzles into a larger scale third-person action game.

The puzzles were either too easy or outright unsolvable without a guide, and the shoehorned combat was by far the weakest point making it a game that's hard to agree with whether you're a puzzle fanatic or action junkie. It's a mess of the game and if there was any justice in the world the developers would soon find their heads stuck in strange Jigsaw-designed contraptions.

17. Little Nicky (2000)

Platforms: Game Boy Color
Inspired By: Little Nicky [Movie] 2000

Adam Sandler's brand of comedy barely translates on the screen, so it's a small wonder that anyone thought it would translate well to a schlocky Game Boy Color title. A mix of platforming levels and frustration-inducing minigames, it's hard to imagine exactly who would be picking this up.

Most of the players old enough to appreciate the film would be too smart to want this, and the kids dumb enough to accept it would be too young for their parents to buy it. The sheer audacity of its existence continues to baffle long after it's gone and forgotten.

16. Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (2005)

Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS
Inspired By: King Kong [Movie] (2005)

With a name longer than the average player's patience for the game, King Kong: the Official Game of the Movie sets itself up to be the authorial debut of Peter Jackson in the world of video games. His artistic sensibilities didn't bring the action or intrigue the film was supposed to deliver, instead it brought about insane design choices like removing the player's HUD so they have no idea how much health or ammunition they have.

This sort of self-aggrandizing design would be fine if Peter Jackson knew anything about games, but instead we were left with a confusing mess. To make matters worse Ubisoft stopped everything to put the talented Michel Ancel on the project, extending the wait for Beyond Good & Evil 2.

15. Austin Powers Pinball (2002)

Platforms: PlayStation, PC
Inspired By: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery [Movie] (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me [Movie] (1999)

It's really hard to make virtual pinball exciting because you just don't get the visceral feel of slapping steely balls with paddles. Game developers have tried all sorts of gimmicks to make it more fun and engaging but by far the worst of these are the movie tie-ins.

These seem to work in the real world versions, but it's hard to convince someone to spend $60 on a game just so they can work really hard to hear catch-phrases pop out of their speakers. Even worse, the game doesn't even come with a bevy of machines. There are literally two different modes to play in and neither is all that exciting. Oh, behave!

14. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance
Inspired By: Spider-Man 3 [Movie] (2007)

Just like the third film took a steep nosedive into the depths of emo-powered mediocrity, the third Spider-Man game had the same problem. You see, the first two games based off the Spider-Man films were genuinely fun experiences that let the player enjoy swinging around New York as everyone's favourite web head.

They had a good sampling of villains and lots of ambient crimes for players to stop. Spider-Man 3 seemed to have half of the content, which made the random encounters way too repetitive. Within an hour of play you'll probably get asked to rescue a little boy's balloon at least a dozen times; if that's not a good use of your super powers, I don't know what is.

13. Transformers: The Game (2007)

Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC
Inspired By: Transformers [Movie] (2007), Transformers [Series] (1985-1992)

With a bevy of unpolished design choices, Transformers: The Game was the sort of quick cash-in you'd expect to be attached to a Michael Bay summer blockbuster. With shaky cameras that got stuck behind terrain, button-mashing combat and a weird transforming mechanic that required the player to play twister with their controller it really wasn't a fun experience.

As if adding insult to injury, barely any of the cast was made playable in the console version of the game while the handheld versions – and particularly the PSP version – received more than twice the playable characters. Peter Cullen may have leant his voice to the game, but it's a small point of contention in this sea of broken childhood memories.

12. Desperate Housewives: The Game (2006)

Platforms: PC
Inspired By: Desperate Housewives [Series] (2004-2011)

The thing about making a game for middle-aged moms is that it's destined to be bland, poorly produced shovelware because their aging laptops just can't pump out anything worthwhile and developers certainly aren't expecting them to upgrade their video card. Needing a mere 64 MB of video memory, this is a game that could run on your wristwatch calculator.

To make matters worse, if you tried to run the game on anything better than the minimum specifications there's a good chance that the game would crash and just stop working. It got so bad that publisher Buena Vista started posting notifications on the box and their website stating that there's a decent probability of the game just not working.

11. Pimp My Ride (2006)

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii
Inspired By: Pimp My Ride [Series] (2004-2007)

Yo dog, I heard you like choppy frame rates and broken physics engines so we put those in your game so you can have a busted frustrating experience while you play! – This must have been what Xzibit said to the playtesters when he first handed them the game, because there's no way a competent team looking for bugs wouldn't have found these.

They must have been told it is part of the experience because there's no reason for the game to fall to bits while playing the ghost riding minigame. Also, there's no reason for the game to have a ghost riding minigame.

10. Superman: The New Adventures (1999)

Platforms: Nintendo 64
Inspired By: Superman: The Animated Series [Series] (1996-2000), Superman [Comic] (1938-2011)

Widely known as one of the worst video games of all time, Superman 64 is guaranteed on any list of terrible games. What few people know though is that it's actually based off the critically acclaimed animated series, making its heresy all the greater. It's kind of hard to think of this as a Superman game when countless levels have the player flying through hoops for no conceivable reason, but that's what Lex Luthor demands and like an obedient boyfriend, Superman follows.

If you manage to pass the impossibly glitch section, it's a sheer force of luck because the game's timers make ever millimeter of movement matter. Most times it's debatable whether Superman is even interested in saving Metropolis anymore because he's certainly not using his extensive range of powers to make a difference.

9. Reservoir Dogs (2006)

Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Inspired By: Reservoir Dogs [Movie] (1992)

Quentin Tarantino's debut film was a surprising non-linear heist film that ignored the usual genre format by cutting the action sequence right out of the movie. It was a key plot element for certain – the rest of the film is building up to or dealing with the consequences of said heist – but audiences were left wondering exactly how things went down adding to the air of paranoia and confusion.

Unfortunately posthumous debriefings don't make for terribly exciting gameplay and so this schlocky adaptation shows everything the movie worked to hide, and poorly too. The game was such a blasphemy that Michael Madsen was the only actor willing to provide his likeness to it.

8. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989)

Platforms: NES, Game Boy
Inspired By: Who Framed Roger Rabbit [Movie] (1988), Who Censored Roger Rabbit? [Book] (1981)

Tracing the narrative of the film in the best way a cheaply made Nintendo game could, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has players controlling Eddie Valliant with Roger Rabbit constantly following you around like a lost puppy. The game is a weird mix of classic adventure gaming, platforming, and god-awful controls that make every stage an absolute nightmare. The driving segments in particular are absolutely unplayable without veering leeward across the map.

The kicker for this one is that at one point in the game you're given a 1-800 number to call in real life to get a clue from Jessica Rabbit, but if you call it today you'll be connected to a sex chat hotline making the needed passwords inaccessible. It may be impossible to beat the game without looking up the information online, but on the other hand you'll probably have a lot more fun.

7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982)

Platforms: Atari 2600
Inspired By: Raiders of the Lost Ark [Movie] (1981)

The first time you load up Indiana Jones for the Atari 2600 you might not be entirely sure what's going on. There are a few pixelated pieces of terrain and what looks like a beige blob who you can only assume is the great archaeologist himself.

After realizing nothing in this game looks like it's supposed to, you are then tasked with traipsing around barely distinguishable environments looking for barely distinguishable items to help you past barely distinguishable obstacles. This is one game that undoubtedly suffered from the Atari 2600's low processing power, but if Adventure could pull off an epic quest with nothing more than a pixel for a protagonist there's no reason this should be so damned indecipherable.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

Platforms: NES, Commodore 64, PC
Inspired By: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [Series] (1987-1996), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [Comic] (1984)

Beyond unplayable, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adaptation for the Nintendo Entertainment System lacked so much polish that it's certain segments of the game were nigh-unplayable if you picked the wrong turtle. That's also forgetting the fact its underwater bomb defusing level required such precision, even the most dedicated players still found it infinitely frustrating.

Somehow this game won Nintendo Power's game of the year award and managed to sell 4 million copies, but that doesn't excuse it for dashing the dreams of TMNT-loving children nation-wide. Thankfully a string of great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games did release shortly after in the arcades once Konami changed developers and got their heads on straight.

5. Fight Club (2004)

Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox
Inspired By: Fight Club [Movie] (1999), Fight Club [Book] (1996)

David Fincher's thought provoking adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel was one of the few generation defining films of the late 90's. Its subversive view of masculinity amidst the modern feminized world was a breakthrough in film making subterfuge; luring machismo addled young adults into theatres with the promise of visceral basement bare-knuckle boxing and smacked them upside the head with themes of nihilism, social deviance and rebellion.

The bland game released 5 years later by Genuine Games not only missed the point of the film but insulted it by turning the brilliant concepts into a bland brawler with an unlockable Fred Durst as a playable character.

4. Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! (1994)

Platforms: SNES
Inspired By: Home Improvement [Series] (1991-1999)

Sitcoms aren't really prime candidates for video game adaptations and Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! is a prime example of this. Taking the tepid family friendly humor of Tim Allen's prime time show about middle aged do-it-yourself fans in a modern age and turning it into a tepid family friendly platformer isn't the best way to extend a once-hot brand.

Sega denied publisher Absolute Entertainment the ability to release it on the Genesis because it was identical to the Super Nintendo version, but in retrospect they lucked out having one less cruddy game cluttering their library.

3. Enter the Matrix (2003)

Platforms: GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Inspired By: The Matrix [Movie] (1999), The Matrix: Reloaded [Movie] (2003), The Matrix: Revolutions [Movie] (2003)

The Wachowski brothers proved an undying passion for destroying their legacy when they made The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions, but it took a video game spin-off to reveal just how badly The Matrix needed to remain a film in stasis. Apart from a rather interesting command prompt-style hacking minigame, the entirety of Enter The Matrix sucked all the cool right out of the sci-fi dystopia's stride.

As an in-between narrative released before the sequel films launched, the game relied too heavily on characters that we not only didn't know about but they were also ones we wouldn't care about once the film released either.

2. Street Fighter: The Movie (1995)

Platforms: PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Inspired By: Street Fighter [Movie] (1994)

There's a certain level of quality lost in translating a video game to film, but there is an order of magnitude more lost translating said film back into a video game. Thankfully there are very few titles that have made this double-decker transition, but Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game is by far the worst culprit of this.

Taking the fluid, technical brilliance of the Street Fighter mechanics and breaking it down to a simplified, ugly, and unbalanced monstrosity of a fighting game, this is by far the worst black mark on the series' history. If there is a silver lining to the game, it's the only known arcade title that allows you to throw fireballs at Raul Julia.

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Platforms: Atari 2600
Inspired By: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial [Movie] (1982)

Purportedly programmed in a mere 6 weeks by a single cocaine-addled programmer to meet the holiday rush after the surprise success of the Spielberg film, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial almost single-handedly caused the great game industry crash of 1983.

With hundreds of thousands of irate parents returning the disappointing Christmas gifts to retailers, most outlets refused to carry games again until Nintendo revived the industry with its official seal of quality. But the question remains, what do you do with hundreds of thousands of unplayable video games? Popular rumor suggests that there's a landfill somewhere in New Mexico that remains the final resting place for the ill-fated cartridges, but nobody has been able to successfully locate this buried treasure.