The 10 Most Ridiculous Celebrity-Inspired Video Games

Capitalizing on fame is nothing new. Celebs permitting their faces and signatures to be stamped on items ranging from clothes to salad dressing is a practice that dates way back. But sometimes their names and likenesses are used without their permission, which any high-powered entertainment lawyer will tell you is a no-no.

Take Justin Bieber, for example, who recently made headlines for ordering app maker RC3 to cease and decist with its mobile game Joustin' Beaver in which the pop star is reincarnated as one of the aquatic rodents best known for their buck teeth and dam-building. (Yeah, we probably wouldn't be too thrilled either.) But did the company back down? Hell naw. Instead, they fired back with a suit of their own, claiming a First Amendment right to distribute the game.

We'll find out soon enough who'll emerge victorious between the two, but until then, take a look at some of the other famous faces to assume starring roles in some of the most laughable games to hit the market: The 10 Most Ridiculous Celebrity-Inspired Video Games.

Written by Lauren Otis (@LaurNado)

Follow @ComplexPopCult

You probably thought the life of an heiress consisted of double-fisting bottles of champagne or finding unthinkable new ways to blow money and beat boredom between sessions of sitting on your ass waiting to get rich-er (which if reports of Paris Hilton's exploits have taught us anything, it does!).

But there are also jewel quests, at least according to this Gameloft offering, which boasts "rich and classy graphics" and "many photos of Paris parading her jewels and hip outfits," though you can probably check those out for free if you head to any tabloid site, but we digress.

If you're a fan of the above, you'll make an ideal partner in crime for the heiress as she heads to the hottest cities in search of rare jewels for her new jewelry line, a trip filled with—suspiciously Snood-like—puzzles that are guaranteed to leave you "breathless" (the makers' words, not ours) for a mere $3.

We'll let you meditate for a moment on those two things that you never want to hear in the same sentence.

If you're one of the choice few, though, that digs the idea of a wild night with The Hedgehog...we regret to inform you that you've missed the boat on this one. In 2006, Kitten Digital announced the arrival of Ron Jeremy's Truth Or Dare, a now-defunct mobile game that challenged users to ditch articles of clothing or answer questions such as "What is the most daring thing you've ever done sexually?" In the event patrons didn't find those (surprisingly standard) questions titillating, there was always the option to capitalize on the app's other function: It could also be used as a vibrator.

No, we aren't joking. Per the company's press release, four different patterns turned consumers' phones into "exciting, vibrating devices," complete with visuals and a funky '70s soundtrack to "cause further arousal." Sookie sookie now.

Samuel L. Jackson: Actor. Kangol enthusiast. General badass. Sledder. Wait, huh?

Thanks to the creatives at Global Game Jam, Hollywood's most fun-to-imitate superstar has scored another unexpected role to add to his reel. Cool Boarders meets Pulp Fiction in this random (he's shirtless?) offering for Windows Phone that, despite its recent release date, has graphics reminiscent of the days of DOS. What's in it for you? Need you ask? Just what the title promised: Samuel L. Jackson sledding, motherfucker!

Yeah, the aforementioned Joustin' Beaver doesn't call to mind the most virile of video games, but is it really worth the legal drama?

The mobile app in question has been described as a beaver making its way down a river on a log, knocking out "Phot-Hogs" and signing "Otter-graphs" while avoiding spiraling out of control due to a "whirlpool of success." It's not the most heinous defamation of character ever, but it is a shameless attempt to cash in on JB's popularity.

We wouldn't have been quick to assume that RC3, the app developer that the game's muse is currently battling, was rolling in dough as a result of its shotty-looking caricature. However, there's no doubt that this goofy game is making more money than ever as a result of its recent publicity.

Let's be real: You probably let a Chuck Norris joke or two fly a few years ago, back when every conversation was like a race to beat the other speakers to a CN punchline. If you're part of the set that, though, that've been crying themselves to sleep each night since the trend ran its course, we've got comfort for you in the form of Gameloft's Chuck Norris: Bring On The Pain.

With this nostalgia-inducing app, you can channel your love of the Walker, Texas Ranger star into a safe space where you'll no longer be annoying your friends, and you'll additionally be helping Chuck "save the entire free world" between phone calls. BOOM!

We have a hunch that a lot of holes have been punched in a lot of TV screens as a result of Mark Wahlberg walking into people's living rooms at the wrong time and catching associates playing this laughable game, forcing him to acknowledge its existence all over again.

On the bright side, there are probably a lot of industry people out there who owe the dude some thanks. The Make My Video series, and, in particular, its Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch edition, introduced '90s music heads to editing, cutting, and re-mixing videos from a selection of tracks. Or, you know, at least on a Sega.

Marky Mark's marketing team wasn't the first, nor was it the last to make every effort to capitalize on free-flowing teenybopper love. This Game Boy Color (Nintendo's solution to Game Gear) offering starring the fivesome that put Justin Timberlake on the map wasn't even the craziest *NSYNC product to hit the market, but it certainly was shameless.

Those who couldn't get close to the boy band in real life could at least feel the thrill of a computerized JT telling them in so many words, "You're our number one fan, and that's why we're giving you the keys to our limo! We're really psyched to have you with us."

Considering the devotion of some of those fans, we can only imagine how many girls took that warm welcome a little too literally. It was probably never more difficult to Get To The Show than in the wake of this game's release.

We knew The Sims series had been missing something for some time, but we just couldn't put our finger on it. After years of building cities, watching them crumble, and fostering more fake relationships than we can count, we now know that that something was Katy Perry.

In this wildly unnecessary version, players can feel what it's like to rise to fame, taking on avatars that can range from singers to magicians and DJs. But what really separates this one from the rest of the pack? "Katy Perry-themed hairstyles, fashions, an exclusive poster, and fruit-themed stage props."

You gotta have the fruit-themed stage props.

If the name alone didn't tip you off, then imagine this: The King of Pop using his signature dance moves round after round to combat mobsters and save a series of kidnapped children.

"Who's bad?" Uh, pretty much whoever convinced Michael Jackson that this concept was a winner.

Nope, you didn't read that wrong. Remember that point in the '90s when Shaq was trying extra hard to flex that entrepreneurial muscle? Well, if you were among the die-hard fans that camped outside of Sam Goody's in anticipation of his rap albums, or took multiple trips to the theater to see some of the basketball star's finest acting as the boombox-inhabiting genie Kazaam, you were also probably playing this dud of a video game.

Rather than balling, as one might expect, Shaq Fu features its title character throwing bows, roundhouse kicks, and the like in another dimension where he's on a mission to save a little boy named Nezu from an evil mummy.

Really, Shaq?