Childhood Memories: Movie Licensed Games

Twenty years ago I got introduced to the wonderful world of video games. At the tender age of five years old, I was stricken with a disease known as the Chickenpox. The itching wouldn’t stop persisting, and it was a miserable experience. To help alleviate my symptoms my parents bought me a Sega Genesis. It definitely helped keep my mind of the sores and I learned about how amazing games could be. My first two games were Sonic the Hedgehog (more on it in another article) and Batman Returns. It was my first introduction to a movie licensed game. Over the years I have played my fair share of other movie licensed games. Some I found fun and others I thought were absolutely horrendous. However this isn’t going to be about the bad movie license games, it’s going to be about my positive experience I had playing movie licensed games as a child.

My introduction to a video game title screen.

As previously stated one of my first games was Batman Returns for the Sega Genesis. From what I can remember I had a great time playing this game. I had not seen the movie when I played the game, but that didn’t matter to me. I was Batman and was using my arsenal to take out The Penguin and his gang of thugs. As a child I never beat this game, and instead watched on in amazement as my dad beat it in front of my eyes. In fact as I child I hardly ever finished my games because it was either due back at the Blockbuster (when that was a thing) or I couldn’t get passed a certain point. I thought my dad was the greatest player in the world, although nowadays I am schooling him in Call of Duty and all sorts of other games. As a first game I think it gave me a positive bias on the movie licensed game, as I have such fond memories of Batman Returns. In fact I might bust out my old Genesis and play it again after writing this article. Another game I had a blast playing was Jurassic Park Rampage Edition.

I could not beat that stupid raptor at the end for the life of me.

  One of the coolest things I remember about that game was the fact you could play as a freaking raptor! To a kid nothing was more satisfying than beating the crap out of everything as a dinosaur. Most of the time I would play as the Raptor and only a few times did I ever play as Doctor Allen Grant. As a boy I was so fascinated with Jurassic Park and dinosaurs, so when my parents got me that game I was overcome with joy (I believe I received it at my Jurassic Park themed birthday party, lol.) I think this was one of the first games I played over and over again till I beat some part of it (Although I never beat Grant’s part.) As I write this article, I see I must go through and beat my old childhood games! Anyways another great game I never got the chance to beat, because it was due back to Blockbuster, was The Lion King.

Hakuna Matata my ass….

The Lion King is probably my favorite Disney animated movie. So when I saw the box at the Blockbuster I had to rent it! I was not let down either. I was so happy to play as Simba as he progressed from young lion cub to the ferocious lion. I was so thrilled to play through the levels set to famous scenes and songs, such as the vibrant I Just Can’t Wait to be King stage and the dark and dismal Elephant Graveyard Stage. I loved how Simba’s roar started out real weak, but when he became and adult it would literally blow enemies away. I wish I actually owned it, because I would play it again. Returning it to the store because it was due was a sad moment in my video game history. Speaking of great Disney games, one I do own and played the crap out of was Aladdin.

To a kid, this was amazing to see.

Aladdin was a game I actually beat as a child!!!!!!!!!! This game is probably my favorite of all the games in this article. I don’t know how many times I played this game as a child, but I know when I first took down Jafar at the end it was one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. I loved how awesome the levels were and my absolute favorites were the Cave of Wonder Escape on Magic Carpet and You Never Had a Friend Like me. Having them back to back was awesome as well, as the adrenaline and intensity built up during the escape would  melt away to the light hearted feeling music and silly genie themed level. Just thinking about it, makes me want to play again. In fact I think its time I blow into my cartridges and dust off the old system. Join me next time for more childhood memories. Feel free to post some of your own experiences in the comment section and stay tuned to Velocity Gamer for more great editorials and reviews.