With a few notable exceptions, all "companion" video games released as part of movie franchises - usually as a marketing stunt - ended up being garbage. Starting with Atari's infamous "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", the video game versions of famous movies ended up receiving bad critics and even worse insults from the gaming community. There are a few exceptions, though, like the now cult classic Tron that spawned a generation of "light cycle" games or the Alien franchise that had quite a few pretty awesome titles to show. But the only truly successful video games inspired by movies are to this day slot machines.

First of all, most movie-based slots are based on movies that were already successful. Among the slots you can find at the Royal Vegas Casino, there are several that were released decades ago (like the Jurassic Park slot, launched in 2014, based on the 1993 blockbuster or the Terminator 2: Judgement Day slot, released the same year, based on the most successful movie of 1991). All players, even those who only play video poker at Royal Vegas casino will give them a few minutes of their time every once in a while, even if only to give their nostalgic muscle a bit of exercise. The fact that these games were both released less than a year before their respective franchises were revived did raise a few eyebrows but this doesn't make them any less popular and entertaining to play.

But why are video games based on movies so bad - especially those released close to the launch of the movie, as part of their marketing? Well, it most likely has to do with the lack of dedication. When a proper video game is being developed, the team working on it has all its time and energy dedicated to making it better. They spend days and nights working out every small detail, they polish the story, the visuals, the sounds, and they do their best to deliver the best product possible (the fact that they sometimes fail shows just how hard their jobs can be).

When it comes to a video game movie, a series of "hired guns" have to work with a pile of material that's already cooked, chewed, and digested for them. They have strict specifications to obey, the game has to be "canon", and fit into the story outlined by a screenwriter. They have far less liberty than a proper game developer working on a new title or a sequel - and it shows.

Things are different when a standalone game is made that ties into a popular movie franchise. Just think of all the great games that take place in the Alien universe (even Colonial Marines, but only after the DLCs) and the bunch of Star Wars games that turned out to be so great. But when it comes to "marketing" games, the only good ones I can remember are the ones attached to Disney's "The Lion King" and "Aladdin" - but that was a long time ago...