In this book, the title’s movie-based video games are not movies based on games, but the games which were tie-ins to popular movies.
While there are plenty of movies and TV shows based on games these days – the animated Super Mario Bros, Halo, The Last of Us and many, many more – the first adaptation only arrived on screen in 1993 - the live action adaptation of Super Mario Bros.
Before that, games existed only as a marketing tool for movies and while some were great many were simply cashing in on popular titles. Christopher Carton’s book revisits nearly 20 years’ worth of blockbuster-inspired games, with his recommendations, analysis and trivia. Featuring titles from Aliens to Top Gun to Star Wars and more, he examines titles released on the earliest gaming formats to the arrival of the PlayStation.
A good book to have on the shelf and dip into.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

A good overview of video games based on movies from the early years of the gaming industry. Each section is divided either by the franchise represented (Star Wars, Disney, Marvel, etc.) or by the theme. Each entry gives the release year, the consoles the game was released on, and a short description of the game itself. Good for gaming fans who are also movie buffs.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pen & Sword in exchange for an honest review.
As a video game researcher, I am always on the hunt for books about games. I love to learn and I was very excited when I saw this book available. The title tells you exactly what you are in store for-a guide to movie-based games created in the pre-2000s era.

I will admit, this book wasn't as entertaining as I'd hoped. I think not being alive when these games came out (for the most part) limited any kind of nostalgic enjoyment I could get out of it. I found some sections interesting (such as the Disney and comedy movie ones) but there wasn't a lot of commentary about the games themselves, which meant that if I didn't care about the intellectual property then there wasn't a whole lot to keep my interest.

Having said that, I think this book is very informative and seems pretty thorough. I imagine anyone who has nostalgia for these games would get a lot more out of it than me, and I am very excited for the next instalment which will cover the games I played myself. I recommend it for anyone who is curious what games exist from this time period, or for someone looking for a trip down memory lane

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

During its infancy, and throughout the next two to three decades, gaming both borrowed from and assisted its peer, the movie industry. In those days, it seemed like absolutely every big movie received its own video game adaptation, which allowed fans to extend their time in said universes by bringing the stories and worlds home with them. Furthermore, releasing a video game tie-in alongside a blockbuster film was just good business sense, because -- especially when rushed or given poor development budgets -- they could bring in a lot of additional money for all concerned. Therein resided one of the main problems with these things: while some were good (like Goldeneye, Aladdin and The World is Not Enough), the genre itself was notoriously flawed due to low budgets and rushed development periods; so much so that it became a thing. People looked down on movie-based video games because of this, and often avoided them, which is one of the reasons they started to die out over a decade ago. However, I personally played and completed quite a few of them.

In this summer's A Guide to Movie-Based Video Games, 1982-2000, author Christopher Carton chronicles two decades' worth of licensed and movie-based games. This includes, but is not limited to, all of the many James Bond games that released during that time, the plethora of Star Wars titles that hit both arcades and home consoles, and everything to do with the likes of Disney. For folks like me, who grew up during this era and rented a lot of movie-based games, it's a trip down memory lane. One filled with lots of nostalgia for better days and times.

The more than 300 video games listed within this guide range from arcade units to console games for PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Each one has its own entry and blurb, with the latter generally just being a paragraph describing what the game was like and how it played. Some even have screenshots attached, but nowhere close to all of the games do. However, when it came time to talk about the iconic releases, like 1997's Goldeneye 007, more space was reserved for a lengthier blurb and added information. Don't expect much more from this book, though, because its title tells you exactly what it is: a guide.

There's little in the way of emotion, opinion or creativity found within here, which is okay, but it leaves the book feeling like more of a basic encyclopedia than anything else. Nothing about it really stands out, outside of the sheer number of games that are mentioned within. This is both good and bad. For starters, it allows its core goal to be achieved, because the result is a pretty in-depth guide of movie-based games from 1982-2000. However, on the other hand, there's little else to it, which makes you wonder what people will buy it for. With the Internet at our disposal, how will this book stand out as a need in 2023? As interesting and well researched as it is, who will buy it? That's an issue that I believe Christopher Carton and his book will come across.

For the most part, A Guide to Movie-Based Video Games, 1982-2000 is a pretty well written encyclopedia of licensed games from that era. However, in the early, pre-publication version I received parts were missing. By that I mean that it seemed like the odd blurb was missing, leaving a few games with titles and only that. Surely this has been addressed prior to print. If not, it needs to be.

If you're someone who grew up playing licensed and movie games on your Atari, Nintendo consoles/handhelds, SEGA devices, PCs or PlayStations then you will likely find this guide of interest. However, most of the provided information is readily available on the Internet. Given that this book is listed at $71.99 (Canadian dollars) on Amazon, I find it hard to really recommend. It's fine, but it doesn't stand out.

This review is based on a copy of the book that we were provided with. Thank you to NetGalley, Pen & Sword and White Owl. Receiving a free, early copy did not sway our opinion.

One of my earliest video game experiences was playing Fantasia on the Megadrive as well as Aladdin and then elevating to other Disney games on the PS1.

This book explores a whole lot of movie to game adaptations that I didn’t even know existed.

The book is a cool concept and I loved the game images included but it felt like it needed to give more, with each game named it had a brief explanation of the film and how the game version portrayed it.

It has a great nostalgic feel to it, I loved reading about the games I played as a child and games I wish I’d known about back then!

The idea of a book that explores the various video games based on movies sounded great. As a catalog of the numerous video game adaptations of the 20th Century, it does an admirable job of reporting them all. But overall, the book is just that: a catalog of those games. There is little in the way of description beyond the very basics, with just the occasional opinion of the games, for the majority of the entries. And while it promises images, there are way too few screen captures from the games. With so little description more visuals would have been great. As a historical record of the video games in this category, it's adequate, but doesn't serve as much more than that.