50 Worst Movie Videogames

Austin Powers Pinball

The Movie: Mike Myers' catchphrase-filled comedy trilogy about an innuendo-loving 1960s spy defrosted - along with brother/nemesis Dr Evil - in the 1990s.

The Game Version: Two pinball games based on International Man Of Mystery and The Spy Who Shagged Me . Supposedly, there's a plot but really it’s a case of whacking the ball around for as long as possible.

Worst Element: No number of Austin's catchphrases can atone for the fact that these films have very little (ie nothing) to do with pinball.

Last Action Hero

The Movie: A bold attempt to drag Arnie's meathead action into the postmodern 1990s that managed to frustrate fans of both.

The Game Version: Reasonably faithful - but do meta-jokes translate to a game? This is an action game that doesn't offer enough variety of action to excite.

Worst Element: The developers forgot to add a 'continue' function, meaning that the only way to finish the thing is to complete it in a single run without losing all of your lives.

Tomorrow Never Dies

The Movie: Pierce Brosnan's sophomore outing as 007, battling Jonathan Pryce's Rupert Murdoch-a-like media mogul from his remote controlled BMW.

The Game Version: The same plot, chiefly retold by shooting things.

Worst Element: The decision to replace the acclaimed first-person shooter of the Goldeneye game with a less exciting third-person style.

Plan 9 From Outer Space

The Movie: Ed Wood's notorious no-budget sci-fi thriller, infamous for replacing late star Bela Lugosi with the director's wife's chiropractor.

The Game Version: In a typically 1990s piece of postmodernism, the player has to find missing footage of Lugosi "stolen" by Lugosi's double. As the packaging explained, "Using actual digitized film footage, you'll sweat each scene, examining Plan 9 with slow motion, freeze frame, fast forward and rewind. It's up to you to preserve its original awfulness."

Worst Element: The concept, based entirely on the film's reputation as a trash masterpiece, is meant to be affectionate but comes across as mean.

Space Jam

The Movie: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and pals enlist the help of Michael Jordan to save the Looney Tunes from alien capture by winning a game of basketball.

The Game Version: A typical side-to-side basketball game with toon characters, interspersed with kid-friendly games such as collecting water bottles for Jordan.

Worst Element: The Looney Tunes squad is twelve deep (including a real-life NBA All-Star). The alien Monstars have only five players. Bit unfair in a two-player game, really.

Saw

The Movie: The Noughties' defining horror franchise, in which terminally ill killer Jigsaw (and, later, his disciples) set violent puzzles to teach victims the value of life.

The Game Version: You're a cop dropped into a booby-trapped asylum on Jigsaw's tail, while avoiding inmates who have been instructed to kill you. Traps designed by series creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan; combat by Generic Video Game Developers.

Worst Element: Given that the storyline received much praise, it's a shame it frequently descends into dull action.

The Hunt For Red October

The Movie: Russian-Scottish sub commander Sean Connery goes AWOL, nearly kickstarting World War Three despite the film coming out the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Game Version: With no room for the nuances of political diplomacy in a tie-in game, this opts for the path of least resistance by putting you in charge of the sub to hunt down enemy ships.

Worst Element: With respect, submarines are the most exciting things to steer. Just point towards a slow-moving boat, load a torpedo and fire.

Evil Dead: Hail To The King

The Movies: Sam Raimi's energetic horror-comedy trilogy in which unlikely hero Ash (Bruce Campbell) suffers after releasing dark forces from the Necronomicon.

The Game Version: This Resident Evil clone drops the humour in favour of chainsaw-cutting action but throws so many Deadites at Ash it becomes a slog to get to the finishing line.

Worst Element: Fixed 'camera' perspectives give an appropriately cinematic vision but make it difficult to work out how to attack undead opponents.

Blues Brothers 2000

The Movie: Belated, Belushi-less sequel to the ultimate Mission from God movie that doesn't come close to the original's car-crashing, soul-singing, shades-wearing majesty.

The Game Version: Released two years after a film that barely dented the box office, but it's hard to see what caused the delays given the overly simplistic 'reunite the band to play a gig' gameplay.

Worst Element: Brevity. Seasoned gamers can complete the entire thing in under two hours.

The Smurfs Dance Party

The Movie: CGI modernisation of the classic Belgian cartoon, in which the three-apple-high blueskins are marooned in Manhattan.

The Game Version: Nothing to do with the film beyond character designs, really. Instead, it's a smurfing smurf-ful adaptation of the existing game, Just Dance .

Worst Element: The track listing includes such atrocities as I Like To Smurf It , a Smurfed-up version of I Like To Move It .