24
Stern, 2009
Barb Wire
Gottlieb, 1996
Big Hurt
Gottlieb, 1995
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Stern, 2008
No Fear: Dangerous Sports
Williams, 1995
Q*Bert's Quest
Gottlieb, 1983
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Stern, 2004
RollerCoaster Tycoon
Stern, 2002Not necessarily the worst games, but which one(s) would you say were the worst "let's license THAT!" games?
1. Waterworld
2. Gladiators (only because this was supposed to be Zelda!!)
3. Rollergames (which is actually a great game!)
4. Barb Wire
5. Johnny Mneumonic (and yet no Matrix)
I'm curious about Waterworld's history..my guess is that it was in production before the movie came out...because no one, after seeing that, would agree to sink money into it.
That being said - the movie is a guilty pleasure of mine.
Q-bert would be my vote.
Big buck hunter would have been a hit as Duck Dynasty if the timing was right.
Sales wise -csi one of the lowest production numbers out there seems it would have been popular.
Ben - as you know RCT outsold both of those combined.
Ben rework the dummy and someone change the call outs....other than that RCT is a fun game.
Quoted from asay:Wrestlemania
20+ year trend, still going strong. Just like all the others in the opening post, right? 
I'd definitely cast another vote for Wrestlemania.
Even Trudeau himself said in his interview that it was the response the game got.
Wheel of Fortune is just bizarre. The game is fun, but that theme being chosen had to be the result of some sort of drunken bet. Or maybe some bored designers at Stern trying to test the limits of what Gary will approve.
24 is kind of a weird one. Everytime I think of it I think of Keifer Sutherland screaming like in that Professor Brothers cartoon.
The cool thing about pinball is that the themes that may have been terrible movies, shows, video games, etc., sometimes still work well as a machine.
I've never played it, so for all I know it could be a great game, but I can't believe someone actually said "You know what would be a great theme for a pinball machine? Phantom of the Opera!!!".
Quoted from Strange:South Park
The World of Warcraft episode is awesome but for the most part this show goes too far with it's shock value.
I don't think South Park works. I admit the theme was poorly executed, but has been a highly popular show for many years.
My vote is No Fear. That was a weird trend where people put the stickers on their car and wore the t-shirts. I was surprised to see it was also a pinball theme.
Rollergames - not bad integration or even a bad theme to pick for pinball, but pretty weird that it's a license at all. Late 80s TV show that ran for one season.
- Demolition Man
- Road Show (I don't think anyone knows about Carlene Carter anymore)
- Maverick
- Big Hurt
- Congo
Quoted from Razorbak86:20+ year trend, still going strong. Just like all the others in the opening post, right?
Haha well I was MOSTLY trolling. I get that it is massively popular, but I'm not sure how much the WWE fan base overlaps with pinheads. It feels like stern doesn't completely grasp the fact that the market has shifted from operators to home use.
Quoted from Law:Rollergames - not bad integration or even a bad theme to pick for pinball, but pretty weird that it's a license at all. Late 80s TV show that ran for one season.
But roller derby was popular for around 20 years while I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. Nothing like wrestling but still has a nostegic factor for me. I think it was mainly popular in the northeast.
Quoted from ek77:No Fear non license but WPT license sucks
I don't think the license sucks so much as the art and music/callouts. Game play and rules are great though. I really wanna get some new music in mine with pinbrowser
Quoted from seshpilot:2. Gladiators (only because this was supposed to be Zelda!!)
Is this true? Oh man, a Zelda pin is an incredible melding of my couch gaming and my standing upright gaming! hahaha
Quoted from luckymoey:But roller derby was popular for around 20 years while I was growing up in the 70's and 80's. Nothing like wrestling but still has a nostegic factor for me. I think it was mainly popular in the northeast.
Roller Derby is still pretty popular - there are something like 400+ active leagues in the Women's Flat Track Derby association right now. Austin gets pretty big crowds out to both the flat track and banked track derby during the season. I also think derby is a great theme for pinball.
I just thought it was weird that *any* show that only ran for one season before being cancelled got licensed. Compare that to say, Gilligan's Island, Twilight Zone, X-Files, Stargate, Star Trek, etc. These are all multi-season and even multi-series shows with some movies sprinkled in. I guess Firefly would be an exception to a one-season TV theme that it seems like people would be into, but that's a pretty unique example.
Quoted from RichmanBri:Is this true? Oh man, a Zelda pin is an incredible melding of my couch gaming and my standing upright gaming! hahaha
They did mention on the most recent PAPAtv broadcast that gladiators was intended to be Zelda-themed. Makes sense with the pyramids, bosses, and weapon collecting. I feel like I've heard that somewhere else as well.
You would think video game integration would be awesome, but Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man are... meh. Haven't played Q*Bert's Quest. Gladiators looks like a fun game.
Quoted from pinballpete:Gilligan's Island always seemed wierd to me.
It doesn't get much love at all, but for some reason I really enjoy it.
- Big Buck Hunter, it's based on the video shooter.
- CSI
- Sharkey's Shootout
- Lost in Space .. not a great movie
- Frank Thomas' Big Hurt
- Pink Panther
- Hollywood Heat - not licensed but obviously meant to look like Miami Vice
- Mario Andretti
- The Shadow
- Demo man
- Popeye
- Rocky and Bullwinkle
Quoted from benheck:To really qualify, the theme should have no relevance in present day.
I could have a lot of fun with this.
Quoted from benheck:Is WPT still a big thing?
I don't know that WPT is as relevant as it once was(I do think it's still on TV quite often but lesser networks), but poker is still pretty relevant and if you play or own WPT you can pretend it's just poker and get away with a bad theme.
Quoted from benheck:Is WPT still a big thing?
It certainly was about 10 years ago, so much that even James Bond started playing Texas Hold 'Em
Definitely not what it was in the mid 2k's, but I still see it on TV, and the logo is everywhere when I go to the casino.
South Park was one of SEGA's big sellers, and the tv show was huge world wide hit at the time.
I would probably pick Space Jam
Quoted from Kineticross:- Big Hurt
You mean the Baseball Hall of Fame Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas?
Not quite what I would call trendy... turns out he may have been one of the cleanest guys to come out of that era and put up some legendary numbers.
If anything, that License is going to look pretty damn slick as it ages.
Quoted from Wolfmarsh:If we are including movies, Starship Troopers might qualify.
That movie is a cult classic. It was so good it spun off three or four horrendous sequels and several decent cartoons. It is not in the same ballpark as some of the others mentioned here in my opinion.
Quoted from o-din:WPT is still more current than the last four rock pins and several of the up and coming movie titles.
The year Rolling Stones was put out they were the largest grossing tour more relevant then a flash in the pan WPT
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/worst-trendy-pinball-licenses and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Rutland, VT
Villejuif
Gilligan's Island
