Edge of Tomorrow
Above: You get a good sense of the battlefield after dying a couple of times.
How does it tie into the film?
The movie was basically one big video game anyway, so it’s not surprising to see a portion of it recreated on iOS and Android devices as a free download. This version of Edge of Tomorrow is a first-person shooter set on the same battlefield where William Cage learned to fight the aliens through gruesome trial-and-error experiences. When you die, you come back right away, and the game uses colored outlines to point out where and how you died.
Is it worth your time?
Edge of Tomorrow builds on the film’s Groundhog Day-esque idea in a neat way, but it isn’t worth the hassle. The game didn’t start up at all on my iPhone 4S. I could at least play it on an old iPad, but it kept crashing when I died. If I had Cage’s time-traveling powers, I’d go back to a happier time … to the days when I didn’t know this game existed.
Grade: F
How To Train Your Dragon 2
Above: The developers found a way to make dragons feel boring.
How does it tie into the film?
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, 3DS) barely captures the adventurous spirit of the movie. Hiccup and his Nightfury dragon Toothless are here and so are the rest of the main cast and their dragon pals. And you get to fly around the village of Berk and the large mountain range behind it. But you can’t explore the new regions from the film or take part in any of the huge battles. It’s just you, your dragon, and a hideous looking island.
Is it worth your time?
If you came out of How to Train your Dragon 2 thinking “It’d be awesome to ride a dragon!” (like I did), the game will completely change your mind in the first 10 minutes. That’s when you realize that it’s nothing more than a loosely connected series of awful races and shooting minigames. Stick to the TV show if you need your dragon fix.
Grade: F
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark
Above: Grimlock deserves a much better game.
How does it tie into Transformers: Age of Extinction?
This is a weird one. Most of Rise of the Dark Spark (PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, 3DS, PC) occurs in the same universe as developer High Moon Studios’s Cybertron games, which take inspiration from the original 1980s Transformers cartoon. But Rise also borrows characters from director Michael Bay’s film, complete with the sharp, angular robot designs that look like they’d eviscerate you if you so much as bump into them. The game tries to establish that both Transformers brands belong to the same continuity.
Is it worth your time?
The question that kept popping in my head when I was playing was “Why? Why connect two totally different storylines with such a drab shooter?” I like the movies just fine — the CG fights always offset the obnoxiously long running times — but Age of Extinction’s presence doesn’t make much sense here.
Grade: C-
Plague Inc: Evolved
Above: Play on easy mode if you want to watch the world crumble in mere minutes.
How does it tie into Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?
Ndemic Creations’s epidemic simulator (available on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android) has been around for a few years already, making the partnership with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes actually kind of clever. In Plague Inc., you can start spreading the “Simian Flu” right from the beginning. It starts off with mundane symptoms and a low rate of infection, but as you evolve the disease with new upgrades — you can never go wrong with explosive diarrhea — humans will gradually die out.
Like the movies, the disease has one cool side effect: creating intelligent apes. Once you find an efficient way for the Simian Flu to spread from ape to ape, you can start building colonies, sabotage research facilities, and go to war with the humans.
Is it worth your time?
Eradicating most of the human population isn’t as easy as the film would have you believe. You only have so many points to spend, so it’s a constant balancing act of either strengthening the disease or turning the apes into skilled warriors. It’s a thrill to watch your devilish creations spread all over the world while the humans frantically search for a cure (if they succeed, it’s game-over).
Grade: A
Hercules: The Official Game
Above: Surprise! The Nemean Lion wasn’t actually a real lion.
How does it tie into Hercules?
Hercules (the movie) glosses over most of the hero’s legendary 12 Labors, dangerous tasks where he fought mystical creatures like the Hydra and Cerberus. Glu Games’s Hercules (for iOS and Android) attempts to fill in those gaps through a series of 1-on-1 battles, with each level leading up to a boss fight. But your polygonal Hercules doesn’t look like actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at all — the developers went for the “generic white guy” approach — and the game is missing one crucial element from the live-action adventure: humor.
Is it worth your time?
It’s a clunkier version of the Infinity Blade series. You have to go through dozens of tedious battles to earn money so you can buy new gear and fight the challenging bosses. One of the only things that kept me going was to see how ridiculous the bad guys’ names could get. I couldn’t resist fighting people who call themselves “Myles the Tormentor” or “Death Angel Thanatos.”
Grade: D