Television shows have always been a no-brainer when it comes to game development: if the show is popular, most likely the game will be as well. Numerous beloved TV shows were adapted into NES games including cartoons (Ducktales, Darkwing Duck), game shows (Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune), and even live action dramas (Knight Rider, Mission Impossible).
However, Nintendo also released some TV-based games that were somewhat more perplexing choices. Whether because the show hadn't been on for years or because the it only lasted a season or two, many of those cartridges are as obscure as their source materials.
10 Remote Control
Remote Control first aired on MTV in 1987 and was presented as an edgy alternative to more conventional game shows. The whole set looked like a teenager's basement, contestants sat in lounge chairs, and occasionally men in gorilla masks would drag people away. It was silly and irreverent, helping to launch the careers of Colin Quinn and Adam Sandler.
The NES adaptation is a fairly straight forward trivia game: choose a category, ring in to answer the question, rinse and repeat. The developers clearly wanted to integrate the show's humor and as such included jokes before and after EVERY question, followed by a shot of the contestants reacting. Unfortunately, it's pretty tedious and it makes an already slow-paced game a bore to play.
9 James Bond Jr.
This animated spinoff follows the nephew of James Bond as he balances high school life with thwarting international, dastardly plots. So if Bond isn't his father, how is he a junior? Was James Bond's brother also named James? The theme song explains it succinctly "He learned the game from his uncle James/now he's heir to the name JAAAAAMES BOND!" Good enough!
James Bond Jr. is an action adventure game where the player navigates a maze of platforms in order to disable a rocket. The jumping is moon-gravity style which makes precise platforming very difficult and James' weapon is ever so weak requiring ten shots, requiring ten shots to kill someone. On top of that, disabling the rocket requires James to solve those annoying grid puzzles where the image is all mixed up. These are already difficult it real life and near impossible with an NES controller.
8 Gilligan's Island
The classic sitcom about seven people living on a deserted island ran from 1964-1967 and even spawned three made for TV movies including the bizarre crossover The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island.
The 1990 NES adaptation, Adventures of Gilligan's Island, is one of those cryptic "where do I go next" games. There are tons of diverging paths and underground levels but no clear context of where to go, what to look for, or even how to escape certain areas. The player controls the Skipper, who has a punch attack but since most of the enemies are small animals too short to hit, it's totally ineffective. Gilligan tags along and the two occasionally trade dialogue from the show, but Gilligan does absolutely nothing but fall down repeatedly.
7 Wacky Races
Hanna-Barbera created a number of iconic characters and long running cartoon series. Several of their most famous shows received Nintendo adaptations including The Jetsons, and The Flintstones. Despite only running for one season in 1968, Wacky Races managed to join their rarified company with an NES title of its own... 23 years later .
At a guess, Wacky Races for NES would have to be a R.C. Pro Am style racer right? Well surprise, it's another platformer. While Wacky Races is actually a pretty fun playthrough with multiple paths to choose, upgradeable weapons, colorful graphics, and catchy music, it's a needle in a haystack of similar NES games.
6 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
After the final installation of the Indiana Jones film trilogy (yes trilogy), George Lucas and company decided to produce an Indiana Jones TV show. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles focuses primarily on the exploits of a teenage version of Indiana and featured a plethora of notable guest stars including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Daniel Craig, and even Harrison Ford.
The NES adaptation is a surprisingly good action game featuring tight controls, multiple useable items, and varied level design. The player controls Indy as he encounters various historical figures while chasing treasure around the world. The story is done especially well, utilizing mid-stage cutscenes to carry on the plot, sort of like a mini episode of the TV series.
5 The Lone Ranger
Before the most recent 2013 film adaptation featuring Johnny Depp in brown-face, The Lone Ranger had appeared in numerous radio shows, television series, and films dating back to 1933. The American icon received only on video game adaptation which was released by Konami in 1991.
Quite possibly one of the most overlooked titles on the NES, The Lone Ranger is classic Konami packed with great gameplay, stellar presentation, and an impressive soundtrack. It's an action RPG hybrid following the eponymous Ranger exploring the old west to find the bad guys who murdered his buddies. Also, for some reason, there's ninjas. Neat!
4 Dragon Power
It's strange to think that there was ever a time that Dragon Ball was an unknown in America. The sequel, Dragon Ball Z, didn't appear on Cartoon Network's Toonami block until ten years after the series first aired. As such, when a Dragon Ball game was released in the US, the developers decided to Americanize it to appeal to an audience completely unfamiliar with the franchise at the time. Ball was changed to Power and Goku was replaced by a generic martial arts guy kicking air.
Featuring subpar graphics, bland gameplay, and repetitive music, Dragon Power was probably better off left in Japan. Despite its simplistic appearance and execution, Dragon Power does a nice job of using cutscenes to incorporate a story into its gameplay. Unfortunately they weren't well proofread.
3 Rollergames
While Roller Derby had been around for quite some time, a short-lived 1989 program tried one last time to revive its television presence. Adding in scripted professional wrestling-style elements, outrageous characters, and a pit full of alligators, Rollergames took the sport and made it extreme. While it only lasted one season, it made enough of an impression on Konami to develop it into a Nintendo game.
Rollergames for NES is not an arena style title like Track and Field or American Gladiators. Instead it plays more like a racing platformer interspersed with beat-em-up style fighting. It's surprisingly well done and does a great job of expounding on the ideas of its source material.
2 Fox's Peter Pan And The Pirates
Peter Pan has been adapted numerous times. There've been plays, tv shows, cartoons, films, biopics, etc. all based on the adventures of Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook. There are actually two NES games based on the series: Hook, from the 1991 film, and Fox's Peter Pan and the Pirates, an animated series which ran for one season and featured Tim Curry as Captain Hook.
The NES adaptation is your typical move to the right platformer. It's also one of the worst titles in the NES library. The music is grating, the controls are awkward, and the graphics are as bland and generic as they come. Unfortunately, Hook isn't much better so Peter's 0 for 2 on the NES.
1 Fun House
Fun House was a kid's game show that aired on Fox from 1988-1991. It was, at its core, a soft rip-off of Nickelodeon's Double Dare, maintaining some of the "kids do gross stuff" portions while upping the ante on the obstacle courses. Unlike clean-cut Marc Summers, Fun House host J.D. Roth sported the most impressive mullet ever to be broadcast. It's a marvel to behold.
Of course, the most obscure licensed title is also one of the worst. Fun House is an overhead view "race against the clock" game where each level requires the player to touch or shoot a certain number of targets. While overly simplistic in level design and scope, the true killer is the slippery controls which feel like frantically pushing a shopping cart where the wheels have been replaced with soap.