Celebrities appear in video gamesall the time, either through voice-acting or with characters modeled on their likeness, but putting their name in the game’s title is another step entirely. Not only can it be seen as a concrete endorsement of the game itself, but in many cases, it means that the celebrity in question has actually had major input on the creative process.
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This has become standard practice for many sports games, as whoever is considered the top player at the time of the game’s release often lends their name to the title. Golf games were synonymous with Tiger Woods for over a decade, andTony Hawk’s Pro Skaterbrought skateboarding games into the mainstream. On the other hand, some celebrity endorsements make little sense, or they’re involved in fields you wouldn’t normally expect to see in video games.
10Britney Spears: American Dream & Dance Beat
Britney Spears started out by being part ofBritney’s Dance Beat, a rhythm game that was released in 2002. It was a pretty basic take on the genre that is often regarded as one ofthe worst celebrity endorsements ever. Then in 2016, Glu Mobile developedBritney Spears: American Dream, a free-to-play mobile game that allows fans to role-play as one of her friends on the rise to super-stardom.
This game doesn’t do anything groundbreaking either, but it wasn’t as badly received as her original venture into video games.
9The Mary-Kate and Ashley Series
The Olsen twins were one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons of the late 90s and early 00s, and they were deeply involved with video games at the time. From 1999 to 2002, they put their name to nine video games that were released across five different consoles and the PC.
The reviews for each release were almost universally negative, and the games were released quickly in order to capitalize on their fame while it was at its height. As a result, the games all sold well regardless of how they actually played.
850 Cent: Bulletproof And Blood On The Sand
Rappers have a long history of being associated with video games, and theDef Jamseries gave many of them their first appearances. 50 Cent decided to go in a different direction when he decided to team up with Genuine Games in 2005 for50 Cent: Bulletproof, an action game with a surprisingly interesting storyline, even if the actual gameplay was lacking.
He decided to be part of a sequel in 2008,50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, that improved upon the original even though it didn’t sell particularly well.
7What’s Cooking? With Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef who is perhaps best known for being a driving force behind changing the diet of schoolchildren in the UK. In 2008, Atari Europe publishedWhat’s Cooking? With Jamie Oliverfor the Nintendo DS to generally bad reviews. It was a food preparation video game that featured a cookbook for players to use as well, all set to the backdrop of Oliver’s narration.
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The endorsement made sense, and the idea could have worked, but the execution was poor, andthe best cooking gamesto be released since have been much more well-received.
6Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon & Trump Castle Trilogy
Long before Donald Trump was ever the President of the United States, he was one of many celebrities to lend his name to video games. He was actually very early in the world of celebrity video game endorsements withTrump Castle, a series of three gambling games that were released between 1989 and 1993.
In 2002, Activision Value publishedDonald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon, a business management simulator that was functionally similar to other Tycoon games released at the time. It wasn’t amongthe best Tycoon games, but it wasn’t the worst either.
5The Spice Girls In Spice World
Spice Worldwas released at the height of the Spice Girls' fame in 1998, and it sold out in the UK shortly after its release. The gameplay was modeled around the success thatParappa The Rapperfound, but the execution was significantly worse than whatPlayStation’s iconic docmanaged.
The girl band broke up a few years after the game was released, and one of their former members returned to the video game world when she released an exercise game,Get Fit with Mel B, in 2010.
4Buzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space & Space Program Manager
Buzz Aldrin is one of a handful of people in history who have been to the moon, and he’s had a hand in sci-fi games thanks to that experience. Fans might think of thesmall cameo that he madeinMass Effect 3, but Aldrin also had a much bigger role in video games long before that.
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In 1993 he was a huge part ofBuzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space, a turn-based strategy game for MS-DOS that remains popular with fans to this day. It even spawned a spiritual successor,Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager, released in 2014.
3Omar Sharif On Bridge
Omar Sharif was one of the most popular Egyptian film stars who ever lived, and he was also one of the world’s best bridge players. Because of that, he lent his name to a 1992 video game based on it. There have been a ton ofgreat card gamesreleased as video games in the past, butOmar Sharif on Bridgewas not anywhere near as innovative as those.
Sharif’s face was on the cover of the game, and his voice is the one that gives players advice as they learn to play the classic card-game bridge.
2Katy Perry & Sims 3
There have been several great expansion packs forSimsgames over the years, and some have even had celebrities involved. Popstar Katy Perry was brought in to promote theSims 3: Showtimeexpansion pack initially before releasing the Katy Perry Collector’s Edition and giving her name to the stuff packKaty Perry’s Sweet Treatsin 2012. Both releases added aspects of her Teenage Dream album into the game.
While neither one is among thebestSimsexpansion packs, they are both perfectly good additions to the base game, and fans were generally pleased with the product.
1Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalkeris one of the most commonly-cited examples of celebrity video game endorsement, often because it’s one of the most unusual. The 1990 beat ‘em-up game was developed by Sega and based on the film of the same name that Jackson starred in two years earlier. It featured the popstar using dancing and magic to defeat criminals and rescue kidnapped children.
The game was a success both in arcades and on home consoles, sparking a long partnership between Jackson and Sega that led to his appearance in and involvement with several other video games that they developed.
