Obviously, considering a game to be generic is still somewhat subjective, but I think there should be at least some truth to it, especially if many people find it so. That said, I'd love to hear what are some of the games you were ultimately disappointed by due to being too"generic". I think the most prominent offenders of these types of games would be movie and TV adaptations since they rarely have to do much because people will still buy the game just for having their favorite characters in it, but fortunately, some are able to go beyond the bottom line and actually are able to put out something unique and decent.
Yes, I have to agree with movies and TV adaptations. Anime adaptations are normally pretty good actually. Still, I've seen several terrible movie-based games that got awful reviews and everyone hated it, like Star Wars Kinect. Then, there's also great ones like Star Wars: KOTOR.
I'd agree on 99% of movie and TV adaptations being terrible with some Star Wars games being the exceptions. However, I'd call those inspired games rather than straight adaptations. Generic games exist in every genre of games imaginable. When a game can't set itself apart from its related games, then it's generic and usually not worth touching. There are so many examples that I don't even want to start listing them. -_-
Add me to the list of people who think games based on movies are generic. A lot of movie/tv games are basically games that are already out with a new skin. Like, I played a Simpsons game that was basically a Grand Theft Auto game with a Simpsons skin. When my daughter was little, she played an XBox game that was basically a Tony Hawk game with a Disney skin where you skated around as Disney characters. Movie/TV games are basically a half assed attempt to cash in quickly on a new movie/TV release. Very few of them have any depth or originality.
I really hate movie based games. They are just not my cup of tea. There are of course some exceptions here, but I don't like movie based games generally.
Oh, most of them are terrible.There's not much original thought to them. They base them on the movies/TV shows and do a slacked off, awful job on the actual gameplay. I would say that they should just stop with the movie adapted games, but that would be unfair to the slim amount of them that are actually good. So, I think they should try harder and make them better.
I think the recent installments of Call of Duty and their campaigns can be called a generic military shooter campaign now. I think those are very generic type of games. I guess when it comes to movie based games, they can be terrible but not generic to say the least. It can have some lore borrowed from the source material. Many people can say that the recent game of Shadow of Mordor could be generic but honestly, I felt that the game was actually quite good and fresh.
I think promo games are also pretty generic. By promo games, I mean the ones that are free giveaways or tie ins. There was a trio of Xbox 360 games that were given away at Burger King years ago and they were so basic that they almost felt like playing tech demos, thought I did find Sneak King slightly amusing.
You can't get more generic than a Call of Duty or a Battlefield, you really know what you're getting into and what kind of boring and bland experience it will be. I'll be off in Nintendo heaven flying with Mario in the meantime...
Tetris games are very generic in my opinion. They add some features and to make it a bit different than the other instalments but in the end, if you remove all the coat of paint, it's pretty generic. I also believe that Street Fighter IV is very generic. They just slapped in cell shaded graphics. However, the game play feels tired and old.
