Current Events > Why were King Kong video games so rare?

(+) Yeah! (+)

He had a Donkey Kong ripoff on Atari, a movie tie-in during the PS2 era, and a Japan-exclusive NES game. That's it. He's been parodied or otherwise referenced in Donkey Kong, Rampage, Primal Rage, Bart's Nightmare, and a buncha other games.

Why is it that a giant gorilla who battles dinosaurs, destroys villages and cities, and climbs buildings to fight airplanes has received so few video games over the years? Clearly, he's good enough to influence a number of video games. Why didn't he ever star in his own?

Probably because it's easier to just come up with your own iteration with tons of creative freedom, rather than paying fees just to use a name that would heavily restrict what you can do with the game.

Okay, yeah. That makes sense.

I do kinda wonder why the King Kong Lives game was a Japanese exclusive though. If nothing else, one would think there'd still be a shameless movie tie-in for the one film that came out during that era.

War of the Monsters was pretty fucking cool and probably the only game that did the whole "gigantic city wrecking monster" thing justice.
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There was one in the PS2 era that was pretty good..but extremely short and lack of content
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there's Rampage
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I mentioned that one. It's not an official King Kong game.

As a kid, I heard that Rampage was a game where you could play as Godzilla or King Kong. I was a little disappointed to find it featured George and Lizzy instead. It's all good though.