In the early 2000s, Peter Jackson accomplished the impossible and successfully adapted Tolkien ‘s books into cinematic mannequin. With the exception of Ralph Bakshi ‘s ambitious but uneven animated film, Jackson was the only early director who believed that such a project could be carried out without producing a sum embarrassment. Packed with fantastic creatures and funny story Welsh-sounding names, Jackson crafted a saga that can be appreciated equally by those who worship or ignore Tolkien ‘s series. The Lord of the Rings is the living shape of the discussion epic, so any businesslike adaptation must be able to translate that common sense of scale and wonder captured then effortlessly on the page .
related : 10 Pokemon Who Resemble Lord Of The Rings Characters
Over the years, many developers have attempted to enter Mordor, but the road is littered with the defeated and broken. Amidst a sea of crazy cash-ins and bum mobile scheme titles, a handful of in truth antic games have graced our presence. There are plenty of contenders for the best overlord of the Rings video game of all time, but which claim ranks as the greatest ?
Update April 7, 2021 by Mark Sammut: Tolkien ‘s stories are dateless. With each passing class, more and more people fall in love with The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, be it through the books or evening the movies. once person immerses themselves in the reservoir corporeal, they will naturally be left wanting more, and there is no better direction to embrace this universe than to actually participate in it. While The Lord of the Rings : Gollum has even to come out, there are plenty of early LOTR games on the market. A couple of titles have even been released since 2018 .
32 The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies – Fight For Middle Earth
Fueled by Peter Jackson ‘s return to Middle-earth, The Hobbit birthed a skid of free-to-play mobile games. Developed and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, The hobbit : Battle of the Five Armies – Fight for Middle-earth failed to improve on any of the series ‘ former iterations, delivering a thoroughly barebones and frustrating experience that is not worth the data .
Despite looking like a scheme crippled, Fight for Middle-earth scantily allows players to exert any control over the proceedings. Besides the hideous visuals and clunky liveliness, this free-to-play shovelware has some of the ugliest environments on the android store .
THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY
31 The Lord Of The Rings: Legends Of Middle-Earth
If a license is democratic adequate, the mobile picture will be blessed with a turn-based RPG that presents fans with an opportunity to collect their darling characters as cards. While this music genre is preferably overstuff, titles like One Piece Treasure Cruise offer adequate thrills to be deserving checking out .
unfortunately, Kabam’s The Lord Of The Rings : Legends Of Middle-Earth sits among the more forgettable entries. Grinding is the writing style ‘s cornerstone. If done right, picking up new characters and leveling up old ones can be entertaining. Legends Of Middle-Earth does the diametric of that .
30 Lord Of The Rings: Conquest
Stepping away from the mobile scene, The Lord of the Rings : Conquest took a page from Star Wars : Battlefront, granting the option to follow the path of full or evil. Split into two campaigns, The Final War for Middle-earth sees the Dark Lord reclaiming the call on road to conquering Middle-earth. As an add bonus, Hugo Weaving narrates both storylines .
Alas, battles are not won on paper, so Conquest ‘s matter to ideas are completely wasted in a game barren of any real cashable factors. The sub-par graphics, hapless spell, and severe fight make this among the worst titles to carry the franchise ‘s name .
29 Lords Of The Rings (Text Based Trilogy)
After making a name for itself with 1982’s The Hobbit, Beam Software opted to take a crack at The Lord of the Rings. Split into three curiously coroneted entries, the studio apartment was unable to recapture lightning in a bottle. Whether Beam Software felt overwhelmed by Tolkien ‘s trilogy or just could not get its act together, these entries sustained a obtrusive downgrade from their harbinger .
The Hobbit ‘s dim-witted storyline works effective as a text venture, as the plot allows for far greater room to experiment with interest puzzles. LOTR requires complete focus to efficaciously adapt the narrative .
28 The Hobbit: Armies Of The Third Age
building on The hobbit : Kingdoms of Middle-earth ‘s solid foundations, Kabam returned with another real-time strategy outing that harbors entirely belittled improvement over its harbinger. With three available factions and a solid multiplayer system, The hobbit : Armies of the Third Age delivers a absolutely serviceable experience capable of scratching anyone ‘s Tolkien urge .
associate : 10 Best Medieval Fantasy Strategy Games
due to being a free-to-play mobile game, any actions require an absurd measure of time to reach completion, allowing Kabam to constantly push its premium currentness. Is it awful ? No, but there are better ways to spend an hour .
27 The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug – Orc Attack
Developed by Google and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, The hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug – Orc Attack is a browser bet on that served as an ad for Peter Jackson ‘s moment entry in The Hobbit trilogy. Among its peers, this 2013 title benefits from some absolutely gorgeous backgrounds and character models, but the gameplay gets old quite quickly .
Besides Middle-earth ‘s Superman, gamers can besides play through the levels with Tauriel or Bard, although the combat remains the same regardless of the character. If nothing else, there are a couple of decent paintings hidden inside this average sharpen and snap gunman .
26 J. R. R. Tolkien’s Riders Of Rohan
A downgrade from 1988’s War in Middle Earth, J. R. R. Tolkien ‘s Riders of Rohan rushes through the novels ‘ main plat points, so an encyclopedic understand of the narrative is expected. consequently, Beam Software and Papyrus Design Group ‘s pretense is entirely deserving playing for devoted Tolkien fans, but a adequate time can be had for anyone willing to seek this one out .
The strategy elements are not half-bad, but the player is required to recreate the accurate moments from the bible, so the only way to overcome a crusade is by following a pre-established plan. even though this makes smell for a license product, a strategy plot that lacks personal agency is nothing more than an synergistic mental picture record .
25 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – A Journey through Middle-Earth
Browser games tend to get a bad knock, but there are a carnival few properly titles out there. evening if some are worth a look, we would be distressed to describe any as ambitious. At the bare minimum, Google ‘s The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey – A Journey through Middle-earth warrants praise for being an exception .
Besides a Hero ‘s Journey mood that ( ill ) skims through the journey from the point of view of some iconic characters from The Hobbit and LOTR, A Journey through Middle-earth permits gamers to experience five major battles from the position of both armies .
24 The Hobbit: Kingdoms Of Middle-earth
By 2012, Kabam crafted the arrant recipe for mobile games with building complex but addictive strategy mechanics. scantily anything more than a reskin of Arcane Empires or Trojan War, The hobbit : Kingdoms of Middle-Earth rarely deviates from the studio apartment ‘s run down formula .
After picking between Elves or Dwarves, players set out to build a city and raise an army capable of dominating Middle-earth. Kabam ‘s recipe works well enough, and The Lord of the Rings ‘ coat of key is a welcome change of pace, but this release feels like it was designed by a machine .
23 War In Middle Earth
Published in 1988, this surprisingly robust real-time strategy crippled loyally recreates Tolkien ‘s influential trilogy. Split into massive army battles and smaller-scale character levels, Melbourne House stuffed War in Middle Earth with more than adequate subject to be worthy of the LOTR name .
related : 10 Best PC-Style Strategy Games On Console ( According To Metacritic )
A close repeat of the storyline, the feel hits a rip in the gameplay department, which lacks much in the way of actual strategy. With countless stats flung at the musician, the fight boils down to nothing more than a battle of numbers. In hurt of these criticisms, War in Middle Earth remains impressive for its time menstruation .
22 The Lord Of The Rings Volume 1 & 2
Improving with each passing day, engineering is always in a state of evolution. In comparison with movies or music, gambling has experienced incomputable growth over the last two decades. Despite coming out around the same time as Jurassic Park, Interplay Productions ‘ two The Lord of the Rings games feel absolutely prehistoric ; however, context is vital for any proper criticism .
For its time, J.R.R. Tolkien ‘s The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Vol. II were ambitious role-playing games that shared similarities with Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda. Putting aside the stay SNES larboard that felt outdated right from the starting signal, Interplay Productions about put together a adequate adaptation .
21 The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
With Jackson ‘s movies proving to be a resonant success, three licensed games were released to coincide with their respective movies. The entirely one to not be published by Electronic Arts or feature stimulation from Griptnite Games, 2002’s The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring ‘s main redeem factor was the inclusion of elements from the book which failed to make the movie ‘s concluding cut .
As such, this is about a must-play for those desperate to get the wax setting ; however, if that were the case, we recommend just reading Tolkien ‘s books. While by no means a frightful title, The Fellowship of the Ring is bogged down by insistent battle .
20 The Lord Of The Rings: Middle-Earth Defense
This is it – the first LOTR mobile game. Published in 2010, The Lord of the Rings : Middle-earth defense remains the best and brightest of this by and large underwhelming subset of adaptations. Banking on the loom defense craze, Glu Mobile wisely simplified many of the basic mechanics associated with the music genre .
related : The 10 Most diagrammatically Demanding Android And Mobile Games
In some ways, Middle-earth Defense serves as a fantastic tutorial for anyone seeking to dip their toes into this popular bet on stylus. Split into 18 different stages, it is beyond satisfying to see Gandalf wipe out waves of orcs and dragons .
19 The Lord Of The Rings: Journeys In Middle-earth
Journeys in Middle-earth is not a LOTR video recording plot but a company app for the control panel game with the lapp name. The app ‘s function is to basically serve as a Dungeon Master, so it is an crucial character of the overall experience .
An venture game split into an array of quests, The Lord Of The Rings : Journeys in Middle-earth is one of those rare display panel games that can be effectively played solo. While not for everyone, those interested in board games should consider checking this project out .
18 The Lord Of The Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
Unless the developer is will to make some concessions, fitting all three books into one package would be an absolutely daunting tax. Told from the perspective of a fatherly Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings : Aragorn ‘s Quest recounts the actions of Gondor ‘s future king during the War of the Ring .
Narrating from Aragorn ‘s meet with the Hobbits in Bree to the climactic conflict at the gates of Mordor, Headstrong Games put together a highlight reel based on Jackson ‘s adaptation of Tolkien ‘s novels. With only five moves available to the players, the fight is slenderly excessively simplistic to elevate Aragorn ‘s Quest to anything more than a passable waste of time .
17 The Lord Of The Rings: War Of The Ring
real-time scheme seems to be the writing style of choice for Tolkien ‘s universe, but many titles struggle to find the justly counterweight between authenticity and gameplay. Liquid Entertainment proved its might with 2001 ‘s phenomenal Battle Realms, so the studio apartment should have been the arrant fit for The Lord of the Rings. While War of the Ring is decent enough, the studio did not take enough liberties with the license .
associate : 10 Action Titles That Could Make Great Strategy Games
Split into a good and evil campaign, the former includes a across-the-board rate of allies hailing from the likes of Gondor and Rohan, but the individual groups tend to lack unit variety show. As it stands, War of the Ring is neither a great adaptation nor a memorable strategy game .
16 The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North
In a audacious move, Snowblind Studios decided to stage a Middle-earth adventure around three nobodies who feature in neither Tolkien ‘s novels or Jackson ‘s films. Running parallel to Sauron ‘s siege on Rohan and Gondor, players are tasked with protecting Nordinbad from a formidable Black Númenórean .
With the exception of a couple of cameo, War in the North largely does its own thing, but the hack and slash title can not shake the feel that this story is nothing more than unnecessary filler. Released in stopping point junction with Dark Souls and The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim, War in the North restfully slipped through the cracks .
15 The Hobbit (2003)
If you are going to copy an cerebral property, then The Legend of Zelda is a solid place to start. Released in 2o03 but wholly unrelated to Jackson ‘s trilogy, The Hobbit is a reasonably fun 3D action-adventure game which relies excessively thoroughly on imitating its incontestable inspiration. Controlling Bilbao, players undertake a serial of quests in their journey to defeat Smaug .
With a heavier focus on platforming over action, The Hobbit is way excessively derived function for its own dependable and falls short of even some of the worst entries in The Legend of Zelda franchise .
14 The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game
always since debuting in 2011, The Lord of the Rings : The Card Game has been a basic of the Living Card Game genre. With the game proving popular, it was only a matter of time before a digital adaptation became a reality, and The Lord of the Rings : Adventure Card Game earned its full handout in 2019 .
relate : 10 Card Games No One Remembers
Although not quite deoxyadenosine monophosphate complex as its tabletop counterpart, Adventure Card Game presents a detail and fun front into Tolkien ‘s universe. The cooperative game pits you against Sauron ‘s forces, and the available decks dive far deeper into the lore than just the films. This free is the best LOTR video calling card game by default .
13 The Lord Of The Rings: Tactics
evening if Sony pretends that the PlayStation Vita does not exist, both of the company ‘s hand-held consoles house an range of forget gems worth playing. Just to be clear, The Lord of the Rings : Tactics is barely some ignored masterpiece deserve of adoration, but EA published an adequate turn-based role-playing game anchored in Middle-earth .
Battles are carried out on a power system arrangement that rewards taking a more tactical access than just occasionally downing a health potion, but the PlayStation Portable ‘s limited hardware could only withstand a minor number of units at any given moment. Despite failing to capture the source material ‘s sense of scale, Tactics is still pretty properly .
Harry Potter : Magic Awakened Gives Female Characters O-Face For Using Magic
NetEase called it a wiretap, but others called it a feature .
Read Next
share
pinch
About The Author
Mark Sammut
( 251 Articles Published )
Mark Sammut grew up on the PlayStation 1 and has been playing games ever since, although he is no retentive limited to merely Sony consoles. Be it RPGs, shooters, platformers, or racing games, Mark ‘s area of expertness covers a wide roll of genres and topics. That goes beyond video recording games arsenic well, extending to mediums like zanzibar copal and western film .
More
From Mark Sammut
