A subtrope of Licensed Game in which the license is added to a new version of an existing video game franchise, either a Sequel or an Updated Re-release. The title of the game generally includes the names of both franchises in order to grab the attention of both fanbases. In addition to updating the graphics, setting, and story to accommodate the new license, the game developers usually create brand new levels and an extra gameplay mechanic or two to entice players into picking up this one too.
This trope differs from Dolled-Up Installment where the new license completely supplants the work's original context. That trope also covers situations in which localizing a game for another region includes adding, removing, or replacing licenses.
To make an analogy with licensed board games: The Board Game is to Themed Stock Board Game as Licensed Game is to License-Added Game.
When both franchises have an established cast, the result may include a Crossover. A Massive Multiplayer Crossover is similar in combining two or more franchises, though typically marketed as an original concept instead of belonging to one of the represented series.
Examples
- All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.. is essentially an officially-licensed hack of Super Mario Bros., based on a Japanese radio program and published by Fuji Television.
- The Angry Birds franchise has done this three (maybe four, depending how you look at it) times so far:
- Angry Birds Rio is a Crossover with the CGI film Rio in which the protagonists of both works team up to escape Rio de Janeiro.
- Angry Birds Star Wars plays the angle of Universal-Adaptor Cast as Star Wars roles, featuring the birds as the Rebels and the pigs as the Empire.
- Angry Birds: Transformers has the birds and the pigs don Transforming Mecha from the Transformers franchise (the birds are the Autobirds and the pigs are the Deceptihogs) and for a first in the series has the birds actually walk from point A to point B destroying the pigs on the screen. "Leave the slingshot at home - this time you got REAL firepower!"
- Angry Birds Epic has had crossover events with Puzzle & Dragons and Sonic Dash.
- Bloons Adventure Time TD is a game in the Bloons Tower Defense series featuring characters from Adventure Time.
- DanceDanceRevolution includes a few tie-in titles with Disney characters, shows, and songs:
- Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix (2000-2001, Arcade & PlayStation)
- Dance Dance Revolution Disney Channel Mix (2008, PlayStation 2)
- Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves (2009, Wii)
- Also on the subject of DDR is Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix, a 2005 GameCube title featuring both classic Super Mario Bros. tunes and classical melodies, combined with Mario characters and environments.
- Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots, a game of Fruit Ninja featuring elements from Puss in Boots (2011).
- Hanagumi Taisen Columns is a Columns game featuring characters from Sakura Wars.
- Haro no Puyo Puyo features characters from Mobile Suit Gundam.
- LEGO City Undercover is an inversion, copying the mechanics and style of the LEGO Adaptation Games minus the "adaptation" of a non-LEGO franchise.
- Magical Tetris Challenge is Tetris with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pete.
- Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series of Roguelikes has subseries featuring characters from Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Pokémon, as well as one-off releases based on Gundam, TwinBee, The Tower of Druaga, and Etrian Odyssey. Oh, and one subseries of entirely original characters: Shiren the Wanderer.
- Rock Band did this a couple of times with band-centric releases:
- The Beatles: Rock Band
- Green Day: Rock Band
- LEGO Rock Band (also a LEGO Adaptation Game)
- Konami did this many times over with their Match-Three Game Taisen Puzzle-dama, using characters from pop'n music, Tokimeki Memorial, TwinBee, Chibi Maruko-chan, Mirumo de Pon! and Tsuyoshi Shikkari Shinasai.
- Temple Run: Brave is a rerelease of Temple Run to promote the Disney film Brave, going from tropical jungles to foggy forests and adding archery targets for bonus point opportunities.
- Tingle's Balloon Fight is the current page image for Dolled-Up Installment, designed as a parody of that trope, but the actual execution falls under here: the original Balloon Fight pedigree shows clearly alongside the added themes from The Legend of Zelda.
- Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition for the Nintendo DS and SpongeBob Diner Dash for mobile phones.
- Broforce has a free DLC campaigned based on The Expendables 3 called Expendabros.
- Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition for the Nintendo 3DS.
- Pepsi Invaders was a hack of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 with Coca-Cola branding, replacing the aliens with P-E-P-S-I letters. 125 copies were produced and given to Coca-Cola executives at a sales convention, making this one of the rarest video games of all time.
- In the heyday of the Famicom, several Japanese noodle companies got in on this act, producing special branded rereleases of popular Famicom games with changed sprites and some minor gameplay differences that were generally given out as competition prizes. These include Kaettekita Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda Charumera, and Gradius Archimedes Hen. (There was also All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros., which tied in with a late-night talk show instead.) These were parodied in Retro Game Challenge, where the unlockable game Rally King SP is a special version of a Driving Game already presented in the game that's sponsored by the fictional Cup o' Chicken Noodle.
- Puzzle Quest has had several games released with additional licenses, including from Marvel, Adventure Time and Magic: The Gathering.
- Among the many mobile phone editions of the Japanese card game Daifugou are ones themed after Breath of Fire and Sonic The Hedgehog.
