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The weirdest celebrity endorsed games ever
Sometimes famous names can turn a game into a franchise. Sometimes it’s clearly just for the money.
Written by Ben Sillis and Jon Partridge
6 min readPublished on
Ronaldo & Hugo: Superstar Skaters
Ronaldo & Hugo: Superstar Skaters© Hugo Games
Celebrities have been endorsing video games since before the era of the Nintendo Entertainment System (Exhibit A: Chuck Norris Superkicks). After all, what self respecting icon would turn down a cheque for having their faces splashed across a box? But sometimes, a star’s face, brand and leverage can give a game much needed credence, or even define a genre: would rally games be the same without Colin McRae, or NFL sims without John Madden? And would skateboarding games even be a thing still without Tony Hawk?
Other times though, these endorsement ring as hollow as one of Jacko’s Fabergé eggs in the Neverland Ranch. We expect this sort of thing from Kim Kardashian or N-Sync, but Ronaldo in a Temple Run knock-off where you jump across the top of limousines? On a skateboard? Who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone to help make that happen? In light of the news of Cristiano Ronaldo’s bizarre new mobile game, we’ve rounded up some of the oddest decisions athletes and actors have made when it comes to getting into games.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo & Hugo: Superstar Skaters
Arch rival Messi seems content just to be the face of the FIFA games, but the world’s vainest footballer had to be just had to one-up him, didn’t he? Naturally, he chose to team up with Hugo the Troll for a newly released iPhone and Android game that sees a preternaturally young version of the forward skateboarding across cars while trying to avoid paparazzi in an utterly illogical endless runner.
"We have no doubt that Hugo the Troll has the potential to become the world's greatest gaming character – especially with Cristiano Ronaldo at his side," explains the developer by way of an excuse for this cynical exercise. If you’re wondering where you’ve seen Hugo before, he’s really big in Denmark, and back in the 1990s was the star of a series of interactive kids’ TV shows where young whippersnappers had to move him around by hitting the keypad on their phone. Not that that explains anything.
Shaq-Fu
Arguably one of the most recognisable basketball players of all time, Shaquille O'Neal capitalised on his fame and huge frame to appear in what many would say is, unfortunately, one of the worst games of all time. Shaq Fu, the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive game (with Game Gear, Game Boy and Amiga versions ports) is a bizarre beat ‘em up where you play as the former NBA giant: you’re tasked with entering another dimension, unleashing martial arts on an evil mummy and rescuing a young boy from certain doom. It’s pretty much the equivalent of shoehorning Wayne Rooney into a new Streets of Rage (which actually sounds pretty good…) – plain silliness with an icon for the sake of shilling a product. Still, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and Shaq’s brand is still yet to dwindle: the former Lakers and Heat star is getting digitised again for a sequel to Shaq Fu, and it doesn’t look half bad. We’re just hoping it erases our memories of playing the original.
Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City
NBA players had clearly had enough of just appearing in boring old basketball games by 1994, as Michael Jordan appeared in a SNES fighting game of his own. Chaos In The Windy City is a side scroller in which you must rescue the stars of an NBA All-Star game who have been abducted by aliens (Yes, this is essentially the plot of Space Jam). To do this, Jordan must use his dunking skills and a series of magical basketballs that shoot fire and ice, consuming packets of Wheaties along the way for a health boost. As you do. Note also that while developer Electronic Arts paid to licence Jordan’s likeness, it couldn’t stretch to the Bulls themselves, who are never mentioned once in the entire game, set in Chicago.
David Beckham, Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure On Soccer Island
Back at the turn of the century, it was the turn of footballers to break out of their own sports sims. After the flop of Michael Owen’s World League Soccer series, David Beckham naturally thought he would have a stab at a colourful 2D Game Boy Advance platformer instead. Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure On Soccer Island tasks you as the former England Captain with the goal of cleaning up Soccer Island, which has been taken over by the dastardly Mr Woe. The game looks like Doki Doki Panic, but the game by Scottish studio Denki has a surprising amount of depth: you can even level up your kicking skills by kicking footballs repeatedly. Which does at least make it more realistic than any of the other games on this list.
Danica Patrick, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed
Just as Mario Kart is stuffed full of Nintendo’s mascots, so Sega’s equivalent stars the likes of Sonic, Tails, Beat from Jet Set Radio, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball and real life IndyCar and NASCAR racing star Danica Patrick. Wait what? Sega must have run out of recognisable faces, for sure enough, the star race driver can be found battling alongside Shenmue’s Ryo in his beloved forklift truck: she’s even more incongruous in the game’s cartoon setting than the Football Manager from Sega’s Football Manager sim.
“I have lots of skills and talents and I shoot balls of flames,” Patrick said in an interview about the game when it was released in 2012, answering all of our questions in one succinct sentence. “I think you need to find out for yourself how awesome I am in the game.” Right, okay then.  
Gary Coleman, Postal 2
The Postal series of games is well known for intentionally being controversial with its high level of violence, politically incorrect humour and sheer grossness, but it’s also known for featuring former child actor Gary Coleman in a cameo role, starring as himself in what sadly turned out to be one of his last ever roles. One of Postal 2’s early objectives has you travelling to a local shopping mall to, for whatever reason, get Coleman’s autograph. Once you arrive, you have one of two choices to make: queue up, wait for what seems like ages and get the autograph peacefully, or you can slaughter the whole line and take the fight to Gary Coleman himself by, er, passing water on him. Whether Coleman realised that or not when he signed on the dotted line, we sadly may never know.
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