Lord of the Rings Video Games, Ranked Worst to Best
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy book series The Lord of the Rings has long been an inspiration for videogame designers, with the first game adaptation (of The Hobbit) arriving in 1982, to be followed by dozens of additional game adaptations over the next four decades. The arrival of Peter Jackson's film trilogy in the early 2000s only accelerated the game industry's rush to put Middle-earth on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices. And the games are still coming, with two new titles released during the first half of 2023 alone.
Some of those games have been well received by critics and gamers alike, while others were far from precious. In the gallery on this page, we rank every Lord of the Rings video game adaptation (of both the books and the films) released in the modern era of gaming, starting in 2002. The games are ranked from worst to best by their Metascores, which reflect the consensus views of professional game critics.
Note that titles must have at least four reviews from professional critics in order to have a Metascore. (That four-review cutoff means that many mobile-only games, including the recently released The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth, are not listed here.) If a game was released on multiple platforms, only the version receiving the highest quantity of critic reviews was eligible for inclusion.
Wii, 2010
also on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2
Few critics enjoyed this kid-friendly action-adventure game from Warner Bros. Interactive, their first LOTR release after taking over the rights to adapt Peter Jackson's film series from Electronic Arts. Sean Astin and Viggo Mortensen are among the actors from those films who reprise their roles in Aragorn's Quest, which begins 15 years later but retells the titular story, with players taking control of Aragorn for most of the game (and Frodo in a smaller portion).
Note that the version of Aragorn's Quest released on PS2 is almost different enough to be considered another game altogether (though it didn't receive many reviews, so it does not have a Metascore of its own). That version features different gameplay modes, camera angles, and levels and incorporates more RPG elements than the Wii/PS3 releases.
“Ultimately, it feels almost disrespectful that Tolkien's rich and evocative mythology should be reduced to collecting 'Gandalf Tokens' and bowdlerising one of the 20th century's greatest mythologies. The pity is that that Aragorn's Quest works well enough to prove that LOTR does indeed have the makings of an epic RPG. Unfortunately, this isn't it.” —The Guardian
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