The novelization of Willow is pretty good, in that it manages to give some actual depth to an otherwise forgettable film. Between that and the NES game, I feel like Willow broke the Adaptation Curse by somehow itself being ehh it was okay I guess enough that licensed games/books/etc. somehow wrapped around the other side and became great like some kind of weird buffer overflow glitch.

Unless "the actual original movie is the worst part of the EU" is just the George Lucas effect in action, I guess.