The 10 Biggest Flops In Video Games

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The 10 Biggest Flops In Video Games; GamePro
Topic Started: Sep 11 2007, 07:53 PM (182 Views)
Winged VoX	Sep 11 2007, 07:53 PM Post #1
The Natural Playboy Posts: 3,793 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: June 21, 2003	The 10 biggest flops in video games Missed deadlines, nasty glitches, and incompetence: This rogue's gallery of games over-promised and under-delivered in a big way. What constitutes a colossal flop? After hours upon hours of research (thanks Google and Wikipedia!), the following games were selected from a pool of mediocrity due to their brazen use of hype, failed expectations, dismal sales, or all of the above. 10. Super Mario Sunshine (2002, GameCube) Posted Image Sunshine, the second-most widely purchased GameCube game, is a classic example of being too successful for one's own good. Despite its solid review scores and commercial success by most standards, Sunshine is a relative flop by Mario standards. It is the only stand-alone game in the series, on any Nintendo platform, that didn't sell more than 10 million copies. Perhaps the idea of cleaning up waste on a vacation island with a big water gun didn't appeal to the usual rank-and-file Mario fans. 9. Psychonauts (2005, multiplatform) Posted Image Surely a highly innovative and well-received game can sell more than a 100,000 copies? Unfortunately, in the case of Psychonauts, the answer was "no." Its lackluster sales were so bad, in fact, that publisher Majesco resolved to no longer develop "big budget" games after netting a loss of $18 million shortly after the game's release. Psychonauts, like Good and Evil, is an exemplar "innovative games that don't make any money" title resulting in the continued release of familiar sequels that do little to advance the medium. For shame. 8. The Getaway (2002, PS2) Posted Image Despite its gargantuan budget, large marketing campaign, and abundant publicity, The Getaway did little to deliver on its promise as an early "Grand Theft Auto killer." Oh, it's ambitions were in the right place -- to faithfully reproduce the entire city of London with insane amounts of detail and zero load times -- but the final game fell way short on its promise. The end product was a meager GTA clone despite its exquisite production and storytelling values. It just forgot its game. 7. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003, PS2, PC) Posted Image What can more modest clothing, improved graphics, and an involving storyline do for Lara Croft on her sixth outing? Utter failure, apparently. Angel of Darkness proved to be the worst-selling and worst-received Tomb Raider of all time based on a reported 1.3 million in sales and an average review score of less than 50 percent. In an effort to meet quarterly financial targets, Eidos rushed the game to market resulting in numerous bugs, janky controls, and a new high-tech setting that saw Lara taking down heavily-armed soldiers. Not a good showing for the buxom beauty, and one that saw the series transferred from creators Core Design to Crystal Dynamics with Tomb Raider Legend. 6. Rise of the Robots (1994, multiplatform) Posted Image Rise of the Robots is one of the worst examples of an overly hyped video game. At a time when fighters ruled the landscape, this contemporary saw an excessive amount of preview coverage leading up to launch. Unfortunately for awaiting gamers, the break-through graphics bombed on arrival due to unbalanced gameplay. Amazingly, a single flying kick was all it took to complete the game. If there ever was a case for gameplay over graphics, Rise of the Robots would be it. 5. Shaq Fu (1994, SNES, Genesis) Posted Image Following in the mediocre footsteps of Rise of the Robots was Shaq Fu, another highly publicized fighter released in 1994. Rather than develop a workable hit detection system for the title with digitized graphics, Electronic Arts opted instead to included an NBA star late in development to help bolster sales. It didn't work. Shaq Fu sold poorly despite the hype and is widely regarded as on of the worst video games of all time due to an insipid back story and awfully offensive controls. 4. Shenmue (2000, Dreamcast) Posted Image Easily one of the most well-received games on our list, Shenmue failed hugely in terms of recouping its overambitious production costs. Upon release, Sega spent a purported (and record) $20 million on development lasting longer than five years. Though it sold well, Sega needed to move four times the normal number of copies to break even given the lavish budget. In fact, every Dreamcast owner would have been required to purchase two copies of the game before Sega made a dime. No game is that good. 3. Pac-Man (1982, Atari 2600) Posted Image Despite being eagerly anticipated, the home version of Pac-Man was anything but a faithful recreation. Due to rushed development, the graphics barely resembled the arcade original, and for some reason the ghosts blinked unnecessarily making it difficult for gamers to avoid them. Though first selling a respectable number of games, unsold inventory and costly marketing proved near-fatal for Atari. Only screwing up a Pong port would be more embarrassing. 2. Daikatana (2000, PC, N64) Posted Image Daikatana is to first-person shooters what Gigli is to film: a gaming debacle. The lead designer, John Romero, was famous for his work on Doom and Quake and even coined the term "deathmatch." So it's no surprise his celebrity status garnered glowing hype and over-the-top advertising for his next big project. Unfortunately, embellishment was all this game had. Massive delays, premature work on a quickly canceled sequel, and enormous company turmoil caused an exodus of most of the Ion Storm development team. Years later, the shooter was released with inferior graphics and wonky gameplay due to rushed design and outdated tech. Despite a few glowing moments in the ancient Greece levels, Daikatana was a lousy game with little appeal beyond its controversial development process. 1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Atari 2600) Posted Image This game failed on so many accounts: gameplay, poor level design, buggy software, rushed delivery, unwarranted hype, and utter commercial failure. Reputedly coded in just six weeks, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was loosely based on the movie of the same name after Atari struck a deal with Steven Spielberg. It was expected to sell millions, but according to Atari's CEO, "nearly all of them came back." So much excess inventory remained, that the company coffined the cartridges in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico. If there was ever a reason for Atari's downfall and the video game crash of 1983, this would be it: the greatest flop in video game history. Honorable Mentions Lower-profile games that still flopped. Advent Rising (Xbox, Windows) Posted Image Another bad break for Majesco, Advent Rising was, in some ways, the failed younger sibling of Bioware's 2007 RPG Mass Effect. Both games are part of a planned trilogy, share an epic galaxy-altering plot, and a massive media campaign. Though buzz is riding high for Mass Effect, Advent Rising fared far worse. Its big-budget design and ambitious storyline (penned by Ender's Game writer Orson Scott Card) sounded good on paper; sadly, technical bugs and uneven game design left Advent floundering in sales. Despite the Hollywood look and feel, gamers ultimately couldn't have cared less about Advent Rising. And that planned trilogy? Hastily scrapped once Majesco re-configured itself as a casual games publisher, though the original creators are still open to concluding the story. Viva Pinata (2006, Xbox 360) Posted Image Rare's foray into the casual market has a lot to love: gorgeous graphics, cuddly characters, and potentially addictive Sims-like gameplay. The problem is, hardly anyone played it. Sales numbers aren't widely available -- though widely assumed to be several hundred thousand copies -- and even Microsoft's Shane Kim admitted that the game wasn't a major seller. Still, he stressed that Microsoft is investing in the series "for the long haul." Why the sluggish sales? It seems that the Xbox 360's asking price is still too high for a game that would likely appeal to pre-teens and older, casual players. Developer Rare has also said that there will be no downloadable content for Viva Pinata, a sure sign that the company has bigger fish to fry. Here's hoping that Viva Pinata: Party Animals pushes this struggling series to critical mass. (credits - GamePro)
	"Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled..." - Blog Spot


Angel	Sep 11 2007, 08:35 PM Post #2
C_Beyond ((chunsa oppa)) Posts: 10,993 Group: Admin Member #8 Joined: June 22, 2003	from the list, i've played these games: super mario sunshine: i liked it for a while, but having to clean off gunk all the time got boring...i would rather they have recreated super mario 64 with better graphics. i went pretty far in it tho, considering i dont play many video games. and i still love the mario titles. getaway: i liked it, cuz i like GTA pacman: i dont remember hating it lol...i may have been too young...but i liked the atari 2600 for the sounds, as annoying as they were...i didnt get my own game console til the atari 5200 came out. i loved this game, maybe cuz i didnt really play the arcade version. e.t.: lol...i actually had this game...and i remember hating it cuz i played it for seconds before i had NO idea what was going on



Yo-Tai-Keizuke	Sep 12 2007, 07:13 PM Post #3
H.O.T's Wu Jiok Posts: 8,472 Group: Advanced Members Member #18 Joined: June 23, 2003	Super Mario Sunshine isn't the bad game everyone makes it out to be. I had lots of fun playing it and acquiring 100% too. The problem is once you did EVERYTHING there was no reward for it, only the satisfaction you got all the stars. And i only played it once and my sis only got 90% and to this day has never finished it. I really feel bad for Psychonuts cause i've always wanted to play that game. But, unfornately it was a sleeper hit. I actually enjoyed The Getaway series a lot, even a little bit more than GTA. Shenmue...another game i wanted to play. Not surprise for Tomb Raider, but at least the developers redeemed themselves with Legend. As for Advent Rising, i remember hyping it to my friend cause at the time i wanted badly to play the game and i didn't own an Xbox so when he played it... he told it was one of the worst games he had ever played. lol Arnell, anything you can share with us about your experience with those games on the list?
	"though the ocean is big...but it can wave and do a lot of tricks." -Val- Xbox Live Gamertag credits: Thanks to Jess (Shouling) Caliente like a volcano But beautifully bright as the sun She's my angel sistah Her name is lady Madison Yo-Tai-Keizuke Ukaji A.K.A (Also Known As) Edwin Express Love: (Kuai Ti Ai Qin) Hurry now Don't wait for time to pass you by Find a way to keep the sparks, alive alive Hurry now Don't let that someone pass you by Make the passion esscalate


Winged VoX	Sep 12 2007, 08:43 PM Post #4
The Natural Playboy Posts: 3,793 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: June 21, 2003	Super Mario Sunshine - I did like it. Just getting everything was tedious. Although, Edwin, didn't you get the sunglasses for getting all the Shines? Because each time you got a shine, the game progressively got brighter, which was pretty bright by the time you collected a lot of them. Psychonauts - Heard it was great, but it was a sleeper hit. Never played it. Rise of The Robots - Sadly, I did play this on the SNES. Like the description said, it was during the age of tons of fighting games coming out. My brother and I did try to play as many as possible that we thought were cool. The game was bad. Clunky controls, graphics were passable for that time, fighting engine was simple. What's worse is that this game ACTUALLY GOT A SEQUEL...even worse...I played that too... Shaq Fu - My cousin had it so I played it with him. Again, during the age of fighting games. Wasn't good. I can only remember playing it once with my cousin and I didn't care to play it again. Shenmue - I liked this game. From what I remember, this game was supposed to tell a story through 13 titles. Cool idea, but it didn't generate enough popularity to equate the costs it took to make the game. It was good. Had some fan service with some old Sega games you could play and tons of collectables and mini-games. It also had Action Sensitive buttons similar to what you find in Resident Evil 4. Never played Shenmue 2 on the Xbox. I heard it was pretty much the same type of acceptance as the first since mostly it was only played by people that played the first one. If it was made around this generation of game systems I think it could've survived and continued on longer.
	"Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled..." - Blog Spot


Angel	Sep 12 2007, 09:20 PM Post #5
C_Beyond ((chunsa oppa)) Posts: 10,993 Group: Admin Member #8 Joined: June 22, 2003	i hope super mario galaxy is better



Yo-Tai-Keizuke	Sep 13 2007, 03:21 PM Post #6
H.O.T's Wu Jiok Posts: 8,472 Group: Advanced Members Member #18 Joined: June 23, 2003	Really, the game got brighter as you acquired each shine? lol I don't think i noticed... then again you're the one always wearing glasses so maybe that's why. haha And i feel u, man, for playing Rise of The Robots and it's sequel. lol And Angelo, aint no doubt Galaxy it's gonna be 10x better! heh
	"though the ocean is big...but it can wave and do a lot of tricks." -Val- Xbox Live Gamertag credits: Thanks to Jess (Shouling) Caliente like a volcano But beautifully bright as the sun She's my angel sistah Her name is lady Madison Yo-Tai-Keizuke Ukaji A.K.A (Also Known As) Edwin Express Love: (Kuai Ti Ai Qin) Hurry now Don't wait for time to pass you by Find a way to keep the sparks, alive alive Hurry now Don't let that someone pass you by Make the passion esscalate


Angus Mac	Sep 15 2007, 01:26 AM Post #7
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	The Getaway is a flop? No way! That game rules!! It’s better than GTA because of the British swearing, traveling in London without a map, the licensed cars, and the realism, well except that you could just lean against a wall to fully heal up but at least it means you can be patient in some parts. It’s also cool that you get to play two different characters in the same story arc. Still own it, and pass it around. Is that the one with the underground garage fight or was that the sequel? The sequel I could see as a flop business-wise since it took so long to come out but enjoyed that one too. Played that Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness game, and I think I reviewed that here. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia which I played before then and that had 5x better maneuverability. But hey it was museum adventuring in the Louvre before the Da Vinci Code. Really wasn’t that bad of a game. Shaq Fu – oh man, I so wanted to play that (not). That was funny seeing the commercial. Shaq was really popular back then. Did he win a championship yet? Pac-Man – come on, that’s a classic – it has some of the most recognized sound effects (the siren thingy at the beginning of the level, and the monster ate you sound) along with the Donkey Kong Atari 2600 version (Mario jumping a barrel),.and back then there were difficulty levels too. Can’t believe that flopped. Seemed like everyone had that game since the real pac-man looking level didn’t come around until the Atari 400. E.T. – I actually tried playing that once. Gosh it was stupid. As usual on the Atari 2600, your controller is a joystick and one button. The button just makes his head extend up like pulling out a golf club. That’s all I remember. But I did really like the Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure game, and that came with a spoiler sheet insert for help.
	Woof!


Yo-Tai-Keizuke	Sep 17 2007, 03:39 AM Post #8
H.O.T's Wu Jiok Posts: 8,472 Group: Advanced Members Member #18 Joined: June 23, 2003	Right on The Getaway series Angus!
	"though the ocean is big...but it can wave and do a lot of tricks." -Val- Xbox Live Gamertag credits: Thanks to Jess (Shouling) Caliente like a volcano But beautifully bright as the sun She's my angel sistah Her name is lady Madison Yo-Tai-Keizuke Ukaji A.K.A (Also Known As) Edwin Express Love: (Kuai Ti Ai Qin) Hurry now Don't wait for time to pass you by Find a way to keep the sparks, alive alive Hurry now Don't let that someone pass you by Make the passion esscalate


Angus Mac	Sep 17 2007, 08:45 PM Post #9
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	The Difficulty switch is still one of the best features of the Atari 2600. You could flip the difficulty to A (hard) on in the middle of the game. On something like Space Invaders, that would make his little shooter base a big wide truck size one.
	Woof!


Winged VoX	Sep 19 2007, 12:39 PM Post #10
The Natural Playboy Posts: 3,793 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: June 21, 2003	Old school Atari games can kick any gamer-that-grew-up-playing-them's butt nowadays. Difficultly switch is just overkill.
	"Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled..." - Blog Spot


Angel	Sep 20 2007, 08:54 PM Post #11
C_Beyond ((chunsa oppa)) Posts: 10,993 Group: Admin Member #8 Joined: June 22, 2003	i so hated Q-BERT -_- FROGGER, PACMAN, POLE POSITION and DONKEY KONG ruled lol



Angus Mac	Sep 23 2007, 12:04 AM Post #12
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	Here's a commercial for the Pac Man game and it shows the 2nd generation Atari 2600. I remember we got it for like 36.95 or something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juH2qHYX9aI Here's a youtube episode on E.T. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTjLG3usQo I can't stop laughing at the E.T. one.
	Woof!


Winged VoX	Sep 23 2007, 12:34 AM Post #13
The Natural Playboy Posts: 3,793 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: June 21, 2003	WOW! E.T...that was horribly great, haha!
	"Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled..." - Blog Spot


Angus Mac	Sep 23 2007, 05:30 AM Post #14
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	They forgot (and these are games I have personally played extensively) The Mummy Returns - a movie-based game that would crash regularly if you saved at different points of the game and then have some ridiculous boss at the end of the whole thing. Don't want to fight bad guys? Then don't. Just run past them and run past the whole thing until you get to a checkpoint. Sim EARTH and Sim ANT - Thinking that SimCity 2000 was the way to go in simulation based games, they created SimEarth, where you populate a whole globe from dinosaurs to animals, nevermind that it was incredibly boring. SimAnt suffered the same playability. You build up a colony and allocate how you want to expand. Nevermind that on the hardest mode you can just start a game, let it sit around and you'd win it. Turok Evolution - it's an FPS but it forced you to have to play a flying simulator game as well. I thought the game was about fighting dinosaurs since Turok was known for dinosaur hunting. But I hardly saw any dinosaurs; it's just a shooter. Clunky controls wher eyou can't even make a simple jump. And if you can't fly a dragon, forget it, can't jump to a new level without cheating. What a waste. Peter Jackson's King Kong by Ubisoft was a LOT better! Oh yeah there was also that Aerosmith or was it Journey game where you throw CD's at the bad guys, and the one where you ran away from fans. At least with Moonwalker that was a decent beat-em-up.
	Woof!


Angus Mac	Sep 23 2007, 05:32 AM Post #15
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	And who can forget Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. just reading the reviews at wikipedia and other places has me bawling in laughter.
	Woof!


Winged VoX	Sep 23 2007, 10:06 AM Post #16
The Natural Playboy Posts: 3,793 Group: Admin Member #2 Joined: June 21, 2003	SimEarth - Played that. Only Sim game I could really like and get into was SimCity. SimEarth was just bad. Populating the planet with animals...the end. I think that was the last newer version of Sim anything I ever played. Probably SimEarth was what killed it for me. The Turok series was always a hard series, but I could never get into it because of that and that I kind of suck at First Person Shooters. The Aerosmith game was called Revolution-X. I actually enjoyed that game...in the arcades. On a console, the graphics sucked and it just didn't transition well. The arcade was actually fun with the Aerosmith music playing throughout the levels and such. The premise of saving Aerosmith was dumb, but it was a nice mindless shooter. Moonwalker was fun also. Big Rigs...whoo...man...you should check out X-Play's review on it. Hilarious. They had that, Barbie's Horse Adventure, and some car body shop game as some of their worst games ever. And then there's Aquaman, which was released during the last generation of consoles...yikes... And check out Drake of The 99 Dragons... So many horrible games...
	"Just Like Coffee That Has Cooled..." - Blog Spot


Angus Mac	Sep 23 2007, 01:11 PM Post #17
Resident Watchdog Posts: 2,761 Group: Global Moderators Member #6,231 Joined: January 3, 2005	There's a gamespot video where the guy demos some of Big Rig's more egregious bugs, and then bangs his head on the table. Later he's had enough, decides to go outside, and lies on the street ready to get run over by a truck. Although if it were a Big Rigs truck, it would just float over him? Hmm, Aerosmith was the shooter one so that makes Journey (Atari 2600) the run away from weird objects one. Those games make Donkey (IBM PC) look like a classic.
	Woof!


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