your top disappointing games

[darkjak]

Most disappointing games:

 

N64

The World is Not Enough. After Goldeneye we were all looking forward to this game as it was the return of Bond to the N64. It was lacking and even though it got good magazine scores, it would never live up to what people wanted.

EA attempt to make a Bond game, without the possibility of cutscenes and licensed music? I'm surprised (shocked, even) that this game came out as good as it did.

 

Most disappointing games:

 

Turok 2. The first was amazing. Large worlds, huge enemies and smooth gameplay. The second, looked great in screen shots. But in motion it seemed like a slideshow. What a let down. The smooth gameplay of the first was lost for an overblown project which would have been better suited to a more powerful machine. Turok was never the same again.

I agree that Turok was bad, but not for the reasons you mention. With the expansionpack, the graphics really were good and the framerate was fine. The problems instead regard the level design. The multiplayer maps were really bland and generic, while the singleplayer maps were too big and confusing. I never got past the second level, because the map was so frustratingly big.

[mr_bogus]

I agree that Turok was bad, but not for the reasons you mention. With the expansionpack, the graphics really were good and the framerate was fine. The problems instead regard the level design. The multiplayer maps were really bland and generic, while the singleplayer maps were too big and confusing. I never got past the second level, because the map was so frustratingly big.

 

The third Turok, on the other hand, had probably the smoothest frame rate i ever saw on the N64 apart from F-Zero X.

[Patch]

Secondly: Have you played it over Xbox Live? Here, the excellent controls and fun gameplay innovations shine through.

 

PD is the only game I've downloaded from Live, and I absolutely adore it!

 

As incentives to buy a 360 go, this is the major one for me. I've said for years that I would happily pay full retail price for a Perfect Dark with an improved framerate. It's now transpired that I would have to buy a new console as well. So tempted.

 

'Boring' is the word I would use to describe Turok 2. 'Fantastic Cerebral Bore-ing', that is! Ahem. I loved it much more than the original; the levels were epic and it had a much more grandiose feel about it - it helped that I had bags of time as a student to play it. I can still remember the music for the opening level (Port of Adia). It did start to grate a bit on level 5 (The Hive of the Mantids) though.

 

Locate the Energy Totem and Defend it at All Costs!

 

I was disappointed with Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass. I loved the graphical style, but the dungeons felt very flat, angular and uninspired. And going through the Temple of the Ocean King for the umpteenth time made me want to take to the stars and nuke my DS from orbit.

[Guest Captain Falcon]

At the end of the day, Sonic 06 was a beta they somehow got away with releasing as a full proper title. I mean the PS3 version I hear that came out some time later was worse. Rushing to get the game out as a launch title means SEGA pretty much fucked their own ass.

 

Weren't SEGA pressurized into releasing the game in time for Christmas by Microsoft looking to capture some of the wider audience familiar with the brand and sell more consoles as a result? I swear I read that somewhere...

 

Still, no excuses as they didn't have to even if that was true.

[Josh64]

Smash Bros Brawl.

It's no Melee. I was SO hyped for the game because Melee is my all-time favourite! With great characters and brilliant music I don't know why I didn't enjoy this as much...

Oh wait, I do. IT WAS SLOWED DOWN! After recently playing Melee I realised! Your character and the levels are much faster in Melee and I actually found out that Brawl was slowed down so that it is ''more accessible''. Melee is just so much more fun and fast paced and the levels have much more charm! Melee also has a HUGE Nintendo feel, whereas Brawl is less ''In your face'' Nintendo with Pikmin and Isle delfino levels as oppose to Poké floats and Princess Peach's castle.

 

Also, there are less items on screen! One of my all time favourite things to do on Melee was to go on multiplayer, set the items to Pokéballs only, with the item setting as ''very high'' and have a crazy Poké filled match with sometimes up to 7 Pokémon at once! I try it on brawl and there are only 3 Pokémon at once at the most!

[Guest Captain Falcon]

Whilst I'm not surprised to see people moan about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as I've seen it elsewhere, for me it's a better game than Melee was.

 

Brawl is slower than Melee but then Melee is much faster than the original. And as someone who put hundreds of hours into the original, the faster, floatier nature of the characters and stages that tended to be on the larger side didn't do me any favours.

 

Brawl's gameplay felt closer to the original than Melee ever did.

[K-project]

I agree. I feel Brawl is the better game generally.

 

I was going to list Zelda: Wind Waker as disappointing game here, but realised that that would be really unfair. I did feel a bit cheated that it was over so quickly. Very unusual for a big Zelda title, but the game has so much charm that it's impossible to come away feeling let down. I did prefer Twilight Princess though.

Edited May 14, 2010 by K-project

[darksnowman]

I was going to list Zelda: Wind Waker as disappointing game here, but realised that that would be really unfair. I did feel a bit cheated that it was over so quickly. Very unusual for a big Zelda title, but the game has so much charm that it's impossible to come away feeling let down. I did prefer Twilight Princess though.

 

Is it short? It was over relatively quickly for me too, but I put that down to the fact that I misspent my study leave pumping hours into it rather than... er, revising.

[MoogleViper]

'snowman why must you tempt me so.

[K-project]

Is it short? It was over relatively quickly for me too, but I put that down to the fact that I misspent my study leave pumping hours into it rather than... er, revising.

 

No, it's definitely a short game for a Zelda title. I think I played under 20 hours before I'd clocked it anyway. Both me and Mrs Project (a big Zelda-ite since LttP on SNES) went "Eh? Is that it?" once we'd got to the end. It really felt as though a big section (or three) somewhere had been edited out or something. But still, I love it dearly. There's no other Zelda like it, that's for sure. However, to me, Twilight Princess is superior in every aspect other than the graphics.

[w0lf]

It really felt as though a big section (or three) somewhere had been edited out or something.

This actually is true. The third temple has been left completely out of it because there wasn't enough production time left. You can feel this very well in the game: you get the third pearl as good as for free. And besided that, they added the Triforce Quest to stretch it out a bit at the end. However, I wouldn't say it's a short game. (Athough TP is a lot longer of course).

 

Personally I can't really decide which one is better. TWW had a fantastic atmosphere and was way more fun to explore, but on the other hand, TP had better items and stronger dungeons.

 

Anyway, on-topic: can't really say something else than Wii Music.

[Fused King]

Nintendogs

Edited May 16, 2010 by Fused King

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

I was in Gamestation around the time when that was released once and a group of chavs were browsing the DS games. One of them picked it up and said "Look, Nintendo Dogs!"

 

-_-

[LostOverThere]

Donkey Kong 64 It just wasn't the DK I knew and loved (that was DKC...surprise)

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 Sure the character building set the scene for Episode 2 (which I loved), but the gameplay itself was a let down compared to HL2.

Guitar Hero World Tour If Guitar Hero was the Roman Republic, this was Sulla.

[mcj metroid]

Whilst I'm not surprised to see people moan about Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as I've seen it elsewhere, for me it's a better game than Melee was.

 

Brawl is slower than Melee but then Melee is much faster than the original. And as someone who put hundreds of hours into the original, the faster, floatier nature of the characters and stages that tended to be on the larger side didn't do me any favours.

 

Brawl's gameplay felt closer to the original than Melee ever did.

 

I agree, Actually I have no idea why anyone would prefer melee to brawl?

 

To me brawl was the perfect speed, TONS of extras, an on-line mode( fair enough it was tacked on), a decent stab at a single player experience.

I also felt the sound effects felt more satisfying at times. The game felt MASSIVE.

[Retro_Link]

I thought Brawl was crap... where as Melee is probably in my Top 5 ever games.

Two complete opposites for me.

[Goron_3]

The problem with Brawl for me was that they took out hitstun and so took out any chance to combo.

 

The game is also stupidly broken, far too many glitches. It's crazy to think they gave so many characters infinite chain grabs, you'd think they'd have testers to fix that. That said, the graphics and music were sweet.

[Pookiablo]

 

The game is also stupidly broken, far too many glitches. It's crazy to think they gave so many characters infinite chain grabs, you'd think they'd have testers to fix that.

 

Melee was far glitch-ier with all the wavedashing shit. I agree with your initial remark about hitstun but otherwise Brawl is a much fairer, more enjoyable experience. And I'm a Ness player who knows the deathgrab all too well!

[Ville]

To me brawl was the perfect speed, TONS of extras, an on-line mode( fair enough it was tacked on), a decent stab at a single player experience.

I also felt the sound effects felt more satisfying at times. The game felt MASSIVE.

 

Indeed. Actually, I was quite surprised how well Brawl pulled out its threequel status in the end...I mean it's the same friggin concept, with many of the same characters, moves, tunes, stages, items reused for the 3rd time already...and still it had enough new stuff in it to make for an awesome game. Plus Mr. G&W got turned into the sexy, soy-wiener-flinging beast of an air raid machine he currently is...

 

Disappointments? All of these have been discussed in other topics already, so just a short list:

 

• Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2: So much praise and great review scores, but neither did it for me...too disjointed level designs, just one obstacle course after another...
  
• Zelda Spirit Tracks: Annoyingly stiff and slow overworld movement...also a forgettable cast / story.
  
• Super Paper Mario: Too simplistic 3D-landscapes and overall art design...felt like Paper Mario RPG lite, and not in a good way. Played PM2 for the very first time after completing this, and it was a superior game in all regards...
  
• Phoenix Wright T&T: Overall, the game was good and the cases tied together pretty nicely...My only gripe was the resolution of the final case, just felt a bit lacking after all the suspense and build-up...
  

[Dog-amoto]

Starfox Adventures

 

Was looking forward to Dinosaur Planet quite a lot, but my hype-o-meter bombed when they tacked Starfox on to it, it just didn't fit. Was very boring and repetitive, and dinosaurs with West Country accents???

 

Resident Evil 5

 

Having a permanent sidekick killed all the tension. Compared to 4, this was truly awful but could have been fixed by not adding co-op (sorry co-op fans) or at least being able to turn off the second character (yes, I know that would have been impossible)

 

Little Big Planet

 

This is kind of my problem, as I can see why this game is so popular, but I have no interest in playing fan-made levels and making my own to upload. So for me, this game is just a bog standard platformer, albeit a very imaginative one.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I've got Brawl, but I didn't find it as easy to get into as I did Melee. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the amount of content, so I didn't know where to start. I want to play more of it though, but the main issue for me is that I just can't get into it with the Wii's controller layout. It's not natural for me, after years of playing with the Cube Controller.

 

I've got my Wavebird out and I'm going to give it a more thorough playthrough with that. It's not like it has Wiimote only functions, so I don't think I'll be missing out on anything?

[Goron_3]

Melee was far glitch-ier with all the wavedashing shit. I agree with your initial remark about hitstun but otherwise Brawl is a much fairer, more enjoyable experience. And I'm a Ness player who knows the deathgrab all too well!

 

There are very few glitches in Melee. Wavedashing wasn't a glitch, Sakurai admitted this during the Nintendo Power issue which released during Brawls launch window; they put it in as a way to stop characters air dodging through the level.

 

The only glitches I can think of in melee are the black hole glitch and the ice-climbers infinite. I'm really strugging to think of any more. The only problem with Melee in my mind is that there are too many clone characters (Luigi, Mario, Doc for example) and some moves are overpowered (Marths F-smash, Peachs down smash, Shiek...).

 

Brawl was never made to be a competitive fighter, it was aimed to be another one of those Wii games that 'everyone' could enjoy and i'd say it succeeded in that. That said, unlike Melee which left such a huge impression on gaming especially to those into 2D fighters, Brawl's legacy won't be as great. Hell it's barely played at tournies already, but obviously that wasn't the point of the game unlike Melee.

 

I must admit though, the sheer amount of content in Brawl is OUTSTANDING. I don't think we'll ever see it again in a video game.

[The Bard]

I agree with Goron here, Brawl was a massive disappointment after me and my mates took the time to learn the amazingly deep fighting system in Melee. I was more excited for that game than anything else too, and I still have fun playing it, its just a frustration that skill is not as big a factor as it was in previous games.

 

The thing is, most people never looked at Melee as a competitive fighter, but once you dive into it, it revealed a level of depth that was absent from Brawl. I don't understand why they thought that having the same level of combative depth would detract from any mass appeal that game had. Makes me sad.

[Retro_Link]

IMO the vast majority of the levels were also a dissapointment in Brawl.

[Dog-amoto]

Seeing as you're all talking about it, I may as well add that I found Super Smash Bros Melee very disappointing. But again, that's my own fault. I never played the N64 one and I was after a decent multiplayer game for the Gamecube, but I don't really like fighting games. But then again, I don't like strategy games, but I enjoyed Advance Wars and Pikmin, and I don't like turn-based combat in RPGs but I loved Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi.

 

So I thought that a fighting game with a Nintendo twist would be my cup of tea, but unfortunately I could never tell what the hell was going on in Melee. I think it just moved a bit fast for me and there was too much going on. The last straw came after I spent loads of time learning the moves and looking at online strategy guides to try and get good, only to get beaten by someone who never played the game with some amazing button bashing.

 

The game was traded in soon after, never to be spoken of again.

 

Don't get me wrong, I can see why you guys enjoy it, as it's certainly a very well put together game and it's certainly very polished, so don't bother defending it. But I personally just couldn't get to grips with it.

 

A real shame.