Most disappointing games
I saw someone bring this up on a message board and started thinking about the games that had most disappointed me over the years... So here it is! :P
X-Men (NES) -- There was a really early ad (just the logo) for this in the last issue of Nintendo Fun Club News, just as my friends and I were getting into X-Men. We were really excited about it, and when it finally came out, one of my friends got it. It wasn't just bad, it was unbelievably bad. It was a pretty good contender for worst NES game. I'm glad I didn't buy it...
Castlevania 2 -- Man, after Castlevania, I was really excited to hear about a sequel. My mom suggested we start a Nintendo club and everyone put money into a pot that we would use to buy a game. Castlevania 2 was the first (and only) game we bought this way. Sure, my brother and I enjoyed it a bunch, but something was off. When I received the Player's Guide in the mail, courtesy of Nintendo Power, it clicked: all the enemies were the same. There were about six different really simple patterns they followed. The bosses were jokes. There was just less to the game. When one of the club members (I guess) took off with the game and kept it, my brother and I didn't notice for over a year.
Super Mario World -- Yeah, yeah, I know, but I have to say it. This was a great game and I had a lot of fun with it. However, as time went on, I realized it just didn't stack up to Super Mario Bros. 3. It had less power-ups, less levels, repetitive music, annoying sound effects, and 1-ups dropping on you faster than you could die. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog made it even worse. Actraiser and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts proved that the SNES could blow the Genesis out of the water, graphics-wise, but Sonic looked tons better than Super Mario World. Once again, this was a great game, but I ultimately found it lacking...
Bubsy the Bobcat -- God, Gamefan magazine plugged the hell out of this. It was like Sonic, but you could play it on your SNES, they said. It was the next big thing, they said. It was awful. It was overly simplistic, with boring level and enemy designs and uninspired gameplay. I hear the sequels were way worse.
Final Fantasy VII -- Once again, plugged like crazy. The interest in console RPGs had been picking up steam since the later days of the SNES, with games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound. The previews looked outstanding. We were finally going to get real 3-d games! My friend had a Playstation with Battle Arena Toshinden, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, and Brain Dead 13. These games didn't prepare me for how ugly Final Fantasy VII was going to be. People swear to me that it looked good for its time, but I felt it looked worse than the original Final Fantasy from the first time I saw it, on account of the blobby, mostly-brown art. Moreover, the story was muddy and boring and the characters were dull. Litagemini pointed out in her blog that this game is heralded as THE BIG EVENT in gaming for a younger generation. Must be the first sign I lost touch with the young-uns.
Black and White -- I wanted to like this game so much. The intro where you play around with your powers was really fun! Training your giant cow (or whatever) to go on rampages or chucking boulders at houses was more fun that it really should have been. But the real game was just a total drag.
Ultima IX -- Ultima VII: Part II and Ultima VIII were pretty disappointing, after Ultima IV, V, VI, and VII each got better and better (for the most part). But they were still pretty fun to play around in. Ultima IX was the big one, though. This was the last shebang and it had been a LONG time in development, and they weren't pulling out any stops! Except the game that came out... sucked. I hardly even played it. It was linear (a BIG no-no for an Ultima), it was ugly, it was shallow, it was dumb, and they threw out the great original story and replaced it with something much weaker. A pretty crappy note for the oldest computer RPG series to go out on...
Disclaimer: These are the games that I found the most disappointing, possibly because of too-high expectations. Being on this list isn't an indicator of bad quality, necessarily. Don't hurt me over Super Mario World!
X-Men (NES) -- There was a really early ad (just the logo) for this in the last issue of Nintendo Fun Club News, just as my friends and I were getting into X-Men. We were really excited about it, and when it finally came out, one of my friends got it. It wasn't just bad, it was unbelievably bad. It was a pretty good contender for worst NES game. I'm glad I didn't buy it...
Castlevania 2 -- Man, after Castlevania, I was really excited to hear about a sequel. My mom suggested we start a Nintendo club and everyone put money into a pot that we would use to buy a game. Castlevania 2 was the first (and only) game we bought this way. Sure, my brother and I enjoyed it a bunch, but something was off. When I received the Player's Guide in the mail, courtesy of Nintendo Power, it clicked: all the enemies were the same. There were about six different really simple patterns they followed. The bosses were jokes. There was just less to the game. When one of the club members (I guess) took off with the game and kept it, my brother and I didn't notice for over a year.
Super Mario World -- Yeah, yeah, I know, but I have to say it. This was a great game and I had a lot of fun with it. However, as time went on, I realized it just didn't stack up to Super Mario Bros. 3. It had less power-ups, less levels, repetitive music, annoying sound effects, and 1-ups dropping on you faster than you could die. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog made it even worse. Actraiser and Super Ghouls n' Ghosts proved that the SNES could blow the Genesis out of the water, graphics-wise, but Sonic looked tons better than Super Mario World. Once again, this was a great game, but I ultimately found it lacking...
Bubsy the Bobcat -- God, Gamefan magazine plugged the hell out of this. It was like Sonic, but you could play it on your SNES, they said. It was the next big thing, they said. It was awful. It was overly simplistic, with boring level and enemy designs and uninspired gameplay. I hear the sequels were way worse.
Final Fantasy VII -- Once again, plugged like crazy. The interest in console RPGs had been picking up steam since the later days of the SNES, with games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound. The previews looked outstanding. We were finally going to get real 3-d games! My friend had a Playstation with Battle Arena Toshinden, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, and Brain Dead 13. These games didn't prepare me for how ugly Final Fantasy VII was going to be. People swear to me that it looked good for its time, but I felt it looked worse than the original Final Fantasy from the first time I saw it, on account of the blobby, mostly-brown art. Moreover, the story was muddy and boring and the characters were dull. Litagemini pointed out in her blog that this game is heralded as THE BIG EVENT in gaming for a younger generation. Must be the first sign I lost touch with the young-uns.
Black and White -- I wanted to like this game so much. The intro where you play around with your powers was really fun! Training your giant cow (or whatever) to go on rampages or chucking boulders at houses was more fun that it really should have been. But the real game was just a total drag.
Ultima IX -- Ultima VII: Part II and Ultima VIII were pretty disappointing, after Ultima IV, V, VI, and VII each got better and better (for the most part). But they were still pretty fun to play around in. Ultima IX was the big one, though. This was the last shebang and it had been a LONG time in development, and they weren't pulling out any stops! Except the game that came out... sucked. I hardly even played it. It was linear (a BIG no-no for an Ultima), it was ugly, it was shallow, it was dumb, and they threw out the great original story and replaced it with something much weaker. A pretty crappy note for the oldest computer RPG series to go out on...
Disclaimer: These are the games that I found the most disappointing, possibly because of too-high expectations. Being on this list isn't an indicator of bad quality, necessarily. Don't hurt me over Super Mario World!