The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming

[Guest Nevermortal]

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/

 

Amusing little article. Enjoy.

[Guest Sakura]

I can't believe they didn't include Capcom nearly killing the Street Fighter series and the entire company with their constant milking of it. The Super SF II for SNES/Genesis debacle nearly made them file for bankrupcy!

[Guest Cavi]

It's always good fun to laugh at the utter stupidity of Sega, Nintendo, and company. What's crazy is that these companies, especially Sega, continue to make dumbass decisions to this day. I know I can't want to play the DC to Xbox port of the blockbuster Rent-A-Hero! While they are at it, they might as well create and market a couple more 18 Wheeler games that have no chance of selling!

 

Like Sakura pointed out, I would have liked to have seen Capcom mentioned. I'm sure they will eventually make such a list though. They have killed Mega Man and Street Fighter, and are currently in the process of doing the same to Resident Evil. A few years down the road, Onimusha will have been milked to death as well, and Capcom itself might be on its final breath.

[Guest Memphis]

I can't believe they didn't include Capcom nearly killing the Street Fighter series and the entire company with their constant milking of it. The Super SF II for SNES/Genesis debacle nearly made them file for bankrupcy!

Is that true? Excuse me if you were attempting to be comical or something, but I'd like to know why this occurred?

 

I remember myself and a big group of friends, all around 12 at the time, stayed up til around 3am playing that very game the day it was released here.

 

Eh, must be me.

 

Metal M

[Guest AndrewTS]

I can't believe they didn't include Capcom nearly killing the Street Fighter series and the entire company with their constant milking of it. The Super SF II for SNES/Genesis debacle nearly made them file for bankrupcy!

Is that true? Excuse me if you were attempting to be comical or something, but I'd like to know why this occurred?

 

I remember myself and a big group of friends, all around 12 at the time, stayed up til around 3am playing that very game the day it was released here.

 

Eh, must be me.

 

Metal M

I'm interested to hear some elaboration on that as well.

 

Personally, I loved the game, but releasing Turbo right after that probably ticked off a lot of gamers.

 

The Genesis version is the one I have, though--but question: where's the 40-meg at, exactly? The voices sound just as bad as CE.

 

This is a great read, BTW, and features perhaps Sega's biggest screw-up ever. Even more so than the 32X, because it directly affected the Dreamcast.

 

Shame, because the DC is my favorite system.

Edited June 26, 2003 by AndrewTS

[Guest Nevermortal]

The only one I can't agree with is the Xbox controller. I just never saw the problem with it. Yeah, it was a bit big, but I liked it. I liked it a lot more than the Controller S type thing they have now. The buttons are all disorganized and strewn around wildly.

[Guest Dr. Timothy Jamison]

I actually find the type S to be far more comfortable. I dunno. Just me, I guess.

[Guest razazteca]

Sega just put out too much hardware at that time when the Saturn came out. I mean, damn they had the Sega CD/32x/Genesis combo system that never worked out then they rushed to release the Saturn at the high price of $399 with little to no software.

 

The Dreamcast died because it was easy to hack to play ISOs, emulation killed it, its that simple.

[Guest Eagan469]

Action Max! I had one of those, couldn't remember the name of it for the life of me up until now...

 

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Did that gun there cause a big stink? Because it looks real.

[Guest Ten Ton Lid]

It's always good fun to laugh at the utter stupidity of Sega, Nintendo, and company. What's crazy is that these companies, especially Sega, continue to make dumbass decisions to this day. I know I can't want to play the DC to Xbox port of the blockbuster Rent-A-Hero! While they are at it, they might as well create and market a couple more 18 Wheeler games that have no chance of selling!

 

Like Sakura pointed out, I would have liked to have seen Capcom mentioned. I'm sure they will eventually make such a list though. They have killed Mega Man and Street Fighter, and are currently in the process of doing the same to Resident Evil. A few years down the road, Onimusha will have been milked to death as well, and Capcom itself might be on its final breath.

With Capcom it's really more of a philosophy than a "moment". If it makes dime one, bleed it to death.

[Guest AndrewTS]

I have a love-hate relationship with Capcom. On the one hand, they've shown mucho love for us. They've released innovative titles like SFII, RE, Devil May Cry, and often have sequels that are absolutely bitchin' like Dino Crisis 2 (not just RE with Dinos like 1), Vampire Savior (the import Saturn version added the extra characters from Vampire Savior 2 AND the EX Options allow you to play the game in FULL ENGLISH!). They often release oddball titles like the awesome looking Viewtiful Joe, and help publish titles we normally would never see in the US (and they also improved Gunspike and turned it into the AWESOME Cannon Spike).

 

However, once they get a hit, they milk it and and milk it and milk it until the udders are chapped and bleeding. I noticed the new Mega Man Battle Network--a Mega Man spinoff into a GBA RPG series--has a "Blue Version"--a ripoff of the shameless varied Pokemon editions. The SFII upgrades were rather insane and annoying, and the Resident Evil franchise has had many sequels and many similar games using similar engines.

 

I think Capcom really, really loves us, but also really loves our money--which is more than I can say about some companies, like Acclaim.

[Guest Sakura]

I am not joking, Capcom was in serious trouble after the release of Super SF II.

 

 

At the time the SF II vs. MK battle was making both Capcom and Midway tons of money. When MK II was unveiled Capcom rushed out Super SF II: The New Challengers when it wasn't ready. The result was a game that hardcore fans said was too slow and a game the casuals looked over to play the much newer and more exciting MK II.

 

Capcom spent TONS of money to hype and advertise the 16 bit release of Super. They spent a lot of time and money to manufacter way too many carts. By the time Super came out for SNES and Genesis the upgrade, Super Turbo, was out in arcades. The whole thing was a joke. They had a situation like the ET debacle where they had tons of carts nobody wanted to buy.

 

The mess hurt Capcom badly. They had to sell the rights to their next few games to Acclaim and there was a lot of talk about how bad of shape they were in. The debacle nearly killed the Street Fighter franchise as well. It still has not even come close to fully recovering. Their dumb move and milking took what was a huge cash cow and turned it into basically a niche game that only the hardcore really cared about.

 

 

Then Resident Evil came out and they were saved. They are still in awful shape though...

 

 

BTW, though to this day many people still hate Super, the upgrade Super Turbo is regarded as a masterpiece but just about everyone.

[Guest AndrewTS]

The mess hurt Capcom badly. They had to sell the rights to their next few games to Acclaim and there was a lot of talk about how bad of shape they were in. The debacle nearly killed the Street Fighter franchise as well. It still has not even come close to fully recovering. Their dumb move and milking took what was a huge cash cow and turned it into basically a niche game that only the hardcore really cared about.

 

 

Then Resident Evil came out and they were saved. They are still in awful shape though...

 

 

BTW, though to this day many people still hate Super, the upgrade Super Turbo is regarded as a masterpiece but just about everyone.

 

I seem to remember that, now. However, a lot of the characters were majorly watered down. Like Dhalsim, who doesn't automatically do short range attacks when you're close (you'll whiff on long-distance ones). Still, that's why they put in the "Super" codes into Super Turbo.

 

Funny, I didn't realize just how bad it was, though. I do recall seeing Acclaim logos on the home versions of Street Fighter: The Movie (the game) and X-Men: Children of the Atom, however.

[Guest Sakura]

Yeah, Acclaim did the home versions of those two games.

 

I wish Street Fighter The Movie was based on the arcade version.

[Guest J*ingus]

I read the articles, and I was surprised. I expected some sort of Seanbaby-like burn list of 25 dumb goofs, and wound up reading an incredibly well-researched and insightful series of journalistic pieces about the trials and tribulations of the video game industry. Really interesting stuff for hardcore fans.

[Guest Nunzio Cardozo]

There's no need to read this list, because we all know that the 25 dumbest moments in gaming involve XBOX in some way.

[Guest WukenBloodstar]

Sega just put out too much hardware at that time when the Saturn came out. I mean, damn they had the Sega CD/32x/Genesis combo system that never worked out then they rushed to release the Saturn at the high price of $399 with little to no software.

 

The Dreamcast died because it was easy to hack to play ISOs, emulation killed it, its that simple.

It died because of emu? I highly doubt it..it was the over hyping of an underpowered(for the time, then and now) system with nothing to offer at the launch. For six months in threaters, after every trailer there would be an add for the PS2, same with type, and all of the media hype, magzine hype. That killed off the Dreamcast, which all around was the better system.

[Guest Sakura]

PS2 launched with Tekken Tag Tournament, which is better than any other game in the entire Dreamcast library.

[Rendclaw 0]

I bought a book on the history of video games and it is a damned good read as it goes from the earliest pinball games from the turn of the century up to the state-of-the-art systems we have today.... a wonderful read for the hardcore gamer, such as Sakura and myself..

[Guest Kingpk]

Is it Pheonix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames by Leonard Herman? I really got to get my hands on a copy of that book. This month's EGM has a small write up on good video game books (dealing with the history and whatnot)

[Guest KoR Fungus]

PS2 launched with Tekken Tag Tournament, which is better than any other game in the entire Dreamcast library.

 

Yeah, the entire idea that the PS2 launch had nothing never made sense to me. I agree that TTT is better than any game on DC. SSX was also a huge launch title that served as a nice graphics demo for the system in addition to being a great game. On the other hand, outside of SC, there was nothing at launch for DC that really appealed to me much. I remember a lot of people were complaining about PS2 by making the argument that DC had the better library, but that was a horrible argument because it had already been out for a year. PS2 should have had its launch compared to DC's *launch*, and in that respect imo it was certainly stronger.

 

I also don't understand how PS2 was underpowered when it came out. It was more powerful than the DC and less powerful than the GCN or X-Box, which is exactly where it should have been since it came out after the DC and before the other two.

[Guest Cavi]

The DC was doomed seeing as how the PS2 was on the horizon. The 9/9/99 launch of the console went well (remember that it was the most successful console launch ever up to that point), but a lack of consistant games, both first and third party, hurt them. It didn't help matters that Sega was still making erroneous decisions. How crazy must Sega of America be when they can development of a new Streets of Rage in favor of publishing games like Seaman!?

 

I really liked the console. It had a bunch of good first party efforts and companies like Capcom supported it with its own share of niche titles. But to blame the death of the console on emulation is just too far out there, I think.

[Guest WukenBloodstar]

PS2 launched with Tekken Tag Tournament, which is better than any other game in the entire Dreamcast library.

Oh please..that in it's self is bullshit. Explain how TTT is better than everygame in the Dreamcast Libary, Giant Gram 2000 owns TTT.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

The NEMO thing (#19) is rediculous, but to think that games made for that retarded system ended up on the SEGA CD pretty much explains why SEGA CD sucked so much.

 

#13 mentioned the Phantom..and I saw a link on totalfark today that says they are taking beta testers for the machine. But I think one of the prereqs for being a beta tester is that you have broadband, since the thing needs broadband.

 

Bashing Acclaims marketing (#12) was good as well.

 

I just knew that Nintendo screwing over Sony and causing them to go make their own CD based console would be on the list, I honestly thought it would be higher than #8 though. I mean, if that doesn't happen, Nintendo is still #1 in the Console business and SEGA is probably still making consoles..

 

I don't thing I ever got my $5 voucher either (#2)..

 

I guess #1 overall is huge enough to be #1..

[Rendclaw 0]

Those blunders are typical of Sega, who cannot keep a system viable for more than three years, with the exception of the Genesis/MegaDrive.

 

They had a chance to really get themselves over with the saturn. They failed.

 

They had another chance with the Dreamcast. Again, they failed.

 

They cannot maintain long-term success, which is why Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are on top right now.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

I bought a book on the history of video games and it is a damned good read as it goes from the earliest pinball games from the turn of the century up to the state-of-the-art systems we have today.... a wonderful read for the hardcore gamer, such as Sakura and myself..

What is it called?

[Guest KoR Fungus]

I just knew that Nintendo screwing over Sony and causing them to go make their own CD based console would be on the list, I honestly thought it would be higher than #8 though. I mean, if that doesn't happen, Nintendo is still #1 in the Console business and SEGA is probably still making consoles..

 

Yeah, I agree that it should be higher than #8. The whole N64 fiasco turned Nintendo from an unstoppable juggernaut to a distant second (and now third), and really changed the face of the industry. It seems like a more monumental blunder than Sega with the Saturn, because there was so much anticipation surrounding the Ultra/N64, and because Nintendo had so much more to lose.

 

I don't understand why #2 is so high. Yeah, "punishing" Nintendo by giving gamers incentive to buy more games is pretty amusingly retarded, but did it really have an effect on anything?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

PS2 launched with Tekken Tag Tournament, which is better than any other game in the entire Dreamcast library.

...Aside from Soulcalibur.

[Guest AndrewTS]

PS2 launched with Tekken Tag Tournament, which is better than any other game in the entire Dreamcast library.

...Aside from Soulcalibur.

You also forgot...

 

Bangai-O? Skies of Arcadia? The Sonic Adventures? Jet Grind Radio? The Crazy Taxis? The Marvel vs. Capcoms? The Power Stones? Virtual On: Oratorio Tengram? Project Justice? Most or all as good or better games than Tekken Tag. Hell, TTT is a direct ripoff of the Marvel/Capcom games. However, that's not even the point. The fact that PS2 went with the DVD format is what killed the Dreamcast. The DC started off strong but developers dropped it like a hot potato in favor of Sony. However, past bone-ups by Sega also directly hurt them as well.

 

Edit: Forgot to add Giga Wing 1 and 2, DoA2, and Mars Matrix to that list.

 

I can only shake my head in disbelief when Sakura takes one of her opinions--one few would agree with anyway--and tries to present it as undeniable fact.

Edited June 27, 2003 by AndrewTS