Most disappointing games...

[KingPK 0]

I'm going to agree and disagree with some of the choices here.

 

Agree

 

FF8 - The story was just incredibly dull, with characters that really weren't developed that well (if at all), the setting just didn't grab me, and the gameplay was just atrocious (Junctioning and drawing spell after spell was NOT the way to go). I finished it once, and the ending just left me scratching my head a bit. Squall is also the most loathsome "hero" in FF history.

 

Chrono Cross - I think I passed up Xenogears for this one. It just seemed so disjointed, leaving you to ask "Ok, now where do I go to advance the plot?" And the second half seems to throw you into a completely different story. I liked the battle system though, believe it or not. Just not a game to slap the "Chrono" name on to.

 

NHL 2000 (PS1): Just the most unbalanced sports game I have ever played. I put the difficulty on Rookie, and won 22-1, take it up a notch, and I lose 14-3. Along with 2001 (although not as blatant), it was just WAY too easy to score goals.

 

MGS2: The plant section was not much more than a rehash of the original MGS, and they pretty much tell you that at the end. I don't know what the fuck Kojima was smoking with all that crap in the end.

 

(Sort of) FF IX: Yeah, the story pretty much unravelled at the end, but really, you had to feel for poor Vivi. They really nailed that character. The character development as a whole was ages better than 8, and the story (up until you got to the 4th disc) wasn't bad.

 

Disagree

 

FFX: No way this should be in the disappointing category. The story is top notch, every character has their own little reasons for why they are joined with Yuna (and you actually care about them). Ok, the linear style is a bit of a turnoff, and the Sphere Grid maybe wasn't perfect, but the storytelling and voice acting (even if Yuna sounded like she was line reading at some points) is some of the best in the series.

 

GTA: VC - People complain that this is just "GTA III in another setting", but I think that was Rockstar's idea all along, keeping the core gameplay of III and just shifting it to a different setting with some gameplay tweaks. The 80s soundtrack AUTOMATICALLY puts this one above disappointing.

 

My Own Choices

 

1) Triple Play Baseball (PS2): Just a complete barebones baseball game, which is shocking after all the stuff they had in the PS1 versions. Hell, the lack of a Big League Challenge where you hit targets at a construction site and in a giant living room ("Aw don't hit the dog, I like dogs.") was boss. I also believe there was no Buck Martinez in the booth, so that hurt it a lot (Buck was awesome in the PS1 versions).

 

2) All Star Baseball 2003 (PS2): The hitting just sucked; if you turned on the cursor, it was too damn slow to be any good, and if you put Easy Batting on, you scored 15 runs/game with no problem. The Expansion mode was pretty cool though.

 

3) High Heat Baseball 2004 (PS2): The only thing disappointing was the whole presentation. The announcers were dull, the crowd effects were awful, and there just wasn't much hoopla when something big happens (i.e. Winning the Series, hell, even hitting a homer didn't rouse the crowd much)

 

I'll probably think of more later.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

GTA: VC - People complain that this is just "GTA III in another setting", but I think that was Rockstar's idea all along, keeping the core gameplay of III and just shifting it to a different setting with some gameplay tweaks. The 80s soundtrack AUTOMATICALLY puts this one above disappointing.

It's more "GTA: Scarface" than anything.

[AndrewTS 0]

I thought the story blew.

isn't there a law against taste like that?

Thank God, or we'd all be playing shitty movie "games." Note that the negative reviews aren't brainless l33t panning, but most of them are well thought out.

 

Granted, there are scores that are way too low. I don't think XG deserves a terrible score. Above-average, yeah. However, I hate it. If every game mag calls it game of the year I won't change my opinion.

[Guest Kamui]

FF8 wasn't a disappointment. It was an incredible game (but at the same time, incredibly misunderstood game)- I loved it, while FF7 gets very little love from me. The problem was that EVERYONE loved FF7, and everyone wanted MORE FF7- which is the one thing FF8 isn't.

 

FFX wasn't a disappointment either- that was the best Final Fantasy since 6, very easily. The story was deep and involving, the Yuna/Tidus romance was sweet, and the battle system was my favorite since 5's.

 

Now, Xenogears was a mild disappointment- I was expecting more after all the hype, to be honest- but Monolith made up for it completley with Xenosaga. I love that game, but I do realize it takes a very special kind of person to enjoy it (behind shoujo, my second-favorite genre of anime is mecha, so that probably helps things). Monolith Soft is easily the biggest up-and-comer in the RPG genre right now, by the way- Baiten Kaitos is going to revolutionize the way we think about RPGs, and who the fuck knows what they've got planned for Xenosaga Episode 2.

 

GTA: VC wasn't a disappointment for me, but that's because I was expecting it to suck anyway. And it, uh, did. So yay.

 

A personal disappointment most of you probably don't care about was the PS2 Gundam SEED game. I LOVE the SEED show more than any other shonen show I've ever seen in my life, so this was a huge let-down for me when the PS2 game turned out to be a decent but short 2D side-scroller.

 

*breathes in*

 

I WANT A 3D SEED GAME, GODDAMNIT!

 

*breathes out*

 

There we go.

 

I'll think of more when I get the chance.

 

-Duo

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

A personal disappointment most of you probably don't care about was the PS2 Gundam SEED game. I LOVE the SEED show more than any other shonen show I've ever seen in my life, so this was a huge let-down for me when the PS2 game turned out to be a decent but short 2D side-scroller.

 

*breathes in*

 

I WANT A 3D SEED GAME, GODDAMNIT!

 

*breathes out*

I know, I know. >_- Not knocking on UC Gundam or anything, but a series that's been over for years (Zeta) gets a 3D Game..but not Seed? Bleh.

 

Stupid Bandai.

 

(At least Aile Strike is going to be in Encounters In Space..)

[Star Ocean 3 0]

Saying it's just giant robots is dumb.

I didn't say it was, but giant robots suck.

That sentence makes me feel like crying now.

 

Now, Xenogears was a mild disappointment- I was expecting more after all the hype, to be honest- but Monolith made up for it completley with Xenosaga. I love that game, but I do realize it takes a very special kind of person to enjoy it (behind shoujo, my second-favorite genre of anime is mecha, so that probably helps things). Monolith Soft is easily the biggest up-and-comer in the RPG genre right now, by the way- Baiten Kaitos is going to revolutionize the way we think about RPGs, and who the fuck knows what they've got planned for Xenosaga Episode 2.

 

I don't get how Xenogears is a dissapointment but Saga is not...XS has nothing XG doesn't. I didn't care about XS's characters enough, and the gameplay was pretty shallow.

 

Baten Kaitos looks interesting, it doesn't look revolutionary, though. But at least it's another oppurtunity to get a masterpiece of a sountrack from Sakuraba.

[Guest Kamui]

A personal disappointment most of you probably don't care about was the PS2 Gundam SEED game. I LOVE the SEED show more than any other shonen show I've ever seen in my life, so this was a huge let-down for me when the PS2 game turned out to be a decent but short 2D side-scroller.

 

*breathes in*

 

I WANT A 3D SEED GAME, GODDAMNIT!

 

*breathes out*

I know, I know. >_- Not knocking on UC Gundam or anything, but a series that's been over for years (Zeta) gets a 3D Game..but not Seed? Bleh.

 

Stupid Bandai.

 

(At least Aile Strike is going to be in Encounters In Space..)

Zeta is probably the best of the UC ones, but yeah, I see what you're saying.

 

However, the reason why it's Zeta that's getting the new 3D game is pretty simple- the Gundam VS. series isn't Bandai's project, it's Capcom's. Capcom started at Mobile Suit Gundam with Federation vs. Zeon, and it seems like they're gonna go in chronological order, as we get Z Gundam: AEUG vs. Titans next.

 

Hopefully they just decided to skip ZZ Gundam. God knows that if there's one Gundam series that doesn't need to be revisited in game form, that's it.

 

 

The best chance we have of getting a new 3D Gundam game is from Bandai itself, but this might not happen since they're really stuck up on the original series for some reason (every announced game so far is in the OYW timeline). Not to mention that the Bandai games range from horrible to only slightly above-average, while the Capcom games are just plain awesome.

 

-Duo

Next Capcom game announced- SEED: EF vs. ZAFT! Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?!?

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

Zeta is probably the best of the UC ones, but yeah, I see what you're saying.

 

However, the reason why it's Zeta that's getting the new 3D game is pretty simple- the Gundam VS. series isn't Bandai's project, it's Capcom's. Capcom started at Mobile Suit Gundam with Federation vs. Zeon, and it seems like they're gonna go in chronological order, as we get Z Gundam: AEUG vs. Titans next.

 

Hopefully they just decided to skip ZZ Gundam. God knows that if there's one Gundam series that doesn't need to be revisited in game form, that's it.

 

 

The best chance we have of getting a new 3D Gundam game is from Bandai itself, but this might not happen since they're really stuck up on the original series for some reason (every announced game so far is in the OYW timeline). Not to mention that the Bandai games range from horrible to only slightly above-average, while the Capcom games are just plain awesome.

 

-Duo

Next Capcom game announced- SEED: EF vs. ZAFT! Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?!?

That, and Zeta's coming out next year over here on DVD. (with Seed and F91, too)

[Guest Kamui]

That, and Zeta's coming out next year over here on DVD. (with Seed and F91, too)

Zuh?

 

Lesson #1 of the anime industy: No one in Japan gives a shit what happens over here. If a game just HAPPENS to tie in with an upcoming DVD release over here, it's a coincidence (like in this case- Z Gundam's actually been out in Japanese arcades since the summer).

 

-Duo

[AndrewTS 0]

A nominee that isn't as big as disappointment for most, but for me is:

 

Fighting Force 2.

 

I loved the first game. As a used title you can find pretty easily, and it's worth every penny to me. After mentioning and playing Streets of Rage 3, it reminded me of how Fighting Force was considered a spiritual successor of sorts to SoR. Yeah, it was far from perfect, but it played well, looked damn cool for its time, and was mucho fun (needed 4 player action, though!).

 

So, when I got a Dreamcast and heard about Fighting Force 2, I rushed out to get it...

 

Well, it barely resembled the first game other than a few characters. It attempted to merge several gameplay styles: the beat 'em up genre it was derived from, platforming/exploration, shooting, and so on. Nearly all of those were done very poorly. Plus, the unclear mission objectives meant you could spend tons of time wandering around, trying to figure out what to do.

 

Thankfully, I ended up getting Dynamite Cop and that's a cool title itself, but is still quite different and isn't what a Fighting Force 2 should have been.

 

*Expects backlash of Xenogears lovers yelling "Fighting Force sucked too!" *

[Damaramu 0]

I'll agree on that dissapointment Andrew. I was like "all right...another SoR type game! What's this bullshit!?"

Sadly I doubt they can compare to SoR again......

[AndrewTS 0]

I'll agree on that dissapointment Andrew. I was like "all right...another SoR type game! What's this bullshit!?"

Sadly I doubt they can compare to SoR again...... 

Yeah. The original Fighting Force needed a little tightening up, a bit more variety in gameplay, and a bit more length. That's what I expected the second to be. So while Fighting Force probably hasn't aged well and may be only an "average" game, I still like it.

 

I think that, due to the oversaturation in the 80's of the genre, the style of game has practically been eliminated from even being considered for newer games. Sure, there were attempts to revive it, but generally they sucked (The Bouncer).

 

According to the classicgaming.com Streets of Rage page, there have been several attempts to get working on a SoR4, but little more than rumors. Still, there are some small glimmers. Plus, maybe if Double Dragon Advance sells well maybe Sega will consider it.

 

I also understand what the makers of Fighting Force 2 were trying to do, and if there'd been good play control and tighter gameplay, we may have had something there, but it didn't turn out that way.

[Guest MikeSC]

And God help you if you want to level up a bit more before you fight a big fight. Not happening in this lifetime.

 

....That's a GOOD thing. Why the hell would you want to level up?

Well, in my case, my guys weren't strong enough. They NEEDED more levelling up --- and it couldn't happen.

-=Mike

...However, to be positive, Ratchet & Clank 2 is f'n amazing. Best. platformer. ever.

[Anya 0]

I love SOR 1, 2 and 3. Also big mark for Final Fight trilogy, Alien vs. Predator, Punisher and other old school beat em ups. I even like some of the newer ones like Die Hard Arcade and yes, Fighting Force. I even liked Bouncer.

 

 

The problem is no developer wants to make a straight up beat em up. They're all obsessed with adding "RPG elements" to them and making them "deep". It's like they ashamed to just make something basic and simple(yet incredibly fun). Like the two Buffy games are decent, but they're filled with crap like puzzles and platforming. Who cares about puzzles in a beat em up?

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

I know its an older game but Silent Hill 2 pissed me off. The first just was one of the best gaming experiences I've played, yes it was easy and the controls were a little choppy, but the overall was great. In 2 they didn't use the full potential of the series.

[Highland 0]

Final Fantasy VIII

And that's all you have to say.

 

-Contrived story "Oh we're to lazy to come up with backgrounds for everyone! They all grew up together...oh and......so did the villain!"

-Here's a main villain that you don't care about thrown on you at the end!

-Oh yeah....to upgrade your weapons you have to customize them...guess what? The material is hard as fuck to find!

-Here draw some magic...you don't actually learn anything!

-The monsters level up with you! It's almost impossible to build up without it becoming a 30 hour ordeal.

-Do I need to repeat how much I hated the fucking story?

-Here's your second angsty hero that doesn't want to be a hero! Man we'd better try something new in the next few!(thank god they did. Tidus and Zidane actually wanted to help people)

It's probably also the only FF game where I hated everything about it, even the music, which normally I'm a big fan of.

[Highland 0]

Xenogears was a great RPG, you sure somebody didn't screw with you and put a Xenogears label on a SaGa Frontier game? hehe

Xenogears and SaGa Frontier do not belong in the same sentence. I'm still dismayed that they're made by the same company.

 

Btw, Xenogears owns SF in every conceivable fashion.

Edited November 15, 2003 by Naibus

[AndrewTS 0]

I love SOR 1, 2 and 3. Also big mark for Final Fight trilogy, Alien vs. Predator, Punisher and other old school beat em ups. I even like some of the newer ones like Die Hard Arcade and yes, Fighting Force. I even liked Bouncer.

 

 

The problem is no developer wants to make a straight up beat em up. They're all obsessed with adding "RPG elements" to them and making them "deep". It's like they ashamed to just make something basic and simple(yet incredibly fun). Like the two Buffy games are decent, but they're filled with crap like puzzles and platforming. Who cares about puzzles in a beat em up?

If you like Die Hard Arcade, then Dynamite Cop is the unlicensed sequel, basically.

 

Also, yeah--usually we don't even get beat 'em ups anymore except as poorly-done subgames (Tekken Force, Revenge mode in WMXIX). When they do get their own stand alone game, developers try to add more to the gameplay.

 

However, "RPG elements" have been added since the days of River City Ransom and Double Dragon (NES). It's not necessarily a bad thing if it doesn't undermine the basic aim of the game.

 

By their basic nature, beat 'em ups are repetitive. However, I heard that Double Dragon Advance doesn't really tinker with the basic gameplay much, but gives you more levels, weapons, types of enemies, etc.

 

I think adding gameplay modes is a good idea, instead of trying to change the basic game nature. For example, Duel/Battle modes are fine--especially if you do it like Guardian Heroes. To me, Guardian Heroes is the ideal version of a "next gen" beat 'em up (although in 3D).

 

It seems making a good, unique beat 'em up is a very challenging task, and so developers try to give you more to do in them. No puzzles should be added IMO, and if you're trying to merge other genres, you should be doing it right.

[Renegade 0]

The problem is no developer wants to make a straight up beat em up. They're all obsessed with adding "RPG elements" to them and making them "deep". It's like they ashamed to just make something basic and simple(yet incredibly fun). Like the two Buffy games are decent, but they're filled with crap like puzzles and platforming. Who cares about puzzles in a beat em up?

Play D&D tower of doom and Shadow Over Mystara. They use light "RPG elements" and are two of the best beat em ups around. Also have to agree with Andrew about Guardian Heroes, another reason why Treasure are simply one of best teams.

 

Expects backlash of Xenogears lovers yelling "Fighting Force sucked too!"

 

I hated Xenogears and let me tell you Fighting force sucked seven different kinds of ass.

[Anya 0]

I have Dynamite Cop. It's good. I like Die Hard Arcade more though.

[chaosrage 0]

I didn't say it was, but giant robots suck.

So... what? The story isn't about robots. Yeah, despite the name. They're only weapons.

Robots are a million times better than guardian forces.

[chaosrage 0]

Now, Xenogears was a mild disappointment- I was expecting more after all the hype, to be honest- but Monolith made up for it completley with Xenosaga. I love that game, but I do realize it takes a very special kind of person to enjoy it (behind shoujo, my second-favorite genre of anime is mecha, so that probably helps things). Monolith Soft is easily the biggest up-and-comer in the RPG genre right now, by the way- Baiten Kaitos is going to revolutionize the way we think about RPGs, and who the fuck knows what they've got planned for Xenosaga Episode 2.

 

I don't get how Xenogears is a dissapointment but Saga is not...XS has nothing XG doesn't. I didn't care about XS's characters enough, and the gameplay was pretty shallow.

I really really wanted to like XS, but I..... just couldn't get into it for anything. I've been waiting for XS ever since it was announced, so that hurts to admit.

 

The story drags on and on so much. I mean, in the first 5 hours, nothing happens at all except for the ship getting attacked. It's ridiculous. The only character who sounds halfway interesting is Ziggy. All the techno-babble bullshit keeps putting me to sleep. The battles feel a lot slower than XG's. You have to manage stats now, man that's fun. There's no music in dungeons either. I'd love to hear what someone thinks XS has over XG too. Someone motivate me to play it some more.

[chaosrage 0]

Well, in my case, my guys weren't strong enough. They NEEDED more levelling up --- and it couldn't happen.

But all the fights at the end are gear fights. Levels don't matter for gears. I like how they forced you to use strategy and you couldn't spend hours leveling up to turn yourself into a god.

[chaosrage 0]

I thought the story blew.

isn't there a law against taste like that?

Thank God, or we'd all be playing shitty movie "games." Note that the negative reviews aren't brainless l33t panning, but most of them are well thought out.

 

Granted, there are scores that are way too low. I don't think XG deserves a terrible score. Above-average, yeah. However, I hate it. If every game mag calls it game of the year I won't change my opinion.

I can understand someone hating the game. The story, that's something else.

 

Those reviewers seriously sound like idiots though. One of them was complaining that you can't SKIP the cutscenes, another one is saying that there weren't ANY major story developments until the last 5 hours (maybe one of his friends switched the labels with Chrono Cross while he wasn't looking), another one seemed to play all of 10 hours of it, and another idiot get this, didn't even MENTION THE STORY.

[Lightning Flik 0]

Those reviewers seriously sound like idiots though. One of them was complaining that you can't SKIP the cutscenes, another one is saying that there weren't ANY major story developments until the last 5 hours (maybe one of his friends switched the labels with Chrono Cross while he wasn't looking), another one seemed to play all of 10 hours of it, and another idiot get this, didn't even MENTION THE STORY.

Not to pick anything in particular, but I love the Chrono Cross reference, and must say that XS has CC beat in that department of storytelling. I at least learnt more playing XS than I had with CC.

 

And btw, you CAN skip cutscenes. Hit pause to pause the movie, and I think triangle and you'll skip it.

 

Or just hit pause and the button that skips the scene will be present. I found this out when I need a bathroom break and didn't want to miss a scene (because God knows major stuff was only in FMVs in XS), so I paused it and it gave me the option to skip it with by pressing another button afterwards.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Now, Xenogears was a mild disappointment- I was expecting more after all the hype, to be honest- but Monolith made up for it completley with Xenosaga. I love that game, but I do realize it takes a very special kind of person to enjoy it (behind shoujo, my second-favorite genre of anime is mecha, so that probably helps things). Monolith Soft is easily the biggest up-and-comer in the RPG genre right now, by the way- Baiten Kaitos is going to revolutionize the way we think about RPGs, and who the fuck knows what they've got planned for Xenosaga Episode 2.

 

I don't get how Xenogears is a dissapointment but Saga is not...XS has nothing XG doesn't. I didn't care about XS's characters enough, and the gameplay was pretty shallow.

I really really wanted to like XS, but I..... just couldn't get into it for anything. I've been waiting for XS ever since it was announced, so that hurts to admit.

 

The story drags on and on so much. I mean, in the first 5 hours, nothing happens at all except for the ship getting attacked. It's ridiculous. The only character who sounds halfway interesting is Ziggy. All the techno-babble bullshit keeps putting me to sleep. The battles feel a lot slower than XG's. You have to manage stats now, man that's fun. There's no music in dungeons either. I'd love to hear what someone thinks XS has over XG too. Someone motivate me to play it some more.

I actually liked Jr. and Kos-Mos more then Ziggy. I only played a little bit of XG, so I can't really compare it to XS.

[chaosrage 0]

Not to pick anything in particular, but I love the Chrono Cross reference, and must say that XS has CC beat in that department of storytelling. I at least learnt more playing XS than I had with CC.

 

And btw, you CAN skip cutscenes. Hit pause to pause the movie, and I think triangle and you'll skip it.

 

Or just hit pause and the button that skips the scene will be present. I found this out when I need a bathroom break and didn't want to miss a scene (because God knows major stuff was only in FMVs in XS), so I paused it and it gave me the option to skip it with by pressing another button afterwards.

That was a review for XG not XS.

[chaosrage 0]

I actually liked Jr. and Kos-Mos more then Ziggy. I only played a little bit of XG, so I can't really compare it to XS.

I think I've seen like one scene with JR in it, but that's it. I've only made it as far as inside the Gnosis. After about an hour of trying to play through that walking around in silence fighting the same sloooow battles over and over, I got killed for some reason... Probably because I was falling asleep. That made me feel like breaking the damn CD in half. I haven't touched it since.

[Lightning Flik 0]

That was a review for XG not XS.

Oh... Whatever. Still works.

 

XG was a good RPG. Nothing like MAJOR, but nothing as bad as Chrono Cross. XS was worse than XG in a lot of regards.

[SpikeFayeJettEdBebop 0]

I just gotta say(Althought it was mentioned on Page 1 I think) Shenmue 1 and 2 are my faovrite games ever made! They, to me, are the best games that can be made. I consider them excellent, and I am in no way going to berate you. I am just saying those games kicked my fucking ass.