Hype/Popularity = Disappointment

[Linkachu]

It happens all the time in movies, so of course it must happen for games

What big/hyped up games have you played over the past 5 years or so that disappointed you? (And when I say "played", I don't mean one sitting. I mean actually giving it a chance but you just couldn't enjoy it).
And just a note - no bashing others opinions. Debate it if you must, but its still just your opinion vs their's.


I bet I have a few. Starfox Assault is an obvious one. We all hyped it up because we thought it was the answer to our prays... but we were wrong. I don't hate the game or anything, but I don't particularly love it either. I guess its fair in my mind.

Some people have heard my Golden Sun rant countless times, but I'll say it anyways for those who haven't. People claimed it was the best RPG "ever" - yes, I distinctly heard that word used on various different forums and game sites. Is it the best? Not even close. Other RPGs like it have come before it and done the job better. I'm not saying it isn't good, though, and I can understand why so many people like it. It probably is one of the best RPGs on a handheld system - keyword "handheld".

Another GBA title... Sonic Advance! Another game I distinctly heard Nintendo fanboys say was THE BESTEST Sonic game OF ALL TIME!!! ... Man, don't even go there. Just don't. You obviously haven't played the originals if you can even make a statement like that -.-

I'm sure I have many more, but I can't think of them right now... Well, except Kingdom Hearts *dodges flying bricks*. I'm not going to bash it about its Disney association because most people who do haven't actually played the game. What I will say, though, is that I found the camera bad and the controls iffy - not horrid or anything, but not as solid as they could be. In the end, I under understand why it has such a cult following but I wouldn't rank it as being one of my top adventure games at all (action-RPG... same diff).

And that's it from me, for now.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Sonic Heroes. I was REALLY looking forward to a continuation of SA2, more great story and hopefully more emphasis on the running levels.

It, however, pretty much sucked. And I have to say, when I picked up Sonic Adventure DX I wasn't much impressed. The story was good, but the game itself was really, really badly constructed.

I know Nem loves the first Adventure game but it really just sucked balls compared to SA2. Hopefully, the Shadow game can incorperate all of the good parts from these Sonic games, but it will be missing one vital ingredient. Sonic himself...

I'd really hate it if New Zelda didn't live up to the hype - but somehow I really, seriously doubt that it will truely disappoint... It's ZELDA. And it looks flarking amazing... It's the ultimate formula for success.

And it's going to be extremely cliché, but in hindsight, R/S was really kinda disappointing following all it's hype. I mean, imagine if they'd released EMERALD back in 2002. Just look at how far the games have jumped in the same generation... WAY more than any 'third' game so far. And really, I would rather have had Emerald from the start because R/S just had too many holes to keep it truely enjoyable.

That's about it really. Though I have to say that Polarium DEFINITELY doesn't live up to the hype of 'Out Tetrising Tetris' - it's a decent puzzler and my god it can make you it's bitch just because you want to beat it. But that's it.

Oh, and Mario 64 definitely does not live up to it's hype. It IS a well-crafted game but I just don't find it enjoyable enough to push myself through to the end. For one thing, it's got no plot at all. It pretend to have a plot, but it really, really doesn't. To be honest, I don't really give a damn if Peach gets rescued, let her be Bowser's Barbeque Dinner - I've never really liked any of the Mario Characters and their 2D nature anyway. Heck, watching Mario running around with his arse on fire is one of the few good pleasures of playing the game.

Long live Wario Ware Touched though. No amount of hype in this world could accurately display it's true awesomeness.

 

[Alex Bock]

I don't know I never really got disappointed in the games I got I just got bored of them after awhile and your right Doctor Oak they should of presented emerald a long while ago it would of been alot better off but ya know they had to make R/S worst so people would buy emerald for its upgrades :wink:and hey did you hear their coming out with a new pokemon show called pokemon chronicals the twist none of the main crew will be in it.It's been released in the UK but there is no north american release yet.No Ash it's like a dream come true

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Sonic Heroes. I was REALLY looking forward to a continuation of SA2, more great story and hopefully more emphasis on the running levels.

It, however, pretty much sucked. And I have to say, when I picked up Sonic Adventure DX I wasn't much impressed. The story was good, but the game itself was really, really badly constructed.

It does have some links into SA2B tho, you must admit. Take the meeting between teams Dark and Sonic. There are a good number of references to Sonic CD too tho... =-/


Sonic Adventure wasn't really my thing. I dunno if anyone else noticed this, but none of what the characters said was the same in any of the stories, which bugged me to no end.

Also, the story and the emerald deal was a bit too linear, IMO.

 

[Linkachu]

I don't know I never really got disappointed in the games I got I just got bored of them after awhile and your right Doctor Oak they should of presented emerald a long while ago it would of been alot better off but ya know they had to make R/S worst so people would buy emerald for its upgrades :wink:and hey did you hear their coming out with a new pokemon show called pokemon chronicals the twist none of the main crew will be in it.It's been released in the UK but there is no north american release yet.No Ash it's like a dream come true

If you want to talk about Chronicals, can you make a new topic? It doesn't have anything to do with this

Getting back to the rest...

Personally, when it comes to Sonic games, the Genesis collection is still my favourite. I mainly liked the Adventure collection because it was Sonic, but I'd rather play the older ones anyday. Heroes is no different. The Sonic series has advanced graphics-wise but the fun sure hasn't increased.

 

[baratron]

Singularly, the most disappointing game I've ever bought was Spyro 4. Insomniac, who made the first three Spyro games, moved on to Ratchet & Clank, so the development of Spyro 4 was given to another developer. IT SUCKED. I lack the energy to describe how much it sucked again, so here is my rant from livejournal in February 2003:

... Spyro 4, which was bitterly disappointing. We liked Spyro The Dragon, really liked Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (called "Ripto's Rage" in the US), and absolutely loved Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. Thus we begged our dear friends to buy Spyro 4: Enter the Dragonfly as soon as it was released. This was a mistake. It sucks. Produced by a different software company to the first three, it has been slowed down and turned into a game that the average 8 year old would find too easy. Plus, it has more bugs than the average beta.

Walking round the levels was so insanely slow, you had to hold the joystick all the way down for several minutes to move anywhere. Running ("charging", the game calls it) was the same speed as walking on the previous games. Moving to PS2 should have removed the well-known Playstation graphical effect of "jaggies", but in fact it was worse. The game's collision detection was completely off. And, to completely add insult to injury, the puzzle-solving element, and in fact anything that required any kind of brainpower whatsoever, was removed.

Spyro 5: A Hero's Tail has been produced by a different developer again, and it's a lot better - at least at the level of the first Spyro, which is better than nothing. But I'm glad I only paid US $12 for it in a shop that was closing down. I'd be bitterly disappointed had I got it at full price.

Actually, I tell you another game that's failed to live up to its hype: Anything with "Harry Potter" in the title. Oh my God, the console games suck. The GBA game I played (no. 3) was better by way of being a turn-based battle type RPG, but it is so linear it actually stops you doing most things you want to do. Also it randomly switches from flat to isometric view on different levels (which is confusing), and I just got bored with it before I was very far through at all. I want to have at least the illusion that I am controlling the game. If the game itself requires me to do a whole series of things in exactly the right order and I have no choice where to go, that's not an RPG - it's not even interactive! I might as well just sit at home and watch a video!

Richard (my partner) has been bitterly disappointed by Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within. He loved The Sands Of Time because it was different - an action game with relatively little fighting, and enormous amounts of puzzle solving. He would spend a couple of hours trying to work out how to solve a part of the game, and I'd be sitting there with the faq open on the laptop trying to give him hints without the complete spoiler. I enjoyed just sitting there watching him - and how many games are there that work as a spectator sport? (Pikmin 2, Animal Crossing, DDR played by a professional, and that's about it.) TSOT was beautiful and sexy, in an adult way, and treated the gamer as an intelligent adult.

In contrast, WW is awful. The main enemy is a woman wearing a black leather strappy thing with her tits and arse hanging out. The prince calls her a "bitch" and other choice words, thus setting the battle of the sexes back a few decades. The puzzle-solving has been greatly removed, and moreover, the time-travelling aspect of the game means that you frequently have to do exactly the same level 2 or 3 times - in past and present. That's just stupid - adding longevity by sheer frustration. The sweaty adolescent sexuality of it, the need to bash insane numbers of buttons during the battles (which are every 2 seconds), and the lack of actual puzzles mean that Richard put the game down and probably won't ever finish it.

I think Edge magazine summed up the problem pretty well:

The Warrior Within set out to improve on The Sands Of Time and it tried to do so by listening to gamers. What gamers said was, "Make it more like other videogames! We want to unlock things! We want combos! We want collectables!". But there's a problem with listening to gamers and it's this: the ones that shout the loudest are the smallest minority.

Bloody awful, was WW. And buggy as hell. There are at least 3 bugs which are fatal to the point of even corrupting your save game. One of these bugs may occur roughly 5 minutes before the end of the game! :shock:

 

[Baby Lugia]

I, personally, got myself hyped up totally and so completely over Tales of Symphonia that it was almost inconceivable I wouldn't get sick of it quickly, but fortunately for me the game was of the type where as soon as I got it I got even more excited over it than ever! Lucky for me, heh.

I think one of the games I got so disappointed about was Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. I mean, it is fun to an extent, but it lacks so much in character and storyline development, as well as convenience and single-player-ness, it was quite a disappointment. When I rented it I expected a lot out of it but it looks like I was wrong. Luckily for me my friend got it really cheap so we still play it...every now and then. I mean, we figured out how to cast *aga spells with two people perfectly...we make a formidable team :twisted:

For me, when I get "personally excited" about a game that has got a good cast of characters, customizable/changing gameplay, a good story, a good amount of "quirks" or secrets/Easter eggs, and/or memorable quotes, I find it hard to relinquish.

I think the hardest-hitting one of all for games on me is customizability of gameplay. i.e. Golden Sun and mixing Djinn (I don't own the game - I borrowed it from above-mentioned friend and deleted one of his files muahahaha), Pokémon and their moves, stats, etc., trying out combos in Soul Calibur II, mixing techs and watching compound Unisons in Tales of Symphonia, map editors in StarCraft and WarCraft, etc. etc. etc.

In other words, the gameplay I enjoy most is that in which there is no best way to do something. If the whole point of the game is to accomplish one thing, the same thing every time, in a relatively similar fashion each time, I will not enjoy the game at all.

 

[QuagsireQing]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I thought it would be cool when I saw the Space World screenshots, but then it was all cartoony and the sailing took FOREVER. That was the worst game I've ever played...

April Fool's! (What, you say that was over nine days ago? It makes me cry when people say they didn't like the Wind Waker.)

My real answer: there are no games that were hyped so much that I played and then they sucked. To be honest, it's exactly the opposite with me: the games I play are always UN-hyped and given poor reviews and complained about a lot, but they always end up much better than those reviews. It's cool that way, because then I'm always pleasantly surprised. (The Minish Cap was an example: it lasted me at least four times as long as people said it would, which was the majour complaint about the game.)

 

[Linkachu]

Well, most of the ones I named didn't "suck", but they didn't live up to the hype IMO, either. I mean, I don't hate Kingdom Hearts - at all - it's just not one of my favourites.