Board 8 > What was the most disappointing game you've ever played?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Brink

Might be the only game I ever sold back because it was so disappointing.
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Scribblenauts


By a country mile
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Brawl is a good answer.
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Some other disappointing games I played:

Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (was barely any different and barely featured Yoshi)
A Link to the Past (relative to the insane praise it gets)
Super Mario Sunshine
Far Cry 4 (gameplay was sorta fun, but the "sides" basically suck equally)

There have been a few.

I'll second Sticker Star and Parasite Eve 2. I'll add Donkey Kong 64.
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Fable.
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swordz9 posted...

Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Oh god forgot about this
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Brawl is our fault almost as much as Nintendo's.

DK64 is a decent answer.
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Every single Spyro game since 2002 when Enter The Dragonfly came out. 15 frickin' years.

And you wonder why I moved on and made Power Rangers videos. Are they stupid? Perhaps but I was getting tired of waiting.

It's not exactly any of the fault of the people here.

Then again no one here will ever attempt or even care to ever develop a video game.

I don't think it's a maturity/immaturity thing since people here can't be more than 3 or so years older and/or younger than me. I'm done.

PrestonStarry2 posted...

And you wonder why I moved on and made Power Rangers videos.

no I don't
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TheRock1525 posted...

Fable.

this is a good answer.

CelesMyUserName posted...

FFXIII

as is this.

even in an era of limited player engagement and guided play, FF13 is among the worst offenders.
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Star Fox Zero OR Crash FUCKING Bandicoot. I SUCKED at that game
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Metal Gear Solid 2
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Hello Johnbobb! =)

I had to think about this for a little bit because I typically don't get myself overhyped for a game therefore my expectations aren't usually spoiled but I'd have to say that Mighty No.9 is by far the worst disappointment I've ever had. I think I was more disappointed though because I actually donated to the kickstarter.

I realize some folks like the game but everything about it just felt wrong to me for some reason.

(I am surprised to see some of the games chosen here though like Parasite Eve 2, Fable and Final Fantasy XIII... which all exceeded my expectations really. Perhaps I do not expect much from my video games I suppose.lol)
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Then again no one here will ever attempt or even care to ever develop a video game.

at least one of us has a game available for purchase on Steam currently
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you definitely do not expect much from your video games if PE2 exceeded them unless all you really wanted was an Aya Brea shower scene
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Too Human?
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Metal Gear Rising
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LittleBigPlanet

I actually got pretty hyped after the trailer, only to find that I hated the feel of movement and platforming in the game.
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oh wait maybe Duke Nukem forever. I don't know though, because I did expect it to suck after for so long but was still let down because it was so long.
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Brawl and it ain't close
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pyresword posted...

Super Mario Galaxy. God I don't think I've ever had so little fun playing a video game.

Jesus I can understand everything said in this topic, even Breath of the Wild, but this just seems...humanly impossible.

Possibly Twilight Princess for me if we're going solely by first playthroughs. But I love that game now and the remake fixed quite a few of my biggest issues with it, especially the difficulty.

e: But my actual answers are Halo 3 and ALttP. The latter might have been different if I played it in its heyday but people still think it's a great game somehow. (Minish Cap better in every way, yo)
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You know the answer is probably Metroid Prime as I think more about this.

It's actually better than SotC but man my hopes were super high for that game-- was a huge Super Metroid fan. Ocarina of Time kinda similar, but I wasn't as big a fan of Zelda as Metroid, although Ocarina might have been amplified by the fact that Nintendo had done no wrong on their mainline games before that point. Both are probably better answers than SotC which I had relatively less hype for coming in.
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I've never actually played ALttP but it looks pretty sick
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StartTheMachine posted...

Minish Cap better in every way, yo

this is violence
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Sonic 2006 is a weird case for me because I was used to 3-D Sonic games getting bad reviews and I figured it was just all overblown and it couldn't possibly be THAT bad...and then it was.

New Super Mario Bros. as a whole probably fits for me, too. Mario is one of my favorite series, and man, those games just feel so uninspired.
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i replayed ALttP and TMC recently guys i can confirm it's true
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New Super Mario Bros. Wii is okay if you're playing co-op with as many people as possible. I couldn't imagine playing it alone though.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Sonic 2006 is a weird case for me because I was used to 3-D Sonic games getting bad reviews and I figured it was just all overblown and it couldn't possibly be THAT bad...and then it was.

New Super Mario Bros. as a whole probably fits for me, too. Mario is one of my favorite series, and man, those games just feel so uninspired.

Did you play U, Leon? I found it so good I couldn't believe it was part of the NSMB series.
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Nope, never owned a Wii U, so I never played that one.
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Kenri posted...

Brawl lmao

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LeonhartFour posted...

Nope, never owned a Wii U, so I never played that one.

It did everything right and felt largely like a SMW throwback in the NSMB art style. Can't recommend enough if you ever get the chance to check it out, especially if you were also extremely disappointed with the others (though I did find Wii to be at least a tiny step in the right direction).
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Final Fantasy XII

My expectations were through the roof because this was the first mainline (non Online) Final Fantasy game since X.

The gameplay grew on me and the world was great but the characters and story have left a very sour taste in my mouth. This was the downfall of Final Fantasy so far as good storytelling and memorable characters were concerned.
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LeonhartFour posted...

you definitely do not expect much from your video games if PE2 exceeded them unless all you really wanted was an Aya Brea shower scene

I actually forgot about the shower scene but I'm a big fan of the classic survival horror style of gameplay like Resident Evil 1-3, Silent Hill 1-4 etc.

Or basically anything with static backgrounds and fixed camera angles really so it really wasn't a high bar to reach with PE2 honestly.

I also thought the environments were sort of unique at the time too.

I liked it so much though that I'd happily take a copy off someones hands if they didn't want theirs anymore. Anyone got a copy they want to get rid of in here? :P
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nope got rid of mine years ago
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VintageGin posted...

LittleBigPlanet

I actually got pretty hyped after the trailer, only to find that I hated the feel of movement and platforming in the game.

This is a surprising choice. My kids and I had a hell of a blast playing through LBP 1-3 together. I kinda thought the platforming was well done too.
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any kind of game where customization is the main draw tends to end up being a disappointment because there's never as much customization as they promise or the player expects

at least that's what I've seen
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Oh I forgot to mention Saints Row 3.

After sinking nearly 4-500 hours into SR2 I fiendishly awaited the release of SR3 but when it finally came out I found it to be a step back in the series in nearly every possible way.
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Tempted to say Ocarina, but I knew that one wasn't going to be very good.

Final Fantasy XIII takes it.
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Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

That game legitimately made me question whether the previous games were just as blah and I just never noticed as a kid or if the game itself was just bad.

MysteriousStan posted...

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

That game legitimately made me question whether the previous games were just as blah and I just never noticed as a kid or if the game itself was just bad.

Probably a little bit of both

I still think The Lost Age is a pretty decent rpg all things considered, but yeah, Dark Dawn is... really bad

Most of the old Squaresoft games I played about a decade after they were relevant. The PSX Final Fantasies were all disappointing.

Winner has to be Super Mario RPG, tho. Compared to Paper Mario, that game is a dumpster fire
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MysteriousStan posted...

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

That game legitimately made me question whether the previous games were just as blah and I just never noticed as a kid or if the game itself was just bad.

I owned all 3 Golden Sun games before I finished the first one and played them pretty much back to back. After the 1st and 2nd I still wanted more, but I couldn't even finish the 3rd game because there was something about it that just didn't keep me interested. I'm not quite sure what it was, but I'd still be willing to back and play the first 2 again, I'm not sure if I'll ever give the 3rd another shot.
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MysteriousStan posted...

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

That game legitimately made me question whether the previous games were just as blah

No they were not
Dark Dawn lacked any kind of charm, had boring characters, the story just turned a side quest into it's main quest and brought the main quest only at the very last scene as a cliffhanger for a game that will never happen
Nothing in the game as memorable, I can replay that game and probably won't remember anything because everything was just so super generic like RPG #6523 and just bleh
Missable Djinn because of idiotic points of no return, game balance doesn't exist and it just you murdering stuff left and right, none of the puzzles were clever nor interesting
It's like giving someone a RPG Maker and telling him to make a Golden Sun game

Winner has to be Super Mario RPG, tho. Compared to Paper Mario

Yeah I couldn't care about Super Mario RPG either
Beaten and loved Paper Mario and Superstar Saga long before I decided to try Super Mario RPG and it just didn't come close to how good they were
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Furthest below expectations? Probably one of the following:

FF6

Suikoden 2

Lunar 2 Eternal Blue

Half Life 2
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You know, I was going to say Kingdom Hearts because, well, everyone knows my relationship with that franchise, but... now that it's been mentioned, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn takes it.

I absolutely ADORED Golden Sun as a kid. I hadn't yet graduated to Final Fantasy-level RPGs, but it was pure fun. The puzzles were a unique touch of using your characters' magic to solve them, sometimes even requiring a re-spec to get the right spell (sup Growth). The class system was fun and had lots of variables; the Djinn allowed your battle strategy to throttle how high you wanted your risk and reward. It was a solid game, though the story was kind of formulaic, it was damn fun.

The Lost Age was pretty great, even looking back now. It took everything from the first game and ratcheted it up. The progression felt genuine. The characters were more fleshed out. The story actually had some pretty great twists! Again, not FF6-tier, but quite solid. The exploration, particularly toward the end of the game, was wonderful, as were the secrets and optional bosses. Transferring my data from GS1 to GS2 really sealed the experience for me.

And then Dark Dawn happened, and I was excited to visit this world again. And it just... was bland. Everything that I felt I had earned in The Lost Age was just given to me in Dark Dawn because it was part of the formula. They blatantly reused assets and characters without even trying anything novel. Even the optional superbosses were EXACTLY the same from The Lost Age. In the second half of the game, the Dark enemies just cough up EXP like candy despite only a mild difficulty increase. They just phoned it in, and now there's no chance we'll ever get a proper ending. Plus, as mentioned above, the main quest gets sent on a bus near the beginning when a side quest hijacks the game, only for an obnoxious "stinger" at the end of that the main quest from the beginning has gotten worse due to said hijacking.

Fuck Dark Dawn, and fuck I want a good Golden Sun game again.
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Let's see

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is the only game I've ever sold back to the store

Skyward Sword was also really disappointing to me, but I might not have given it a fair shot. I stopped during the first temple because I couldn't stand the motion controls.

Final Fantasy III (DS) ended up being my least favorite game in the series, which was a bummer given that V is one of my favorite games.
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Oh yeah, Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass were pretty major disappointments for me.

Twilight Princess wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't really that great either. The world felt big but empty and the second half of the game felt sort of rushed. Dungeon items were utilized very poorly outside of a couple of cool but very pre-planned situations. There are some highlights but it's not really a step forward from Ocarina.

Phantom Hourglass was actually bad and after the pile of 'meh' that TP was, it really kind of set a new standard for the Zelda series where games were no longer a sure thing. Every Zelda before this is really good - after this we got Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword which were also pretty terrible. Breath of the Wild was actually a surprise for me because aside from ALBW I felt like we hadn't had a good Zelda game in over ten years, and I think it's one of the best games ever, which I completely wasn't expecting.

FFVIII. I'd loved every game in the franchise before that steaming pile of shit came about. Finally forced myself to play all the way through it two years ago just so I can beat all of the main numbered games in the franchise. Previously, I'd always get way too bored right around when you go to space.
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Dragon Age: Inquisition. I was so sad when I realized there wasn't a single worthwhile sidequest in that game and the worlds were so empty.
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