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10 good games that flopped bad

20/6/2018

18 Comments

 
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Not every game can be massive, especially in an era where the market is dominated by big, annual, franchise releases. Indeed, with development costs being higher than ever, it can be a risk for publishers and developers to try and create a new franchise.

You expect the less-good games to do bad... but what about those great games which never got a fair shout? How many of those have there been? Well now... according to this list, there have been at least ten of these so-called "Flaccid Fenstons". Maybe more - who knows?

Who cares? 

This list is what truly matters right now.
BEYOND GOOD & EVIL
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Given the rapture which greeted UbiSoft's announcement of Beyond Good & Evil 2 you'd think everyone in the world has played the original. In reality, they have not. I have, but I barely even remember it for some reason. Perhaps I was drunk. You know: off my tit on "hooch", as Prince Charles might say. 

​There's a reason why there has been a gap of 15 years between instalments in this uncommonly well-reviewed series... and that reason is this reason; it got inhumed beneath a mass of noisy sequel releases in the run-up to Christmas 2003.

Ubisoft later blamed poor sales on the game's quirky setting, the number of franchise titles it had to compete with, and having been cursed by something it described as a "magical fantasy horse". 
OKAMI
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One of the very best games released in 2006 - evidence that video games can be works of art when they can be arsed - Okami was an action-adventure, with a unique graphical style based upon traditional Japanese watercolour art.

Everybody who played it loved it. Alas, very few people played it. Indeed, the 2010 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition cussed it thusly: "the least commercially successful winner of a game of the year award".

​Depressingly, even subsequent re-releases on more powerful systems - hoping to capitalise on some of the goodwill built up over the years - have failed to meet expectations. Alas, it seems that too few players want to become a painted dog.
SHENMUE 
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The most expensive video game ever created at the time of its release, Shenmue sold pretty well... but not well enough to recoup the estimated $70 million development costs.

The game broke new ground and was a technical milestone, but it had been released on the Dreamcast - a system that, due to its own depressing sales figures, wasn't particularly conducive to hosting massive hits.

You can make the best, most expensive, film of all time, but if you only ever show it in your garden shed, and only ever invite the dirty local park drunks to watch it, chances are you won't make your money back. 

Furthermore, the quirkiness of Shenmue did little to encourage more people to pick up a Dreamcast. Admittedly, Shenmue 2 was a lot cheaper to develop, but achieved a mere fraction of its predecessor's sales. 
MESSIAH
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Created by Dave "No, The Other One" Perry and Shiny Entertainment - they of Earthworm Jim and MDK - Messiah, as per most opinions on the website Inuit TripAdvisor, was greeted with extremely polarised reviews (do you see?).

Some critics felt it was rushed compared to other Shiny games. Others praised its originality (you played a cherub called Bob, who flew around a Blade Runner-esque city, possessing people and animals... on a mission from God to eradicate sin and that). It had all the makings of a cult classic - and cult it did indeed remain... selling less than 10,000 copies in its first three months. 

Even the most bouyant observer would struggle to paint that as anything other than a contemptible inadequacy. 
PSYCHONAUTS
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The first game from Tim Schafer's Double Fine studio - following Schafer's departure from LucasArts - Psychonauts was broadly praised upon release, for its mix of quirky characters, funny dialogue, and original level design.

Unfortunately, such things tend to be the hallmarks of many a commercial catastrophe - and, indeed, Psychonauts was a massive bomb, which led to publisher Majesco posting an $18 million loss for the year, and the company's CEO Carl Yankowski tendering his resignation.

But wait! This one has a happy finish! Double Fine later brought back the rights, and the game has gone on to be a surprisingly steady seller on Steam and other digital platforms.
GRIM FANDANGO
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Unfortunately, even before Psychonauts, Tim Schafer had a bit of a track record for creating well-reviewed flops. His 1998 LucasArts adventure Grim Fandango won many plaudits and awards, but was a commercial tragedy, barely making back its considerable development costs.

It led to LucasArts cancelling all future adventure game development - ending its involvement in the genre with which it was most closely associated.

Well done, Schafer... you massive bellend.
CONKER'S BAD FUR DAY
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Rare's Conker's Bad Fur Day looked like a classic N64 3D platformer, but its foul-mouthed attitude and juvenile toilet humour was starkly at odds with Nintendo's usual family-friendly ethos.

This might be why Nintendo's marketing for the title was decidedly low-key, and most aimed at an adult audience. This no doubt confused said adults, who clearly didn't understand why Nintendo was trying to sell them a game starring a cute cartoon squirrel. Even if he was armed with a chainsaw, the edgy little rodent. 
MADWORLD
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Another unusual release for a Nintendo system - this time the Wii - Sega's Madworld was a bloody and visceral slash 'em up. Sporting a palette of just three colours - black, white and lots of red - Madworld looked like nothing else.

Unfortunately, it's stylistic idiosyncrasy, coupled to the gore being so at odds with almost everything else on the Wii, might've been why it crashed and burned. Indeed, the violence became the focus of much criticism from moral watchdogs.

John Beyer of Medawatch-UK wheezed at the time: "We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people."

Get a life, Beyer.
JET SET RADIO FUTURE
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Jet Set Radio was one of the bestest games on the Dreamcast - a beautiful, open-world, skating game, in which you rolled around a futuristic city "tagging" things with a can of paint, it should've been a robust smash. But, as we have addressed previously, the Dreamcast hobbled most of its games, due to its own market failings. 

Jet Set Radio Future - released on the Xbox - was every bit as great as its forebear. Unfortunately, Future never quite managed to escape being labelled a cult classic, and - despite plans for a further sequel - Sega has shelved the franchise rather than risk another disaster. 

After all, why go to such effort when idiots keep buying Sonic games?
RAGE
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Some eight years on from its release, Rage is getting a sequel in the not-too-distant - despite the original being something of a disappointment for id Software. It was intended to be the company's next big, one-syllable, franchise - after Doom and Quake - and seemed to have the makings of being exactly that.

It mixed vehicle-based combat with the first-person shooting the company was known for, all wrapped up in some properly lush visuals. On consoles at least; the PC release was beset with graphical issues, requiring hefty patches, and generating a ton of criticism... which ultimately tainted the game's reputation.

Indeed, initial plans for Rage 2 were cancelled in favour of the Doom reboot, as fans of id's output began expressing their disappointment with Rage with increasing fervour. With hindsight, many now feel that Rage was simply out of step with the increasingly narrative-heavy FPS conventions of 2010.

Since the release of the new Doom, such classic, mindless, run-and-shoot gameplay is back in fashion - and id is undoubtedly hoping that this time around its punters will welcome it with parted calves. 


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18 Comments
DD
20/6/2018 09:41:54 am

From memory, I think part of the reason Conkers Bad Fur Day didn't sell was due to the fact it was released right at the end of the N64's life, literally as the Gamecube was released.

Reply
MENTALIST
20/6/2018 10:05:23 am

What's more, Nintendo declined to release it in Europe, so it was published here by... THQ, I think? And it cost 60 or 70 quid due to the size of the cartridge.

I wouldn't mind having a play through of its Xbox remake, I'd rather they'd put that instead of the original on the Rare RapeLay compilation.

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Chris
20/6/2018 10:37:25 am

I'm now imagining an N64 into which is inserted a cartridge the size of a small TV.

MENTALIST
20/6/2018 10:44:16 am

https://i.redd.it/tnimtrwymckz.jpg

Balaska
21/6/2018 07:35:34 am

The Xbox version is now available on back compat and it is superb.

Jay
20/6/2018 09:54:49 am

Rage was a dogs dinner on consoles as well. I grabbed the PS3 version out of a bargain bucket when GameStation was closing down and... man. Basically unplayable. You'd turn around quickly and be greeted by a marvelous untextured game world. Couple of seconds later the textures would arrive puffing and panting offering sincere apologies for running late.

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Nude_Tayne_
20/6/2018 10:21:28 am

Are you sure your PS3 wasn't broken? The megatexture engine loaded textures instantly when you first got into a new area and then would spend the next second or so loading in the higher resolution version. I had the 360 version though so maybe the PS3 version was super shitty?

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John
20/6/2018 11:14:31 am

I bought Rage at launch on PS3 and had no such issues. It ran nigh perfectly from start to finish.

Lorfarius link
20/6/2018 10:13:37 am

"The most expensive video game ever created at the time of its release, Shenmue sold pretty well... but not well enough to recoup the estimated $70 million development costs." This an odd one because it wasn't really a financial failure. The reason the budget was so high is because Sega were sinking a fortune into their development teams, basically learning how to do 3D and the Shenmue engine was the thing they focused on. So a lot of the cost can be attributed to that. Retro Gamer covered it in great detail some time ago. But Shenmue still sold a shedload which is why it got a sequel.

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Ade
20/6/2018 10:26:20 am

Nice article, Biffston.

Okami was brill skillz - apart from the fact you had the same boss battle three times. There were also obvious signs that they had run out of cash where cut scenes were replaced with still images and voice over exposition. Well lush tho.

I might be wrong but I suspect that it was released around the same time as Twilight Princess which also featured an wolf + gobshite protagonists clearing black stuff from the map.

That said, I completed Okami and loved it, yet Twilight Princess remains unfinished - like most of the Zelda games I have played.

In summary then; hñnnnnnnnnnnnñg!

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TJ
20/6/2018 11:05:14 am

Finish Twilight Princess! I eventually did and loved every moment of it, even though it took something like 60 hours! That and Link to the Past are very finishable without too much pain.

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Col. Asdasd
20/6/2018 12:05:49 pm

Mileage always varies, but I think Twilight Princess is one of the few Ninty games with an actually good story. I've heard great things about Mother 3 but the basts refuse to translate it.

TJ
20/6/2018 11:03:57 am

Glad to say I have Madworld, Okami, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango and am pretty keen to pick up Messiah as always liked the sound of it.

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Mark
20/6/2018 11:31:15 am

I read somewhere that every Dreamcast owner would have had to buy Shenmue twice for it to turn a profit , great game though on a great console even though it was a flop

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Chris R
20/6/2018 02:41:33 pm

I barely remember Beyond Good & Evil too. I don't think it's as great as it supposedly is and I'm always surprised it's so fondly recalled.

Good call on Jet Set Radio. In a better universe I'd be playing an HD sequel right now.

One game that never got the sales it deserved is Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. I think it got over shadowed by Ratchet and Clank and similar 3rd person games but it is a great game in it's own right.

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MrBump
24/6/2018 03:46:07 pm

Still really enjoy playing Beyond Good and Evil, though the camera in a couple of areas is annoying and seems worse by today's standards.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
20/6/2018 03:39:36 pm

Beyond Good & Evil is magical - it instill the same sense of wonder in a jaded adult that you used to feel playing an exciting new game as a kid.

Psychonauts was fun and quirky but I got bored. Likewise Grim Fandango, with the third area (the port city) being vague and directionless and full of empty locations to wander slowly through.

Conker cost too fucking much (I am sure I saw it in Virgin for 80 quid) which was rather a lot for a game on an obsolete platform, not least of all being the culmination of a seemingly endless succession of increasingly tedious collect-em-ups with blurry graphics and very self-satisfied writing.

Reply
Balaska
21/6/2018 07:15:43 am

I own Okami on the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox One. I think I might actually represent a significant percentage of the people that bought it :/

Reply



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