30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Spin Attaxx]

True, but it's not really a "Final Boss" in my books - Phantoon's not the one behind everything, he's not the big bad guy the game's been hyping up (and if he is, the game does fuck all to even hint this to us beforehand), he's just... there. For no reason. And when you beat him, nothing's really accomplished. He dies... um, be on your way, Samus!

 

So yeah, I consider Phantoon to be a bonus boss, but not the final boss.

[Yoko/葉子]

My biggest dissapointment of a game was Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. The way it was set up, Soma and Richter were the most overpowered characters, making my use of Shanoa, Fuuma Getsu and Simon irrelevant. The setup also made Maria and Alucard not as helpful as they could have been. I didn't like how the item drop pools were extremely unfair to the point that it makes me not want the items anymore. On the bright side, I liked how it introduced me to Fuuma Getsu from Getsu Fuuma Den, thus making me buy the game on it's original Famicom cartridge. Also props for shoving all of Castlevania 1 for NES into one level.

[JezMM]

And finally, the story. Just like, why? Where they high or something?

 

What did you dislike about the story?

 

EDIT: Though just realised you said you only played for an hour so I'm guessing you don't actually have much of an opinion here unless you watched the cut-scenes on youtube or something.  Did you just dislike the general premise?

[MamboCat]

Day 13 - Mambo's Most Disappointing Game

 

Hmmmm I think for this I'll say Assassin's Creed 3. When I heard it would be set during the American Revolution my interest wasn't exactly piqued. I felt quite it was a quite a cynical move, actually... I saw it as trying to appeal to inflated egos, yknow the AMURICUH! FUCK YEAH types... and when I heard you would be killing Redcoats I was a little concerned it would be a British-bashing fest.

 

Well, I bought it anyway and played it all the way through, including the Homestead stuff and Naval battles. I can sum up the game pretty well in one word: Meh.

 

I guess it doesn't help that I enjoyed Ezio's games so much, and that I found Connor to be quite dull in comparison. There were just some aspects of the game I didn't enjoy; such as the shift from running across rooftops to running through thick forests, the lack of background music compared to previous games made it feel empty, the introduction of naval warfare (done so much better in Black Flag, IMO) and the modern-times story I felt took some very weird, cliched turns... not to mention the disappointing ending.

 

Looking back I guess it's not that bad... but Black Flag is so much better. Yaaaar!

[buba]

What did you dislike about the story?

 

Like I said, I didn't play much, but genies popping up out of nowhere and teleporting Sonic to the inside of a book and then putting basically a timed bomb on his chest isn't what I expect from a Sonic game's story.

[Solly]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

Yyyeah, I don't know if I can say anything about this that hasn't already been said. I went on a media blackout for this game, so I didn't know that much about it. I own the artbook and the strategy guide- I was really hyped to play this. But then I did. 

 

It's far from being the worst game I've ever played, but it's just really, really dumb. I had high hopes for it that were dashed fairly quickly. Numerous times, from beginning to end. The acting was really bad, Samus' character was botched, giving her weird maternal ties to the Metroid hatchling, the controls were awkward, and the lonely, oppressive atmosphere the series is known for just wasn't there. The game had a bigger cast of characters, many of which were just there to add to the body count- like a shitty monster movie. I'd rather watch Alien Resurrection than the cutscenes of Other M.

 

The thing that makes the knife go in that much slower, though, is that it's almost kind of decent. It doesn't do everything wrong, like Sonic 06- it's playable and the game hits a couple of high notes, but it only does enough to remind of of what it could've been, and in turn, what it isn't. At least a really bad game has the potential to be hilarious. 

[JezMM]

Like I said, I didn't play much, but genies popping up out of nowhere and teleporting Sonic to the inside of a book and then putting basically a timed bomb on his chest isn't what I expect from a Sonic game's story.

 

Ah shame.  I don't defend Secret Rings much even though I'm in the minority for liking it, but I think the story is one of the few Sonic stories that actually managed to do an emotional backstory pretty well.

[Brad]

 

I remember seeing the first teaser to this game, then followed by showing off the Mazuri stage trailer. Wow. My excitement levels were going through the roof - had they done it? Made a perfect 3D Sonic? It had the action, the speed, the dynamics, the visuals. Hell, I remember seeing some Werehog areas and reading previews and thinking it wasn't that bad, and I'd be able to focus on day levels. 

 

Goddamn, was I wrong. Fun but very linear day levels that flew by in an instant accompanied to the long, boring, clunky and monotonous night levels which were boring to every sense. Cut between these two were boring hubs that added nothing to the game and the NPCs were devoid of anything interesting to say, and fucking awful medal collecting mechanics to help you advance. You know what the worst feeling in this game is? Realising you don't have enough medals to play the next night stage, so you have to go back and work to collect a ton of medals so that you can play an awful night stage you never wanted to be in the game to begin with. On top of all that, the voice acting outside of Eggman was mediocre to poor (especially the latter on Chip) and the story was always uninteresting and amounted to nothing more than "go to place, put emerald in temple, next". It doesn't change the soundtrack and visuals were as great as always, but the game itself just sucked so hard.

 

Of course now, we have the Unleashed Project which eliminates all the ugly parts of Unleashed and gives us all the day time goodness at 60FPS, so there's no reason to ever have to look at this title again. Hopefully.

[Captain Fun]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game.

 

Ughhhhnnnnnnnn...I realize this game is a fan favorite, but I hate it. First the good; this has some of the better, more interesting puzzles in the classic RE series. It also has some nice music and nods to previous RE games.

 

Okay, that's enough good. Let's talk about why it was disappointing. For one, the story is fucking silly, even by Resident Evil standards. It revolves around Claire from RE2 as she tries to escape Umbrella's prison island thing all the while investigating one of the founding families of the Umbrella Corporation. The problem with this setup is that said family, the Ashfords, are really fucking weird. As you're exploring their palace thing you find a projector and then...this happens. This shit is so out of place, and while it's a little refreshing, it's stuff like this that really ruins the game's ability to create any kind of tension. 

 

Speaking of things being ruined, the other reason this game was so disappointing was because of a really forced sorta-romance-ish subplot involving this guy:

This is Steve Burnside. He's a prisoner on the island who is stuck here because of his father's involvement with Umbrella. He is also an insufferable jackass and the reason bullying exists. Steve does nothing but whine, almost kills Claire in their first meeting and almost gets BOTH of them killed when he fucks up operating a crane because he was gawking at Claire's ass or something and ends up releasing noxious gas into the room. Steve is pointless and manages to suck anything positive about every scene he is in with his whiny tone and horrendous voice acting. 

 

But the primary letdown is the gameplay. The areas aren't that interesting to explore, the pacing is kinda off, the aiming and running manages to be more sluggish than in 3, and enemies in many areas respawn- so if you killed enemies in an area because you predicted you would be coming back through it multiple times, then you can go fuck yourself. Coming off of 3 it really is a chore to play. 

[Kiah]

Don't worry about this. I've heard this suggestion a few times, so I want to clarify that it won't happen.

 

And I want to clarify this clarification that it won't happen, 'cause you know, I would refuse to distribute such a thing seeing that this is the Sonic Stadium Message Board...

 

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game:

 

Seeing that majority of the non-Sonic games I've interacted with/in I have actually liked, I have to go with a Sonic game this round somewhat: 

 

 

At first I was excited to see Shadow had gotten his own game as I really like him, but as soon as I saw an image with him with a gun in his hand, I knew it was going to be all downhill from that point on.

 

This game, I can't stand it. I absolutely hate it. I don't know what in the world Sega/Sonic Team was thinking with the thought that this game and the concept behind it was a good idea. I watched a play-through of it on YouTube and I couldn't believe what I saw and heard. From the guns to the cussing, to the trying too hard to be dark theme, to the overwhelming amount of violence with references to death and terrorism, it was just too much, especially for a Sonic game. It's like a bad joke gone completely wrong. The game wasn't fun to play by any means either.

Aside from dark violent tone of the game, another thing I could not stand in this game is how Sonic was portrayed. He came across as a hyper, bumbling idiot. Sure Sonic likes to have fun and is full of life, but in this game he seemed to be incapable standing still and being serious when the time called for it at times. His playful, joking and chatty demeanor with the corny outbursts just didn't fit with the overall "serious" theme of the game, and it made Sonic look rather silly. Sonic knows how to be serious when the time calls for it. I also didn't like the idea that the other characters were completely helpless without Shadow's help. I like Shadow and all but that is putting him too high of a pedestal. I also would like to know what they were thinking with Shadow beating up and defeating Sonic, the series' main character, glorifying Shadow in the process:

 

 

Then there was this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRtJkYgSa7I

 

Shadow killing Dr. Eggman?! What in the world made Sega and Sonic Team think that THIS was okay?!

 

I'm a person big on characterization and character interaction in general, and Shadow was extremely disappointing on both accounts. As much I love for the characters to interact with one another have them beat up and kill one another wasn't what I had in mind at all. The whole game had me wondering what Sega and Sonic Team were thinking and how this was possibly a good idea as a whole to add to the Sonic series. As much as I find the game as a whole to be questionable among other things, having 2 of the series' main characters suffer defeat and violence at the hands of Shadow really peaked the "What were they thinking?!" questioning for me, as the whole game pretty much had me thinking that way all throughout. That there was just wrong, as I found the game as a whole to be.

 

This is a game I have a hatred for, and it's the only Sonic game that I do hate due to it being extremely disappointing to me on ALL accounts. Seriously, I find very little of this game tolerable, let alone enjoyable. The Sonic fan in me wants to have every Sonic game within my means that I can play with the consoles that I own-only Shadow the Hedgehog is the exception. I wouldn't keep or even play the game if you gave it to me for free. I hate it that much. 

[-blank-]

SSMB, a little story before I begin.

 

I remember it well. It was your average day, nothing really exciting was happening. At least not until I go to a forum I'm a member on and discover a peculiar topic for a new game that was to be released that following year. Said game got a ton of hype by the series' respective fandom, especially when the title was finally revealed. It also got a ton of hate before it was released, but the feelings of others aren't important to my tale. What's important are my feelings. And I was in the hype camp. So, shortly before the game's release, I downloand the demo. I loved it. Then, sometime after I download the entire game off Wiiware and... I still really like it.

 

See, those first few instances I played this game, I either wasn't paying attention to really any flaws, or I was just flat-out ignoring them. I was just enjoying playing through the stages. But sometime between my initial playthroughs of this game and when I next picked it up (which was, oh, 'bout two years I believe), I had... changed. I became more critical of things, I was more observant of the flaws in various forms of media, including video games. I wasn't difficult to please (I mean, I had also become more observant of the good points of media as well), but when I picked up this particular game again, all the flaws that I hadn't noticed or hadn't really bothered me before had come at me in full force. And after a while I realized; something was just not right about this game. What wasn't right? That it actually wasn't a good game. That it was a bad game. That it was a... disappointing game. A very, very disappointing game.

 

Oh right, you probably want to know what this game even is, don't you? Alright then, here you are;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

 

Screw.

 

This.

 

Piece.

 

Of.

 

Shit.

 

You  know what I consider to be a very good series of platforming games? The Classic Sonic games. Sonic 1, 2, 3 & K, and if you want to count this one, Sonic CD, are all solidly designed, with fun gameplay, solid and original level design, and highly memorable music. Sonic 3 & K is actually my second favorite 2D platforming game after Yoshi's Island. Here's the thing though; Sonic 4 had a lot to live up to. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.

 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a much-loved game among the Sonic fandom. It is a favorite for many. With that knowledge, you would think that SEGA would try to live up to that. Or, at the very least, Sonic 1, right? Right?

 

*sighs through her teeth* Let's just go through this bit by bit, shall we?

 

 

 

 

 

See these? This is what good graphics look like. Bright, but with nothing standing out like a sore thumb, very well done sprite work, and a color palette that pushed what the Genesis and Sega CD were capable of. Make no mistake, the Sonic series gave us some of the best looking graphics in the 16-bit era.

 

Let's look at Sonic 4's graphics! =D

 

 

Well, here we are. And my, my, doesn't it look....

 

 

Wait.

 

Why does the grass look like it's made out of plastic? No seriously, why does it look that way? And not only that, but it's really shiny plastic. And... so wait. So the grass can be all shiny and shit but Eggman's metallic Egg Mobile pretty much has no shine to speak of, right? The hell? Also, you see that water in the background?

 

Here, this is a better shot;

 

 

See it now? Why is it such an ugly shade of brown? This is supposed to take place during sunset, right? Shouldn't it be, I dunno, a mix of purple and orange? Unless that's what they were going for here, but they must have mixed it a little too much. I mean, okay, admittedly, the other stages are better in terms of graphics, but still, is there any excuse for what you see in Splash Hill Zone? No, no there isn't. Also, Sonic's in-game model looks like someone had just discovered Photoshop's Burn tool the day it was designed. Not impressive in the least.

 

Well, at least the music is solid all across the board, right?

 

 

Right?

 

 

I have a confession; I can't remember most of the music. How is this a bad thing you might ask? (though I don't know why you would) Here's the thing; the original classics had a ton of memorable tunes in them; Green Hill, Spring Yard, Starlight, Chemical Plant, Mystic Cave, Oil Ocean, Metropolis, Hydrocity, Marble Garden, Ice Cap, Flying Battery, Lava Reef, Doomsday, those were all fantastic songs that have stuck with me. But Sonic 4? Even when I was first playing the game, the only tunes I could remember off the top of my head were Splash Hill Zone's theme and the stage select theme. That was, and still is, it. In a series that normal has highly memorable music, Sonic 4 was just a disappointment all across the board.

 

And you know what else was disappointing? Allow me to answer that question with another question. Actually, two questions;

 

You know how this game was supposed to be a sequel to Sonic 3 & K right? And you know how in sequels you add new things? Such as stages, bosses, enemies, power-ups, and so forth. Let's look at all the new things Sonic 4 added;

 

New enemies: None.

 

New bosses: None. New attacks be damned, we've already seen all of them before.

 

New power-ups: None. In fact, they didn't even bring back the elemental shields from Sonic 3. We had to wait another year until Generations came out to see those again.

 

New abilities; Well, they have the homing attack....that counts, right?

 

New characters: None. In fact, Tails and Knuckles don't even make an appearance at all in this title!

 

New stages: ....

 

....

 

 

....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I... I can't take it anymore. Just... my god...

 

Sonic 4 was supposed to be a continuation of the classic games. A sequel. You know what that means when something's a sequel?

 

 

...

 

 

It means you freaking add NEW shit to it!!!

 

You know, stuff that wasn't in previous titles, stuff that give you different experiences, stuff like that. New stages, bosses, power-ups, and so forth. Where is this is Sonic 4? Huh? Where is it? There ain't a whole hell of a lot. Let's look at the stages first off;

 

Splash Hill is basically a combination of both Green Hill and Emerald Hill.

 

Casino Street is pretty much Casino Night Zone with a new card gimmick.

 

Lost Labyrinth is admittedly the most 'original' out of the four, though there certainly are inspirations from Labyrinth Zone.

 

And Mad Gear.... You can't come to me with a straight face and say it's not just Metropolis Zone with a different layout and only a few new additions. Because that's exactly what it is. It's freaking Metropolis Zone people.

 

And the bosses? Well, yes, the bosses are all giving a new move... but you've already seen these bosses in previous games! Where are the new bosses? And on top of that, I seem to recall the other 'classic' games giving you new badniks with each installment. Sonic 4 doesn't do that - every single badnik is one you've seen before. Every. Single. One. Oh but wait! There is actually an explanation to this; Eggman had done some budget cuts!

 

 

 

 

 

....

 

 

 

 

 

NO.

 

This is not something that should be explained by 'budget cuts'. You know what it should be explained by?

 

Freaking.

 

 

Laziness.

 

Seriously, Sonic 4 is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the single most lazily-designed game I have ever had the displeasure of playing. When you design a continuation of a game, yeah, you are going to have to rehash some things here and there, so people know it's from a series. But this here is just straight-up inexcusable. Why couldn't Dimps have come up with entirely new stages and bosses and all that? I mean, they developed the Sonic Rush games, which actually have new things in them! If I wanted to go through 'Metropolis Zone' again, why can't I just pick up Sonic 2 again? Why do I have to go through stages and bosses that were already in previous games in this 'supposed' sequel? Why? In Generations, rehashing stages made perfect sense because the whole idea of that game was for you to revisit past events in the series as a celebration of Sonic's 20th anniversary. But there's no point for that in Sonic 4.

 

But hey, gameplay is ultimately the most important part of a game for me. And in that respect, is Sonic 4 as good a game as Sonic 1, 2, CD, and 3 & K?

 

...

 

No. Not at all.

 

There are plenty of issues I have with the gameplay; First off, remember, this is a series that is called 'Sonic the Hedgehog'. By that name, you would think that you'd, yanno, go fast. And, as we all are well aware of, in most of the games, that's what you do. Yes, there are areas where you have to slow down to platform, but you're still going at a decent clip. Now, Sonic 4 isn't actually a 'slow' game, but it's not quite as fast as the other classic games. That's not the problem. The problem is how you reach that sense of speed in the first place.

 

In the original games, you actually had to have some form of skill to gain the really good senses of speed. Knowing when to spin dash or roll. Knowing where to jump. Knowing what routes to take. It basically required some memorization and all that. Basically, if you could get really good times in those games, that meant you were a good Sonic player. In Sonic 4.... *sighs through tightly clenched teeth* they practically give you the speed on a rusted silver platter. Allow me to break down a typical playthrough of this game. Ahem....

 

 

-Level start

 

-Walk a little ways.

 

Hit a dash panel that carries you through a loop that brings you to a spring that carries you to another dash panel that carries you up a ramp that brings you to a set of three springs that carries you to a homing attack chain that brings you to a spring.

 

-Run a little ways

 

-Hit a spring that caries you to a homing attack chain that brings you to a set of three springs that caries you to a dash panel that brings you through a loop that brings you to three dash panels that bring you to a ramp that brings you to another dash panel that carries you up a ramp.

 

-Run a little ways

 

-Go through a homing attack chain that brings you to a spring that brings you to another homing attack chain that brings you to a set of three dash panels that carries you through at loop that takes you to a spring that takes you to a homing attack chain that brings you to a set of three springs that take you to a dash panel that carries you through a loop.

 

-Run a little ways.

 

-Reach the end of the stage.

 

You see the problem here? In Sonic 4, getting speed isn't something that's done via memorization and just knowing how to play the game. You basically let the game do much of the work for you. There isn't really all that much player input. Hell, there are barely any areas where you actually get to run through the level. You don't get much in the way of actual platforming either. All it really amounts to is hitting dash panels and springs and going through homing attack chains to move fast through the levels. And to me, I honestly find that kind of insulting in a way. It's like the game was telling me I wasn't a good player so it just gave me the sense of speed the series was known for instead of letting me just learn the levels and achieve it that way. I mean, say what you will about the Boost trilogy, but at least it required some player input - you didn't just hit a bunch of dash panels and get lead into a bunch of springs.

 

Not to mention it gives the game overall bad level design.

 

And now we come to my next major issue. You all ready for this? You knew it was coming, so let's drive right into it;

 

The physics.

 

*sighs through her teeth for the third time this post*

 

Yes, the infamous physics. The element that many of the people who dislike this game cite as a reason for that.

 

You know something that was fun about the classic games? Curling into a ball while going down a ramp and allowing the momentum to send Sonic freaking flying. I know it's not much, but it's still kind of cool. You can to that in Sonic 4, buuuuut... Okay, here's the thing; in most other Sonic games, (and in pretty much any platformer really) when something sends you flying across the screen you basically keep moving across, with your altitude gradually decreasing until you hit the ground. And you don't have to keep holding anywhere on the control stick either. But in Sonic 4, if you let go of the control pad at any point during moments where you are sent flying through the air like that... You drop.

 

Drop like a rock.

 

And also, remember how you could roll into a ball in the other classic games? And how if you were going down a ramp, it would help carry you down. Well again, in Sonic 4, if you let go of the control pad, Sonic will just uncurl and stop. Oh, and would you like to know what can happen if you let go of the control pad while going up a ramp? Or through a loop?

 

 

 

Why, you get this bullshit. This should not be happening. I mean, I know the classics all have their fair share of glitches, but still. Seriously, when I go up/down a ramp or through a loop, if I let go of the control pad, the momentum should either; keep carrying me forward, or, I should slid back down. That's just simple physics. What, did the people who programed this piece of crap fail that subject in school? For a momentum-based series, why is this even a thing? Just why?

 

*sighs*

 

This game is pretty much my Sonic 06. Yes, I liked this game when it first came out, but looking back at it now, this game is just a disappointment all around. And to think, this was supposed to be a sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles and it can't even be as good as Sonic 1. And all that hype behind it? All the promises that were made? That this was going to be 'Sonic in 2D as you always imagined it'. Except it wasn't. Not at all. And I think that's really what makes Sonic 4 disappointing. The fact that it had so much to live up to... and it pretty much outright failed to do so.

[Debug Ring]

Most Disappointing Game:

Assassin's Creed III... This game let me down in many respects. Not only was the opening on the ship long, and very boring, not to mension it's very restrictive for space... But after that, Connor was boring in character and story, especially compared to the previous assassins, like Ezio, who I enjoyed playing as and discovering very much. The game really bored me, and I couldn't finish it. It has been shelved for almost a year now, and quite frankly I can't see myself returning to it any time soon.

[Dr. Homem]

 

Now, allow me to explain this choice a bit. Unlike another Bethesda RPG that also disappointed me, I actually like Skyrim, and think it's a good game. With that said, it failed, by a large margin, to meet my expectations, in all but a few aspects.

 

So, I'm a big fan of The Elder Scrolls, with Morrowind and Oblivion being some of the best RPGs I played. The graphical improvements, the new mechanics and the setting of Skyrim all pointed to being a great game like the previous ones, and I was excited for it. It soon became clear that wasn't true; the game's appeal was, in fact, a novelty that worn off quickly. From character creation, you could see every character would have more or less the same feel: a clumsy strongman with varied abilities. The removal of attributes, as well as some key skills like Acrobatics and Athletics made every character play similarly with only a bit of variation, especially considering you had to incentive, or reason to be specialized, defeating the replay value and RPG factor immensely.

 

The guilds (and other groups you can be a part of) are a huge flaw. Morrowind had the best model: joining a guild gave your character a role in the world, you were part of something, did actual work to the organization in various manners as you climbed your way to the top. Oblivion was a bit different, as you instead followed a preset storyline, but that wasn't a problem because some of the Morrowind elements were still there, and the narratives were usually fantastic. But in Skyrim? You don't join anything. A guild is just another questline. At no point you have any indication of being a real part of the organization, but following a story... a terrible, generic story. Each guild is just an excuse to send you through the same repetitive dungeons.

 

Speaking of quests, there is no consequence to anything you do, be it in the world, or in the characters. They give you the illusion that you'll be able to influence things, then snatch away the opportunity at the last minute. The Civil War for example: no matter who you side with, no high king will ever be crowned, and no one in the world will ever acknowledge the war is over. Take the guilds: you can be the Arch-Mage of Winterhold, Harbinger of the Companions, master of the Thieves' Guild... and everyone will still treat you as a nobody. The sidequests have no relevance at all: for example, in the Markarth quest you can side with the Forsworn and take over the city, but there are no consequences. The forsworn will still be hostile to you and nothing ever comes of your allegiance. You can come up with any excuse you want to explain these things, but the fact remains that Bethesda choose not to take any of these choices further.

 

So, what you're left with is an average dungeon crawler with a lackluster combat system, removal of many RP aspects, a weak narrative, and....well that's it. Okay, that's not it: the game has an incredible aesthetic, a lot of adventure value and a beautifully built world. Unfortunately, this world proves to be wide as an ocean and shallow as a puddle, and the game as a whole fails to stand up to its predecessors. They, too, had their problems, but they laid excellent groundworks that could be easily taken by the developers, refined and improved. Why didn't this happen? I don't know. Maybe they wanted the game to be more accessible to casual players, which would explain why they didn't build the lore at all in this game, and ignored many parts of it (such as the entire nature of Alduin). Skyrim is basically a single player MMO, designed to keep you playing while doing very similar tasks over and over while not feeling overly repetitive. For most people, it accomplished that, as the sales prove.

 

I cite the Civil War again as the most visible example of why Skyrim fails. The civil and your ability to join it, is a core aspect of the game. Aside from the main quest, the civil war is the single biggest element in Skyrim. It's all over the map, it's a major plot point, and it is designed to reshape the world. And it's terrible.It's lazy, superficial and unfinished. It's so bad that removing it would improve the game by at least removing the illusion you can change anything. It's the summation of the flaws that plagued the entire work. Skyrim isn't a bad game by any means. But it definitely fell short in any front that involved detail, story, lore and questing, especially when you consider how most mistakes could have been avoided so simply.

[TearForFear]

 

What's the point? (New Super Mario Bros 2)

 

I was so hyped for this game.

 

It's a New Super Mario Bros game, on the 3DS.

 

Just that was enough to promise a great game.

 

And yet Nintendo failed miserably.

 

Not even the "hunt for a million coins" can change the fact that this game has nothing New compared to its predecessors.

 

Soundtrack recicled from the Wii chapter, bosses too, setting is always the same old grass-desert-sea-forest-mountain-cloud-lava-special...

 

It's not difficult at all, not even World 9 is that hard.

 

What about the "hunt for a million coins" thing? I felt Nintendo MOCKED me when I reached the 1 million goal. Why, because the reward is nothing but a new title screen. FU-

 

Coin Rush mode is a wasted opportunity, mostly because the maximum score is 30.000. What's the point of setting a maximum score (that can mathematically be surpassed)? There's no satisfaction in it!

 

Another wasted opportunity is the use of 3D effects: there are NONE. The 3D in NSMB2 is merely a blurred background. <sigh>

 

A last mention is reserved to the final boss:

 

 

The way Giant Bowser is defeated doesn't make any little sense. It's clearly visible that Bowser's climbing has nothing to do with the raising of the lava. So why draining the tower from the lava suddendly cause Bowser's fall?

Why?

How?

[SuperStingray]

Day 13: Paper Mario: Sticker Star

 

I celebrate the Paper Mario series for its witty humor and memorable plot.  It toys with conventions in clever and meaningful ways.  Sticker Star seems to have forgotten the "meaningful" part of that.  What makes this game so disappointing is how virtually every moment that could have been clever was wasted and how every moment that actually was clever was detrimental to the gameplay.  The core battle mechanic of collecting moves from the game world was novel except for the fact you inevitably ended up hoarding all of your rarer moves.  Almost every single joke was met with a terrible consequence in the game's design.  Bringing real-life items into the game world was a novel idea which ended up turning boss fights into fetch quest puzzles.  The fights with Kamek where he turned all your items into footwear seemed hilarious until you saw how tedious the actual battle was and had a chance of accidentally using a rare item.  And all of this I could have forgiven if the narrative behind the game had Paper Mario's traditional wit and charm, but the narrative was barely there at all.  Bowser, one of the best characters in the Paper Mario games, was completely silent, your only companion was bland and useless and the environments were all cookie-cutter Mario level tropes like ice world, lava world, jungle world, etc. as opposed to the original ideas that permeated the rest of the series from a wrestler world to a train world to a heaven-and-hell world.  Never before has there been a game with such a greater disconnect between how much I wanted to love it and how much I actually did.

[Tracker_TD]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

Oh boy, another Sonic game.

 

 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4: EPISO-

 

 

Ahaha! I got you!

 

Yes, it's a Sonic game. But really? The game that disappointed me the most?

Brace yourself folks.

 

 

SONIC COLOURS.

 

Oh boy, I can hear the screams of heresy now, but hear me out.

Like many people, I was incredibly hyped during the build up to this game. And hell, during my first playthrough I had a blast - Unleashed gameplay? With no Werehog bits? Neato!

 

But afterwards, this is perhaps the first Sonic game I looked back on and genuinely thought "well actually that was a bit shit." 

 

Compared to Unleashed, Colours is botched. The controls are incredibly off, with the satisfying Sonic drift and quick step relegated to tiny segments of certain stages, and even then they're mapped to the boost button, which incredibly clunky and off. The length of the game is abysmal - I completely blitzed through this game in a matter of hours, and whilst Generations was the same in this regard, Generations didn't try to extend itself through pointless filler levels - which this game is full of. Most acts are just small portions of other levels hacked up into their own stage, which leaves about two actually unique levels per "world." I'd be fine with two acts per world, in exchange for more worlds, but nope - just 2 acts per world with 4 pointless filler acts.

 

The bosses were shite too, being incredibly easy and lazily reused several times throughout the game, plus no nice finishing boss with Super Sonic - this is a problem I had with LW too, but at least there the rest of the game actually kept me interested with varied level design and bosses.

 

Overall, Colours is not the worst Sonic game out there, far from it, but it wasn't too great either. As a result, I effectively sit in the camp that believes there were literally no good Sonic games on Wii. Secret Rings was awful, Black Knight was abysmal, Unwiished is the absolute worst game I have ever played, and Colours feels like Unleashed on a tight budget. I enjoyed the supposedly awful Lost World far, far more.

[Danj86]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

W-W-Wait a sec...don't flip out, let me explain. Persona 3 is a f*cking great game. I freakin' love it, dood! FES improved on it...sure...but...

 

Persona 3 FES - The Answer

This is not about gameplay, graphics or all the other stuff reviewed in games. My biggest issue with this is mostly only the story. (although it is a shame you can't earn social links as Aegis.) I've since started referring it as "The answer to a question nobody asked."

 

You'd think I'd be happy to play as one of my personal favourite characters of your original party, but that happiness was short lived. But maybe with this being about the story, just in case, I'll put it all in a spoiler tag.

One of the tropes that bug me the most, is the heroic sacrifice. It does kind of depend on the situation, as they are 3 types according to tvtropes. One at the beginning of a story, another at the middle part of the story and lastly, the one at the end of a story.

This one happened at the end, and you only learn that once you start playing The Answer.

So you, (or Makoto, if you prefer.) have died. Now beings a long and boring task to find out what the hell happened, by fighting more of the same shadows, although much tougher and a tournament type deal with the entire remaining cast fighting each other, which may have been an attempt to add drama, but just pissed me off even more.

So blah blah blah, once all is said and done, the group learn that Makoto used himself to seal out a big bad thing from getting to another thing to save the stupid world...

Which, for some reason, attacks Aegis and her party when they witness this. So you go around and kill the b*stard. Job done. Makoto wasted his life.

Anyway, from my perspective, The Answer managed to spit in the face of everything you did in the original story. (dubbed The Journey in FES) Igor claimed that Social Links are important for his journey, they increase his power to fight the shadows, they provided the power to finish off whatever the hell you were fighting at the very end of the game. If this other thing was going to attack Nyx, why fight Nyx? Kill the other thing instead.

I'm not even sure I understand any of this anymore.

 

Persona 4: Golden spoiler ahead -

In Persona 4: Golden, new character Marie, wants to do the same damn trope. But you can actively stop her and take down the root of the problem. Which again, further made The Answer look like a lame joke.

I am intrigued however, that the Persona 3 characters seem to be trying to save him from his dumbass fate that never should've happened.

Well, I guess I'll wait and see, but it wont stop me from being pissed off about this.

[Sami]

Most disappointing? For a second I thought this would be hard, but it's just going to be super controversial instead. Time to prepare the shelter...

 

 

Super Mario Galaxy

 

There are actually a few Mario titles that could go here. I could have put Super Mario 64 DS, but then I thought "Eh, that's a port. The controls might be the key factor between this and the legendary original". I could have put Paper Mario: Sticker Star, but then I thought "Actually, even though it was barren compared to past Paper Marios (not played the Thousand Year Door to note), I knew exactly what I was getting into beforehand". And then I thought of this game and I thought "...Yeah, this hits the ball just right".

 

To begin with, Super Mario Galaxy is not a bad game in any technical sense of the word, so it's not that I went into it thinking it was good and it turned out to be bad. My issue was that I went into it knowing the pedestal it was placed upon for its gameplay and storytelling, and simply didn't click with it at all. I am not a fan of the mission style gameplay in general which is also partly why I didn't like SM64DS (oddly enough, I didn't mind it in Sunshine. I think it was because it was more open and imaginative. I am a sucker for exploring when the worlds are intricate enough to warrant it). The gameplay wasn't my thing either, but then that's true for pretty much the entire main Mario line I've tried (bar Sunshine and NSMBW). The music didn't stick with me, and neither did the plot. In the end, I was so disinterested that I just stopped somewhere in the first Galaxy. Not out of frustration or anger, but out of apathy.

 

Take out the part about the music (Gusty Garden and the final boss theme are both absolutely brilliant), and I agree with this entirely. I never finished either of the Galaxy games on account of boredom/apathy. It's just level after level after level, or at least felt that way to me.

[Jin.]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

*draws katana*

 

Persona 3 FES - The Answer

 

...*sheates katana*

[Conando]

Day 13-Most Disappointing Game

 

 

Final Fantasy XIII

 

Oh boy, this game. After years in development, Square-Enix finally released FF XIII to the masses, too bad none of that development time seemed to be spent making the game, well, good. A HUGE disappointment after XII, which was one of the most open games in the series, though it did have the Gambit system which resulted in the game sometimes playing itself, XIII took that to the extreme and the only input it ever really needed from you was pressing the R1 button to switch paradigms and then it went right back to doing everything for you. It's a corridor with pretty visuals, that's it.

[buba]

One of the tropes that bug me the most, is the heroic sacrifice. It does kind of depend on the situation, as they are 3 types according to tvtropes. One at the beginning of a story, another at the middle part of the story and lastly, the one at the end of a story.

This one happened at the end, and you only learn that once you start playing The Answer.

So you, (or Makoto, if you prefer.) have died. Now beings a long and boring task to find out what the hell happened, by fighting more of the same shadows, although much tougher and a tournament type deal with the entire remaining cast fighting each other, which may have been an attempt to add drama, but just pissed me off even more.

So blah blah blah, once all is said and done, the group learn that Makoto used himself to seal out a big bad thing from getting to another thing to save the stupid world...

Which, for some reason, attacks Aegis and her party when they witness this. So you go around and kill the b*stard. Job done. Makoto wasted his life.

Anyway, from my perspective, The Answer managed to spit in the face of everything you did in the original story. (dubbed The Journey in FES) Igor claimed that Social Links are important for his journey, they increase his power to fight the shadows, they provided the power to finish off whatever the hell you were fighting at the very end of the game. If this other thing was going to attack Nyx, why fight Nyx? Kill the other thing instead.

I'm not even sure I understand any of this anymore.

.

 

It ain't kinda like that. Nyx isn't really a big bad guy that wants to destroy the world. She is neither hostile nor malevolent and only acts according to the will of people who wish to die.

Erebus, the other "bad guy" is the manifestation of humanity's grief and negative emotion and when he comes in contact with Nyx, the Fall will happen.

Sealing Nyx was actually the best option available since as stated on FES, Erebus will reanimate infinite times as long as humanity wishes to die. If he can't reach her, shit won't happen.

And let's not forget that no one was even aware of this thing until all that crap in FES happened.

In Arena on Elizabeth's story mode it is said that Erebus tried to break the seal multiple times after the events of the Answer, but Elizabeth always "killed" him whenever he appeared.

Also, he attacked Aigis since she inherited Makoto's Wild Card ability.

 

But yeah, the Answer was pretty unnecessary and tedious because while the ending of the original game was kinda vague, it still gave you enough information to understand what happened to Makoto.

It had some good parts, though.

[Sir Tynen]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

From all the games that I've played, there have been very few in which the experience has been 'less than stellar'. See, I'm not that much of a harsh person when it comes to things, video games or otherwise. As long as I can get some enjoyment out of the game, then no qualms are had.

 

It's sort of like a scale, with "Okay" being at the bottom and "Amazing" being at the top.

Let's call this the "You're Pretty Swell in My Book!" Scale System.

 

So, having such a high tolerance for a lot of things, you'd have to get me very upset to call something bad or outright abysmal. However, there is one other factor that would make me spit many a vitriol towards. And that's where THIS games comes in...

 

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

(Amazing Title, I know)

 

I like the Kingdom Hearts series quite a bit, having played every game in the series before this title had come out. While I wasn't wildly hyped for it, it was really cool to see a KH game on a handheld once again (and without the card shtick). So I went and bought it a few days after it came out. At first, it seemed nice enough, tutorials not withstounding. Having the standard battle system from the console games was pretty fun and it controlled surprisingly nicely with the D-Pad.  

 

But then the meat of the game began, and soon things start becoming increasingly stupid. First was the mission structure, which needlessly padded the game. Next were the in-game cutscenes that soon became repetitive and bore, when they should be interesting, considering the focus of the story. Finally, the environments were dull, the enemies were uninteresting, and the bosses were a pain.

 

All of this culminates into something that no video game should ever cause:

 

Boredom

 

Being bored while playing a game completely negates it's very purpose!

 

Oh, You know?

 

Being ENTERTAINED!?

 

Even with a game that's bad, you could probably find or do something interesting with it that be would worth a few chuckles.

But a boring one is just that... Boring. Nothing more, nothing less. And it really is a shame when any video game that has potential become that.

[Chaos Warp]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

 

Now, despite it being here I'll defend this game as I still do enjoy it and think it's a good game. However, I expected it to be much better. I was a huge fan of Shattered Dimensions and wanted to see what Beenox could do with a open-world game, and many things about this game seemed really enticing. But then I played it...it was fun.....but not as good as I expected. So yeah, rather disappointing. 

 

I would use Sonic 06 here but I liked it when I originally played it as a stupid braindead kid with shit taste in video games and didn't despise it until later when I realized how bad it was. 

[MegasonicZX]

The most disappointing game for me? Well that right goes to my dear friend Paper Mario sticker star.

 

I was really excited for this game since the time it was announced since hey, it was a new Paper Mario after like 6 years since TTYD, the screenshots looked good from the chain chomp party member and some of the interesting sections that looked like the platforming and overall premise would be nice and the gameplay even looked like it was going to be going places too...and then we got gameplay. Now at first I was pretty optimistic for it when it was shown at the next E3 and thought "okay not what I was expecting but still looks fun" then I saw the game explain review and still thought the same thing and then when I got the game I was having some fun with it but after awhile I just realized how absolutely abysmal it is. The story was non-existent, the worlds felt completely disconnected (made worse by the fact that im basically playing NSMB paper mario addition), the combat was barebones as crap and the bosses basically either boiled down to "use this sticker to make your life easier" or "don't use that sticker and you either die or waste completely all of your stickers"...WHO THE HECK THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!!!

 

Everything about this game is just awful to me except for the music which is pretty much the best paper mario soundtrack to date for me with thousand year door's being second. But you know what? I wouldn't have minded any of this as much as I do now, ANY OF IT, if it weren't for the fact that I spent 40 dollars on this piece of crap, honestly it wasn't even that long and had no replayability whatsoever so why, just why did I spend 40 DOLLARS on this when it could've been put to something better, this is basically the game that made me a whole lot more skeptical on what I buy nowadays because I fear that I may get a bombshell like this again that isn't worth my time or money.

 

So in short, I hate this game with every fiber of my being and I honest to god hope that no one ever makes the same unfortunate mistake that I made with it lest they accidently sell their souls to the devil just trying to play this piece of garbage.

[super saiyan weegee]

Day 13: Most Disappointing Game

 

Man, I'm gonna have to go with Spore Hero.

 

 

Just ugh.

 

I loved the original Spore when it came out on PC, it was fun just creating creatures, and setting off on an evolutionary journey with them. Galactic Adventures added even more fun by letting you create whole worlds. But then I got this game, and...it wasn't pretty. It had a really uninteresting story, first off, and a boring setting, but what I really dislike is the fighting system. It's motion controlled, being on the Wii, but it was done in such a badly made way that it was just a chore to deal with. They also give you barely any creature parts to start out with, which was really a drag considering that's the fundamental part of Spore, like even in the original they gave you more at first while having it still be limited, but I digress. You get more actually useful parts by completing tasks such as fighting, but I really didn't like the fighting, so that of course wasn't fun. I eventually just stopped after the first few levels. 

 

So yeah, it was just a big disappointment to me because Spore was a series I had so much fun with, so to play a game like this was just bleh, and it usually takes a lot for me to just find a game outright terrible, but that's what Spore Hero is, at least to me.

 

But there ya go.