Games that disappointed you, and why

[Solid SOAP]

Everyone has at least one game to which they hyped for months, maybe even years, hoping for what seemed like it was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, only to be extremely disappointed and fooled by detardly made trailers and false promises. Rant and complain about instances like that here.

Critically acclaimed, loved by all, but overhyped beyond belief. I saw the trailer for this game and hyped it from day one until it was finally in my hands upon release. In fact, I wound up buying the Wii version of it before I even owned a Wii, I was so estatic to get my hands on it. The game was announced and released in a period of about 2 years, which was a helluva long time to wait, so there was no way of this game disappointing, right? I mean, promises of the biggest Zelda game ever, with a massive overworld, completely explorable forests, epic battles, tricky dungeons, and much much more. The graphics were visually striking, above pretty much everything out at the time, and the game seemed to have quite an epic scope. I mean, look at what was originally released, some screens epic, some absolutely beautiful, but all of which showed us a game that never came to be, at least not the way the original trailers and screenshots led us to believe.

Quite beautiful, wouldn't you agree? Now, keep in mind that these were some of the first screens released for the game, so the graphics could only get better right? What I find confusing is how the game initially went from looking like that, to finally upon release, looking like this and this. I don't want to make this a graphics thing, because it isn't (Although for whatever reason, the game seemed to have became worse and worse looking as it drew nearer to its release date), but for whomever watched the original 3 trailers (Which can be viewed

on

and by clicking

) were greated with not only beautiful visuals, but completely different environments than seen in the final product as well as significantly higher quality music and a more consistent art direction. The music got you excited for this unforgettable, grand adventure, and the game in general just seemed really, really cool, to say the least. So what went wrong, exactly?

Well, for starters, tons of things were cut from the final product, or significantly downplayed more than the original trailers implied. Every trailer showcased this huge, open overworld, complete with forests, secrets, enemies sniping you with arrows, etc. While the final game did, in fact, have an overworld to toy around in like every Zelda game does, it was absolutely nothing like the initial trailers teased it to be. We were shown huge, open landscapes with castles and mountains as far as the eye could see. Enemies riding boars coming from every direction, a booming orchestra playing as you battled dozens among dozens of difficult foes, etc. Scenes like these were shown in just about every trailer for the game, and while I have to admit, the overworld in Twilight Princess is quite large, it does not convey the sense of true freedom and openess that the original trailers implied. I mean, these were among some of the first things seen in trailer 1.

Huge, sprawing with what seemed like tons of land for you to simply ride around in, with forests and mountains and castles seen in the distance. The overworld seen in the final game might actually have more to do than this version did technically (And I'm not doubting it either, there are tons of caves to explore, among other things such as hidden chests, puzzles, etc), but what I'm upset about was what was implied, not blatantly shown. I realise it's extremely petty to complain about not being given simply what I had hoped for with very little to back me up, but I WAS, in fact, shown a huge open overworld, which I was not given. Instead, the final game's overworld was more or less just a series of large rooms, connected by tunnels which led to other large rooms. Not only that, no open forest to explore and there was only one or two times in the entire game in which you'd fight using Epona's sword and bow mechanics in the overworld, which was being played as a large feature.

I'd like to say that the final game's open world isn't BAD, per say, it's actually very well designed, with lots to do and explore. I'm just upset at the false advertising on Nintendo's part. Speaking of which, the original two trailers featured at least 2 dungeons that were cut from the game entirely, and one or two boss battles as well. There was a certain fire temple seen in the original trailer, and while we were given a fire temple in the final game, this one was significantly different. It was castle-esque, it kind of reminded me of Hogwarts, and featured enemies not seen in the final game and, well, it just would have been cool to see in the final. The second trailer showcased a chase sequence between Link and a giant spider, which we did wind up fighting in the final game (Redesigned significantly, of course), but there was no chase sequence and the fight was more or less a copypasta of OoT's Ghoma battle. I feel as if the art style changed a tad in the final version as well too, going from what looked like a dark and gritty take on the Zelda world, to pretty much Wind Waker textured more realistically. Obviously Link never changed from trailer one to the final game besides a few polygon upgrades (And maybe downgrades too?), but the world around him seemed to be completely different from what I initially saw. The world of Twilight went from looking like this gritty, black and white world of hell, to some sort of odd futuristic world of ugly that overused bloom effects way too much, to the point of looking downright atrocious. It started off looking like this:

To the ugly, hyperbloom this:

Twilight Princess was not a bad game, but there were too many promises that were not fulfilled, and my own hype got the best of me, leading me to believe that the game would feature so much more than it did. I could go on and on, honestly, but I am tired and don't feel like it. In the end TP was a good game that just managed to be more fun to hype than it was to play. The final game was way more linear than I expected and some parts of the game just weren't fun, talk about games that disappointed you here, yo.

Oh yeah, and it is a fact that by the end of development of the game, the entire game was 100% flipped just to port it to the Wii, which was one of the reasons it ended up being delayed so much, and eventually rushed, to begin with.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Solid SOAP

[Sean]

Kingdom Hearts II.

What I expected was a game that would continue the style of gameplay and innocent storyline of the first.

What I got was a shitty arena game with a pretentious storyline, being my worst purchased PS2 game.

[novelty]

Everyone has at least one game to which they hyped for months, maybe even years, hoping for what seemed like it was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, only to be ...

I disagree with you, Solid, just not completely. If TP was released as a movie, then the style with the hyperbloom would be the same and emphasized around the darkness. I loved TP for its high detail for a Wii/Gamecube game. Also, Nintendo didn't really advertise much in the mainstream for a successful series.

The game that disappointed me the most is...I don't know yet...Post might be edited later.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Novelty

[Diogenes]

Hm, aside from certain Sonic games that I purchased out of fanboy-hype (and which I'm sure we've all heard more than enough complaining about), most of my games fall somewhere in the "meh" to "great" range, so there really aren't that many serious disappointments. Most of them are pointless little things, like how I had rented Star Fox Adventures without managing to finish it, then getting it for Christmas and finding out I was at the very end of the game, or how I can't (or can't be bothered) to finish Zack and Wiki because of the crappy sword fight sections in a level that requires a string of near-perfect moves to not die.

Probably one of the biggest ones is, actually, Twilight Princess. I'm not a huge Zelda fan, but after playing a few, TP looked like a solid buy. And while it's not a bad game...it's just so bland. The introduction/tutorial sections are tedium incarnate, after you've done it once. The wolf sections wear out their welcome real quick, and they don't even shake things up later on, as wolf Link doesn't learn any new moves or get any items. Most of the more clever items barely get any use; the spinner, for example, is awesome...in the dungeon you get it in, as that's the only place with enough rails to be fun. Everywhere else it's just a bland "insert tool A into slot B, collect item C". There are very few sidequests worth doing, making the world seem pretty dead (especially in comparison to Majora's Mask, my favorite of the series). Most of the dungeons (especially the earlier ones) are pretty generic; their gimmicks aren't all that exciting, so it's just the same Zelda dungeon crawling. And the plot...Midna is basically the sole redeeming feature, with insane Zant being a distant second (largely because he's only there for one battle). The rest of the story was kind of dull..."go find these 3 things, oh wait they're useless, go find these other 3 things", a bunch of villagers I really didn't care about, Zant being generically evil rather than entertainingly insane for most of the game, and Ganondorf...I'd guess it's kind of Zelda blasphemy, but he's really, really dull (well, in this one. He was pretty cool in Wind Waker).

[killemoff]

From recent times, i would have to say Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect 1 is one of my favorite games ever. It's a great meld of RPG\third person shooter, it had variety in it's choices, it had space exploration (yes i like the Mako), and the combat, although a bit flawed, was great fun.

Then Mass Effect 2 comes out. I expected all the things from ME1 in it, but with better combat and prettier graphics. What i get in the end is a dumbed down game, a Gears of War in space with RPG lite elements, barely and variation in choices and removal of the Mako for a "scroll the planet for noises" minigame...

I liked some of the new elements in ME2, the conversation interrupts where a great addition, but overall, it was a pretty disappointed on how they dumbed it down to appeal to the masses.

[Scarlet2106]

I was going to say Mass Effect 2 also.

Quests reduced to one-way corridors with spawn points placed at the end, artificial cover, whack-a-mole gameplay, boring aesthetics, cities essentially being glorified shops, planets being relegated to scanning duty, the Hammerhead, the main story taking a backseat, a couple of ridiculous parts in the story and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't remember because I haven't played it since my first playthrough.

It really wasn't what I was expecting or wanted, I guess. Perhaps I should've made myself aware of this before I bought it.

[Tori Himemiya]

It might be odd to say this but I was disappointed with Soul Calibur 4.

I mean I was exicted until the Star Wars characters came around and I was like what the mess.

Then it came out and it came out as rubbish. Really short story mode, a lot of empisis on the online play, it's hard to even change weapons, and you can't really upgrade the Star Wars fighters. The only upside is the vs modes and the better character creation mode dispite the fact what you wear affects your performance.

Man I was really hoping it was good.

[Carbo]

Super Mario Galaxy is probably the biggest offender of any disappointment I've ever had for a game. The game looked marvelous and charming, but that was practically all it relied on; charm. Flying through space and seeing the nicely designed visuals, hearing the epic music and reading the somewhat average subplot distracted me from the fact that the gameplay was just so basic to a ridiculous extent which wasn't a bad thing, but the fact that 90% of the levels were linear, boring and without backtracking, as well as that the only few levels encouraging exploration being ridiculously small with objects that only shoot you out to linear levels was disappointing. Above that, the hub was a fucking joke, and instead of having fun and exploring the entire area, which also applies to the levels, feels like a game trying to disguise its linearity with elements that are non-linear.

Not that there's anything wrong with linearity but the schizophrenia with said concept makes me think like I'm performing a mandatory game lengthening process by running to point A and point B within the hubs, and the levels are so uninspired themselves that once I finished the main quest and got over the charm, I forced myself to get the 120 stars, not enjoying it one bit, and finally when I did unlock Luigi, I just put down the controller and didnt bother playing anymore. There was so much potential for greatness and greater levels. Battlerock Galaxy is the biggest offender of a totally wasted potentially amazing level. It had epic music, an awesome setting, but that big-ass fucking rock out there that could have potentially have the most awesome inertia was for naught. Instead the entire level relies on stupid as hell lifts while the player is just left to lamenting on what could have been. Buoy Base felt also taken for granted. Its presence felt grand but that never reflected upon the level itself.

And don't even get me started on the ridiculosity of the power-ups in this game. They made such a big fuss about items such as the Fire Flower's first debut ever in 3D yet its only limited down to puzzle solving and appears on an average about 5 times in the entire game. And it was on a timer to top it off. Instead we get a fucking Bee Suit and a pretty cool Boo powerup thats only used ever so few times.

I really tried to love the game, and I really wanted to. The first romp through was fun, but after the main quest it all just went into a gigantic bore, trying to sway over with the stupid as hell forced epicness and charm in every way it can. The way it was commercialized put it forward as an extreme epic, with orchestral music and space voyages, ironically it's probably the most restricted Mario game I've ever played. It was just a six hour wonder, which is why I was extremely opposed to the idea of a Galaxy 2. The sequel seems to have a bit more focus on linearity a la NSMB however, and thats a good thing if it can keep a steady pace. Some of the levels look a bit better too so I'll probably pick that up.

[SuperLink]

I'm going to agree with Soulcalibur IV, and I'll be right back after Ah've skimmed through mah games.

- New Super Mario Bros Wii, possibly my biggest disappointment ever. I was never really expecting much anyway, but man the reviews and fans loved this game to bits, and it's this massive huge Wii release that everyone should buy, then I got it, and it was like, hey, I'm playing 2D Mario.

Again.

- Every Metroid Prime game, because I just can't find them fun, I always get bored, no matter how much the reviews hype them up.

- Ace Attorney Investigations, particularly the last case. This is the only game in AA history where the last case didn't have my heart thumping like Thor's Hammer, and that sucks.

- Scribblenauts, anyone who's played it can probably see why. Platforming sucks.

- Phantom Hourglass, I was expecting a Zelda game worthy of being called a Zelda game, what I got was a Zelda game not worthy of being called a Zelda game. Repetitive/boring music, insultingly easy and short, no imaginative items, canon rape of the otherwise amazing WW universe because of how drab the plot was.

- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts on DS, awesome huh? Plays like a KH game, except the plot was slow, boring, pointless, terrible, and the gameplay consists of "go here do this" right up until the conclusion, which was actually good and KH-like.

- Star Ocean 2, after all Star Ocean fans go on about how amazing this game is, I can't help but think it's just like all the others. Mostly boring or annoying characters, cliché plot, little development, and annoying as fuck dungeons. Also, why can't I skip spell animations? Bloody hell.

- Sonic Rivals, a lot of people say they prefer this to Sonic Rush. How? This is slower than most Mario games, and it's supposed to be a racing game. It has like, no physics, and it suffers from "hold forward" more than any Sonic game I've ever played. Also the plot and music are embarrassing.

- StarFox Command, a lot of people said this game was far better than Assault, I don't get that either... this was incredibly repetitive and tedious, and the plot was full of "original character do not steal", serious, how can this fanfic of a game be canon?

- Animal Crossing: City Folk, didn't buy it, I'm disappointed in Nintendo just for even making this game. I've played this for 2-3 years already on my DS thanks.

I hope I wasn't too harsh on games people really loved. Keep in mind I did really like most of these games, but man, expectations.

[Carbo]

- Ace Attorney Investigations, particularly the last case. This is the only game in AA history where the last case didn't have my heart thumping like Thor's Hammer, and that sucks.

I have to agree with that the last case of that game was fully disappointing, and also mentally exhausting. Atleast JFA had some purpose behind stretching shit out more than necessary.

The entire plot of that game was a little tough all in all to follow though since pretty much unlike the last games every single case you did involved the smuggling ring. The game wins in fanservice if you ask me though.

[SykoTech]

Super Smash Bros Melee was by far my favorite Gamecube game. I liked a lot of games on the G-cube too (Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, Wind Waker, etc.). I'd go further and say it was one of my favorite games ever, fighting or otherwise. I had not played Smash 64, so the fighting style was comepletely new to me, and it blew my mind. Such a unique approach, and the mechanics felt very powerful. The sheer madness that some of the matches would turn into lead to many late nights up saying "one last match".

Naturally, I was anticipating the sequel greatly. And every move Nintendo made multipled my my hype by 5.

New "Super Attack" moves?

Meta Knight in the game?!

Solid Snake in the game?!?!

A story mode where the characters meet?!?!?!

SONIC THE EFFING HEDGEHOG?!?!?!?!?!?!

Then there's all those times I sat pounding the F5 key awaiting a Dojo update. And then waiting for GameStop to open so I could pick up my pre-order.

But once I finally got my grubbing hands on it, I immediately felt something was off. While I loved all the new extra things Brawl offered (even Subspace which I know a lot of people disliked), but the overall fighting system felt like a total downgrade. It's hard for me to describe, but everything just seemed...clunkier. I could no longer get a firm grasp when doing combos, even when using easy ones like Yoshi's flutter kick. Not to mention the nerfing. I mained Samus in Melee, but she became one of the worse characters for me to use in Brawl. Even Jigglypuff, who had very little game in Melee, had those few useful moves stripped and was left totally useless to me. None the new characters really clicked with me either, aside from Meta Knight. I really tried to make Sonic work, but no dice.

I didn't really mind the lack of advanced techs. I'm no tourney player or anything. But the whole experience was very off IMO.

Also, about half of my online matches were slideshows.

That's not to say that I think Brawl was a bad game. It had its moments, and plenty of cool features. And that one tournament we had on campus was a blast. But while Melee lasted me the Gamecube's lifespan (and then some), Brawl lasted me about half a year.

[Saint Nathan]

Sonic Unleashed for Wii.

Not the 360 version, just the Wii version.

So like, i'll have 50 people on my back for this, but Unleashed for Wii was total shit. Possibly the worst game I own for the Wii. The story was the same, yeah, but everything else was stripped to hell.

- Hub sucked

- Werehog SUCKED (the PS360 version was pretty good for Werehogginess, the hate is just on it being not-sonicy, this was actually BAD)

- Controls SUCKED

- All of the Sonic levels were broken down into a theme then made flat, boring, and generally more trial and error than the PS360 version, which gave some learning curve for when to expect things. Naturally, any platforming was also taken out. Also Sonic moves like a race car. Not even joking, he feels and moves like a car that can jump.

- No Empire City what.

- Gaia Gates. Took out the interesting hubs for these?

Now, when I got it, I didn't even have a 360. So obviously I had nothing to compare it to. Starts out wonderfully, I thought "oh hey, this'll be good."

First level after all the tutorials. Slide under a gap only to run RIGHT into a wall that is next to undodgeable with the control you have.

S rank goes down to A.

:|

First Werehog stage was long, and it was boring. Compared to the 5 minute Sonic levels you got, these Werehog stages were like, 30 minutes long. Not even Eggmanland, just fucking Apotos.

Natrually, I played though it, Werehog stages getting worse and worse, while the Sonic stages only had Eggmanland that was really enjoyable and not just a relief from Werehog.

I picked it back up for another playthough just yesterday. I get to the Werehog stages.

That was it, I was done. I ended up selling it. The controls were worse than the horrid ones I remembered, and it just all felt thrown together.

Just, ugh. I feel bad for anyone stuck with that version.

Edited May 15, 2010 by Nathan

[Solly]

Soul Calibur 4 was a bit of a let down. So was Wario Land Shake It. They''re not bad, but they just failed my expectations.

- New Super Mario Bros Wii, possibly my biggest disappointment ever. I was never really expecting much anyway, but man the reviews and fans loved this game to bits, and it's this massive huge Wii release that everyone should buy, then I got it, and it was like, hey, I'm playing 2D Mario.

Again.

I would agree to an extent. NSMBWii is in my opinion a sub-par Mario platformer. However, I think it's great with two players.

[SuperLink]

Soul Calibur 4 was a bit of a let down. So was Wario Land Shake It. They''re not bad, but they just failed my expectations.

The main problem with Soulcalibur IV is that after Soulcalibur I and III (and kinda II) were so huge, SCIV had a terrible single player mode, annoying characters, too much focus on graphics and not enough focus on anything else. The character creation being so robust and the StarWars characters is enough to tell you that Namco just doesn't give a shit about the series anymore.

I would agree to an extent. NSMBWii is in my opinion a sub-par Mario platformer. However, I think it's great with two players.

Yeah it's great fun in CoOp, but as a single player game it's the same old thing.

CoOp had better be a mainstay.

[lounge]

Zelda: Four Swords Adventures I was excited to play with my friends. The fact that you have to have those stupid link cables and a gameboy advance to play with your friends was stupid enough. The reused graphics/music/game design, and short / easy lengh was a waste of money.

Twilight Princess also dissapointed me with it's easy difficulty, not very memorable music, and linearity.

Super Mario Galaxy is the most overrated game to me. Boring, linear, and it took away what was super from the 3D mario games. It was all just visual eye candy.

When I first got Sonic Heroes in 2004, I was dissapointed that it lacked all the qualities that made SA2Battle cool.

Mario Party 5 took away everything that made playing with a friend or family member, fun. It was slow as molasses.

[Scorch]

I don't know about anyone else, but I found this game to be a MASSIVE disappointment. Don't get me wrong, though. I don't hate the game. Not at all, but at the same time, I still thought it was a complete let-down. When I first heard about this game back in June 2008, I believe it was, I was VERY excited. I was glad to see that the classic Mega Man series was finally going to make its triumphant comeback, after being dead for the past ten years or so. Now, to get to the point, the fact that the game is in 8-bit wasn't the problem. It's the fact that this game purposely went out of its way to ignore what later games (after Mega Man 2) brought to the series. I will be one of the first to say that Mega Man 2 has GOT to be one of, if not THE most overrated Mega Man game of all time. So many people act as if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, treating it like the Second Coming of Jesus, or something. As a result, Capcom/Inti Creates' sole purpose with that game was to please maninly Mega Man 2 fanboys, and nobody else. For example, they decided to remove Mega Man's charge beam and slide kick abilities, simply because of the fact that they weren't in Mega Man 2. Did they honestly think that people would magically forget about something that's been established in the series for over ten years? What's worse, is that Keiji Inafune, the creator of the Mega Man franchise, went and claimed that those "fancy moves" were "unnecessary", and didn't even come up with a real story-related explanation as to why Mega Man couldn't use them. Instead, Inafune and the rest of the staff just flat-out acted as if he's never had them. Sure, Proto Man might have had those abilties, but in my opinion, it just wasn't quite the same, considering the fact that he has the weaker Mega Man 4-style charge beam, rather than the stronger one from Mega Man 5 and onward. Again, don't get me wrong; I don't hate Mega Man 2, but I definitely do not consider it to be the best in the series. Contrary to popular belief, I think Mega Man 3 has outdone it in almost every way.

Oh, and there's also the lack of Bass and Treble. That was another one of the biggest problems I had with the game. The way they left Bass out of the game and randomly threw his blueprints in the ending like that was MORE than just a slap in the face; it was a kick in the nuts to those who were looking forward to seeing Bass make his debut in one of the 8-bit games. We were kicked in the nuts even further when that generic, piece of crap police robot, Fake Man, showed up in the Special Stage, rather than him. Bass' absence from Mega Man 9 didn't make ANY kind of sense, and up to this day, I STILL don't think there was ANY excuse for that one whatsoever. Supposedly, he was undergoing some kind of "upgrade" or "adjustment" in the Mega Man 9, but there's several reasons as to why that doesn't add up. For starters, Bass has an ego the size of a planet, and already feels that he's powerful enough to destroy Mega Man without any upgrades or enhancements. Secondly, he specifically told Dr. Wily during the ending of Mega Man: The Power Battle, that "all [he] make is junk", so it made no sense for him to have accepted an upgrade from him in the first place. Thirdly, Mega Man 9's storyline took place MANY years after the previous games, so why is it that Wily had just now started, when that could have been finished ages ago? Lastly, they made it seem as if this was meant to forshadow something big, but then, in Mega Man 10, we find out that this had ZERO RELEVANCE to the storyline. Bass was pretty much left out of Mega Man 9 for nothing. What it all boils down to, is that they just did not WANT to include him.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Scorch

[Glenn]

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Shadow the Hedgehog

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes

Sonic Battle

The first two suffer from the same problem... namely, a concept (exploring the darker side of a popular heroic franchise) entirely let down by rushed development. Both followed very strong entries in the mainstream series' they spawned from. In the case of Rogue Agent, it followed the greatest EA Bond and stole the name of the (wrongly considered, overhyped and overrated) most popular Bond game of all time. It couldn't do anything but fail.

I don't know why I was disappointed by Republic Heroes. I should have known what to expect... but still, 'tis pretty poor!

As for the last on that list, I know many around here adore Sonic Battle and so I'm sorry to put that on here. I have yet to complete it and I'm enjoying it more and more each day, but... well. The first day I played it was a bad day in general for me, lots went wrong, and I wanted so much to be blown away by an amazing new Sonic experience. And what do I find? Button-mashing. And nothing else.

[Vertekins]

Sonic Unleashed for Wii.

Not the 360 version, just the Wii version.

So like, i'll have 50 people on my back for this, but Unleashed for Wii was total shit. Possibly the worst game I own for the Wii. The story was the same, yeah, but everything else was stripped to hell.

- Hub sucked

- Werehog SUCKED (the PS360 version was pretty good for Werehogginess, the hate is just on it being not-sonicy, this was actually BAD)

- Controls SUCKED

- All of the Sonic levels were broken down into a theme then made flat, boring, and generally more trial and error than the PS360 version, which gave some learning curve for when to expect things. Naturally, any platforming was also taken out. Also Sonic moves like a race car. Not even joking, he feels and moves like a car that can jump.

- No Empire City what.

- Gaia Gates. Took out the interesting hubs for these?

Now, when I got it, I didn't even have a 360. So obviously I had nothing to compare it to. Starts out wonderfully, I thought "oh hey, this'll be good."

First level after all the tutorials. Slide under a gap only to run RIGHT into a wall that is next to undodgeable with the control you have.

S rank goes down to A.

:|

First Werehog stage was long, and it was boring. Compared to the 5 minute Sonic levels you got, these Werehog stages were like, 30 minutes long. Not even Eggmanland, just fucking Apotos.

Natrually, I played though it, Werehog stages getting worse and worse, while the Sonic stages only had Eggmanland that was really enjoyable and not just a relief from Werehog.

I picked it back up for another playthough just yesterday. I get to the Werehog stages.

That was it, I was done. I ended up selling it. The controls were worse than the horrid ones I remembered, and it just all felt thrown together.

Just, ugh. I feel bad for anyone stuck with that version.

This. So freaking much.

Sonic Unleashed Wii/PS2 can be a fun game but when it comes to "The Unleashed Experience"? No....Just No. It's nowhere even vaguely close to the 360/PS3 version. The Wii/PS2 versions and the 360/PS3 versions are so vastly different to the point that they almost feel like completely seperate games with no real relation. As far as i'm concerned, it's as if the developers really didn't give a damn about Wii/PS2 owners. Want an example? Well, Nathan already said pretty much all of them but I can add a few more;

Wii/PS2 version developers obviously think that Wii/PS2 owners are too low priority to be given the true extent of all of the tasty extras. Why does it take so much effort to unlock things i.e making the player excercise every ounce of their skill to get the correct amount of Moon and Sun Medals in order to open doors in the Gaia Gates to get unlockables when by comparison it is so much easier in the 360/PS3 version to get the exact same unlockables? To me, this is blatantly unfair and is as if they're effectively flipping-off the Wii/PS2 owners when the unlockables and the requirements to get them are so much harder than the 360/PS3 equivalents.

Pertaining to the above, why is it that Wii/PS2 owners only get ONE of the extremely awesome videos involving Sonic, Chip and food? And why is it that this single vid is so hard to unlock compared to the relatively very easy way of obtaining it in the 360/PS3 version?

Day stages are so outnumbered by night stages that it isn't even funny. And day stage length? Jungle Joyride Act 1 360/PS3 version takes 5-5 and a half minutes to clear if the player is competent, has a maximum levelled Sonic and is boosting about 90% of the time. By comparison, Jungle Joyride Mission 1 Wii/PS2 version takes about 2 and a half minutes to clear when played by a competent player who is nearly always boosting.

I hate the boost system in Wii/PS2 version. It's segmented nature is a bane to consistent speed. And I absolutely hate the wall jump in Wii/PS2 version. It's needlessly finnicky controls-wise and I can count the amount of times i've successfully performed a consecutive one on one hand.

I also don't think that the Wii version should have been held back by the technical limitations of the PS2, which is so obviously the case.

For all of my negativity, I will admit that the Wii/PS2 version had unique aspects that I wished were in the 360/PS3 version. Like the ingenious puzzles in the Gaia Gates (And it's wonderful music which, by comparison is ONLY used in the 360/PS3 version in the cutscene where Sonic and Chip find the first Gaia Temple and isn't in the sound test), the very clever way the game makes you think of how to use the exclusive Spike enemy (Those bomb-like enemies) and probably the most mundane aspect but no less funny for it, the way Sonic goes splat then goes paper-thin very comically when you boost into a wall, which was dissappointingly missing from the 360/PS3 version

Edited May 16, 2010 by Verte

[SuperStingray]

Metro 2033. The narrative and atmosphere are really all it has going for it. Beyond that, it's bland and way too linear. I'm fine with a game being linear, but this one just seems to pull and guide you everywhere and the stealth is pretty broken. And you'd think a Ukrainian game developer could get some more authentic Russian accents.

[ovarloard]

And I absolutely hate the wall jump in Wii/PS2 version. It's needlessly finnicky controls-wise and I can count the amount of times i've successfully performed a consecutive one on one hand.

While I will agree with you (and Nathan) that the Wii version wasn't... err... up to par with the other version, I'd just like to point out that it's not the game's fault that a wall-jump is so hard to perform... it's the tutorial/manual.

The manual tells players to "use the control stick to move Sonic towards the walls and then press the A button to jump onto the wall".

WRONG.

I played it like that, and the number of times I pulled it off, were, well... one. Just enough to pass the tutorial mission.

However, I played around a bit, and once you get the hang of it, the wall jumps are easy enough. Press A to jump onto the wall from the ground. Then, press A again to jump off the wall, and it'll automatically jump you towards the other wall. Tilt towards the wall to hang on, and then press A while still holding the control stick towards the wall you jumped off of. Only then, while you're in the air, do you tilt towards the wall you'll be hanging onto.

I hope that made sense.

Anyway... for me, one of the most overrated games is... Modern Warfare 2.

It was epic at first, as it was a completely new experience for me. But it gets tiring quickly. Walk around, shoot people, rinse and repeat. It can be a bit more complex than that, but that's the basic gist of the game, and it gets boring after a while. Split screen sucked because it was incredibly unbalanced in terms of custom classes... if I go over to a friend's house he'll have all the custom classes with the best weapons unlocked, and I'll have to start with nothing.

Also, the online mode is a piece of crap. It can be fun, but more often than not, some glitch will come to light to screw the game up. Then, some hacker comes along and turns off gravity, and he endds up turning on unlimited ammo, then getting a nuke. Plus, the kind of stuff you hear elementary school-age kids saying isn't very... erm... civilized.

I'm sorry to anyone who liked this game; I tried to like it, really, I did. But the fact remains that Infinity Ward didn't think things through for split screen mode, and that they didn't test enough for any possible glitches.

Edited May 18, 2010 by Epik Phayle

[Glenn]

Anyway... for me, one of the most overrated games is... Modern Warfare 2.

It was epic at first, as it was a completely new experience for me. But it gets tiring quickly. Walk around, shoot people, rinse and repeat. It can be a bit more complex than that, but that's the basic gist of the game, and it gets boring after a while. Split screen sucked because it was incredibly unbalanced in terms of custom classes... if I go over to a friend's house he'll have all the custom classes with the best weapons unlocked, and I'll have to start with nothing.

Also, the online mode is a piece of crap. It can be fun, but more often than not, some glitch will come to light to screw the game up. Then, some hacker comes along and turns off gravity, and he endds up turning on unlimited ammo, then getting a nuke. Plus, the kind of stuff you hear elementary school-age kids saying isn't very... erm... civilized.

I'm sorry to anyone who liked this game; I tried to like it, really, I did. But the fact remains that Infinity Ward didn't think things through for split screen mode, and that they didn't test enough for any possible glitches.

This. And every other first person shooter, including Halo and GoldenEye 007.

I mean, I love an atmospheric blast as much as the next guy, and FPS shooting can be particularly satisfying when the weapons are chunky and the storyline engrossing, but seriously... what is there to distinguish between them? They all have the same controls nowadays, all generally derive replay value from online modes (which A: I can't play and B: when I do at a friends place, they bore me after ten minutes). I find them massively overrated and generally disappointing experiences, sadly.

Doesn't stop me owning two, mind.

[JezMM]

Sonic and the Black Knight

Expected a platformer with exploration involved and new interesting things such as a grappling hook which shoots ropes to grind on, with a unique new combat system.

Got a linear forward-scrolling beat-em-up game with a bit of jumping here and there, and all the promised cool new gimmicks turning out to be one-time automatic level events. The soundtrack and presentation were SO good though. Without them I would have never played it again.

Phantasy Star Online - Episode III - C.A.R.D. Revolution

Expected PSO with some new card collecting gimmick.

Got a digital tabletop card game with 3D pretties and a storyline. This one is my own fault really. I read the back of the box and still bought it kidding myself it would be normal PSO.

Samba Di Amigo for Wii

Expected a good fun, rhythm game.

Got an example of how being on a Sonic forum should make you very careful about buying any Sonic Team game because somehow, despite the majority of Sonic fans hating modern Sonic in some way or another - they seem to love everything else ST churn out... Though I heard AFTER that Samba wasn't that well recieved on Wii anyway, so never mind. I also wasn't a huge fan of samba music. I thought there'd be more to it than that with just the majority of tracks being samba.

Katamari Forever

Expected a "best of" collection with a few new levels to boot.

Got a "best of" collection. Literally 95% of the levels are recycled, when I thought only the King of all Cosmos' levels would be. But the RoboKing's levels are from old games too, which kinda makes no sense to me story-wise. I'm also not a huuuuge fan of the soundtrack. Some tracks are awesome, but some totally wreck the atmosphere of the original level (the firefly collecting one from We Love Katamari has a totally different vibe to it with the new music).

Sonic Rivals 2

Expected Sonic Rivals - just more of it.

Got a totally broken version of the first game. The power-ups are totally unbalanced (the offensive fire attack moves towards the other player SLOWER than you do - utterly useless), and the bosses are just really fiddley and annoying. The 1-on-1 Act 2 challenges aren't that fun either. Kudos at least to varying up the objectives in story mode though I guess, and letting us play the levels in a non-race envioronment.

That's all I can really think of for now.

Edited May 18, 2010 by JezMM