The Eight Most Disappointing Games Of Our Time

Some games get a lot of hype, but not every game can live up to the extraordinary hyperbolic promises dreamed up by marketing teams. Sometimes a game gets over-hyped, and it’s obvious to everyone upon release that the game has metaphorically taken a dump in its pants. This is a list of the top eight games that were supposed to change the world but tripped over their own egos and ended up with humble pie on their face.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
GameCube – 2003
Factor 5’s 2001 release, Rogue Leader, was a beautiful marriage of gorgeous environments and compelling space combat that touched on every high point in the Star Wars trilogy that counts. Two years later it was clear that the marriage had hit a rocky, “I’m staying with my sister,” bottom. On-foot sections were introduced, but the controls were so sloppy that if every GameCube controller had been slathered in butter, gamers probably wouldn’t have been able to feel the difference.

Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
PS2 – 2005
The original Xenosaga was a good game with a few flaws. The sequel in Namco’s experiment in excessive storytelling tried to fix them by removing everything about the series that was fresh and exciting. It was like fixing a man's broken arm by chopping off his head. Xenosaga II’s simplified battle system robbed the game of any fun and most of the voice actors sounded like they were chugging NyQuil. We’re kind of glad the game was only half as long as its predecessor.

Too Human
Xbox 360 – 2008
Silicon Knight developed the critical darling Eternal Darkness, so how did this travesty happen? Maybe we should have been clued into the fact that there were problems at the studio when the company somehow combined two amazing Metal Gear Solid games together to produce an inferior title. We honestly thought Too Human was going to be a sci-fi epic of Asgardian proportions. What we got was a substandard hack-and-slash game buried in the debris of unfulfilled promises. The game tried to be a mix of action and RPG but lacked the depth of the best games in either genre. The most fun we had with Too Human was laughing at its schizophrenic controls.

Madden NFL 06
Xbox 360 – 2005
Usually a new console means developers can do more, but someone must have stole EA’s playbook while it developed the first Madden game for the Xbox 360. This may be the first game to accomplish less on the new hardware than it did on the old systems. The awkward players looked like they were walking to the line of scrimmage with last night’s after party on their breath – and they played the same way. Madden 06 was full of collision and animation problems, and even lacked mainstay features like the Owner and Superstar modes. Play-by-play commentary was also conspicuously MIA, making us wish that this Madden had just been benched.

Devil May Cry 2
PS2 – 2003
If the first game bled style, the sequel was just hemorrhaging. On the surface, Devil May Cry 2 looked like a little brother trying to imitate his cooler, older sibling. Redundant environments, a weak camera system, and a severe lack of challenge made this a disappointing sequel. This game’s combat was about as shallow and empty as the section of the kiddy pool everyone pees in. Devil May Cry 2 made us cry.

Prototype
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 – 2009
Prototype was a game that demoed well, but like a clunker being eagerly passed off by a used car salesman, it was clearly hiding something. As soon as we drove this game off the lot, we discovered its dirty secrets. The game’s powerful combat abilities and freeform open world hid a poorly-designed and unimaginative superhero simulator. Prototype’s camera would start dancing around like it was at a rave in the middle of combat. The game’s story was about as coherent as an outpatient’s dream journal. It’s too bad this prototype went into full production before all its flaws were fixed.

Perfect Dark Zero
Xbox 360 – 2005
This sequel promised some exciting things, but Perfect Dark Zero was bold enough to bring last-generation gameplay to next-generation consoles. Crippled AI, an atrocious story, and unremarkable multiplayer killed any excitement we might have had for future Perfect Dark titles. We haven’t even mentioned the strange glitches that caused dead enemies to bounce around the environment like kids on a trick-or-treat sugar rush.

Daikatana
N64, PC – 2000
The brainchild of Doom creator John Romero, Daikatana was a game with so many delays and reboots that only Duke Nukem could empathize. Some of Daikatana’s ideas may have seemed ambitious when the game was first announced, but sloppy controls mixed with boring level design, dumb enemies, and uninspired weaponry came together to produce a shooter that made you want to shoot yourself.