Jump to content
LCVG

Poorly-received games you like


Robot Monkey

Recommended Posts

Naturally, we need a companion to the other thread.

 

Does Trophy Buck Hunter maintain a place of distinction and love in your game library? Do you look forward to an evening playing Whacked on Xbox Live?

 

Are there any games out there that you like or love that everyone else dislikes? And do you know why you like it?

 

Despite all the problems, for some reason I still enjoy the occasional game of MOO3. I'm a sucker for turn-based strategy, and everything turns into "just one more turn."

 

-j

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Moonbase Commander is one my most cherished games, yet it did horribly in sales. Within a few months of its release it could be found in the bargain bins for $5.00. I love the simple (yet deeply strategic) gameplay and wish a larger community had developed to support it.

 

My wife and I still play on occasion.

 

Also worth mentioning is Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (buggy yet enjoyable, if you aren't expecting too much).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yet it did horribly in sales

 

This is one thing that is NEVER an indicator of quality though. I can cite you a dozen examples of games that undersold but were of excellent quality and were simply unappreciated. :)

 

For the actual topic I can't recall anything off the top of my head, though I can be fairly picky about games I buy which makes a difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

State of Emergency. I bought it for $20 when it came out for the Xbox. The little bastard at the checkout counter even tried to talk me out of buying it, as if it was the worst game since ET or something. But I think it's fun, especially for that price. You come home from a hard day at work, put it in, and shoot some rockets around a shopping mall, stomp some people to death (and then keep stomping on them until you get bored), and generally cause a lot of mayhem. It feels good. The mission mode is lame but I think people get too hung up on that. It's the KAOS mode that is the main appeal of the game for me and I think it does the job fine :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, I'm not really sure how poorly received it was, but I enjoyed Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer a heck of a lot more than better-known, and highly acclaimed, extreme sorts games like THPS 3 or 4, or Matt Hoffman BMX 2.

 

About the only game in this genre that I like more is SSX Tricky.

 

But the ultimate example of a poorly received game that I enjoy would have to be the PC/Mac game Tranquility. I fell absolutely head-over-heels for this game, I don't play it as often as I used to but it's still a landmark in terms of ingenuity, originality and technology. It's immersive and subtle in ways I've never seen in any game.

 

I think the reason it wasn't more popular is that it doesn't appeal to traditional gamers, it's too strange, it doesn't follow any of the standard gaming rules. On the other side, people who aren't gamers aren't likely to find it let alone try it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Myst. Yeah, I said it, Myst. Call it a slide-show, call it boring, call it pretentious, but also call it the game that got me back into video games after a long post-NES hiatus. I saw it running at my boss' house back when I was in college and I had to buy a new computer just to run it. I even read the first book, although I couldn't get into subsequent games or books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kung Fu Chaos for the XBox. The reception was more tepid than "poorly received", but...I thought it was a blast. A co-worker left his XBox at the office, and I brought in around twenty games. Out of all of those, "Kung Fu Chaos" was the most popular, and the only one that anyone asked me to bring back afterwards. So, I guess it's not just me, at least...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tetrisphere for N64.

Most people never even played it -or if they did they didn't give it more than 10 minutes. It's my all-time favorite puzzle game. When things get going quick you get that "dialed in" tunnel vision effect similar to Tempest.

 

I'd almost put the Wipeout series on this list too. Sales were strong early in the series but I think a lot of gamers turn their nose up at Wipeout.

 

Trickstyle for Dreamcast is a flawed but fun game. It's the closest predecessor to SSX.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sales were strong early in the series but I think a lot of gamers turn their nose up at Wipeout.

 

Wipeout's always been more Euro-centric I reckon.

 

Trickstyle for Dreamcast is a flawed but fun game. It's the closest predecessor to SSX.

 

That's a comparision I've made too - it definitely shows its age as a "pre-Tony Hawk" trick based game, but the racing/tracks are well done. Uninteresting fact: it & Soul Calibur were my first DC games, both imported direct from the US via tronix.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine are the Saturn launch and close to launch titles. I always read about how poor the launch games for the Saturn were, and that Sega did a much better job with the Dreamcast. The 2nd part might be true, but I loved most of the Saturn launch games, and I think at one point I owned almost all but Clockwork Knight.

 

Panzer Dragoon was jaw dropping, an amazing opening cinematic followed by a truely next-gen game.

 

VF1 was a bit buggy with it's disappearing polygons, but it was still just like the arcade and a ton of fun to play.

 

Same thing with Daytona. Framerate and draw in certainly could have been better, but to have my favorite arcade game at home was an incredible experience.

 

I also owned and enjoyed Pebble Beach Golf, WorldWide Soccer, and even though it came out a little later, Bug! really impressed me at the time.

 

I don't know if you can call Myst poorly received. People bash it now, but it was the best selling PC game of all time before the Sims, and not every gaming media outlet heated it at the time (PCGamer gave it a 91% or something and it has a 93% on Gamerankings). Interesting side note, I owned Myst on Saturn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my favorite games of the last coupke of years that seems to get pooped on a lot in gaming forums is Dungeon Siege. I never played through the single player campaign, but the multiplayer campaign was one of the funnest co-op games I've ever played. Even with the stupid save game problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trickstyle was only poorly recieved by me because I could never complete the tutorial levels! I just couldn't ride the wires for more than a second without falling off, for some reason.

 

My vote for under-rated would be Super Runabout: San Francisco Edition. Loved that game while it lasted; the graphic style was a bit all over the place, but I couldn't believe that it was a Midtown-style game that didn't make a totally simplified version of the city; I actually knew my way around from having been there, rather than just having a vague idea. Oddly, when The Getaway turned up (which is also pretty good at this), for London (a city I know far better), I hated it. Thats because the controls are so useless, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles for the Dreamcast. The Playstation version was utter crap, but Lucasarts fixed a lot of the problems for the Dreamcast version and made a fun game out of it. I also enjoyed the original Battle Arena Toshinden for the PSone. Tomb Raider II. Everyone I know hated this game, but I liked it more than the original. Two Saturn games that got little recognition but I thought were fun as hell are Bug and Clockwork Knight.

 

-Dean-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if you can call Myst poorly received. People bash it now, but it was the best selling PC game of all time before the Sims...

 

Okay, I feel better then. :)

 

I didn't read game journal one when I got into Myst; it wasn't until years later that I actually started reading about videogames online and hooking up with other vg fans in various forums. Imagine my surprise when the game I had loved at first sight was being called a Powerpoint show!

 

I had no idea it had actually sold so well. I guess you could call it the "Bose" of games, then, lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no idea how well received it was, but I really, really enjoyed Virtua Cop games on the Saturn.

 

Hell, I didn't even have a light gun - I had to move a cursor across the screen with the gamepad.

 

I think the biggest attraction, as the D.O.M has pointed out, is the luxury of having your favorite arcade game at home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles for the Dreamcast. The Playstation version was utter crap, but Lucasarts fixed a lot of the problems for the Dreamcast version and made a fun game out of it.

 

 

A big Agree there! The DC version of Jedi was a really fun game. A whole lot of 2 player co-op happened at my place with that little gem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...