it’s always a shame when good games
don’t get there – all right who’s ready
to rock and roll
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten critically acclaimed video games
that were commercial failures I got big
plans for tech mind this list bears some
similarities to our top ten overlooked
video game series which you should also
check out the key difference here is
that for this list we’ll be looking
specifically at games with high critical
acclaim that sold fewer than 1 million
copies during their initial release if
you ask me there’s something fishy about
this
as always we’ll only be selecting one
game per series but most of these games
didn’t manage to get sequels anyway well
I guess that has some books was off than
me number 10 the Neverhood um hello
designed by the creator of earthworm jim
doug to napal the Neverhood was the kind
of weird and wonderful game that you
need to see you in motion
the entire world of the neighborhood and
all the characters in it are
painstakingly modeled in clay making it
one of the most visually interesting
games of its era but the Neverhood is
more than just a cool look the animation
brings the whole thing to life and it’s
packed with the sort of crafty puzzles
adventure games are known for polio
number 9 earthbound come on Reggie
give us mother 3 how about this instead
even Nintendo pokes fun at all the cult
status earthbound has earned since its
initial release in 1994 earthbound or
mother 2 as it’s known in Japan is one
of the most unique games in all of
Nintendo’s already buried catalog
the story begins with a meteor crash
landing and our hero Ness meeting a bee
from the future and from there it
doesn’t get any less weird it’s a very
very strange game that blends Japanese
and North American pop culture and one
hilarious RPG package number 8 Jet Set
Radio just known as jet grind radio in
North America Jet Set Radio is about
marking your turf and grinding your way
to victory
haha this highly stylised game was one
of the first to popularize cel-shaded
visuals and remains one of the marquee
titles from Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast
from its graphics to its music and its
fast-paced gameplay Jet Set Radio
screams cool
plus the concept is pretty awesome too
the idea of running around the city
tagging buildings and debating the
overzealous police force is even cool
enough make rollerblading look good
number seven Skies of Arcadia
one of the best ideas for a steampunk
universe Skies of Arcadia is about a
ragtag group of scallywags who pilot an
airborne pirate ship blending jars and
keeping an upbeat tempo Skies of Arcadia
was an absolutely delightful
role-playing game that should have been
able to compete toe-to-toe with other
flagship RPGs but for one reason or
another despite a later release on the
Gamecube Skies of Arcadia never found
its audience
number six Panzer Dragoon
at the time Panzer Dragoon was sort of
like starfox with dragons an arcade
style shooter with modern visuals to
make the action suspenseful
while the visuals might not hold up in
2015
Panzer Dragoon is still a thrilling
tightly designed on Rails shooter that
takes some serious skill to master and
let’s face it it doesn’t get much cooler
than riding a dragon number 5 Beyond
Good and Evil
they’re coming quick then jump up all of
the games we’ve listed are great and
deserve to sell better than they did but
none quite as surprising to see here as
Beyond Good and Evil
it has everything a marketable game
should have a flashy name a cool main
character and a wicked story here on
Hillis war has once again reared its
ugly head striking the civilian
population set in a dystopian future
with a fascinating world to explore it’s
a shame that more people didn’t buy this
one because Beyond Good and Evil is
truly an excellent game number 4 Grim
Fandango something like this could only
come from the mind of Tim Schafer
windows Diaz Manny why don’t you at the
poisoning web poisoning grim fandago
stars manuel Calavera whose job it is to
greet the deceased in full death robes
and then sell them travel packages to
the afterlife
just your appearance it’s a little
intimidating intimidating me but I’m
your friend my name is Manny Calavera
I’m your new travel agent it’s one of
the best adventure games around but only
saw its retail release as the interest
in the genre was slowly dying down God
is my friend why are you crying
Maddy Oh daddy they fired me if you’ve
never found out what happens to Manny
during the Day of the Dead a remastered
version just came out on ps4 and PC yeah
ha yes that’s the ticket
the excelsior line number 3 eternal
darkness sanity’s Requiem
eternal darkness is one of a kind it’s a
survival horror game that flashes
backwards and forwards in time to piece
together the history of a centuries-old
haunted mansion it must be some clue in
this old mansion revealing what happened
I want answers unlike so many more are
games that rely on jump scares eternal
darkness is filled with larger-than-life
terror that takes its time slowly
building up the coolest aspect of
eternal darkness is the fourth wall
breaking sanity events which mess with
your mind both in and out of the game
it’s a shame that eternal darkness
didn’t perform better because it’s a
unique brand of storytelling that would
be interesting to see today
number two Psychonauts like so many of
the games we’ve seen Psychonauts is an
absolute gem that came out at the wrong
place in time what but don’t you train
Psychonauts here for an almost 10 year
period 3d platformers were one of the
most popular genres and games then all
of a sudden everyone lost interest and
sadly that’s when Tim Schafer’s
masterpiece
Psychonauts hit store shelves isn’t that
great what how is that great
Psychonauts is about a psychic summer
camp that’s actually a government
training facility made to train kids to
become psychic agents allowing them to
enter other people’s minds and see
worlds based on their personalities how
am I gonna find some creepy graveyard in
this nice normal neighborhood it’s not
hard to see why people didn’t jump on
the concept but it was really worth it
for those who did in this psychic dojo
they make you a hero
get that soldier a bunk before we name
our number one pick here’s a look at
some honorable mentions
a frying pan this is stupid
number one Planescape torment
set in the titular Planescape universe
and refining the gameplay of titles like
Baldur’s Gate torment is a dialogue
driven role-playing game that is still
revered for its outstanding script and
world building hey chief you okay you
playing corpse you putting the blinds in
the dusties I thought you were a debtor
for sure torment balls the story of the
nameless one an immortal character who’s
lost the memory of his past lives
it’s not only one of the best pieces of
videogame fiction but a defining entry
in the beloved group of infinity Engine
RPGs moving only 20,000 units Planescape
torment sold miserably compared to its
outstanding critical reception making it
our number one pick do you agree with
our list hi which of these games have
you bought and played ooh a request for
more not so rare top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com there’s one thing I’ve
learned is this
nobody knows what’s gonna happen at the
end of the line might as well enjoy the
trip
you
don’t get there – all right who’s ready
to rock and roll
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’ll
be counting down our picks for the top
ten critically acclaimed video games
that were commercial failures I got big
plans for tech mind this list bears some
similarities to our top ten overlooked
video game series which you should also
check out the key difference here is
that for this list we’ll be looking
specifically at games with high critical
acclaim that sold fewer than 1 million
copies during their initial release if
you ask me there’s something fishy about
this
as always we’ll only be selecting one
game per series but most of these games
didn’t manage to get sequels anyway well
I guess that has some books was off than
me number 10 the Neverhood um hello
designed by the creator of earthworm jim
doug to napal the Neverhood was the kind
of weird and wonderful game that you
need to see you in motion
the entire world of the neighborhood and
all the characters in it are
painstakingly modeled in clay making it
one of the most visually interesting
games of its era but the Neverhood is
more than just a cool look the animation
brings the whole thing to life and it’s
packed with the sort of crafty puzzles
adventure games are known for polio
number 9 earthbound come on Reggie
give us mother 3 how about this instead
even Nintendo pokes fun at all the cult
status earthbound has earned since its
initial release in 1994 earthbound or
mother 2 as it’s known in Japan is one
of the most unique games in all of
Nintendo’s already buried catalog
the story begins with a meteor crash
landing and our hero Ness meeting a bee
from the future and from there it
doesn’t get any less weird it’s a very
very strange game that blends Japanese
and North American pop culture and one
hilarious RPG package number 8 Jet Set
Radio just known as jet grind radio in
North America Jet Set Radio is about
marking your turf and grinding your way
to victory
haha this highly stylised game was one
of the first to popularize cel-shaded
visuals and remains one of the marquee
titles from Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast
from its graphics to its music and its
fast-paced gameplay Jet Set Radio
screams cool
plus the concept is pretty awesome too
the idea of running around the city
tagging buildings and debating the
overzealous police force is even cool
enough make rollerblading look good
number seven Skies of Arcadia
one of the best ideas for a steampunk
universe Skies of Arcadia is about a
ragtag group of scallywags who pilot an
airborne pirate ship blending jars and
keeping an upbeat tempo Skies of Arcadia
was an absolutely delightful
role-playing game that should have been
able to compete toe-to-toe with other
flagship RPGs but for one reason or
another despite a later release on the
Gamecube Skies of Arcadia never found
its audience
number six Panzer Dragoon
at the time Panzer Dragoon was sort of
like starfox with dragons an arcade
style shooter with modern visuals to
make the action suspenseful
while the visuals might not hold up in
2015
Panzer Dragoon is still a thrilling
tightly designed on Rails shooter that
takes some serious skill to master and
let’s face it it doesn’t get much cooler
than riding a dragon number 5 Beyond
Good and Evil
they’re coming quick then jump up all of
the games we’ve listed are great and
deserve to sell better than they did but
none quite as surprising to see here as
Beyond Good and Evil
it has everything a marketable game
should have a flashy name a cool main
character and a wicked story here on
Hillis war has once again reared its
ugly head striking the civilian
population set in a dystopian future
with a fascinating world to explore it’s
a shame that more people didn’t buy this
one because Beyond Good and Evil is
truly an excellent game number 4 Grim
Fandango something like this could only
come from the mind of Tim Schafer
windows Diaz Manny why don’t you at the
poisoning web poisoning grim fandago
stars manuel Calavera whose job it is to
greet the deceased in full death robes
and then sell them travel packages to
the afterlife
just your appearance it’s a little
intimidating intimidating me but I’m
your friend my name is Manny Calavera
I’m your new travel agent it’s one of
the best adventure games around but only
saw its retail release as the interest
in the genre was slowly dying down God
is my friend why are you crying
Maddy Oh daddy they fired me if you’ve
never found out what happens to Manny
during the Day of the Dead a remastered
version just came out on ps4 and PC yeah
ha yes that’s the ticket
the excelsior line number 3 eternal
darkness sanity’s Requiem
eternal darkness is one of a kind it’s a
survival horror game that flashes
backwards and forwards in time to piece
together the history of a centuries-old
haunted mansion it must be some clue in
this old mansion revealing what happened
I want answers unlike so many more are
games that rely on jump scares eternal
darkness is filled with larger-than-life
terror that takes its time slowly
building up the coolest aspect of
eternal darkness is the fourth wall
breaking sanity events which mess with
your mind both in and out of the game
it’s a shame that eternal darkness
didn’t perform better because it’s a
unique brand of storytelling that would
be interesting to see today
number two Psychonauts like so many of
the games we’ve seen Psychonauts is an
absolute gem that came out at the wrong
place in time what but don’t you train
Psychonauts here for an almost 10 year
period 3d platformers were one of the
most popular genres and games then all
of a sudden everyone lost interest and
sadly that’s when Tim Schafer’s
masterpiece
Psychonauts hit store shelves isn’t that
great what how is that great
Psychonauts is about a psychic summer
camp that’s actually a government
training facility made to train kids to
become psychic agents allowing them to
enter other people’s minds and see
worlds based on their personalities how
am I gonna find some creepy graveyard in
this nice normal neighborhood it’s not
hard to see why people didn’t jump on
the concept but it was really worth it
for those who did in this psychic dojo
they make you a hero
get that soldier a bunk before we name
our number one pick here’s a look at
some honorable mentions
a frying pan this is stupid
number one Planescape torment
set in the titular Planescape universe
and refining the gameplay of titles like
Baldur’s Gate torment is a dialogue
driven role-playing game that is still
revered for its outstanding script and
world building hey chief you okay you
playing corpse you putting the blinds in
the dusties I thought you were a debtor
for sure torment balls the story of the
nameless one an immortal character who’s
lost the memory of his past lives
it’s not only one of the best pieces of
videogame fiction but a defining entry
in the beloved group of infinity Engine
RPGs moving only 20,000 units Planescape
torment sold miserably compared to its
outstanding critical reception making it
our number one pick do you agree with
our list hi which of these games have
you bought and played ooh a request for
more not so rare top 10s published every
day be sure to subscribe to
watchmojo.com there’s one thing I’ve
learned is this
nobody knows what’s gonna happen at the
end of the line might as well enjoy the
trip
you
Please follow and like us: