it’s always great to see video game
developers trying new things
well maybe not always welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 good
concepts and video games that were badly
executed thermal imaging shows our legs
are unmanned and controlled remotely
you’re clear to engage
for this list we’re looking at ideas and
video games that players were excited to
play because they sounded innovative
intriguing or original but turned out to
be disappointing upon release number 10
aiming controls Star Fox zero fans of
this classic space shooter series were
highly anticipating Nintendo’s latest
outing which received a mixed reception
to say the least
one of the most highly criticized
aspects was the aiming system which
required players to use a first-person
view on the Wii U gamepad simultaneously
with a third-person view on the
television screen
what could have saved this feature is if
there were better customisation options
like being able to adjust the
sensitivity only have it activate when
holding another button like how iron
sights work or just you know being able
to turn it off altogether but nope you
can’t do any of that
Nintendo what were you thinking number 9
voiced protagonist fallout 4 all right
the park with you because I want to get
pregnant again many games successfully
execute dialog options with voice acting
most notably Mass Effect and The Witcher
but fans of those games have already
become accustomed to playing one
predetermined character less so with
fallout in my secret Club the code
phrase is just two words awesome and me
in a series that was long hailed as an
extremely open-ended role-playing
experience give me your character a
single voice per gender really shattered
the illusion of character choice for
many die-hard fans obviously the way we
did some dialogue stuff that didn’t work
as well add to that the fact that many
fans didn’t enjoy the choice of voice
actor and felt that the dialogue options
were often very opaque and rather boring
and it looks like many people would have
just preferred the strong silent type
for their wastelander what’s your
response I’d grab a pipe and knock him
out a pipe you say number 8
activity-based progression system final
fantasy 2
while final fantasy maybe one of
gaming’s most iconic series it certainly
isn’t without a few slip-ups the growth
system in the series is second
installment utilized a system wherein
abilities grew stronger the more they
were used somewhat akin to the way the
Elder Scrolls series works for example
attacks would grow stronger the more the
character attacked and your defense
ability would grow the more your
character was hit while this definitely
makes sense in theory it became
frustrating as all spells leveled up
individually rather than altogether and
it also created a really easy loophole
that allowed party members to simply
attack each other in order to easily
level up
while it’s admirable for such an early
RPG to try to mix up the formula it’s no
surprise that this format never
resurfaced in the series
number seven reading suspects faces LA
noire what do you know about a
competition for families to win free
vacations to Catalina Island I company
runs many promotions Rockstar Games has
made a name for itself with its open
world crime games and while la noir was
by no means a disaster it’s also far
from a masterpiece why did you kill her
Jakob things will go better if you come
clean about it that’s a lousy thing to
say as a Los Angeles detective in the
1940s and 50s the player character must
solve various mysteries and the main
selling point of this title was the
interrogation system which featured
their new face capture technology you
want a confession that’s what you want
that’s exactly what we want the player
was meant to read characters faces and
respond to their expressions
unfortunately trying to get actors to
look like they’re lying badly resulted
in expressions that more often than not
looked like bad high school drama class
rather than genuine human guilt or
innocence what happened we get back here
and I hear loud bang heck even if this
worked it’s extremely difficult to tell
if people are lying in real life how are
you supposed to fake it in a game you
left-wing leaning parasite you expect me
to sit here and listen to your drivel
number 6 mind jacking mind jack
many games include abilities that allow
players to take control of their enemies
but it’s rare that you see a game where
that’s the main selling point and after
this ambitious project turned out to be
a disaster it’s kind of easy to see why
a great example of creative thinking
gone wrong the idea of mind jacking or
controlling the minds of enemy NPCs
simply didn’t work well enough to carry
the whole game basically the two big
reasons why the concept fails so hard is
that the controls for taking over
enemies are extremely sloppy and the AI
in the game is so mind-blowing lead um
that sometimes they’ll get themselves
killed before you can even take them
over what’s the point
number 5 building houses the
elderscrolls v Skyrim hearthfire this
add-on DLC for Skyrim revolved around
the ability to create and customize
houses with found materials and have a
family I know it’s not much but I found
a few pretty things allowing players to
have more creativity sounded like a
great idea but the customisation was
extremely restrictive and construction
was just plain boring houses were for
the most part restricted to pre-made
models and while you could add furniture
you couldn’t choose where it went but
rather you just chose simply whether or
not it existed
fans were expecting a dose of the sims
to be added to one of the seventh
generations best RPGs but rather they
coughed up five bucks to essentially
have a place to put your kid who really
didn’t do anything Papa I promise I’ll
be the best daughter ever number four
sword fighting Red Steel Red Steel was
one of the most exciting launch titles
for the Nintendo Wii as was the only
adult action-oriented game to utilize
the revolutionary motion controls of
course every innovation takes a while to
work out the kinks and the controls here
tended to be glitchy and unpolished the
swordplay segments are unfortunately the
worst offenders featuring slow and
awkward controls and simplistic moves
that fail to live up to expectations
what’s more using the nunchuck and
Wiimote to control to unwieldly swords
made the player look and feel like a bit
of a moron well done Scott julen quickly
number three detachable body parts never
dead it’s hard to imagine an action game
forgoing a health bar but this Konami
effort tried to do just that instead of
a health bar the player character who is
a cursed demon hunter loses body parts
based on how much damage he takes
forcing the character to run around the
battlefield collecting disembodied limbs
it’s an interesting idea to be sure but
when half of the time spent fighting
enemies consists of running and in some
cases just kind of rolling around it
begins to feel very tedious it just goes
to show sometimes Dead is just better
number two hacking watch dogs watch dogs
was marketed as a grand theft auto style
game but with a twist the character was
able to hack computers and machines in
order to manipulate the environment and
progress through missions it seemed
strange that few games had utilized such
an interesting concept before this but
while it was interesting it flopped
pretty hard on execution okay I’m in the
lobby of them a lot all right let’s do
it the hacking minigame basically boiled
down to holding down a button or solving
a simple rotation puzzle which
essentially gave the player way too much
power over the environment without
really having to try to learn or use any
skill we’re not saying that should have
been overly difficult but such a hyped
game should have really provided more of
a challenge for gamers especially with
its core concept stay focused
before we unveil our top pick here are a
few honorable or in this case
dishonorable mentions
with all due respect sir mike means you
shut your goddamn mouth and follow your
orders
number one the Batmobile Batman Arkham
Knight when the final chapter of
Rocksteady’s epic Batman trilogy was
announced players were ecstatic to
finally get to experience Batman’s sweet
ride though the game was a critical and
commercial success barring the PC
version of course many felt that the
introduction of the Batmobile was poorly
handled
the controls tended to be slippery and
difficult to manage and tank mode didn’t
particularly feel true to the spirit of
the Batman franchise this all could have
been forgiven but the Batmobile sections
make up a really large chunk of the game
it certainly didn’t sink the whole game
but come on it’s the Batmobile this
should have been the coolest thing ever
you will be with our list hi am I not
surprised
what great concept do you think was
poorly executed please treat the
question seriously for more helpful top
10s published every day be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com our new tours
Oh
developers trying new things
well maybe not always welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top 10 good
concepts and video games that were badly
executed thermal imaging shows our legs
are unmanned and controlled remotely
you’re clear to engage
for this list we’re looking at ideas and
video games that players were excited to
play because they sounded innovative
intriguing or original but turned out to
be disappointing upon release number 10
aiming controls Star Fox zero fans of
this classic space shooter series were
highly anticipating Nintendo’s latest
outing which received a mixed reception
to say the least
one of the most highly criticized
aspects was the aiming system which
required players to use a first-person
view on the Wii U gamepad simultaneously
with a third-person view on the
television screen
what could have saved this feature is if
there were better customisation options
like being able to adjust the
sensitivity only have it activate when
holding another button like how iron
sights work or just you know being able
to turn it off altogether but nope you
can’t do any of that
Nintendo what were you thinking number 9
voiced protagonist fallout 4 all right
the park with you because I want to get
pregnant again many games successfully
execute dialog options with voice acting
most notably Mass Effect and The Witcher
but fans of those games have already
become accustomed to playing one
predetermined character less so with
fallout in my secret Club the code
phrase is just two words awesome and me
in a series that was long hailed as an
extremely open-ended role-playing
experience give me your character a
single voice per gender really shattered
the illusion of character choice for
many die-hard fans obviously the way we
did some dialogue stuff that didn’t work
as well add to that the fact that many
fans didn’t enjoy the choice of voice
actor and felt that the dialogue options
were often very opaque and rather boring
and it looks like many people would have
just preferred the strong silent type
for their wastelander what’s your
response I’d grab a pipe and knock him
out a pipe you say number 8
activity-based progression system final
fantasy 2
while final fantasy maybe one of
gaming’s most iconic series it certainly
isn’t without a few slip-ups the growth
system in the series is second
installment utilized a system wherein
abilities grew stronger the more they
were used somewhat akin to the way the
Elder Scrolls series works for example
attacks would grow stronger the more the
character attacked and your defense
ability would grow the more your
character was hit while this definitely
makes sense in theory it became
frustrating as all spells leveled up
individually rather than altogether and
it also created a really easy loophole
that allowed party members to simply
attack each other in order to easily
level up
while it’s admirable for such an early
RPG to try to mix up the formula it’s no
surprise that this format never
resurfaced in the series
number seven reading suspects faces LA
noire what do you know about a
competition for families to win free
vacations to Catalina Island I company
runs many promotions Rockstar Games has
made a name for itself with its open
world crime games and while la noir was
by no means a disaster it’s also far
from a masterpiece why did you kill her
Jakob things will go better if you come
clean about it that’s a lousy thing to
say as a Los Angeles detective in the
1940s and 50s the player character must
solve various mysteries and the main
selling point of this title was the
interrogation system which featured
their new face capture technology you
want a confession that’s what you want
that’s exactly what we want the player
was meant to read characters faces and
respond to their expressions
unfortunately trying to get actors to
look like they’re lying badly resulted
in expressions that more often than not
looked like bad high school drama class
rather than genuine human guilt or
innocence what happened we get back here
and I hear loud bang heck even if this
worked it’s extremely difficult to tell
if people are lying in real life how are
you supposed to fake it in a game you
left-wing leaning parasite you expect me
to sit here and listen to your drivel
number 6 mind jacking mind jack
many games include abilities that allow
players to take control of their enemies
but it’s rare that you see a game where
that’s the main selling point and after
this ambitious project turned out to be
a disaster it’s kind of easy to see why
a great example of creative thinking
gone wrong the idea of mind jacking or
controlling the minds of enemy NPCs
simply didn’t work well enough to carry
the whole game basically the two big
reasons why the concept fails so hard is
that the controls for taking over
enemies are extremely sloppy and the AI
in the game is so mind-blowing lead um
that sometimes they’ll get themselves
killed before you can even take them
over what’s the point
number 5 building houses the
elderscrolls v Skyrim hearthfire this
add-on DLC for Skyrim revolved around
the ability to create and customize
houses with found materials and have a
family I know it’s not much but I found
a few pretty things allowing players to
have more creativity sounded like a
great idea but the customisation was
extremely restrictive and construction
was just plain boring houses were for
the most part restricted to pre-made
models and while you could add furniture
you couldn’t choose where it went but
rather you just chose simply whether or
not it existed
fans were expecting a dose of the sims
to be added to one of the seventh
generations best RPGs but rather they
coughed up five bucks to essentially
have a place to put your kid who really
didn’t do anything Papa I promise I’ll
be the best daughter ever number four
sword fighting Red Steel Red Steel was
one of the most exciting launch titles
for the Nintendo Wii as was the only
adult action-oriented game to utilize
the revolutionary motion controls of
course every innovation takes a while to
work out the kinks and the controls here
tended to be glitchy and unpolished the
swordplay segments are unfortunately the
worst offenders featuring slow and
awkward controls and simplistic moves
that fail to live up to expectations
what’s more using the nunchuck and
Wiimote to control to unwieldly swords
made the player look and feel like a bit
of a moron well done Scott julen quickly
number three detachable body parts never
dead it’s hard to imagine an action game
forgoing a health bar but this Konami
effort tried to do just that instead of
a health bar the player character who is
a cursed demon hunter loses body parts
based on how much damage he takes
forcing the character to run around the
battlefield collecting disembodied limbs
it’s an interesting idea to be sure but
when half of the time spent fighting
enemies consists of running and in some
cases just kind of rolling around it
begins to feel very tedious it just goes
to show sometimes Dead is just better
number two hacking watch dogs watch dogs
was marketed as a grand theft auto style
game but with a twist the character was
able to hack computers and machines in
order to manipulate the environment and
progress through missions it seemed
strange that few games had utilized such
an interesting concept before this but
while it was interesting it flopped
pretty hard on execution okay I’m in the
lobby of them a lot all right let’s do
it the hacking minigame basically boiled
down to holding down a button or solving
a simple rotation puzzle which
essentially gave the player way too much
power over the environment without
really having to try to learn or use any
skill we’re not saying that should have
been overly difficult but such a hyped
game should have really provided more of
a challenge for gamers especially with
its core concept stay focused
before we unveil our top pick here are a
few honorable or in this case
dishonorable mentions
with all due respect sir mike means you
shut your goddamn mouth and follow your
orders
number one the Batmobile Batman Arkham
Knight when the final chapter of
Rocksteady’s epic Batman trilogy was
announced players were ecstatic to
finally get to experience Batman’s sweet
ride though the game was a critical and
commercial success barring the PC
version of course many felt that the
introduction of the Batmobile was poorly
handled
the controls tended to be slippery and
difficult to manage and tank mode didn’t
particularly feel true to the spirit of
the Batman franchise this all could have
been forgiven but the Batmobile sections
make up a really large chunk of the game
it certainly didn’t sink the whole game
but come on it’s the Batmobile this
should have been the coolest thing ever
you will be with our list hi am I not
surprised
what great concept do you think was
poorly executed please treat the
question seriously for more helpful top
10s published every day be sure to
subscribe to watchmojo.com our new tours
Oh
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