7 of the Most Overhyped Games Ever

Games have done it for as long as I can remember.

It’ll start at E3. There’ll be a trailer; fifteen seconds long, and it’ll show just a glimpse of a game we’ve always wanted. Excitement in the media builds, the chatter begins:

“Did you see the new Uncharted?! It looks like a film!”

“Oh my god, No Man’s Sky has its own universe to play in! Can you believe that?”

“They’re actually remaking Final Fantasy VII!! #mychildhood #abouttime”

Hype is a good thing. It generates buzz about upcoming releases and gets us all very excited. It’s more and more important in a time where games are becoming more and more like blockbusters, and making just as much, if not more, money. But what happens when the hype train comes off the tracks, and becomes a trainwreck? These are what I would call the top seven greatest derails in gaming hype – from my point of view anyway. Why seven? Because everyone does ten or five.

 

7. Final Fantasy VII remake

This was always going to make this list, and the reason is twofold. For more than a decade, gamers have been clamouring for a reboot of this classic JRPG. In 2005 there was a short clip released at the Sony press conference at E3, that was a HD remastered version of the opening sequence of the game.

The fanbase went berserk, and the word on everybody’s lips was “remake”. However, the jubilation was premature – it emerged the clip was merely a tech demo to demonstrate the graphical capabilities of the PlayStation 3, which would be released the following year. Heartbreak followed heartbreak when a re-release was announced, only to be clarified as a port of the PC game, released a couple of years previously. The word remake would not appear until E3 2015, when a full reimagining of Final Fantasy VII was announced to rapturous applause.

The gameplay style is to be different; ditching turn-based combat for the more recent active battle style shown in FFXV. A release date has not been solidly announced at time of writing, but what has been announced is that the game will be released episodically. This was unexpected, but unsurprising. Square-Enix know full well they could name their price on this and be guaranteed sales. The season pass will be extortionate- but we will gladly pay it. Of course we will.

 

6. The Last Guardian

After the cult adoration of ICO and the roaring success of Shadow of the Colossus, for a while we had wondered what was next from TeamICO. Our questions were answered when in 2009, The Last Guardian was announced. What was shown was a small boy interacting with an enormous creature, giving commands and directing it around an expansive, ruinous landscape. The gameplay looked incredible and we wanted our mitts on it. Seven years on, we still have no formal release date for TLG, despite it having been in development since 2007.

So what happened? The short answer is that numerous hardware difficulties forced the entire game to be built from the ground up for the new PS4 platform, with delays continually pushing back development. As of yet, there is still no formal release date for The Last Guardian, having been nebulously given only ‘2016‘ as of yet. Many people believe the project is doomed, and will never see the light of day, the bubble has well and truly burst on this one.

 

5. Zelda 2000

At SpaceWorld 2000, there was a short trailer showing clips of upcoming games for the newly announced Nintendo GameCube, which included this short section. Naturally, Zelda fans were beyond ecstatic. We were still riding high on the success of the wonderfully weird Majora’s Mask, and this looked like the natural progression.

It was exciting, and it showed a bit of the darkness and grittiness we were coming to expect from the franchise. Imagine the surprise, nay, abject horror when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker dropped the following year. The people were not happy. It was an enormous upset and the sour taste in our mouths made many people determined to dislike this game despite having seen only a minute of beta footage. What followed was a classic example of why books, and for that matter, games, should not be judged by their covers. The game went on to enormous success and became a fan favourite – so much so that it received a HD Remaster on WiiU in 2013. In the week following that release, WiiU sales went up a staggering 685%.

 

4. Mother 3

Oh Mother, where art thou? The story of Mother 3 is now all but legendary. The game was in development for a total of twelve years, and was announced first for the Super Famicom, then for the flash-in-the-pan Nintendo 64DD, before finally being restarted in 2003, for a Gameboy Advance release in 2006. In Japan. Solely in Japan, that is.

 

3. Kingdom Hearts III

Kingdom Hearts – why do you do this to us? Don’t do us like this. Once we finished KH2, it ended once again on a cliffhanger, and all we had were prequels and go-between games to keep us going. You promised us KH3 on PS3. You promised us the earth. We have been waiting. Eleven. Years. Then you hit us with 1.5, then 2.5, and now a final, final version of KH2 is on the horizon- the infuriatingly titled Kingdom Hearts 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue.

Stop teasing us. We mean it; we can’t take it anymore. You make promises, and you never deliver. We’re done. What’s that? A trailer? For KH3?! What?! It has Tangled in it?! We have never wanted you more! When’s it coming out?! Oh. Right. Well this is awkward.

 

2. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic ’06)

Let’s be real for a second. When we played the demo for Sonic ’06, it looked and played fantastic. It truly seemed a Sonic game for the next generation. We wanted it in our lives. What we got was a barely finished, buggy, catastrophic hot mess. Graphical errors. Framerate drops. Environment clipping. No concept of physics. Implied bestiality. This game had it all.

It’s widely regarded as atrocious, and we were certain, that following this monstrosity, at least Sonic Team couldn’t do any worse, could they? Time proved us wrong again with Sonic Boom, but Sonic ’06 will forever be a stain on our memories and a reminder of the sheer disappointment it was.

 

1. Dinosaur Planet/Star Fox Adventures

The big one. Surprised? I sure as hell was. The game first appeared as Dinosaur Planet, developed by Rare, a studio going through its golden age with Nintendo, and one that seemed to be able to do no wrong. The game was to feature both male and female protagonists; Sabre and Krystal, which were initially planned to be interchangeable, using an in-game mechanic known only as a SwapStone.

The idea was you could switch between each character to use unique abilities to progress. After discussion with Shigeru Miyamoto about the striking similarities between the in-game characters and those of the Star Fox franchise, Dinosaur Planet became Star Fox Adventures, and rather than being released on Nintendo 64, it was slated to be a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube.

The change was “not accepted willingly by all”, according to lead developer Phil Tossell, and the plot was entirely rewritten to accommodate Fox McCloud (taking the place of Sabre) and the Star Fox team. Reaction was mixed. Yes, we had been looking forward to Dinosaur Planet, but many of the characters would remain, and it would be a next generation Star Fox game! We loved Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars as a N64 release title, and were very much ready for a repeat performance. Initial shots looked promising, and we were itching to get into the newly designed Arwing.

Words cannot express how angry the released game made me. Krystal was sexualised and relegated to a pitiful damsel in distress after the first 20 minutes of gameplay. The animation and character design was woeful. The story was impossible to become invested in. The object of the game was revealed as utterly pointless- I don’t care about spoiling the plot- collect four spellstones to stop Dinosaur Planet from falling apart; only to find it falls apart anyway without the collection of Krazoa Spirits as well. However, by far the worst offence of this game is the fact it completely ignored everything people enjoyed about Star Fox, reducing flying the Arwing to meaningless between-world sections, and executing the rest of the game as a poor Zelda clone.

The amount of counted similarities is staggering, yet the game didn’t manage to do a single one well. The whole ‘Adventure’ was pitifully easy and dull, and by the end of the game I didn’t even care how it all turned out, I was just going through the motions. Even the final boss (yes, it’s Andross) was an absolute joke, and the only time the ship is ever piloted worth a damn I might add. Shortly after, Rare was bought up by Microsoft to the tune of £375 million, which ended their relationship with Nintendo. In a sense, the derailing of Dinosaur Planet also derailed the hype for Rare as a studio- and that’s why it makes the top of my list.

Often I would say to someone; play the game, and experience it for yourself. On this occasion I have to echo Steve Rogers: just don’t. It would be as much of a waste of time and energy for you as it was for me. As you can see I am still sore about it, and that’s 14 years on. Avoid.

What have been the biggest gaming disappointments you’ve ever had in a game? Tell us in the comments!