Your Favorite Developer's Worst Titles - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 30 August 2011 / 8,637 Views
While they may not as recognized as they should be for their work, at the very least gamers around the world know the name of the teams behind the biggest hits of this generation. Just knowing a title is developed by BioWare or Naughty Dog instantly develops interest for those of us who stay on top of the gaming world. Despite their many successes, occasionally they have one title that just doesn't go as planned. It may be far from the worst game of all time, but considering the standards of the studio, the title came to be a bit lackluster. We look at some of the less fruitful releases from some of our most beloved developers.
Gearbox and Duke Nukem Forever
Let's get the most recent one out of the way right off the bat. While Gearbox didn't start the Duke Nukem Forever project, that would be 3D Realms, they were tasked in finishing the title after it nearly went down the drain. A year later, it was actually released, and some probably wish it did go down the drain. The title was subject to some harsh criticism, and that's putting lightly. It seems to deserve most of its reviews as the title was missing quite a bit. For a developer that has had a generally good track record, it became a bit of a stain on them in terms of their reputation. It's hard to argue the choice though as, sales wise, it did its job.
Nintendo and Wii Music
While core gamers may have quickly lost interest in the Wii series, it became a force to be reckoned with. Casual fans may not know it, but they are probably unconscious fans of Nintendo Software Development Group 2's work, as they created Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Play. They did make one other Wii series based title. Wii Music! Not only was Wii Music a bit infamous amongst core gamers, especially after Nintendo E3 2008 press confrence, it didn't strike a chord with the casual consumers. Sure, it sold 3 million units, but that's a mere fraction of the sales of other titles in the series. With public domain music, dog suits, cowbells and no real underlying gameplay elements, it was pretty much expected.
Rockstar North and Manhunt
After the blowout success of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, all eyes were on Rockstar North and their next project. Nearly a year after Vice City they released Manhunt. While far from a horrible game, it was met with rather mixed reactions. If it wasn't for the brutal violence in the title, it would have most likely slipped off into obscurity. Even then, the title only really remained in consumer's minds when it was playing an active role in video game violence concerns. Many consider Manhunt 2 an inferior title, but the development was only overseen by Rockstar North. Thankfully, ever since Rock Star North has been delivering nothing but AAA experiences.
Wayforward and Ping Pals
Wayforward may not be the biggest developer on the earth, but they definitely have recently built themselves quite a portfolio on DSiWare, as well a some older classics across handhelds. While they have produced many licensed titles that are prime for the picking, none of them compare to Ping Pals , an extremely early Nintendo DS title. For those unfamiliar with the title, it was essentially Pictochat... Which already came free with the handheld as is. The title ended up being of the worst software releases on the Nintendo DS, often scoring less than a one rating on a ten point scale. I'd guess that the blame is probably more pushed toward the publisher of the title, THQ, rather than Wayforward themselves, but their name is stilled attached to it. Now, go buy their DSiWare games.
Of course, considering what content they offer us now, these are small blemishes on their gaming records that, over the years we have or will most likely forget about as they pump out more quality content. Will there be more bad games from great developers? Definitely. Considering how many fantastic experienecs we get per year though, it's hard to complain after a single mistep.
More Articles
Manhunt should not be on that list.
Kids.. too young to remember that Nintendo made Urban Champion..
WHY is there a RDR picture next to this article!? Flamebait?
Where is Bioware and Dragon Age 2?
Hey I love Manhunt!
Blizzard and Justice League Task Force
every game company makes garbage, doesn't matter how good they are, its the time when game company's are smoking something lol
When I saw the Red Dead picture, I was prepared to RAGE in this article. That was very misleading.
I wonder why Hannah Montana the movie game didnt make the list
Wii Music? What about Wii Chess?
Doshin the Giant has to be mine
Why is Red Dead next to the article title? What are you implying? O_o
I frequent VGC and read editorials that catches my interest. Although as time goes by there's an increasing number of editorials that I find heavily subjective and disagreeable, I usually just don't bother giving feedback. But this...? Come on, what were you seriously thinking putting up RDR as the article banner and citing only 4 games from our "favorite" developers? There is not enough content here to warrant an editorial. This just comes off as a glorified forum post coming from the site's administrator/moderator. Why write the article at all? Almost all developers out there produced a subpar quality game that would be considered as their "worst title". You could have showcased some real popular developers instead.
Worst Editorial Ever
Manhunt was a great game. proper stealth murder action.
So Duke Nukem Forever made this list yet Final fantasy 13, Golden Axe Beast Rider and Front Mission Evovled didnt
I can name soo many bad games that would have made this list better
Duke Nukem for one isnt that bad a game at all
sure it took forever to come out but i found it quite amusing and enjoyable
FF13 or definatly front mission evolved would have been better here since both those games were highly anticipated and both of those games sucked so damn hard
I nearly dissowned Square after these games and i've been a loyal fan since Mystic Quest
Every developer is going to have bad games, especially the big developers since most of them have more than one team and work on multiple titles concurrently. S-E for example, their best guys are going to be working on the main DQ and FF games. Their "JV" teams will work on the smaller titles. So the quality of games are going to vary even from the same developer since different teams within the company will work on different games.
square and 3d world runners
still waiting for manhunt for ps3/360
Alright. Wii Music is by NO MEANS the worst game Nintendo has released. They've released some serious crap once in a while.
"If it wasn't for the brutal violence in the title, it would have most likely slipped off into obscurity" - that's a shame (the violence).
Square made those terrible Mario Basketball games as well...
Manhunt and in particular Manhunt 2 (Uncut) on the Wii should NEVER be on this list. You'll need to patch the game to get rid of the censorship that the BBFC and ESRB were responsible for. It's one of the best games released this gen when it's played the way it was meant to be played.
And this is this websites worst article. The header is misleading as Both RDRev/RDRed were great. Urban Champion was worse than Wii Music. Since when is gearbox a fave? How about worst of Sega,Falcom,Square,Hudson.
Oh, please. Gearbox is nobody's favourite developer. They've never made a good game without copious amounts of help from Valve, other than Borderlands.
I wonder why Hannah Montana the movie game didnt make the list
I'd like to add a vote in here for Final Fantasy XIII....adored practically everything else that company did, but that was almost unforgiveably bad.
your favorite developper... wayforward... +10 respect Oculin, takes a lot to admit that ^^
(oh and -20 for your tastes :p)
I think you got Manhunt confused with State of Emergency
Firaxis and Civ V. Worst civ ever, even if you include CTP and colonization in the bunch. Their worst job by far.
I love to see the NDF come out the moment a Wii game is mentioned. Seems people have forgotten the many horrible games made by ninty such as Wii play, that mario party game on the gba, pokemon dash and as nikkom mentioned urban champion. There are several more but I will not bother. Sony and M$ has had big slip ups as well but i'll leave it to the NDF to post those. As for Manhunt, that game was loads of fun and too many people agree to consider it garbage like the rest on that list.
Blizzard and every game since Burning Crusade, especially Starcraft 2.
BioWare and any game after, and including, Jade Empire, especially Mass Effect 2/Dragon Age 2.
you find something MUCH worse than Wii Music for Nintendo, really?
Square and Chrono Cross, I hate that mega-ultra-geeky opening song.
