The 10 Biggest Video Game Flops
The video gaming industry has had its fair share of flops and winners. Obviously, we know all the successful ones. Heck! Most of us may have wasted an entire day (or, for couch potatoes, even a week) playing a game and trying to get to the highest level as quickly as possible. The flops, on the other hand, are stashed somewhere in the garage. If you tried to look for these, maybe a mouse has made a comfortable home out of it and moved in. But hey, who are you to complain? At least someone got to benefit from a stupid decision you’ve made.
Here’s a quick refresher of the most obscure video game systems and games you wished you never spent money on:
The Vectrex
This should have been a hit. After all, it’s the first ever console to bring real arcade-worthy 3D graphics into the home. Still, credit must be given to the designers of this console. It has garnered a variety of accolades and more importantly, vintage gaming enthusiasts do appreciate the product’s specs and features. Part of its failure is because it was created just right before the great video game crash of 1983. As for most of us? Well, we’ve actually moved on to the ones that can be played on real TV rather than on an integrated monitor.
Atari Jaguar
This was released by the Atari Corporation in 1993. The makers must have thought that the first ever 64-bit game would be a hit even if the console was made with a lot of mistakes. This turkey only came out half-baked. And man! Those who ate it vomited all of it out it all out. You can’t make heads or tails about the awkward hardware. And the games? These were totally forgettable. True gamers need choices, which is something the Atari Jaguar didn’t offer. Pretty soon, the buyers regretted the purchase and the sales started to dwindle. The name could have been prophetic in many ways. Atari fans soon ran the other way and they were running as fast as jaguars.
[tps_title]Philips CD-i[/tps_title]
This was released in 1991 and, apparently, this was a billion-dollar mistake for Philips. First of all, they didn’t have an amazing video game library to choose from. Unless you wanted to play Zelda for the rest of your life, you need more than just whimsical scenes and cutesy music to pass the time. The Philips CD-i is considered one of the biggest jokes in the gaming console world. This is as warmly appreciated as a virus.
[tps_title]Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness[/tps_title]
You all know Angelina Jolie? She’s just one of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen. She’s also THE Lara Croft. Men took to the game because it was the closest thing they could get to Mrs. Brad Pitt. But if the graphics were awful and Lara Croft looked nothing like Angelina, how do you expect the male population to appreciate it? Couple that with bad controls and frustrating game plays, and you have the biggest disaster waiting to happen.
[tps_title]Virtual Boy[/tps_title]
This was Nintendo’s first attempt to bring the world of virtual reality to the homes of gaming enthusiasts. However, this might have the very thing that got some people to give up gaming altogether. It did bring you to a whole new world. What Nintendo failed to mention was that the world would bring in feelings of headache and nausea. Only 14 games were released and people were more than happy to store this back into the box. It may have been expensive, but at least they finally got rid of the very thing that caused them pain.
[tps_title]3DO Interactive Multiplayer[/tps_title]
Just like Philips, the people from Panasonic must have assumed that they could release an extremely expensive gaming system and get away with it. For $699.95 a pop, people opted for other brands at a fraction of the cost, and with better games to boot. It didn’t last long in the market. Hopefully, the people from Panasonic came out of the experience more humble and unassuming. This console is the gaming world’s version of a New Kids on the Block CD – no one will ever admit that they liked it.
[tps_title]Apple Pippin[/tps_title]
Just like every Apple gadget available in the market, this one was overpriced. While Apple is known for coming up with kickass technology, it’s now safe to assume that they don’t have a strong foothold in the gaming industry. That privilege belongs to Nintendo and PlayStation. The Apple Pippin died a silent death and is now a virtual unknown.
[tps_title]Gizmondo[/tps_title]
This is, to date, the worst handheld console ever sold. Tiger Telematics is an unknown in the gaming industry, and they must have worked under the mistaken assumption that their new product could overtake the big names in the industry. The manufacturer believed that they finally designed a console that packed a punch. They were obviously far from being right. This game only packed flukes.
[tps_title]Nokia N-Gage[/tps_title]
Cell phone games have evolved from “Snake” to the choices we now see in app stores. This was Nokia’s attempt to merge Gameboy and the traditional phone into one fantabulous product. While it seemed promising on paper, the physical product was awkward and ridden with mistakes. The access buttons were difficult to reach and decipher, and even worse was the fact that you had to hold the gadget sideways to make a call.
[tps_title]Ouya[/tps_title]
They say that if something’s too good to be true, then it probably is. Investors all scrambled to get money into the Ouya. It was sold for a measly $99 and it boasted of a myriad of free games in the library. This was obviously a lie! The frame rate brought you back to the time where moving pictures were first featured in the cinema. It was slow! And the games library? Well, it was less populated than the Sahara desert.
So, here it is. All the gadgets that’ll never get to see the light of day ever again. People still wished that they could take their purchases back to the manufacturers and stick these in a place where the sun don’t shine. But then again, maybe they should’ve waited for the reviews first before they bought it on impulse.
