Feature: The 10 biggest flops in video games

Missed deadlines, nasty glitches, and incompetence: This rogue's gallery of games over-promised and under-delivered in a big way. What constitutes a colossal flop? After hours upon hours of research (thanks Google and Wikipedia!), the following games were selected from a pool of mediocrity due to their brazen use of hype, failed expectations, dismal sales, or all of the above.
[b]10. Super Mario Sunshine [/b](2002, GameCube)
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Sunshine, the second-most widely purchased GameCube game, is a classic example of being too successful for one's own good. Despite its solid review scores and commercial success by most standards, Sunshine is a relative flop by Mario standards. It is the only stand-alone game in the series, on any Nintendo platform, that didn't sell more than 10 million copies. Perhaps the idea of cleaning up waste on a vacation island with a big water gun didn't appeal to the usual rank-and-file Mario fans.
[b]9. Psychonauts[/b] (2005, multiplatform)
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Surely a highly innovative and well-received game can sell more than a 100,000 copies? Unfortunately, in the case of Psychonauts, the answer was "no." Its lackluster sales were so bad, in fact, that publisher Majesco resolved to no longer develop "big budget" games after netting a loss of $18 million shortly after the game's release. Psychonauts, like Good and Evil, is an exemplar "innovative games that don't make any money" title resulting in the continued release of familiar sequels that do little to advance the medium. For shame.
[b]8. The Getaway[/b] (2002, PS2)
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Despite its gargantuan budget, large marketing campaign, and abundant publicity, The Getaway did little to deliver on its promise as an early "Grand Theft Auto killer." Oh, it's ambitions were in the right place -- to faithfully reproduce the entire city of London with insane amounts of detail and zero load times -- but the final game fell way short on its promise. The end product was a meager GTA clone despite its exquisite production and storytelling values. It just forgot its game.
[b]7. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness[/b] (2003, PS2, PC)
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What can more modest clothing, improved graphics, and an involving storyline do for Lara Croft on her sixth outing? Utter failure, apparently. Angel of Darkness proved to be the worst-selling and worst-received Tomb Raider of all time based on a reported 1.3 million in sales and an average review score of less than 50 percent. In an effort to meet quarterly financial targets, Eidos rushed the game to market resulting in numerous bugs, janky controls, and a new high-tech setting that saw Lara taking down heavily-armed soldiers. Not a good showing for the buxom beauty, and one that saw the series transferred from creators Core Design to Crystal Dynamics with Tomb Raider Legend.
[b]6. Rise of the Robots[/b] (1994, multiplatform)
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Rise of the Robots is one of the worst examples of an overly hyped video game. At a time when fighters ruled the landscape, this contemporary saw an excessive amount of preview coverage leading up to launch. Unfortunately for awaiting gamers, the break-through graphics bombed on arrival due to unbalanced gameplay. Amazingly, a single flying kick was all it took to complete the game. If there ever was a case for gameplay over graphics, Rise of the Robots would be it.

[b]5. Shaq Fu [/b](1994, SNES, Genesis)
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Following in the mediocre footsteps of Rise of the Robots was Shaq Fu, another highly publicized fighter released in 1994. Rather than develop a workable hit detection system for the title with digitized graphics, Electronic Arts opted instead to included an NBA star late in development to help bolster sales. It didn't work. Shaq Fu sold poorly despite the hype and is widely regarded as on of the worst video games of all time due to an insipid back story and awfully offensive controls.
[b]4. Shenmue [/b](2000, Dreamcast)
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Easily one of the most well-received games on our list, Shenmue failed hugely in terms of recouping its overambitious production costs. Upon release, Sega spent a purported (and record) $20 million on development lasting longer than five years. Though it sold well, Sega needed to move four times the normal number of copies to break even given the lavish budget. In fact, every Dreamcast owner would have been required to purchase two copies of the game before Sega made a dime. No game is that good.
[b]3. Pac-Man[/b] (1982, Atari 2600)
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Despite being eagerly anticipated, the home version of Pac-Man was anything but a faithful recreation. Due to rushed development, the graphics barely resembled the arcade original, and for some reason the ghosts blinked unnecessarily making it difficult for gamers to avoid them. Though first selling a respectable number of games, unsold inventory and costly marketing proved near-fatal for Atari. Only screwing up a Pong port would be more embarrassing.
[b]2. Daikatana[/b] (2000, PC, N64)
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Daikatana is to first-person shooters what Gigli is to film: a gaming debacle. The lead designer, John Romero, was famous for his work on Doom and Quake and even coined the term "deathmatch." So it's no surprise his celebrity status garnered glowing hype and over-the-top advertising for his next big project. Unfortunately, embellishment was all this game had. Massive delays, premature work on a quickly canceled sequel, and enormous company turmoil caused an exodus of most of the Ion Storm development team. Years later, the shooter was released with inferior graphics and wonky gameplay due to rushed design and outdated tech. Despite a few glowing moments in the ancient Greece levels, Daikatana was a lousy game with little appeal beyond its controversial development process.
[b]1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial[/b] (1982, Atari 2600)

[img]http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/features/images/133848-13-1.jpg[/img]

This game failed on so many accounts: gameplay, poor level design, buggy software, rushed delivery, unwarranted hype, and utter commercial failure. Reputedly coded in just six weeks, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was loosely based on the movie of the same name after Atari struck a deal with Steven Spielberg. It was expected to sell millions, but according to Atari's CEO, "nearly all of them came back." So much excess inventory remained, that the company coffined the cartridges in a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico. If there was ever a reason for Atari's downfall and the video game crash of 1983, this would be it: the greatest flop in video game history.
[b]Honorable Mentions[/b]
Lower-profile games that still flopped.
[b]Advent Rising[/b] (Xbox, Windows)
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Another bad break for Majesco, Advent Rising was, in some ways, the failed younger sibling of Bioware's 2007 RPG Mass Effect. Both games are part of a planned trilogy, share an epic galaxy-altering plot, and a massive media campaign. Though buzz is riding high for Mass Effect, Advent Rising fared far worse. Its big-budget design and ambitious storyline (penned by [i]Ender's Game[/i] writer Orson Scott Card) sounded good on paper; sadly, technical bugs and uneven game design left Advent floundering in sales. Despite the Hollywood look and feel, gamers ultimately couldn't have cared less about Advent Rising. And that planned trilogy? Hastily scrapped once Majesco re-configured itself as a casual games publisher, though the original creators are still open to concluding the story.
[b]Viva Pinata [/b](2006, Xbox 360)

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Rare's foray into the casual market has a lot to love: gorgeous graphics, cuddly characters, and potentially addictive Sims-like gameplay. The problem is, hardly anyone played it. Sales numbers aren't widely available -- though widely assumed to be several hundred thousand copies -- and even Microsoft's Shane Kim admitted that the game wasn't a major seller. Still, he stressed that Microsoft is investing in the series [url=http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domestic/games/features/126111.shtml]"for the long haul."[/url] Why the sluggish sales? It seems that the Xbox 360's asking price is still too high for a game that would likely appeal to pre-teens and older, casual players. Developer Rare has also said that there will be [url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28341]no downloadable content[/url] for Viva Pinata, a sure sign that the company has bigger fish to fry. Here's hoping that Viva Pinata: Party Animals pushes this struggling series to critical mass.

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