Even amongst the noblest of gaming families, there will be some outliers. Some may dip in quality, while others may try to change the formula unsuccessfully. This doesn’t mean they’re terrible; it just means that there’s something about them that people didn’t love as much, putting them on our list of nine black sheep games from otherwise respected franchises.
Mass Effect Andromeda
When a series is beloved for its characters, stories, and choice-based gameplay, players can get lost in the narrative and not think of much else. However, any immersion that a game creates can be ripped away due to technical issues.
Such is the case with Mass Effect Andromeda. The fourth installment and undeniable black sheep game in the storied franchise was riddled with technical issues upon release. Textures wouldn’t load, character models were off or just plain missing, and the entire thing would crash often.
Andromeda also tried to cram a lot of story beats into a singular game, whereas the first three games had plenty of time to develop their characters and relationships. Where the original trilogy’s pacing is perfect and gives you time to fall in love with the characters, Andromeda felt rushed and flat in terms of almost all of its characters’ relationship building.
Mass Effect is still one of the most beloved series in gaming, and Andromeda is an aggressively OK game, but it is still going to always be the black sheep.
Assassin’s Creed Unity
When you have a series with as many entries as Assassin’s Creed, which currently sits at 12 mainline titles, you’re bound to have at least one game that isn’t as well-received as the rest. For many, Assassin’s Creed Unity fits that bill.
It was the first Assassin’s Creed made solely for the eighth generation of consoles, and the developers had some kinks they couldn’t work out when making that switch to the next generation.
Upon release, it had some glaring bugs like missing textures and character models. Such problems were enough to break any sense of immersion the developers created.
The new installment also had issues with its multiplayer, as a lot of players couldn’t even connect to it. The multiplayer aspects were also a huge selling point to this new game, so it’s easy to see why people were upset over the issues.
The fallout from the game’s poor state even led Ubisoft to announce that they would delay releasing their next Assassin’s Creed — a bold move for a franchise that had previously stuck to having yearly releases.
Resident Evil 6
The survival-horror genre is synonymous with the Resident Evil name. As such, it is understandable that people were a bit worried when the series started to deviate more into an action game franchise.
While this trend started with Resident Evil 4, which boasted more gunplay, over-the-top action, and more cheesy action movie one-liners than a Vin Diesel film, it was Resident Evil 6 where it was the worst.
Somehow, this installment featured more cheesy plotlines and characters than its predecessors, as well as a lot more crazy, non-scary action sequences. While this was fun, it stripped away the themes that the series is best known for.
Instead of an atmospheric world, we got a forgettable setting that you fly through due to the action-y nature of the game. In place of bosses that are scary and take strategy to overcome, we got ones that were bullet-sponges which replaced strategy with quick-time events.
It’s an OK action game, but compared to the tight survival horror mechanics of past titles, Resident Evil 6 did not and does not hold up as well, and is the clear black sheep game in its franchise.
Dark Souls II
When it comes to gameplay, the Dark Souls’ community has always held the series’ games up to a pretty high design standard. So when Dark Souls II released in 2014 with a host of changed mechanics, it was quickly named the black sheep in the Dark Souls family.
While Dark Souls is known for its tough difficulty curve, many will agree that it’s still fair and that death is usually the player’s fault. Everything about the design of Dark Souls feels purposeful.
Dark Souls II felt less thoughtful. It threw endless hordes of enemies at you without much thought. Said enemies didn’t have the same mechanics as in the first game, and could attack you relentlessly without being stunned as often. Bosses, meanwhile, were regularly rehashed and not as well-designed as they were in other Dark Souls titles.
Estus Flasks were replaced with Life Gems, which healed you over time instead of all at once, making the entire game more difficult in general.
To top it all off, Dark Souls II is also the only Souls title where Hidetaka Miyazaki, the series director, wasn’t directly involved. As such, many pointed to this as the reason for its flaws and the reason it still doesn’t fit with the rest.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Paper Mario was a breath of fresh air for the franchise when it released for the N64, sporting a compelling story with unique and original characters. Alongside this, the game’s combat system was also fun, engaging, and different from other JRPGs since you only have two party members.
The sequel to Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, brought positive innovations with fun partner characters that featured their own backstories and a fascinating world, unlike any other Mario titles.
Fans expected the positive changes to continue entry to entry, but the fourth game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, was nothing but a shadow of the series’ former self.
Instead of traversing a unique world, there was a basic Mario overworld. It was painfully vanilla when compared to its predecessors. The RPG mechanics were also stripped bare, with no leveling system, no equipment to shake up gameplay, and no fun party members or partner characters to join in on battles or the story.
Sticker Star distanced itself from being an RPG, but kept the skeleton of the series’ battle system; it just made no sense. Some video game series try to reinvent themselves and it can work, but not in this instance. It is by far the worst Paper Mario and the black sheep of the bunch.
Animal Crossing amiibo Fest
If the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020 proved anything, it’s that people without a doubt love the Animal Crossing series. It’s cute, simple, and allows people to be creative. Its simulation and town-building mechanics are fun to come back to every day too, and give a “home away from home” feeling.
So what if the developers took all that away and made one of the most readily apparent black sheep games ever?
Animal Crossing amiibo Festival is a party game that incorporated amiibo, Nintendo’s little action figures. If you had one of the Animal Crossing characters’ amiibo, you could play as that character. Given the shortage issues that plague amiibo though, this wasn’t the best premise for development.
It was also just a boring game overall. It wasn’t a party game like Mario Party, as there were no mini-games, and all you did was roll a dice and automatically move forward. There wasn’t any strategy, and there was nothing to really get you excited for your turn in any way.
To top it all off, it was made as a marketing ploy. In an interview with USGamer, the series director stated that the only reason they made the game was that they “wanted the company to make Animal Crossing amiibo.”
With this kind of reasoning for making the game, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival was doomed from the start. Every other Animal Crossing title is miles better than this one.
Fire Emblem Fates
Fire Emblem Fates is maligned by sects of Fire Emblem fans for a few reasons.
The first is that it feels like a cash grab. Instead of making this one game with a lot of replay value, Intelligent Systems made two different versions that you have to buy.
These two versions have a different story and characters, but it feels like both omit specific plot points so that you’ll have to play each one. Likewise, the plot often moves forward because the avatar character, Corrin, does nothing and lets the main villain do whatever he wants. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch play out.
Then, to top it off, they later added a third route that you need to purchase because, after playing the first two routes, you still won’t have the whole story.
Even with the full story of three games though, the plot wasn’t great, and being spread out just made it more confusing. Storylines were muddled and some just weren’t explained in the end.
Characters were extremely gimmicky when it came to their personality, and often relied on a single trait that was brought up in every interaction or line of dialogue.
In the end, it all leaves you feeling like you put a lot of money down for a story that wasn’t worth it in the end.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is not as well-liked as its predecessor, or pretty much any other Smash game. There are valid reasons for this though.
Where Melee had fast-paced combat and a depth that is still being explored to this day, Brawl was held back by odd design decisions. The characters moved slower, attacked slower, and floated around more when they jumped. Plus, for some reason, the characters would trip over their own feet at random times.
It felt less exciting to play and much less exciting to watch someone play too, which is a problem with the Smash Bros series being such a huge esports mainstay.
There’s also the issue of how many people would use Metaknight, the character from the Kirby franchise. This is because his attacks were relentless, he didn’t use many frames, and his attacks could all combo into each other.
People always say that certain characters in the fighting genre are cheap or overpowered, but in this case, it was true and remains a well-known fact about Brawl.
It’s still a good game overall, but for a Smash Bros title, Brawl is easily the black sheep game of the bunch.
The 2D Legend of Zelda CDI Games
If you haven’t even heard of the Zelda CDI games, then count yourself lucky you haven’t experienced some of the worst black sheep games of all time.
Released back in 1993 for the Philips CDI, Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon are not only considered to be the worst Zelda titles, but some of the worst games of all time.
First and foremost, the controls were terrible, which was crippling considering they were 2D side-scrolling platformers and precise controls are a must for the genre. It was also hard to tell where most platforms even began or ended, leading to many frustrating mistakes that weren’t the player’s fault.
The game’s cutscenes were also so poorly animated and such pure nightmare fuel that they’ve been forever ingrained in meme culture. They’re cheesy, weird, and look liked they didn’t have any budget at all.
There is really nothing redeeming about these two games. They are so bad that Nintendo doesn’t even acknowledge them, which is honestly the right call.
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