Mighty No. 9
Fans of Mega Man expected the platforming legend’s legacy to carry onward with its spiritual successor, Mighty No. 9. What the Kickstarted project ultimately ended up being was nothing short of a dull, unresponsive, and downright horrid mess. Mechanics felt unevenly balanced, boss fights left to be desired, and its art style felt like an odd mix between 2D and 2.5D. Some players may find some enjoyment out of Mighty No. 9, but those who expected a Mega Man successor will be left severely disappointed.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Chaotic, satisfying hack-n-slash action is what PlatinumGames is known for. It’s disappointing, then, that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan ended up being but an empty shell (no pun intended) compared to the developer’s other projects. Unresponsive combat wasn’t exactly aided by repetitive mission structures, and there was quite some controversy surrounding a lack of promised features.
Homefront: The Revolution
Hopping from one developer to another caused Homefront: The Revolution to become a sludge of ingredients that just don’t go well together, despite some honest efforts to improve upon the generic gameplay of the original. Its shooting mechanics were imprecise, crafting felt superfluous, and the characters bringing this story to life were as bland as the open world they inhabited.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
The original Mirror’s Edge became a cult classic that, while flawed, won over the hearts of many with its adrenaline-fueled freerunning gameplay. With Catalyst, the developers wanted to introduce a soft reboot/prequel that would iron out some of the original’s issues. In the end, however, they caused more harm than good, providing a barren open world hub with uninteresting characters and combat that was nothing short of clunky.
Star Fox Zero
It’s been a while since a Star Fox title had been released on consoles, and Star Fox Zero is the perfect reminder as to why that was the case. While not terrible, it felt oddly dated with unfitting geometric architecture and dreadful Wii U controls, making some instances of the game nearly unplayable.
Battleborn
Hopes were high when the minds behind Borderlands were set to have a go at a MOBA/FPS hybrid. Sadly, Battleborn faded into obscurity as Overwatch released but a few weeks later, with its uninspiring mission structure and underdeveloped looting mechanics doing little to guarantee a steady player base.
No Man’s Sky
The hype leading up to No Man’s Sky was surreal throughout the past three years. When it finally landed, however, false promises and misleading advertising rubbed players the wrong way, causing some serious outrage among the community and the industry alike. Looking past all the controversy surrounding it, the game’s open universe simply wasn’t captivating or different enough to make it worth exploring. Universes felt mostly barren, with the various species, plants, and planets reappearing in various worlds with but different name tags and color schemes slapped onto them.
Street Fighter V
Next to some other big fighting games that got released over the last couple of years, Street Fighter V severely disappointed fans of the series and the genre alike. Its staggering lack of content was the biggest kick in the shins for many, which is a bummer considering its solid fighting mechanics.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Tom Clancy’s The Division remains popular to this day, but there’s no denying it has plenty of flaws that especially troubled day-one players. This online open world RPG isn’t the MMO people expected it to be, causing The Division to lose quite a large chunk of its player base as months progressed.
ReCore
Stellar platforming bits and the unique core mechanic sadly couldn’t save this potential classic. ReCore frequently forces you to retread the same, bland environments plentiful times, and a plethora technical issues plagued the entire experience. It’s not entirely bad, but ultimately, it did end up disappointing.
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