Bad Games with Good Ideas

[Iracunda]

Its a shame sometimes when a game that kind of sucks has a good idea or concept, but since no one really liked the game it just gets thrown to the wayside. That being said, what was a game that wasn't rated well that had something you wish you saw more of? For me I really liked the phycological profile that was made of the player in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

 

[MemeAlert]

Wonder how many people gonna say Sonic Heroes...

 

[SamFisherman]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

The filthy aesthetic and grittiness of the story really did quite an impression on me back when I played it and I haven't seen another game capture that same essence of pure grounded violence; I like to describe it as "Michael Mann on ketamine". Too bad the gameplay was kinda ass.
A diamond in the rough, fore sure.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Time and Eternity
If they had a bigger budget the game could live up to its cool game design. Animated 2D RPG, with a better variety of enemies besides the same 4 re-colored enemies throughout the game. More animated combat mechanics, cooler scenes with the rest of the cast and more to do in the overworld.

 

[Neb Lleb]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

The filthy aesthetic and grittiness of the story really did quite an impression on me back when I played it and I haven't seen another game capture that same essence of pure grounded violence; I like to describe it as "Michael Mann on ketamine". Too bad the gameplay was kinda ass.
A diamond in the rough, fore sure.

Really, the Kane & Lynch duology in general is an example of "they wasted a perfectly good premise": Dead Men's style of having firefights break out in crowded areas could've been solid, but the game suffered from some jank. And Dog Days did have a good idea of going all out by making even the aesthetic grimy, but the gameplay sucked and the style ultimately worked to the game's detriment.

There's also the core concept of two men who hate eachother's guts having to work together for a common goal. So ultimately, the Kane & Lynch saga could do with a reboot, but Io won't do it considering they're busy with updates for Hitman 3 and moreso, the really promising Project 007.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

There's a Gameranx list on this but as for the ones I played, I wouldn't say that they really bad but what stands out to me are

Could've been better seeing as the source references a lot of game genres would've been really cool had it been given a bit of care by Bamco. Overall felt like a cashgrab.

The Threat mechanic was pretty neat and the game as a whole is pretty nice. I'll go back to it at some point to finish it.

 

[SleazeBabe]

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

The filthy aesthetic and grittiness of the story really did quite an impression on me back when I played it and I haven't seen another game capture that same essence of pure grounded violence; I like to describe it as "Michael Mann on ketamine". Too bad the gameplay was kinda ass.
A diamond in the rough, fore sure.

Genuinely wish this series gets a second shot/spiritual successor someday, as unlikely as that is. Very much an aesthetically unmatched and unique atmosphere that's not been replicated in any other game I know. Too bad the game itself is buggy as all hell and about as monotinous and cookie cutter as it gets. That atmosphere though, it sticks with you.

 

[Clippy]

The Deadpool game. They absolutely nailed the humor and narrative (or it could be that I'm easily entertained) but the gameplay is so aggressively mediocre and tedious it almost made my teeth hurt. I'd like more of what was done in the cutscenes but in games that couldn't be mistaken for insomnia medication.

 

[Swagmata]

I kinda liked what sonic R was going for with the on foot racing and drifting back and forth with the Saturn triggers to make turns. Almost comes together on the first tracks. One of my favorite bad games

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Little Town Hero: the game has a lot of flaws but its combat system is so deep. I would have loved to see a LTH2 with a refined gameplay but it will never happen I'm afraid. Izzits and Dazzits are definitely a good idea.

 

[ciro64 ciro64]

Balan Wonderworld. Has a lot of personality, amazing intro cutscene but the game itself looks like a mobile Mario 3D World knock-off with boring platforming.

Spoiler

 

[YoshifreakZX]

I love the idea of an all-Capcom fighting game that has characters from niche games like Red Earth, but they botched it so horribly that it killed Capcom Fighting games for several years.

 

[Hourai]

Wonder how many people gonna say Sonic Heroes...

Sonic Her- kidding. The game doesn't really have good ideas because it just went "what if we made SA2's other missions mandatory?"

I'd say Devil Children: Light and Dark. Each version is a different side of the same story, which is such a good approach in making people pay for the same game twice. The issue is...it's Devil Children. Just play Pokémon. I'm sure it has defenders, but I am not one of them.

The same criticism can be said about Fire Emblem Fates. Which suffers a lot from the writing being overall bad, Birthright devolving into bland meat grinder gameplay even on Lunatic (without Awakening's Lunatic+ to keep things fun when the maps fail miserably), and Revelations is just a bunch of gimmick maps. Conquest is good, but the writing is the absolute bottom of the barrel. Not having any story would be an improvement.

 

[MD Chaos]

Got several in mind like Super robot Wars OG Infinite Battle and Bomberman Act Zero, but the one that came first was Fracture and Too Human.

The idea behind shifting terrain is kind of a cool idea that leads to many different possibilities, the problem is that they did jack with it and the actual game is one of the most boring shooters I've played. I'm someone that likes shooters from the 7th gen that tried to do something unique(Neverdead and Quantum theory are 2 of my favorite games), but this is one that really feels generic and lacks any sort of unique personality. Jet Brody is probably my favorite Generic bald space marine and the music is genuinely quite good.

Too Human I think everyone knows about being bad, but what kinda gets me is that it could have easily been something special, but due to Dennis Dyack's dumb decisions it became the game it is now. The idea of a Devil may cry like action rpg set in a sci take on Norse mythology is really fucking cool and you can see how it could have been good, cause it's there in the art and sound design. What kills it esp is the Combat, whoever thought melee should be done with the right stick should be sent in the shadow realm, and it just feels overall clunky and barely responsive.

Don't even need to mention that reviving takes an eternity to happen.

 

[Bakuma1997]

After researching it, i will admit some of the things it does could be done in the Mainline games or even in some of the Spin-offs, heck, i love the Guardian Concept and rather than regular LAW-NUTRAL-CHAOS (people keep calling the game Persona 0 for a reason) while the boss fight with the Kitsune being altered by how many chests you open was an interesting way to keep the bosses fresh, alas...

Infamous World of Sloth Aside, some levels has mean design even for SMT standars (Wrath KEEPS YOU OF SUMMONING OR MAP CHECKING IN SOME FLOORS, AND SOME OF THEM HAS DARK FLOORS) is a grindfest and gons use ammo, also the back row, where you would want to keep your Humans (Since dying, like in most games of the saga ends the game) will render them useless unless you keep buying ammo or use magic (And if the only human mage ends without MP and your demons are wiped...GG)

The game, Peak for some, mid for others, is a really experimental product, fortunately Persona 1 took the good and we are still enoying the subsaga nowadays, but this one... i'll politely decline

 

[MemeAlert]

Sonic Her- kidding. The game doesn't really have good ideas because it just went "what if we made SA2's other missions mandatory?"

Only with Team Chaotix which I'm fine with, I like that Sonic Heroes is "Sonic Adventure 2 More" because Sonic Adventure 2's story mode was kinda lacking in content. One good idea in Sonic Heroes was combining the different characters & playstyles with Sonic like what if Sonic had all the moves from all 3 elemental shields.

 

[BlissfulBandit]

Gungrave Overdose, it could've been amazing but they fumbled it BAD.
You can block now!... But you still take damage so it's pretty much useless... Only useful in the fight against Fangoram, likely because of a glitch.
You have 3 Demolition Shots now and each one has 3 tiers of power for maximum damage!... But you can only hold four stock at a time, and the higher the tier the more stock the DS consumes, so again, they're useless, and you're better off spamming the level 1 time slowdown one rather than experimenting.
There's many more issues with the game but I don't want to write a thesis here.

 

[miles]

Wonder how many people gonna say Sonic Heroes...

I really like how the heroes mechanic is done in the rom hack Sonic Classic Heroes. In Sonic Classic Heroes the mechanic is not forced on you, you can just play as one character. The heroes mechanic can be used to find shortcuts, or to make certain areas easier. The heroes mechanic in Sonic Heroes is forced on you, and is explained to you very poorly. Even if the heroes mechanic was done well in Heroes, it still controls horribly.

 

[Tonberry]

Elden Ring

Now before you get your perfume bottles and rivers of blood out, I had a good time with it, and I think an open world Souls game could work well.
BUT I think they fumbled it a bit, because the game has zero replayability for me. I never feel like going back in, which (for me) is because of the structure of the world. The game clearly wants you to follow a sort-of path, but if you replay it you'll know a bunch of ways to trivialize that or skip stuff, which should be good, but to me it just feels like sequence breaking, and that kind of makes it "bad" to me. I know it's a well-made game but I kind of don't like it in hindsight.

On any attempted replaying I always kind of fizzle out after Limgrave and the Peninsula and lose interest around Liurnia.

I also think the horse, while needed for the scale of the world, is kind of shoddily implemented, because it lets you ignore cool setpieces and gauntlets in the open world, oftentimes without even realizing it (the road up to Margit is always my first example).

I have other issues with it, too, but these are the main good ideas I think it has. The horse and the open world on paper.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

The Sonic Storybook games have some cool ideas but are undermined by the shitty controls and forced mandatory mission structure

 

[Amakuchi]

Elden Ring

Now before you get your perfume bottles and rivers of blood out, I had a good time with it, and I think an open world Souls game could work well.
BUT I think they fumbled it a bit, because the game has zero replayability for me. I never feel like going back in, which (for me) is because of the structure of the world. The game clearly wants you to follow a sort-of path, but if you replay it you'll know a bunch of ways to trivialize that or skip stuff, which should be good, but to me it just feels like sequence breaking, and that kind of makes it "bad" to me. I know it's a well-made game but I kind of don't like it in hindsight.

On any attempted replaying I always kind of fizzle out after Limgrave and the Peninsula and lose interest around Liurnia.

I also think the horse, while needed for the scale of the world, is kind of shoddily implemented, because it lets you ignore cool setpieces and gauntlets in the open world, oftentimes without even realizing it (the road up to Margit is always my first example).

I have other issues with it, too, but these are the main good ideas I think it has. The horse and the open world on paper.

Thank goodness, I am not the only one that thought this. I felt the weakest part of the game was going through NG+ to get the other endings. No matter how many times I tried to hop back in to try a new build I'd stop midway because I felt like I discovered everything already on my first playthrough. At this time I would jokingly call it Dark Souls IV because the sense of exploration wasn't really there anymore.

Going back on topic, I think Bloodstorm was an MK clone with great ideas but absolutely abysmal implementation. The idea of obtaining an opponent's move after defeating them sounds really cool, and I wish it would've fleshed out the weapon system it had so that it would've rivaled SamSho's. Tt seems that Incredible Technologies was too focused on chasing the trend and rushing something out rather than taking their time to refine them. It also didn't help that the game looks pretty ugly with a really bad take on sprite and 3D render art.

 

[Winter Wonderland Winter Wonderland Winter Wonderland's icon]

Hinterland is pretty bad... But it also has the best city management/action RPG hybrid gameplay formula out there.

 

[Neb Lleb]

Project 007.

*now James Bond 007 in First Light