What was your first gaming disappointment?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I remember getting sad (yes, actually sad) when my copy of Secret Agent wouldn't run anymore once we made the jump from pure DOS to Windows 95.

That game had been my entire gaming world from age four to seven (when we upgraded the machine) and to this day I still have NO IDEA why it wouldn't run for us, considering both Carmen San Diego and Sensible Soccer (the other two games I was really into at the same time) worked flawlessly on the new computer.

I'm sure an older, wiser me would have been able to figure it out (for Secret Agent was the ONLY DOS-based title that failed to even launch in there), but the disappointment stuck and I wouldn't let go of it until the DosBox era, when I beat the whole thing in one frantic evening.

And, to add insult to injury, Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage (another DOS-based beast and the one title I had bought with spare change just to have something to play on the new rig) also worked perfectly in there. It really did feel like Windows 95 just hated my favorite game and the disappointment lasted weeks.

What about you?

 

[Heinzu]

Sequels that don't live up to their predecessors: A classic example is Devil May Cry 2, which I felt was a significant step down from the original. I was very disappointed.

 

[Zerohour2k12]

I remember being excited for Trinity Trigger. It was good, but I guess my expectations we a bit high that time. Same goes for Lords of Shadow 2.

 

[middler]

In the before times, in the long long ago, this was the focus of my childish desires. There was nothing that could possibly be cooler than the Power Glove. After weeks of fawning over it, a friend from school let me borrow one for a night. It was so far below what I thought it was that, I remember being mad about it. It was infuriating to use.

Heart broken.

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

For me it would be the Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier (2009, PS2) although it was a port based on the PSP version, The PS2 version is inferior in many aspects such as having a gameplay more of the same especially that some abilities were lost to be able to make special attacks as in the previous installments and so also that Jak cannot become Dark Jak or Light Jak due to the Dark Eco now being used as a kind of money to buy abilities based on color and another error in the gameplay is also that Jak is unable to swim, which in the previous installments he could swim without problems, in the flight sections it was nothing out of this world but the attempt was made to vary a little The gameplay system but it has an interesting thing and that is that you can hook the enemy ship so that Daxter Steals or Takes the Modular Parts from the enemy ship and get it, graphically it was below the PS2 standards of the year 2009 because they felt somewhat faded, blurry but it's because of the poor and somewhat basic special effects and even has a blur effect that doesn't fit the game well and at 30 FPS as in the PSP version, the music and sound effects are fine, The story of the game is full of plot errors such as that originally The Duke Skyheed who was supposedly the good guy in the game when he is the antagonist is a hypocrite because he said that the Dark Eco is a weapon that is not given to play with and much later he himself also became a monster from Dark Eco and also that the Sky Pirates are supposedly the bad guys of the game but you discover that they are the good guys and so also that for some reason Jak is unable to become Dark Eco because supposedly the Eco is very unstable although there is a contradiction that for some reason Daxter can become Dark Daxter after playing Dark Eco when in reality Daxter was blessed by Light Eco in the previous installments and also that I find the levels of the Dark Daxter unnecessary and irrelevant to the game and also that the game is very short because it only lasts 6 and a half hours if you play it often in normal mode and the bosses of the game, although they have more quantity than in the previous installments, are not a big deal and also that with strategy you can beat all of them without so many difficulties it doesn't matter if it's in Normal or Flight mode. And at the end of the day, although it had some interesting things about what I mentioned, it was still a disappointing installment that to such an extent that the Franchise was completely inactive for this game and for some reason the game was included in the PS2 Super Slim Gamer Kit from the white box along with the other 4 free games.

 

[DJPlace]

finding out you can't play light gun games on a LCD TV.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

View attachment 129714

In the before times, in the long long ago, this was the focus of my childish desires. There was nothing that could possibly be cooler than the Power Glove. After weeks of fawning over it, a friend from school let me borrow one for a night. It was so far below what I thought it was that, I remember being mad about it. It was infuriating to use.

Heart broken.

I wouldn't mind hearing the whole story if you ever want to share it... Sounds like an article material right there.

Did they also give you the one game that kinda worked with it, Super Glove Ball?

 

[redux007]

I remember getting sad (yes, actually sad) when my copy of Secret Agent wouldn't run anymore once we made the jump from pure DOS to Windows 95.

That game had been my entire gaming world from age four to seven (when we upgraded the machine) and to this day I still have NO IDEA why it wouldn't run for us, considering both Carmen San Diego and Sensible Soccer (the other two games I was really into at the same time) worked flawlessly on the new computer.

I'm sure an older, wiser me would have been able to figure it out (for Secret Agent was the ONLY DOS-based title that failed to even launch in there), but the disappointment stuck and I wouldn't let go of it until the DosBox era, when I beat the whole thing in one frantic evening.

And, to add insult to injury, Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage (another DOS-based beast and the one title I had bought with spare change just to have something to play on the new rig) also worked perfectly in there. It really did feel like Windows 95 just hated my favorite game and the disappointment lasted weeks.

What about you?

Random crap I found in pawnshops not being worth the two dollars of my allowance I spent on it. The shovelware of the SNES and Sega era were appallingly bad in some cases.

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

If my parents I brought me game, I would force myself to find some redeeming quality in it.
Same when I brought games as a Teenager, I still default to this behaviour now.
It's incredibly rare that I don't find some enjoyment in a "bad game"

But I do have the big two

I Pre-ordered Aliens: Colonial Marines collectors edition.
I have never pre-ordered a game since. That's an almost 14 year long streak.

Then there's Tron: Catalyst - Oh boy
The only reason why that game hasn't been negatively reviewed into oblivion is that it only has 91 reviews.
The majority of positive reviews: "Any new Tron content in inherently good content"
The majority of negative reviews: Multiple paragraph long breakdowns detailing why it is objectively the worst Tron game
Absolutely atrocious game and I'm glad its Developer closed afterwards.

Both are soulless skinsuit licensed cash grab unworthy of their license.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I Pre-ordered Aliens: Colonial Marines collectors edition.
I have never pre-ordered a game since. That's an almost 14 year long streak.

I JUST watched the old Civvie 11 episode on it... HOT DAMN is it soulless!

 

[redux007]

I JUST watched the old Civvie 11 episode on it... HOT DAMN is it soulless!

It's Alien Isolation's dark, evil twin.

 

[Scotty Scotty]

Playing "Sonic Blast" for Game Gear via the 3DS Virtual Console. I remember looking at the screenshots and being impressed by the pre-rendered visuals. And then I played it...
At the very least, the soundtrack is pretty good (especially Blue Marine; despite it also being the WORST stage in the game).

 

[Octopus]

I think it probably had to be when I rented Wolverine: Adamantium Rage on the SNES, aka the worst version even over the abysmal Genesis one. God that game is something else, even like 7 year old Octopus knew it. That was the first time I realized games could actually just be bad.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I think it probably had to be when I rented Wolverine: Adamantium Rage on the SNES, aka the worst version even over the abysmal Genesis one. God that game is something else, even like 7 year old Octopus knew it. That was the first time I realized games could actually just be bad.

Un-ironically sounds like your very own origin story: "I will NOT stand for this shit! Watch me dissect every superhero game ever made to make sure this never happens again!".

And honestly? That's metal AF

 

[redux007]

I think it probably had to be when I rented Wolverine: Adamantium Rage on the SNES, aka the worst version even over the abysmal Genesis one. God that game is something else, even like 7 year old Octopus knew it. That was the first time I realized games could actually just be bad.

LMAO, that and the Beavis and Butt-Head game were two horrible ones I played as well. Wolverine not being able to fight worth a damn is wrong on a fundamental level. DMC 2 levels of wrong.

 

[RustySK]

For me it was either Castlevania: The Adventure or Titus the Fox for the GameBoy, I think.

Castlevania because I had saved up my allowance to be able to afford that game for at least two months or so (which is to say for the entirety of human existence in kid time) and then it turned out to be remarkably bleh.
Titus the Fox because a classmate straight-up scammed my ass with that one - like a complete sucker I traded him Donkey Kong Land for that thing and holy hell, I hated it.

 

[Sorion]

connecting my ps2 with AV cables to a cheap LCD screen only to find out it looked like garbage, I switched to component cables which improved the quality drastically but it still looked washed out, that TV was particularly terrible at handling ghosting, even with game mode on, you could easily see the game becoming blurry just by gently moving the screen in fallout New Vegas.

 

[Bakuma1997]

I once buyed a Zapper game that didn't worked, it wasn't my TV or the zappers' fault, the game itself was busted

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Monsters Inc: Scare Island.

As a kid I thought that the first area was just world 1... Only to realize the game was over.

 

[Octopus]

Un-ironically sounds like your very own origin story: "I will NOT stand for this shit! Watch me dissect every superhero game ever made to make sure this never happens again!".

And honestly? That's metal AF

That's actually hilarious, I never even thought of that. You can thank Bits Studios for the ongoing torture of my Marvel retrospective.

Wolverine not being able to fight worth a damn is wrong on a fundamental level.

He doesn't even have a jump attack, and there's constantly enemies above you. I would actually pay money to see anyone legitimately clear the first stage, I don't think it's even possible.

 

[Boog111]

Had one of these back in the day myself. Not to show my age but got it for Christmas. Very disappointing.

View attachment 129714

In the before times, in the long long ago, this was the focus of my childish desires. There was nothing that could possibly be cooler than the Power Glove. After weeks of fawning over it, a friend from school let me borrow one for a night. It was so far below what I thought it was that, I remember being mad about it. It was infuriating to use.

Heart broken.

 

[Ephemera1_]

Imagine this, you're a young child growing up in the 2000s, you've been watching Dragonball and Dragonball Z for awhile now and you're hooked, you have the toys, the VHS tapes, you're only missing out on the games. Every game released that you know of is for a console you don't currently own, the PS2. You go to the local video warehouse with your grandmother, check the video game section and to your surprise, you see Goku, staring back at you, screaming, powering up. Its as if hes saying RENT ME

You ask your grandmother can she rent this game for you, she says yes! You go home ecstatic, you just cant wait to have the same awesome battles as they have in the show, you no longer have to be envious, there's finally a DBZ game on a console you own.............little did i know of the horrors that awaited me.

 

[Danteh]

When i was a kid i played all the Metal Slug games and i was hyped with Metal Slug 6 and i find out that this ''Metal Slug 6'' is a hacked version of the third game