By Nelson Schneider - 12/23/12 at 01:34 PM CT
As a long-time gamer, I have had the dubious privilege of experiencing a complete paradigm shift in gamers’ popular opinion. While the dawn of the Internet saw a consensus that I almost entirely agreed with, more recently I’ve been left *facepalming* in wonder and dismay at the things that obtain popular and critical acclaim. When I saw that the editors at Ars Technica shared my sentiments, I found myself looking forward to an interesting read, unshackled by the status quo. I was not disappointed, and found myself nodding in agreement with every one of their overrated picks.
In an attempt to kindle this small fire of dissent amid the massive glacier of paid reviewers and people (including critics) with no taste, the MeltedJoystick staff have decided to chime-in with some of our picks for the pile of Most Overrated Games. Of course, in order to prevent this from becoming an N64 bash-fest, I set down one limitation: The games in this article are all current-gen (or last-gen, depending on whether or not the release of the WiiU served as the Mayan calendar for hardware generational cycles). (Well, it was supposed to be all current-gen games, but Chris has trouble following directions… but at least his outside-the-rules pick is available on PSN, so he will only need to be flogged lightly.)
Nelson’s Picks
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
When Nintendo released the Wii, it came with promises of one-to-one accuracy for motion-controlled sword-fighting. That promise was finally fulfilled in the final year of the console’s life with this game. It was Zelda, so it would have to be good, right? Nope. Through the 5-year span of the Wii’s life, gamers and game developers (including Nintendo) learned that motion controls weren’t as amazing in practice as they sounded on paper. Most other good games for the Wii only paid lip service to motion controls and instead used the Wiimote pointer as their source of innovation. “Skyward Sword,” having been in development for far too long, didn’t get the memo. Instead of a Zelda game with motion controlled sword-fighting, we got a small-scale, disconnected sword-fighting game with Zelda trappings. And in insisting that MotionPlus was the answer to all motion control problems, “Skyward Sword” also used motion (instead of IR) for the on-screen pointer, rendering it unresponsive and easily de-calibrated. Obsessive use of directional sword slashes turned every encounter with a minor enemy into a drawn-out duel and dragged-down the pace of the game into a boring slog.
Xenoblade Chronicles
This was the game that drove thousands of clamoring RPG fans to back Operation Rainfall, the movement to get more Nintendo-published RPGs released in North America. But out of the three games that spurred Rainfallers to action, “Xenoblade” turned out to be the least impressive. Complete reliance on AI teammates drove me crazy while playing this game, forcing me to watch as my dedicated healer launched a high-powered healing spell while the party was only slightly injured, only to be stuck in a cooldown phase on that particular ability after a boss unloaded a hugely-damaging special attack. Then there were the sidequests… oh God, the sidequests! In a world where games don’t get artificially padded for length, “Xenoblade” would have been about 30-40 hours long – in other words, the perfect length for a great RPG. But completing all the sidequests (which are pretty much mandatory if the player wants access to all of the skill trees for each character) pads the game to over 150 hours, complete with lots of wandering through huge environments looking for random drops. “Xenoblade” isn’t an MMO! It shouldn’t play like one!
Demon’s Souls
I have never understood the mentality of people who like to be destroyed by games. Games are supposed to be fun. Games are supposed to be an escape from the soul-crushing realities of life on planet Earth. Yet “Demon’s Souls” instead amplifies the soul-crushing nature of reality and distills it into game form. Your character is weak, the controls are clunky, there are few explanations of how things work, and none of the conveniences of modern gaming are present (things that improved over the old Arcade Model of siphoning quarters out of kids’ pockets). “Demon’s Souls” is designed to kill the player constantly, forcing glacial progress and trial & error experimentation (always with frustrating consequences). I never liked fake difficulty in games back in the 3rd Generation. These poor design decision should stay dead and buried instead of receiving praise from people who apparently enjoy sodomy.
Chris’ Picks
Final Fantasy 9
This throwback Final Fantasy game was released on the Playstation back in 2000, and has been available on PSN since 2010. It has earned highly favorable reviews from both players and critics, but for me… I tried to get through the game on three separate occasions and each time lost interest before finishing it. It's not that it's a bad game, per se, but something about it just didn't appeal to me. I can't pinpoint if it was the design, the story, or the overall gameplay, but I never did complete this one simply because I ran out of interest every single time I tried.
Bayonetta (and, by extension the Devil May Cry series)
I confess I’ve never played any of the Devil May Cry games… but replace the main character with a sexy witch? I am so there! Yet despite the interesting story and characters, this is a case of me not liking the way the game plays. I'm not a combo person – that's why even in fighting games I choose to mash buttons like a man possessed rather than learn a series of moves. Games that require you to time your moves and blocks with any kind of precision quickly get me frustrated and unhappy. I managed to make it to the fourth level before I ultimately gave up. I guess this type of game is just not my cup of tea.
Farmville (and pretty much anything made by Zynga)
While these time-wasters have fallen off their lofty perch recently, these games that were initially popularized by Facebook still boggle my mind and baffle me. As someone who loves pointless tasks in other games, you would think I would have a soft spot for these ‘casual’ games… But I find them incredibly annoying – not just because people constantly bother you about joining and asking or giving you things – but because these ‘free’ games are all about in-game purchases (Ooh – I want a pink barn.. and it's only 99¢!) that serve no point other than to put a different skin on an existing item. It’s mini-DLC run rampant... and people support this monstrosity! I'm glad they've been having difficulties – maybe we'll be lucky and Zynga will completely die off, taking all their terrible ‘games’ with them.
Nick’s Picks
Tales of Graces f
RPGs can be great, but there are all too many out there that sour the genre. “Tales of Graces f” is one of them. With lacking story and ridiculous dialog, you'll either be playing what seems to be the longest game ever, or laughing your way all the way to the ending credits. Either way, this game is a waste of time, and the Tales franchise is digging Namco a deep hole that they may not be able to get out of. This game doesn't deserve a Metacritic score of 77.
Forza Motorsport 3 & 4
Forza is Xbox's answer to PlayStation's Gran Turismo. The Forza games get huge praise by Xbox users, with a Metacritc score of 92 for “Forza Motorsport 3” and a Metacritic score of 91 for the 4th iteration. The sad thing is, these Xbox players have no idea how far short this franchise falls compared to Gran Turismo. The handling and braking are terrible in Forza. But the worst part? The tracks are half-assed attempts at replicating the real world tracks. Let's take Nürburgring ring in Germany: It is easy to find footage of this long complex track. Gran Turismo nails it on the nose (as they do with all their tracks), but Forza is so inaccurate it’s almost a joke they even tried to compete with Gran Turismo. I think scores would be a lot different if these two games weren't console exclusives. Xbox users only think Forza is great because it’s the best they can get on their particular console.
LittleBigPlanet Karting
This game is a result of a poor collaboration between Media Molecule (makers of the hit platformer, “LittleBigPlanet”), and United Front Games (makers of “ModNation Racers”). It seems these two companies both put in half-assed efforts and forgot to polish their game. When you play this game, you get a great feel for what they were obviously trying to accomplish, with many elements present from their other games we love. But simply put, this game falls short, missing all the multi-player options and addictiveness you’d expect in a karting game. It seems these two companies just wanted to make some extra cash, and let their interns throw something together while having office parties, drinking beer, and eating cupcakes. A few updates could patch-in the missing functionality and apply the needed polishing that would make this game great, but I give that about a 1% chance of actually happening.
Comments
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/27/12 at 04:06 PM CT
I never really got into the Gears of Wars clones for PS3, either (those being Killzone and Resistance) though I though Resistance 2 was okay. I just don't get the excitement over them or any of the CoD and Modern Warfare junk for that matter. Since I haven't played any of them, though, I really couldn't complain about them on my list.
Jonzor - wrote on 12/26/12 at 11:58 PM CT
Dave brings up an interesting point. I wonder if someone can learn from Skyward Sword and get the formula right next time. Though, I didn't really have issues with the sword fighting, so much as I did the way the Zelda's formula continues to mutate for the worse. That, and the disappearance of the IR.
I really agreed with the Ars Technica article on Gears of War... the first one was fun, but holy cow the world has lost its mind over those games.
dbarry_22 - wrote on 12/26/12 at 02:06 PM CT
To me Final Fantasy IX was by far the best version on the PS1, but it is true that it's not close to as good as either Super Nintendo game. When it comes to the motion controller on Skyward Sword, I too thought it took way to long for the Wii to get a game with those controls and using the wii motion plus to navigate menus was problematic. However, I do think it was close to being great. I think if there's a version on the WiiU that still uses the motion controls it could be even better.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/25/12 at 04:59 PM CT
While it is true that Final Fantasy 9 is the only one of the PS1 iterations of that franchise that I still own, it was a pretty forgettable game. Most of it felt like an intentional rehash of Final Fantasy 6, as the developers "subtly" referenced the earlier game, similar to Eric Idle's "Nudge Nudge" Monty Python sketch.
