Even the sun has its spots, as they say. But it remains the sun, a star that still reliably delivers heat. This is also the case in the world of gaming, albeit on a smaller scale. Because the fact is, even our most beloved and celebrated game series have black sheep in their history that have been so bad they’ve threatened to drag the entire brand into the abyss.
But that didn’t happen, and with that said, I thought I’d take a look back and check out the black sheep that almost ruined beloved game series.
Bomberman: Act Zero (Xbox 360 / 2006)
What do you do when you have a beloved and colourful multiplayer series full of charm and party spirit, but you want to expand the concept to a console known for western action? Well, you throw everything the fans love out the window and turn Bomberman into a dark, sweaty cyberpunk killing machine. Act Zero comes across as a brain dump of epic proportions where not a single decision was good. Everyone hated the drab environments, the grotesquely dull design and its crappy gameplay put the Bomberman series in the freezer until Konami finally realised what had gone wrong and how to reach new gamers… namely by making good games.
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Castlevania: Judgment (Wii / 2008)
Looking back, it is easy to understand why Konami lost all its developers and eventually half left the gaming world. After the PlayStation 2 era and the entry of Wii and Xbox, they were completely lost. Instead of more games in the style of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, we got a fighting game with motion-sensitive game controls for the notoriously flaky Wii. Judgment managed to alienate both old fans and potential newcomers, and was a total sideshow that took the series nowhere, except perhaps straight into silence.
Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC, PS4, Xbox One / 2017)
It was supposed to be the start of something fresh – a new captain, new adventures, new mysteries. But Andromeda instead became a lesson in how to sink a brand with over-ambition, technical problems and watered-down design. The only thing that really made us happy was the conspicuously lousy facial animations that became popular memes, and Andromeda single-handedly turned Bioware into a studio people laughed at and made Mass Effect feel like a cheap sellout. What was supposed to be a rebirth became more of a farewell.
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Metroid: Other M (Wii / 2010)
Perhaps it was a good idea when Nintendo decided to let Team Ninja manage Samus Aran. Now she would have a voice and more emotional depth. The problem? They turned an iconic, independent heroine into a passive character who took orders from men in the background who acted completely irrationally. This was topped with a confused narrative structure and game controls that seemed more like a group test of frustration, and the result caused the series’ longest hiatus since Super Metroid hit the Super Nintendo market.
Resident Evil: Survivor (PlayStation / 2000)
How could Resident Evil feel threatened by a single game, you might be thinking? Well, in 2000, the series was only four years old and this was the fourth game to be released. Capcom got it into their heads that it was time for a light shooter. But the graphics were lacklustre to say the least and the voice acting was so horrendous that this may very well have been where the term “cringe” first appeared. Thankfully Resident Evil survived the abuse, but unfortunately Capcom has regularly continued to abuse the series with other similar games and even multiplayer titles in what I assume are attempts to see how much the fans can take before abandoning the series.
Star Fox Zero (Wii U / 2016)
Fans had been nagging, nagging, nagging and waiting ten years for a new Star Fox. And finally, it happened. But Nintendo does what Nintendo does, and surprisingly it often delivers something completely different from what fans hoped for. Instead of something Lylat Wars-inspired, we got a kind of two-screen game control experiment with a particularly tiring setup. Instead of fast-paced space action, this was a game we struggled with rather than enjoyed. The Wii U was already in its final stages, and Star Fox Zero didn’t exactly help boost its popularity. It was a missed opportunity and a bitter example of Nintendo falling too much in love with its own gimmick – and there hasn’t been another Star Fox released since, despite the fans’ nagging and nagging and nagging.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (PlayStation 2 / 2003)
After five more or less similar games of declining quality, Lara’s popularity began to wane. Angel of Darkness would remedy this, however, by tapping into the dark ‘n gritty trend of an era when dark equalled good. In practice, this meant a Lara with lots of eyeliner, but her ambitions were crushed under her own weight. Details like substandard controls, bugs, lousy voice acting and crappy trajectories meant that the game pretty much punctured Lara once and for all. It got so bad that Core Design lost the series and eventually led to Lara Croft going through reboot after reboot and re-releases before she finally found her form in 2013 in what was simply called Tomb Raider.
