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Ever played a game with a fantastic idea that just fell flat? From Banjo-Kazooie's vehicle-building departure to NeverDead's immortality mechanic, we're exploring 10 video games that squandered their incredible potential through clunky gameplay and bad decisions.
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00:00It can be incredibly hard to have an idea that's totally and completely unique,
00:04and in a 50-year-old industry with new games constantly being placed under labels like
00:08Metroidvania and Souls-like, it can be almost impossible to see something that's truly new.
00:14All of which is why it hurts even more when a game does have something that feels fresh,
00:18a concept that is downright genius, only for the game itself to waste it.
00:23From brand new franchises and new developers to more established names and studios,
00:27no one is safe from ruining a fantastic concept.
00:31These are just a few titles that have suffered this fate.
00:34I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 video games that wasted brilliant concepts.
00:39Number 10. Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
00:42Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts is a very strange video game.
00:46Rare took the platformer icons and developed a gameplay system all around creating and
00:51customizing vehicles, needing to alter them depending on the type of level or challenge
00:55you needed to complete. For example, if you needed to focus on speed, you needed to make
00:59your car small. If you have to transport stuff, you need to create a basket on top of your vehicle.
01:04It was incredibly rewarding to complete a mission knowing that your customization choices is why
01:09you were able to do it. The system was clever, and while the missions could be a bit wonky from
01:14time to time, it was rewarding. So why was the game such a disappointment? Simple, it wasn't a real
01:20Banjo-Kazooie game. This was the Bear and Bird's first new adventure under the Microsoft banner
01:25after they purchased Rare, and it had been 8 years since the last main game. Having the first new
01:31Banjo-Kazooie after all that time be a game that abandoned its platforming roots made a lot of people
01:36very understandably upset. The vehicle creation wasn't enough to sway them, and they just couldn't
01:42get out of the shadow of fans' expectations. The franchise the game was in is what ultimately
01:47ruined it, and it wasn't until their addition to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where Banjo and Kazooie
01:52would return to the spotlight. 9. Never Dead
01:55Did you know that Konami used to make and publish video games? It's true, you may have even heard
02:01of some of them. Yet there's a good chance you never heard of Never Dead. Released in 2012 for the
02:07PS3 and Xbox 360, Never Dead had an incredibly interesting hook. You played as an immortal being
02:13that couldn't die. If you took damage, instead of dying, you'd get dismembered, losing arms and legs
02:20until you were just a head rolling around. Sometimes this helped with puzzles, but most of the time it
02:25was a way to make combat more tense as you tried to pull yourself back together while dodging bullets.
02:30However, this interesting concept was all the game had. The story was bad, the characters were at best
02:36boring and at worst unlikable, and the combat was incredibly clunky. Everything outside of the idea
02:42was a disaster, and the game never got a follow-up because of it. Hopefully the interesting
02:46immortality mechanic gets picked up by another game in the future, because with some tweaking,
02:51it could be really fun. 8. The Order 1886
02:54There's a good chance that if this game was better, The Order would have been a mainstay
02:59PlayStation franchise from its setting alone. Taking place in an alternate history Victorian
03:04England where technology had advanced well past what the time period should have had,
03:08the game follows the knights at the round table as they fight off monsters such as werewolves
03:12and vampires. The premise is fantastic, and nothing else quite like it was out at the time.
03:18In fact, this game came out a month before Bloodborne, the only other game that could be
03:22compared to The Order's world and setting on the console. But the game itself was a letdown.
03:27While the world and presentation was immaculate, the gameplay was much too simple, the length of
03:32the game was much too short, and the story didn't make full use of its inspired setting.
03:37On top of that, The Order wasn't nearly as interactive as it should have been,
03:41falling back on quick-time events over active gameplay.
03:447. Absolver
03:45You may have heard of an indie game called Sifu, where you play as a martial artist in
03:49possession of a magic amulet that revives them at an older age whenever they die.
03:54Sifu had critical and commercial success, getting 1 million copies sold in only a few months.
04:00But before that, developer Slow Clap had released another game called Absolver,
04:04and it was a hand-to-hand multiplayer combat game that was overall very interesting and
04:08original. Basically, you roamed the world to find other players to fight, and as you fought them,
04:13you learned their attacks, adding to your moveset with every fight. It was a fantastic idea,
04:18basically creating a level system without having a level system, and making the multiplayer world
04:23feel interactive, rewarding you for engaging in it. The issue was, Absolver is a multiplayer game,
04:29and multiplayer games need players to function. The game was unique, but also niche, and because
04:35of that, the player base was so small that the game quickly lost its appeal of fighting others
04:39found in the world. Luckily, Sifu seems to have Slow Clap back on track, and seeing what great ideas
04:45the developers will come up with in the future is exciting.
04:476. Resident Evil
04:49Operation Raccoon City
04:51Resident Evil is one of the most influential and iconic video game franchises of all time.
04:56However, while the highs of the series are very high, the lows of the series are so low that they
05:02hit the bedrock. Which leads us to Operation Raccoon City, a game which does something that other
05:07Resident Evil games just didn't do, focus on some of the bad guys of the game, Umbrella.
05:12Set during the events of Resi 2 and 3, Raccoon City focuses on an Umbrella task force, showing what
05:18the evil organization was doing during this time, and even showing some what-if scenarios with the team
05:23taking down Leon and Claire. Unfortunately, the premise was trapped in a low-quality third-person
05:29shooter, made to be played in co-op with terrible AI replacing the spots you weren't able to convince
05:34enough of your friends to fill. It was a bland action shooter with very little focus on horror.
05:39The story also didn't live up to the premise, just being used as an excuse to go forward and
05:44shoot more zombies. After this disappointment, Capcom would try something similar years later
05:49with Umbrella Corps. And the less said about that, the better.
05:53Number 5. Murdered Soul Suspect
05:55How they messed up a ghost detective trying to solve his own murder while dealing with demons is
06:00the real mystery here, as somehow Square Enix found a way. Having an absolutely stellar idea,
06:06Murdered Soul Suspect just doesn't do as much with the premise as it could have.
06:10Being able to walk through walls for clues and possess people for interrogations is a phenomenal idea,
06:15but in a game like this, the lack of freedom is incredibly obvious. You can only walk through
06:20so many walls as there are places blocked off, there are demon fights to be had that quickly
06:25become boring after your third time, and on top of that, it's an incredibly short title with a
06:30mystery in zero danger of not being solved. The only way you don't find out who the killer was
06:35is if you turn off the game halfway through, and honestly, nobody would blame you.
06:39Number 4. Chocobo GP
06:41The newest game on this list, Chocobo GP, came out on March 10th, 2022, and quickly made a lot
06:48of people very angry. On paper, this should have been a slam dunk. A kart racer from one of the
06:53most beloved and revered franchises in video game history, able to take any characters from its long
06:58and illustrious history and throw them into racing mayhem? How could that possibly go wrong? By having
07:03some incredibly terrible monetization practices. That's how. At an initial purchase of 50 US dollars,
07:09the game was filled to the brim with annoyances, having an in-game currency that you can only get
07:14by spending real-world money, and an incredibly frustrating battle pass that locks characters
07:19like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII behind days of gameplay. Of course, that grind could be offset by
07:25purchasing in-game currency to speed things along. After a loud outcry on social media,
07:30the developers have made some balance changes to make things easier to unlock, as well as added
07:35in-game currency as a real unlockable, but the damage seems to have already been done.
07:39It's a shame, as this idea could have been a real blast under better circumstances.
07:44Number 3. The Quiet Man
07:45The third and last Square Enix game on this list, The Quiet Man, is just weird. No question about it.
07:52The game had received interest for one real reason. Its main character was deaf, and as such,
07:57the game would be almost completely silent with no subtitles. It was an interesting narrative device,
08:03and one that could have been really successful if it was done properly. Keyword there being if.
08:09For whatever reason, the developers decided to still write a story with live-action cutscenes,
08:13framed like a normal game with sound, making it so that the player, sat forever in silence,
08:18had no idea what was happening. The problems just got worse when they suddenly introduced supernatural
08:24elements, ruining any chance people had of following along. Eventually, audio for the game was added in
08:30an update, but even with knowing what was happening, The Quiet Man just wasn't any good. Combat was bland,
08:36and unfortunately, this was the only real gameplay present.
08:40Number 2. Sonic Forces
08:42If you're a Sonic fan and have ever been online, first off, hopefully you haven't been too emotionally
08:47scarred, and secondly, you've probably seen how many original characters have been created because
08:51of the series. If you haven't, here's a fun game. Google your first name, then add the hedgehog at the
08:57end to see what pops up. Maybe put on that safe search if you don't want to be scarred.
09:01With so many original characters littering the internet for decades now, the idea of adding a
09:06character creator in Sonic Forces was a stroke of genius, putting you alongside the likes of Sonic,
09:11Tails, Knuckles, and the rest of the cast and crew, while fighting off Eggman after he finally
09:16conquers the world. The issue is that Sonic Forces, like most modern Sonic games, just wasn't good.
09:23Boost gameplay was simpler and more boring than ever, the levels are blink and you'll miss them
09:28quick, and the story is nonsensical, even for the blue blur. It was a very poor game,
09:33and the character creation idea may unfortunately never reappear in the Sonic franchise again because
09:38of it. Number 1. Anthem
09:40Where do you even begin with Anthem? Created by Bioware and announced in 2017,
09:46Anthem immediately got people's attention thanks to its cinematic trailer, showing off what gameplay
09:51was supposed to look like. Flying through a jungle with an almost Iron Man-like flair and fighting
09:56off aliens with friends was a concept that was so exciting. Going quickly from the air to the
10:01ground in a huge sci-fi setting was something that so many people wanted, and the excitement for this
10:06game was sky-high because of it. But Bioware just couldn't live up to those expectations thanks to a
10:11now infamously rocky development. While the general flight and combat felt great, the lack of story,
10:17the lack of content, and the over-reliance on grinding for loot made it a slog to get through.
10:22And the many annoyances and technical issues on top of that during its launch window quickly
10:27evaporated any excitement people had for the game. The player base for the game quickly died down,
10:32and now all that's left of the game is a bunch of questions of what could have been.
10:37That's the end of our list, but do let me know down in that comment section if you can think
10:40of
10:41any other video games that wasted brilliant concepts. As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
10:46Thank you so much for hanging out with me. If you like, you can come say hi to me on
10:50my
10:50Twitter account where I am at JessMcDonald, but make sure you stay tuned to us here for
10:54plenty more great gaming content.
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