Good ideas aren't always enough.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 it can be incredibly hard to have an idea
00:01 that's totally and completely unique.
00:04 And in a 50 year old industry with new games
00:06 constantly being placed under labels like
00:08 Metroidvania and Souls-like,
00:10 it can be almost impossible to see something
00:12 that's truly new.
00:14 All of which is why it hurts even more
00:16 when a game does have something that feels fresh,
00:18 a concept that is downright genius,
00:20 only for the game itself to waste it.
00:23 From brand new franchises and new developers
00:25 to more established names and studios,
00:28 no one is safe from ruining a fantastic concept.
00:31 These are just a few titles that have suffered this fate.
00:34 I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are 10 video games
00:36 that wasted brilliant concepts.
00:39 Number 10, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts.
00:42 Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts is a very strange video game.
00:46 Rare took the platformer icons
00:48 and developed a gameplay system
00:49 all around creating and customizing vehicles,
00:52 needing to alter them depending on the type of level
00:54 or challenge you needed to complete.
00:56 For example, if you needed to focus on speed,
00:58 you needed to make your car small.
01:00 If you have to transport stuff,
01:02 you need to create a basket on top of your vehicle.
01:04 It was incredibly rewarding to complete a mission
01:06 knowing that your customization choices
01:08 is why you were able to do it.
01:10 The system was clever and while the missions
01:12 could be a bit wonky from time to time, it was rewarding.
01:16 So why was the game such a disappointment?
01:18 Simple, it wasn't a real Banjo-Kazooie game.
01:22 This was the bear and bird's first new adventure
01:24 under the Microsoft banner after they purchased Rare
01:27 and it had been eight years since the last main game.
01:30 Having the first new Banjo-Kazooie after all that time
01:33 be a game that abandoned its platforming roots
01:35 made a lot of people very understandably upset.
01:38 The vehicle creation wasn't enough to sway them
01:41 and they just couldn't get out of the shadow
01:43 of fans' expectations.
01:44 The franchise the game was in is what ultimately ruined it
01:48 and it wasn't until their addition
01:49 to Super Smash Brothers Ultimate
01:51 where Banjo and Kazooie would return to the spotlight.
01:54 Number nine, Never Dead.
01:56 Did you know that Konami used to make
01:58 and publish video games?
01:59 It's true, you may have even heard of some of them.
02:02 Yet there's a good chance you never heard of Never Dead.
02:05 Released in 2012 for the PS3 and Xbox 360,
02:09 Never Dead had an incredibly interesting hook.
02:12 You played as an immortal being that couldn't die.
02:15 If you took damage, instead of dying, you'd get dismembered,
02:18 losing arms and legs until you were just a head
02:21 rolling around.
02:22 Sometimes this helped with puzzles
02:23 but most of the time it was a way to make combat more tense
02:26 as you tried to pull yourself back together
02:28 while dodging bullets.
02:30 However, this interesting concept was all the game had.
02:33 The story was bad, the characters were at best boring
02:36 and at worst unlikable and the combat was incredibly clunky.
02:40 Everything outside of the idea was a disaster
02:43 and the game never got a follow up because of it.
02:45 Hopefully the interesting immortality mechanic
02:47 gets picked up by another game in the future
02:49 because with some tweaking, it could be really fun.
02:52 Number eight, The Order 1886.
02:55 There's a good chance that if this game was better,
02:57 The Order would have been a mainstay PlayStation franchise
03:00 from its setting alone.
03:01 Taking place in an alternate history Victorian England
03:04 where technology had advanced well past
03:06 what the time period should have had,
03:08 the game follows the knights of the round table
03:10 as they fight off monsters such as werewolves and vampires.
03:13 The premise is fantastic and nothing else quite like it
03:16 was out at the time.
03:18 In fact, this game came out a month before Bloodborne,
03:21 the only other game that could be compared
03:23 to The Order's world and setting on the console.
03:25 But the game itself was a letdown.
03:27 While the world and presentation was immaculate,
03:30 the gameplay was much too simple,
03:32 the length of the game was much too short
03:34 and the story didn't make full use of its inspired setting.
03:37 On top of that, The Order wasn't nearly as interactive
03:40 as it should have been, falling back on quick time events
03:42 over active gameplay.
03:44 Number seven, Absolver.
03:45 You may have heard of an indie game called Sifu
03:48 where you play as a martial artist
03:49 in possession of a magic amulet that revives them
03:51 at an older age whenever they die.
03:54 Sifu had critical and commercial success,
03:57 getting 1 million copies sold in only a few months.
04:00 But before that, developer Slow Clap
04:02 had released another game called Absolver
04:04 and it was a hand-to-hand multiplayer combat game
04:06 that was overall very interesting and original.
04:09 Basically, you roamed the world
04:10 to find other players to fight
04:12 and as you fought them, you learned their attacks,
04:15 adding to your moveset with every fight.
04:17 It was a fantastic idea, basically creating a level system
04:20 without having a level system
04:22 and making the multiplayer world feel interactive,
04:24 rewarding you for engaging in it.
04:26 The issue was, Absolver is a multiplayer game
04:29 and multiplayer games need players to function.
04:32 The game was unique but also niche
04:34 and because of that, the player base was so small
04:36 that the game quickly lost its appeal
04:38 of fighting others found in the world.
04:40 Luckily, Sifu seems to have Slow Clap back on track
04:43 and seeing what great ideas the developers will come up with
04:46 in the future is exciting.
04:47 Number six, Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City.
04:51 Resident Evil is one of the most influential
04:53 and iconic video game franchises of all time.
04:56 However, while the highs of the series are very high,
04:59 the lows of the series are so low that they hit the bedrock,
05:03 which leads us to Operation Raccoon City,
05:05 a game which does something
05:07 that other Resident Evil games just didn't do,
05:09 focus on some of the bad guys of the game, Umbrella.
05:12 Set during the events of Resi 2 and 3,
05:14 Raccoon City focuses on an Umbrella task force,
05:17 showing what the evil organization
05:19 was doing during this time
05:20 and even showing some what-if scenarios
05:23 with the team taking down Leon and Claire.
05:25 Unfortunately, the premise was trapped
05:27 in a low-quality third-person shooter
05:29 made to be played in co-op with terrible AI
05:32 replacing the spots you weren't able to convince enough
05:34 of your friends to fill.
05:35 It was a bland action shooter
05:37 with very little focus on horror.
05:39 The story also didn't live up to the premise,
05:41 just being used as an excuse to go forward
05:44 and shoot more zombies.
05:45 After this disappointment,
05:46 Capcom would try something similar years later
05:48 with Umbrella Corps,
05:50 and the less said about that, the better.
05:53 Number five, Murdered Soul Suspect.
05:55 How they messed up a ghost detective
05:57 trying to solve his own murder
05:59 while dealing with demons is the real mystery here,
06:01 as somehow Square Enix found a way.
06:03 Having an absolutely stellar idea,
06:06 Murdered Soul Suspect just doesn't do as much
06:08 with the premise as it could've.
06:10 Being able to walk through walls for clues
06:12 and possess people for interrogations
06:14 is a phenomenal idea.
06:15 But in a game like this,
06:17 the lack of freedom is incredibly obvious.
06:19 You can only walk through so many walls
06:21 as there are places blocked off,
06:22 there are demon fights to be had
06:24 that quickly become boring after your third time,
06:27 and on top of that, it's an incredibly short title
06:29 with a mystery in zero danger of not being solved.
06:32 The only way you don't find out who the killer was
06:35 is if you turn off the game halfway through,
06:37 and honestly, nobody would blame you.
06:39 Number four, Chocobo GP.
06:41 The newest game on this list, Chocobo GP,
06:44 came out on March 10th, 2022,
06:46 and quickly made a lot of people very angry.
06:49 On paper, this should've been a slam dunk.
06:51 A kart racer from one of the most beloved
06:53 and revered franchises in video game history
06:56 able to take any characters
06:57 from its long and illustrious history
06:59 and throw them into racing mayhem?
07:01 How could that possibly go wrong?
07:03 By having some incredibly terrible monetization practices.
07:06 That's how.
07:07 At an initial purchase of 50 US dollars,
07:09 the game was filled to the brim with annoyances.
07:12 Having an in-game currency that you can only get
07:14 by spending real world money,
07:16 and an incredibly frustrating battle pass
07:18 that locks characters like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII
07:21 behind days of gameplay.
07:23 Of course, that grind could be offset
07:24 by purchasing in-game currency to speed things along.
07:28 After a loud outcry on social media,
07:30 the developers have made some balance changes
07:32 to make things easier to unlock,
07:34 as well as added in-game currency as a real unlockable,
07:37 but the damage seems to have already been done.
07:39 It's a shame as this idea could have been a real blast
07:42 under better circumstances.
07:43 Number three, The Quiet Man.
07:46 The third and last Square Enix game on this list,
07:48 The Quiet Man is just weird, no question about it.
07:52 The game had received interest for one real reason.
07:55 Its main character was deaf, and as such,
07:57 the game would be almost completely silent
07:59 with no subtitles.
08:01 It was an interesting narrative device
08:03 and one that could have been really successful
08:05 if it was done properly.
08:06 Key word there being if.
08:08 For whatever reason, the developers decided
08:10 to still write a story with live action cutscenes,
08:13 framed like a normal game with sound,
08:15 making it so that the player, sat forever in silence,
08:18 had no idea what was happening.
08:20 The problems just got worse
08:22 when they suddenly introduced supernatural elements,
08:24 ruining any chance people had of following along.
08:27 Eventually, audio for the game was added in an update,
08:31 but even with knowing what was happening,
08:33 The Quiet Man just wasn't any good.
08:35 Combat was bland, and unfortunately,
08:37 this was the only real gameplay present.
08:40 Number two, Sonic Forces.
08:42 If you're a Sonic fan and have ever been online,
08:44 first off, hopefully you haven't been too emotionally scarred
08:47 and secondly, you've probably seen how many
08:49 original characters have been created
08:51 because of the series.
08:53 If you haven't, here's a fun game.
08:54 Google your first name, then add the hedgehog
08:56 at the end to see what pops up.
08:58 Maybe put on that safe search
09:00 if you don't wanna be scarred.
09:01 With so many original characters
09:03 littering the internet for decades now,
09:04 the idea of adding a character creator in Sonic Forces
09:07 was a stroke of genius,
09:09 putting you alongside the likes of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles,
09:12 and the rest of the cast and crew
09:13 while fighting off Eggman
09:14 after he finally conquers the world.
09:17 The issue is that Sonic Forces,
09:19 like most modern Sonic games, just wasn't good.
09:23 Boost gameplay was simpler and more boring than ever,
09:26 the levels are blink and you'll miss them quick,
09:28 and the story is nonsensical, even for the blue blur.
09:31 It was a very poor game,
09:33 and the character creation idea may unfortunately
09:35 never reappear in the Sonic franchise again because of it.
09:38 Number one, Anthem.
09:40 Where do you even begin with Anthem?
09:43 Created by BioWare and announced in 2017,
09:46 Anthem immediately got people's attention
09:48 thanks to its cinematic trailer,
09:50 showing off what gameplay was supposed to look like.
09:52 Flying through a jungle with an almost Iron Man-like flair
09:55 and fighting off aliens with friends
09:57 was a concept that was so exciting.
09:59 Going quickly from the air to the ground
10:01 in a huge sci-fi setting
10:02 was something that so many people wanted,
10:05 and the excitement for this game was sky high because of it.
10:08 But BioWare just couldn't live up to those expectations
10:11 thanks to a now infamously rocky development.
10:13 While the general flight and combat felt great,
10:16 the lack of story, the lack of content,
10:18 and the over-reliance on grinding for loot
10:20 made it a slog to get through,
10:22 and the many annoyances and technical issues on top of that
10:25 during its launch window
10:26 quickly evaporated any excitement people had for the game.
10:30 The player base for the game quickly died down,
10:32 and now all that's left of the game
10:34 is a bunch of questions of what could have been.
10:37 That's the end of our list,
10:38 but do let me know down in that comment section
10:40 if you can think of any other video games
10:42 that wasted brilliant concepts.
10:44 As always, I've been Jess from WhatCulture.
10:46 Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
10:48 If you like, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account
10:50 where I am @JessMcDonald,
10:52 but make sure you stay tuned to us here
10:54 for plenty more great gaming content.