Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 20 awesome games that unfortunately
00:11had their spotlight stolen by controversy.
00:20Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo
00:24Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:29Batman Arkham Knight For as much as some of us will complain about
00:37the Batmobile segments, Batman Arkham Knight does boast some unique ideas as it closes
00:42out Bruce Wayne's legacy in the story.
00:45However, one event around the game's launch has partially stained its reputation forever.
00:49The PC version of Arkham Knight launched with a myriad of bugs ranging from graphical glitches
00:55to AI suddenly becoming insanely stupid.
00:59Things were so bad that Arkham Knight was pulled from sale and Warner Bros. issued refunds
01:04as the issues were ironed out.
01:06Some players still have chosen not to purchase the game due to the integration of Denuvo,
01:10a DRM program that has caused some PCs to experience performance issues.
01:21Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth was one of the
01:34first games of 2024 to release with universal praise.
01:38At the time of this video, Infinite Wealth boasts an open critic rating of a mighty 90.
01:43The high did not last long though, as players took umbrage with the DLC.
01:48But as the game launched, some folks noticed a $20 DLC pack known as the Master Vacation
01:54Bundle.
01:55This bundle would give players access to a new endgame dungeon known as the Big Swill,
01:59but buying this bundle was also the only means to access New Game Plus.
02:04For some, the 100 plus hour game was not enough by itself, and they would take to social media
02:09demanding New Game Plus be free.
02:12Infinite Wealth would sell over a million copies within its first week after launch.
02:21Gran Turismo 7 For racing fans, Gran Turismo 7 truly is one
02:29of the most remarkable games you can buy on PlayStation 5.
02:32Once again, Polyphony shows their incredible attention to detail in recreating real-life
02:37cars and racetracks in both visuals and sound.
02:41GT7 saw resounding praise upon release, though it crashed and burned with some players.
02:46Much of the conversation around the game quickly became more about its monetization and unfair
02:51payouts of its in-game currency.
02:53It got so bad that some players resorted to using AI programs to grind currency for them
02:58while they weren't playing the game.
03:00According to series producer Kazunori Yamauchi, the payouts and pricing of cars were to reflect
03:05each car's real-world prices, as he puts it.
03:08Yamauchi and Polyphony still apologized to players and gave all players in-game currency
03:13to make amends.
03:21Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled The remake of the 1999 classic Crash Team
03:29Racing suffered a similar fate as Gran Turismo 7.
03:33Tons of reviews, including the one I did here on Mojo Plays, gave Nitro-Fueled glowing
03:38praise for its visual detail, animation, and ability to perfectly recreate and expand upon
03:45the original game.
03:46The praise quickly turned into scrutiny as, just as I predicted in the review, Activision
03:52Blizzard ham-fisted microtransactions into the game over a month after launch.
03:58What's worse is that developer Beenox was forced to decrease payouts and even go so
04:03far as to place a limit on how much currency players could earn within a day.
04:07To this day, Nitro-Fueled remains a grind-fest for players, as carts, characters, and costumes
04:14will cost between $1,500 and $2,500 Wumpa Coins.
04:18Rarely do races pay out more than $100 Wumpa Coins.
04:22So you basically have to spend an entire evening grinding to unlock maybe one or two
04:28characters, carts, or costumes.
04:31It's that bad.
04:38Stellar Blade The hullabaloo around Stellar Blade quickly
04:49became a cesspool the second it was revealed back in 2021.
04:53On one hand, you had pundits and YouTubers spearheading this idea that the developers
04:58quote had never seen a real woman before end quote, and that the game wasn't for modern
05:04audiences because its protagonist was just too sexy.
05:08And yet, these folks failed to acknowledge the fact that the protagonist's body was
05:12based off the body of a real Korean model.
05:15On the other hand, you had some really, really weird individuals on social media claiming
05:21that these same pundits and YouTubers were trying to get the game censored and we need
05:26to fight the good fight, the game needs to be sexy.
05:30But once the game dropped, so did the noise.
05:33It's almost like there was more to this game than just boobs and booty, as if Stellar
05:37Blade had a really fun story and some thrilling combat mechanics to engage with.
05:43It's interesting how it suddenly just went silent, right?
05:54Battlefield V While we're on the subject of unfair scrutiny
06:03against female protagonists in video games, Battlefield V got a lot of unnecessary controversy
06:08for some arguably stupid reasons.
06:11It's one thing for fans to point out the strange shift from the real history of World
06:15War I behind Battlefield 1 to an alternate timeline of World War II here.
06:20But some took the conversation to an absurd degree, spreading the idea that women never
06:25served in World War II when that could not be further from the truth.
06:31A simple Google search quickly proves otherwise.
06:34While Battlefield V would get proper criticism for being lean on single-player content, most
06:39found the multiplayer to be just as engaging to play as its predecessor.
06:43However, that conversation will never be forgotten.
06:52Tekken 8
07:00Launching at the same exact time as Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8 saw universal
07:04praise from players and critics alike.
07:07Of course, YouTubers tried to predictably act like the game was super unbalanced, but
07:12outrage cropped up as Bandai Namco Entertainment would introduce microtransactions and an in-game
07:17shop roughly a month after launch.
07:19The anger grew when Eddie Gordo was added to the game with Tekken 8's very first Battle
07:24Pass, which really was underwhelming to say the least.
07:28Despite all of this outrage and talk about Tekken coins and Battle Pass woes, Tekken
07:338 still sees an average of roughly 8,000 players on PC alone.
07:42Indivisible
07:50Indivisible was one of those surprise indie titles of 2019, but no one knew how to feel
07:54about an RPG based around tag-fighting mechanics.
07:57What came out was a truly fantastic game with top-notch animation and artistry.
08:03Problem is that no one will ever see the game as just that due to one particular developer
08:08behind it.
08:09Lab Zero Games was a team widely known for their work on Skullgirls until its staff outed
08:14their CEO, Mike Zaymont, for several instances of harassment in the workplace.
08:19In a flash, the entire community Lab Zero had built turned against Zaymont while almost
08:25all of the staff members collectively left.
08:28Autumn Games, the publisher of Skullgirls, and 505 Games, the publisher of Indivisible,
08:33would sever ties with Zaymont and help the team form a new studio to continue Skullgirls.
08:39Indivisible would be the final game to be developed by Lab Zero, with Zaymont on the
08:43helm, and with the sudden collapse of the studio, almost all of Indivisible's DLC
08:49was quietly cancelled.
08:50In other words, Indivisible is now a game of broken promises and built off of a past
08:56most would rather repress and hopefully forget.
09:02Street Fighter X Tekken
09:09Wouldn't you know it, another fighting game marred by controversy.
09:13In case you never got to try this out before it was rendered unplayable on modern hardware,
09:18Street Fighter X Tekken was one of many crossovers fighting game fans had been begging for.
09:22Here, you could pair your favorite characters from both franchises together to learn new
09:27ways to fight in string combos.
09:29But one facet of the game peeved off almost the entire audience.
09:33The 12 DLC characters were already on game discs and collectively locked behind a paywall
09:39at launch.
09:40Yes, this was enough for many folks to return their copies to the store, and now, it's
09:45hard to really look back on this game fondly without acknowledging that whole mess.
09:53Sly Cooper Thieves in Time
10:02So many casual and hardcore Sly fans will quickly dunk on Thieves in Time.
10:07You would think this game was so horrendous that it killed the franchise when the only
10:11gripe folks really had was just, the ending was a cliffhanger.
10:16Don't get it twisted, that cliffhanger was egregious and unnecessary, but that shouldn't
10:21decimate the entire experience.
10:24In reality, Thieves in Time had the same drive and ambition as Sly 2 did back in 2004.
10:29Whereas Sly 3 reeled back on the collectible bottles and treasures in the worlds, Thieves
10:34in Time brought them back and scattered them across uniquely crafted areas based on different
10:39time periods.
10:40Yes, the ending sucks, but to let it define the entire game?
10:45Doesn't that sound just a little bit rash?
10:48Just a little.
10:52Dead or Alive 6
10:58Don't worry, this is the final fighting game you will see on this list.
11:02But Dead or Alive 6 saw a much slower collapse than most of our other entries here.
11:07At first, DOA 6 was one of the best games to kick off 2019 with its in-depth tutorials,
11:13clever DOA quest mode for cosmetic unlocks, vibrant visuals, and evolution in meter mechanics.
11:20I also reviewed this back when it first launched and gave it glowing praise.
11:25It wasn't until the months passed when players started to sour on the game.
11:29DLC was drip-fed with a major focus on bundles sporting ridiculously expensive price tags.
11:35We're talking several $50 to $100 bundles of costumes and maybe one or two new fighters.
11:42Eventually, the DOA community left to go back and play Dead or Alive 5 last round.
11:47We just weren't having it.
11:50Even the smallest of roses have their thorns.
11:53Boyfriend Dungeon
12:00Content warnings have become a bit of a point of contention within the gaming industry and
12:04community.
12:05However, a case for a necessary warning could be made for a game like Boyfriend Dungeon.
12:10While the game is an excellent blend of RPG, roguelike, and dating sim mechanics,
12:15one character raised alarms for players as they would stalk
12:18and harass the player in ways that would often feel way too real.
12:23Developer Kitfox Games would implement a content warning
12:26soon after the issue was brought forward.
12:28To this day, Boyfriend Dungeon serves as an example of when to consider a player's
12:33potential real-life experiences, and it's almost impossible to play this game without
12:38remembering the ethical quandary presented at launch.
12:41The devs did add a warning, too, by the time the game launched.
12:49Mass Effect 3
12:58Mass Effect 3 used to be the most famous example of a great game overshadowed by controversy.
13:04As the final game of the original trilogy, it was almost everything we could have wanted
13:08until we got to the endings.
13:10So many people were outraged at how the endings painted their favorite characters
13:14in uncharacteristic lights.
13:16The anger was so intense that Bioware quickly worked on a new ending
13:20and patched that in shortly after launch.
13:22Even now, that whole kerfuffle is the one thing about Mass Effect 3
13:27that stands out more than the game itself.
13:36Killzone 2
13:37When looking at the Killzone franchise, many point to Killzone 2 as the best in the franchise,
13:47if not Killzone 3.
13:49To some, this notion might seem odd on account of how pissed off folks were at launch
13:54when they found out that the game didn't look anything like it did at E3 2005.
13:59This launch has forever been the moment when people learned what pre-rendered cutscenes
14:03and vertical slices were.
14:05It wasn't until years and years later when Guerrilla explained what had even happened back then.
14:11Turns out the trailer was actually a conceptual demo
14:15of what they aimed to do with the PlayStation 3's hardware.
14:18Sony's marketing team took that demo and passed it off as real gameplay to the public.
14:24Despite Killzone 2's exceptional quality in graphics, controls, and physics,
14:29this moment has become synonymous with Killzone as a brand.
14:35Dragon's Dogma 2
14:47We've covered games with microtransactions pretty extensively in this video,
14:50but Dragon's Dogma 2 will be the last for this list.
14:53Folks can get really sensitive to this practice invading games that are primarily single player,
14:59and it pretty much swallowed up the conversation around the game for weeks.
15:03At launch, Capcom implemented microtransactions for items that allowed players to fast travel
15:08or even prevent death.
15:10Many pundits and YouTubers who played the game quickly came to Capcom's defense,
15:14stating you could easily wind up with more of these resources than you'll know what to do with.
15:19Even then, some folks weren't buying the game simply for the lack of support for 60 frames per second.
15:25I am attentive and loyal, and prefer to remain by your side.
15:29In battle, I shall follow your lead and prioritize support.
15:32Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts
15:40A couple of years after being bought by Microsoft, Rare put out a teaser stating
15:44that they were working on a brand new Banjo-Kazooie game.
15:47In 2008, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts was released, and even after some great praise
15:52from reviewers for its incredible vehicle building system and imaginative worlds,
15:57a portion of the fanbase just wasn't having it.
16:00Like an infant throwing their food off the high chair, some fans began frothing at the mouth
16:05because of the game's focus on building vehicles for missions.
16:08Nuts & Bolts would become a commercial failure, selling only a few hundred thousand copies.
16:13Rare suffered from layoffs as Microsoft restructured the company to become a developer for Kinect.
16:23Dead Cells
16:29Initially, Dead Cells was just a brief blip on the radar,
16:32another roguelike indie game in a sea of roguelike indie games.
16:36Review scores were glowing, but there wasn't much noise around it
16:40until IGN published its review of the game.
16:42Turns out, one of their own staff members, Philip Mewson,
16:46had plagiarized his review from the YouTuber known as Boomstick Gaming.
16:50All of a sudden, Dead Cells' name was getting tossed around way more as the story exploded.
16:55When folks weren't seeing how many of Mewson's other reviews were plagiarized,
16:59they were relishing in the game's fantastic visuals,
17:02thrilling combat system, and intense boss fights.
17:05Dead Cells would see several updates and managed to sell over 5 million copies
17:09within its first three years after launch.
17:11Though, it's hard to talk about this game without talking about it
17:15as the time IGN plagiarized a review.
17:20Days Gone
17:30On the surface, Days Gone seemed like one of those rare failures from Sony,
17:34especially when you look back on the game's review process.
17:37Many critics who gave Days Gone middling or negative reviews
17:40were getting attacked by players who found no issues with the game,
17:43like critics had stated in their reviews.
17:46It was soon discovered that Sony had sent out review copies
17:49more than an entire month before the game's launch.
17:52While very, very few gaming media outlets would go through the effort
17:56to replay the game a second time under the now-fixed version,
18:00Days Gone still managed to sell more than 7 million copies by February 2022,
18:05almost three years since it released.
18:12The Last of Us Part II
18:14While we got Sony on the mind,
18:19none of their games have been more contentious among critics and fans
18:23than The Last of Us Part II.
18:25It feels like anything nice you say about the game
18:28is immediately shoved aside for a dozen other things people have a problem with.
18:32Some call it a game built entirely around shock value.
18:36Some call it woke propaganda.
18:38Some simply hate the game for its treatment of Joel.
18:42Everyone has a reason or excuse,
18:44and many refuse to acknowledge even one fraction of the game that was solid.
18:54Cyberpunk 2077
19:01Oh yeah, it's safe to say that when talking about excellent games plagued by controversy,
19:06Cyberpunk 2077 is the poster child.
19:10Prior to launch, there were some non-troversies that floated around here and there
19:15and were quickly dismissed as ridiculously unreasonable.
19:18But then, the launch happened.
19:21We, along with many, many other outlets, gave the game praise.
19:25Myself in particular, in our review, said that despite the severe technical performances,
19:31I was glued to the game and wanted to keep jumping back in to play more.
19:36Cyberpunk really was that good,
19:39and we were mocked for liking it.
19:42Fast forward to today after some updates and a version 2.0
19:45that makes some fundamental changes to how the game is played,
19:48and now, everybody's on the same page and says it's CD Projekt's best game ever made.
19:54And even then, the initial launch always, always comes up immediately after saying that.
20:04Is there another great game you feel got its attention stolen by some controversy?
20:10Let us know down in the comments below,
20:16and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.