It’s almost Halloween and time for fright! This time around, rather than going over scary survival horror games, I am going over some horrors of the gaming industry. I’m talking about blunders and just outright, “What were they thinking?” games, systems, and gaming moments. In no particular order, here we go:
- Philips CDi Zelda Games -Around 1993 Philips obtained permission to create games using five of their characters. From this Philips spawned three of the worst Zelda games ever imagined, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda’s Adventure. Please note that none of these games were published by Nintendo, or had anything to do with them other than the rights obtained by Philips and it shows. Oh boy, does it ever show. Two of the games were done as 2D sidescrollers and featured full FMV via poorly drawn and animated cutscenes and look as if they were drawn by preschoolers. The third game, Zelda’s Adventure, was overhead view,much like classic Zelda titles…only horrible. This game also featured live actors for its FMV. Fortunately for the Zelda series, the CDi was a flop, and the games are little known outside of hardcore gamers. Can’t believe Zelda games could ever suck? Watch the clip below and witness true horror.
- Virtual Boy – In 1995 Nintendo released its biggest blunder, the Virtual Boy. Created to immerse gamers, and caught up in the virtual reality fad that saw it as the future of gaming, Nintendo dove in. This beast utilized monochromatic, red led lights to emit images that appeared to be truly three dimensional to the user. While the idea of true 3D gaming is admirable, doing it using a gigantic red and black monitor attached to your face is not. First off, it was advertised as a portable system, yet really couldn’t be played unless you were lying down with it on your head or if you used the stand and had it sitting on a table. It didn’t strap to your face, so even lying down it would fall off your head repeatedly. Secondly, the colors were strictly in red and black, a horrid color combination that gave players headaches from just minutes of usage. Nintendo even advised not playing it for more than 15 minutes to prevent eye strain and headaches. Wouldn’t that give them the red flag (no pun intended) to drop the whole idea altogether? Unfortunately, it didn’t and it became Nintendo’s biggest failure. Only 22 games were made, only 14 of which were released in North America.
- Boonga Boonga – In this game, you get “revenge” on a range of characters such as lawyers, mother in law,and more. How do you seek revenge, you may wonder? Well, for starters, the arcade stand features a large rear end and a screen showing your would be victim. The controller for said game? A hand with a big index finger. I’ll give you one guess to where you stick it. Doing so causes the victim on screen to make a funny face in reaction to your dirty deed. Sound too strange to be true? Behold, Boonga Boonga in all its glory over at Destructoid.
There are many more strange horror moments in gaming. This is only but a few. What are some horrors in gaming that come to your mind?
wow some recent horrors in game must include:
1. Perfect Dark Zero: Hyped for almost 5 years. FIVE years. The sequel to the N64 masterpiece, this game was simply….. average. With average gameplay, too shiny graphics, bad voice acting, and an annoying lead character, you get an average game with a yacht-sized load of hype that initially hurt the 360 at launch. It took the system about a year to get a good killer app (Gears of War.) to add with Triple A titles (Call of Duty 2, Oblivion.)