Most Dissapointing Game System

[deliverer]

Since we are excluding the current gen I can't think of a disapointing system. They've all been great. Tho I never owned a 32x, Sega cd or any other micellaneous system...

[puslar_t]

N64 was another failed project to me.

The joystick was bad (a first for Nintendo), the cartridge games were limited and the the blurry graphics still give me nightmares of not knowing what's going on right in front of me!

It was Nintendo, so it lasted. But it was an Awful, Awful piece of hardware.

Even with Zelda 64 and Mario 64 - two of the greatest ever!

I agree. The cart format proved that Nintendo still had that "control freak corporate mindset" (as eloquently put by the Scribe). Also disappointing were the Megadrive add-ons, the PSP (misses the point of handheld gaming) and the Jaguar. 3DO was an open system and Trip Hawkins has been a decent businessman but come on, that entry price was atrocious!

Edited October 26, 2008 by puslar_t

[deliverer]

I agree. The cart format proved that Nintendo still had that "control freak corporate mindset" (as eloquently put by the Scribe). Also disappointing were the Megadrive add-ons, the PSP (misses the point of handheld gaming) and the Jaguar. 3DO was an open system and Trip Hawkins has been a decent businessman but come on, that entry price was atrocious!

please explain how the psp "misses the point of handheld gaming"?

[meppi]

please explain how the psp "misses the point of handheld gaming"?

Well this might be my own interpretation, but for me it's 2 points actually.

First one is that battery life and the second is that I would enjoy the vast amount of games for the PSP on the PS2 instead.

Which seems to be something even Sony acknowledges through the option to hook up the PSP directly to a TV.

N64 was another failed project to me.

The joystick was bad (a first for Nintendo)

I strongly disagree with this.

It was the first analog joystick for a major system, which was copied later on by everyone.

I never had any problems with the N64 joystick, besides it wearing out after time from overuse.

Sega made a 3D pad which was absolutely perfect for playing NiGHTS, but wasn't much good for anything else.

And the Playstation analogue sticks aren't that great either, although I have to say that I did love the feel of the original XBox sticks.

[akator]

I guess there are a lot of disappointing systems, all depending on time. I'm going to leave out some of the obvious ones, such as Game.com and Gizmondo, because no one took them seriously then or takes them seriously now.

Atari 5200

In recent years I've learned to appreciate this system, but at the time it wasn't good enough to compete with the Colecovision. It wasn't backwards compatible with the 2600 and had questionable controllers. I like it now because it is classic, but in the early 80s it just didn't cut it with the competition.

Atari 7800

If this system had been released when first developed, it would have been worthwhile. Instead Tramiel decided that Atari should only do computers. When the NES surfaced, Atari released the 7800 to keep in the market. It was crippled by 2600 sound but offered a lot of power, unfortunately lost because of a stale selection of early 80s arcade ports. These days I love the 7800, especially the homebrew games, but it wasn't good enough at the time. The NES and SMS cleaned up with original games and more recent arcade ports, making the 7800 only useful for playing 2600 titles and older arcade ports. The crappy audio will never be a good thing, even now. That said, there are some great classic games available.

All early CD Game Systems

Sure, there were a few gems like Myst... but have you tried to play it recently? Most early CD games stunk no matter the platform. Developers hadn't figured out what to do with the extra storage and kept creating "interactive video" games. Imagine a ton of cut scenes strung together. It's more fun to read an old "Choose Your Own Adventure" book from the early 80s.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Add-ons (32x & CD)

Again, there were a few standout titles... but there weren't enough to choose from to justify buying the hardware.

Atari Jaguar

A marketed 64 bits (still debate on that) of disaster. Only a handful of titles were and are worth playing. Of course, there wasn't much more than that ever produced, either. The lousy titles were so bad it's hard to believe. Unfortunately, there were more stinkers in the game library than there were gems. Still, like every platform, there are die-hard fans...

Sega Nomad

Yeah, it's cool that a portable played Genesis games. But have you used one of these bricks? It's about as ergonomic as... a brick. Cool idea, poor execution.

Sega Saturn

Some good titles but overall crushed by the PSX. It could have been more, but Sega was into selling new hardware every few years and not supplying enough software. The Saturn could have competed with the PSX, but would-have-should-have is pointless. The handful of decent exclusive titles on the Saturn just didn't compete, then or now.

N64

Definitely not all that it was built up to be. By the time it was released, the nice graphics just weren't enough to convince people who were already invested in a PSX. The expensive carts, while the same price as today's games, further buried interest because 2 PSX games could be had for the price of one N64 cart. Nintendo didn't help by releasing so many "family friendly" titles when the trend was more mature content. I appreciate the N64 and love the standout titles, but at the time it didn't offer enough for me to make the investment.

[triverse]

The 3DO failed because of lack of focus. I mean had EA attacked the market like a true manufacturing company would have (that is another problem), with games like Madden (yeah it eventually came out) at launch, Need For Speed (although back then it was a new IP so it was not a system seller-has it ever been a system seller?) then things may have been a little different. The reason I pick EA out of the bunch that were backing the 3DO is because they were the biggest and most savvy at games (Matsushita had the money to buy their way in like Microsoft did but for some reason didn't).

Also, I think the fact that no one company really was held as the standard of the console made it hard on consumers who may have been confused that the systems were not compatible (remember these were consumers coming from the mindset that if it was made by Nintendo, and carried the Nintendo seal or logo that it would play on a Nintendo), they had Sanyo, Panasonic and at least one more company producing the system. Sega has licensed out their systems in the past and had moderate success but you knew, as a consumer, which was the lead system. 3DO should have had a system of their own available alongside the ones from the other companies (I think that the Panasonic system is the accepted standard since they were first). 3DO just licensed off specs and the companies licensing the specs were free to add to them as they saw fit (like Sanyo offering the digital video card but it was not compatible with Panasonic systems-talk about fragmenting your user base).

Another thing, 3DO had no focus. I mean, they were not going to make games themselves (but they did have Studio 3DO later on). Who is going to set the gaming standard on the system? Who was going to make the Mario of 3DO that would move systems and show fans and consumers what the system was capable of? Apparently, no one. They system seller never came. Sure they got Super Street Fighter II (I don't remember exactly what variation) but it was too little too late. There was rumor of Mortal Kombat III and NBA Jam (neither materialised though) but those would have probably been too late too. They were marketing the 3DO as the end all be all multimedia system for the living room but they didn't give you everything in the box for it to happen (there was rumored to be add-ons to record TV, add memory to the system and even network it to an online network that was to be established later). Shame none of that stuff ever came to be. The price didn't help at all really. By the time they dropped the price to a competitive number it was too late as developer interest had already moved on (although towards the end stores had trouble keeping the system in stock).

Shame really.

[Thor]

1. The Virtual boy because it sucks

2. N64, some very good games and the legend of zelda oot is the best game ever, but you cant compare games like Cruis'n USA for arcade and Cruis'n USA for N64, on n64 this game suck and killer I gold was better on arcade(KI2), i mean that nintendo said "N64's games will be better than those games for Ultra 64' arcade" but it was not. Playstation was the winner of that Generation cuz of it.

How dare you!!!!

Not the Virtual Boy. One of my favorite systems!

But I agree with the N64 I loved the system but it was a huge let down. Cruis'n USA arcade game was supposed to have been built of the N64 hardware but when you play the N64 version it was such a let down. (Though I still enjoyed both that and Cruis'n World on the N64)

I do have to agree with meppi though. The controller was great a first in video game history. And have you tried to play games on the Wii that were originally designed for the N64. I think they need to release an N64 controller add on for the Wiimote... though I know it will never happen.

[dhowerter]

Guess some people can't read. The most disappointing system I own/owned was the 32X. But overall, I think there were worse ones. The Philips CD-i, Amiga CD32, Virtual Boy...none of those did better than the 32X as far as I know.

Heh. I think the Virtual Boy has more games on it I like than the 32X..or maybe they're about equal.

In any case worst system goes to the cd-i easily.

.

[dakonishi]

N64 was a tird on arrival. I got PS1 on its launch date then traded my friend for the N64 when Goldeneye came out, big mistake. The only games worth anything on the N64 were the Zeldas and Goldeneye.

[dhowerter]

N64 was a tird on arrival. I got PS1 on its launch date then traded my friend for the N64 when Goldeneye came out, big mistake. The only games worth anything on the N64 were the Zeldas and Goldeneye.

Are you talking about only the N64 games available near US launch?

Because if you are not, the N64 has several very nice games in its library, for example:

Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, Blast Corps, Wipeout, Turok 1 and 2, Doom 64, Hexen 64, Quake 1 and 2, Beetle Acventure Racing, Glover, Paper Mario, Banjo-Kazooie, Starfox 64, Mischief Makers, Wave Race 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Pokemon Snap, Yoshi's Story, both Mystical Ninja games, Super Smash Bros, F-Zero X, and Kirby 64 off the top of my head

.

[mikecox]

- Sega 32x, is it really a 32-bit machine?

- Atari Jaguar (64 bit machine? no way!), I think that both Genesis and Snes were more powerful.

PD sorry by my English, I try my best.

[mowlan]

mega cd and 32x, this VC are no really a videoconsola, simply is an accesory.

all this systems are innovations, wrong innovations

[Crazylightsaber]

Virtual Boy. And yes I still own the damn thing. I still have a headache.

[DPsx7]

I own at least 30 and don't think I regretted a single one. The Virtual Boy was best used when laying down. The DC had some great games, it just didn't last long enough. While the GBA was dark the games were great. I skipped any of the systems that didn't have games I wanted to play so I don't have ones like the 3DO, 32X, Master System, Jaguar, Lynx, or even the XB and 360 (even though those 2 aren't included in the topic).

If I really had to choose one I'll say PSP. Why? Sony focused too much on lameass movies and other features, the games didn't come fast enough. And once they did they never worked as the friggin system always wanted an update, which I refused. It was cool while it lasted, stopped using it like 3 years ago. I still hate updating my Wii or PS3 as I don't need the extra gimmicks they add and there's always a chance the system won't be the same afterwards. If they'd only give us a way to downgrade like on a PC I'd feel safer doing so.

[Thor]

Am I the only one who really was not disappointed in any of the systems. As far as systems go I've been very happy with every system I've owned and that would be all of the US game systems except for Odyssey (any of it's incarnations), Fairchild, Telestar, Atari 400, Vectrex, and of course some of the more obscure systems I have not owned either. But those would be from the main ones. Anyway I've always been able to enjoy all of the systems that have ever been released.

But if I did have to choose when it comes to disappointment because of hype I too would have to go with 32X. Though I've spent many hours playing it the games just were not very good.

[franc]

32x

[Mister Zero]

Sega CD was a big letdown, but I found quite a few gems I love, nonetheless. Lunar, Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Popful Mail, Sonic CD were the main draws. But overall, that system could've been better..

[jesus666]

Personally i'd say the 32X, CDI and the Atari Jaguar were the most dissapointing consoles/add ons ever made, they just didn't really have any stand out titles

Consoles that aren't dissapointing

3DO - I never expected anything to come from this console when it was 1st announced but by the end it had 30-40 good games many of which could stand up to their peers on the PS1 and Saturn so I couldn't say it was dissapointing, however I'm sure if I'd paid the full $700 when it came out that would've been a different matter.

N64 - I chose the N64 over the PS1 during that gen and felt validated by my decision ever day from then onwards, never once did I feel dissapointed in anyway, the controller was great when you got used to it, the graphics to me looked far superior to those on Saturn/PS1, there were loads of cool 4 player games that me and my friends had great fun with and though the games did cost more many were the best of their genres available for the time.

[Ferneu]

N64 was another failed project to me.

The joystick was bad (a first for Nintendo), the cartridge games were limited and the the blurry graphics still give me nightmares of not knowing what's going on right in front of me!

It was Nintendo, so it lasted. But it was an Awful, Awful piece of hardware.

Even with Zelda 64 and Mario 64 - two of the greatest ever!

I'm sorry sorry, but I have to disagree. The Joystick was and still is

one of the best ever made. It is so good that I'm still seeking an

Adaptoid up to this day

[Rave92]

Jaguar I guess, but I never owned it, so meh.

[nickerous]

I'd say Dreamcast. I've got many games for it, but never play it anymore. It's been in storage for close to 7 years now. Possibly more. I also think the N64 is a close second.

[Thor]

Personally i'd say the 32X, CDI and the Atari Jaguar were the most dissapointing consoles/add ons ever made, they just didn't really have any stand out titles

Consoles that aren't dissapointing

3DO - I never expected anything to come from this console when it was 1st announced but by the end it had 30-40 good games many of which could stand up to their peers on the PS1 and Saturn so I couldn't say it was dissapointing, however I'm sure if I'd paid the full $700 when it came out that would've been a different matter.

N64 - I chose the N64 over the PS1 during that gen and felt validated by my decision ever day from then onwards, never once did I feel dissapointed in anyway, the controller was great when you got used to it, the graphics to me looked far superior to those on Saturn/PS1, there were loads of cool 4 player games that me and my friends had great fun with and though the games did cost more many were the best of their genres available for the time.

You've obviously never played White Men Can't Jump on the Jaguar otherwise you'd be singing a different tune

[Areala]

Just in terms of potential vs. realization, the 32X wins this battle hands-down. It's the only system I know of that had more games cancelled for it than it actually had released. However, the 32X is not a system itself, merely an add-on component.

For a full system, it has to be a 3-way tie between the 3DO, the CD-i, and the Jaguar. Panasonic and Philips clearly had no idea what they were doing when it came to entering the video game market, especially with Panasonic's effort to corner the market on console video game porn with the likes of "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties". We won't even discuss the CD-I Zelda titles; even Nintendo refuses to admit they ever existed. The Jaguar, on the other hand, had a modicum of titles released for it, but only Tempest 2000 and Alien vs. Predator could be really be considered "killer apps". The sudden appearance and equally sudden death of the Jaguar CD add-on is just another footnote in failed console history. But really, any controller that provides you with more buttons than you have fingers on two hands was just asking to be crapped upon by everyone in the known universe.

As far as portable systems go, there's really only one true nominee for this category, and that's the unfortunate Virtual Boy. Although I never owned one, I still harbour a hatred for Nintendo management during this time for what they did to Gunpei Yokoi. Those of you who aren't familiar with the name will nonetheless know of his greatest gaming creation (Metroid) and his greatest contribution to the handheld market (Game Boy). And yet, the genius responsible for creating the adventure game design that is still emulated/ripped off by other companies to this day suffered a setback when it came to the design of the Virtual Boy. When it came time to show it off, Nintendo was so disgusted by the project that they basically stuck him in a corner of a booth somewhere at the Tokyo Game Show in the hopes that nobody would show any interest and that they wouldn't have to deal with the shame of knowing the Virtual Boy was a Nintendo product after all. A great man with a grand vision for gaming was ruined by the company he helped boost to number one, and was treated as an outcast afterwards; he resigned from Nintendo shortly thereafter. Yokoi never managed to regain his honour after the slamming the Virtual Boy took in the press and from Nintendo itself as he was killed in a car accident in 1997.

Those are my nominees, and I'm sticking to 'em.

[Gnash]

Virtual Boy all the way.

[yara]

jaguar.

i had high hopes for it. but it really was mediocre.