Games That Turned Hype Into Disappointment - Features -
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Games That Turned Hype Into Disappointment

Today's cancellation of Aliens: Colonial Marines on Wii U is the final chapter in the long and sad story of the game's development. At one point, Colonial Marines was a highly anticipated title, but fans' excitement and expectations hit rock bottom once they actually played it. This doesn't happen often in the industry, but occasionally we are unpleasantly surprised when the reality of a title falls far short of our high hopes. These are some of this generation's examples of this concept. They aren't all bad games; some of them just couldn't live up to the ridiculous hype surrounding them.


When Will Wright first unveiled Spore, it looked like it had the potential to change video games forever. The idea of guiding an organism through all of the stages of evolution was compelling, but Maxis struggled with crafting gameplay around the heady concept. The end result didn't drastically alter the video game landscape, but at least it was still fun (which is more than can be said for SimCity).

Too Human

Developer Silicon Knights built a reputation with games like Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. That meant that gamers were excited when the studio unveiled its concept for a techno-Norse sci-fi trilogy. However, a full series wasn't in the cards; prolonged development and technical issues caused the project to go sour, and when the finished product hit shelves, gamers found it to be far less than what was promised.


In a market dominated by yearly Call of Duty releases, Homefront promised to offer a fresh, more human look at war. THQ was banking on this shooter's premise of a Korean-occupied USA resonating with its audience, but the by-the-numbers gameplay and lack of polish kept Homefront from hitting the mark. The poor performance of Homefront is one of many factors in THQ's downfall.

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