Video games have been around for ages, and we’ve played both great games as well as some of the worse things to ever grace the medium. Some bad games, however, just give you the feeling that they could have been great. Perhaps if the developer had more time to finish it? Maybe if it changed just some things around? Things could have been different and these games could have been truly great. Here are some of the biggest missed opportunity in gaming.


Ah, Spore. The first real lesson I learned about pre-ordering video games. Leading up to its release, Spore was all set to be the greatest Will Wright game of all time, and considering Will Wright gave us titles like Sim City and The Sims, that would have truly been a great honour. What we got, however was essentially a collection of half-baked mini games where you either went around eating everything or dancing to convince it that you’re friends. Gone was the advanced evolution simulation we were looking forward to. Gone were the possibilities of some real science experiments. Instead, what we got, while still okay and cute, was a shell of what it could have been.


One of the big system sellers before it came out, Lair was set to be one of the pillars of the PlayStation 3. It was supposed to make creative use of the Sixaxis motion controls of the DualShock 3 as you rode your dragon in a wide open world. What we got was a barely playable game. The motion controls sucked, and since it was supposed to be one of the big features of Lair, there wasn’t much of an option to switch to more traditional control methods. And really, when a game’s controls are bad enough to suck all enjoyment out of playing it, can you ever have any redeeming factor?


SimCity is more or less the spokesperson for horrible video game launches. With its always-online requirement meaning that barely anyone could actually play the game at launch, SimCity instantly garnered criticism from the series’ vast fanbase. While the always-online requirement has since been removed, SimCity still has loads of problems, with the biggest one being the ridiculously tiny amount of space you get to build a city. In fact, when you do manage to make a bustling city, it looks more like a borough than a full-fledged city. SimCity had potential, and its promise of co-operation with other players to build big clusters of cities could have been awesome, but the problems it faced have since marred the game, making it completely superfluous, especially with the release of Cities: Skylines.

Pokemon Go

Oh what promise Pokemon Go had. Based on the still-popular Ingress, Pokemon Go could have been the Pokemon MMORPG everyone was hoping for on a global scale. Sadly, its adherence to smartphone gaming tropes killed most of its momentum following the first couple of months of its launch. The gym battles were not fun to play at all, using the standard smartphone control method of swiping on your screen like a lunatic. And let’s not talk about the numerous server problems and how long it took the game to make it to most markets. I still look forward to a day we can get a Pokemon game that uses the series’ classic turn-based combat system that relies more on your own strategy and less on having bigger numbers and swiping speed than your opponents.

No Man's Sky

To say that No Man’s Sky was a disappointment would be a gigantic understatement. Now, where the blame lies for what No Man’s Sky was supposed to be and what it ended up being is debatable, but I do believe it’s fair to call it an Early Access game masquerading as a complete title. Hopefully future updates might ultimately make No Man’s Sky worth its price tag and hype, but right now, the number of problems plaguing it are immense, and it gets really repetitive and boring to play once you’ve visited a couple of planets.

Fable Legends

It’s been a while since we got a mainline game in the Fable series. The fantasy franchise had a unique charm to it, since it always had insane ambitions and always fell short in hilarious ways. Sadly, with Fable Legends being cancelled and no new title being announced in its place, it looks like it’s finally time to kiss the world of Albion, its wacky societal norms and the weirdos that inhabit it goodbye.


Hideki Kamiya and Platinum Games has an insanely impressive track record with games like Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. This fact makes it all the more sad that Microsoft has decided to cancel Scalebound. The game has apparently gone through troubled development, but considering the mad geniuses at Platinum Games were able to pull Metal Gear Solid: Rising out of purgatory and give us Revengeance, Scalebound could possibly have been one of the best reasons to grab an Xbox One. Sadly, we shall never know.