Which old game back in the day had the most hype but was the biggest flop?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

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One that comes to mind is Microcosm.

It was hyped up as this next generation shooter yet when I played it I thought it was average.

I think it got built up as it was an early game, and maybe selling title when the CD32 came out.

en.wikipedia.org

Microcosm (video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org


With all that great intro you wouldn't think it was just a rapid shooter game.
 
Not as hyped but more like high on the flop scale with what happened to the dev studio!
I am talking about the 1999 game System Shock 2 by Looking Glass Studios, who also did the excellent Thief 1 & 2 games. SS2 had great reviews, won multiple Game of the Year awards and is also one of my favored games from that period.

However the game sold surprisingly badly in its first year, causing the studio to rack up such a hefty debt (plus some deals fell apart) that they were on the brink of bankruptcy while developing Thief 2.
They did manage to release Thief 2 (phew!) but despite good initial sales of the game, the studio ended up closing down just 2 months after releasing Thief 2!
 
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I never owned but Battlecruiser 3000AD with the infamous Jo Guest advert amongst others, this was universally panned during release?

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Tell a lie - just remembered I own a big box copy of 3000AD but never played (purchased for nostalgia & notoriety)! :o

Black and White (2000) seemed like a novelty, the magazines (PC Zone especially bigged up B&W massively)

Personally, Frontier Elite 2 (1993) I could not shoot a pirate for love nor money. I loved flight sims of the day, when compared to Falcon 3 the flight model was dreadful. I am perhaps being unfair but trying to manually fly the Cobra and dogfight was impossible! Could never get over the deepest darkest stretches of Space being blue!

Grand Theft Auto (1997) It was novel but the game grew old very quick.
 
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gpuerrilla said:
I thought B&W was pretty good, I wouldnt say it was a big flop. Not sure if I played the second one though.
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Might be a bit harsh against B&W classing as a personal flop, the hype at the time and over promises led to building expectations to fever pitch!

Truth be told, I struggled with Bullfrog games on the whole, Magic Carpet, Populous etc, I felt were overrated. Ironically, despite my gripes, would like to see a B&W GOG release! Last time I checked it was in the #10 of GOG wish list!
 
Anyone remember the fighting game Dangerous Streets from 1993 on the Amiga?
The game was hyped by Amiga for a while when it became part of the Amiga CD32 bundle to help promote their new CD console, however it was just so bad that some of the reviews out there was brutal!

Amiga CD32 Gamer gave it a 2/10 saying: “Whoever put this in the CD32 pack has a complete contempt for gamers, or is in the paid employ of Sega.” :eek:
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First I remember was Rise of the robots on Amiga. Paid about £30 in Meadowhall as a kid, it was shocking and I returned it.

Think I swapped it for Alien breed tower assault. Now that was a game!

Duke Nukem forever must be a main one. Delayed for so long and it released and looked like it was running on an engine a decade old :D
 
Not quite as old but mighty no. 9 for me
I backed it on Kickstarter excited for a new mega Man game and was sorely disappointed along with everyone rlse
 
Guest2 said:
Duke Nukem forever must be a main one. Delayed for so long and it released and looked like it was running on an engine a decade old :D
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Was going to say the same. I bought the big pack which came with loads of tat in the box (ending up being the best part) but ended up playing the game for an hour or two at most before ditching it.
 
Guest2 said:
First I remember was Rise of the robots on Amiga. Paid about £30 in Meadowhall as a kid, it was shocking and I returned it.

Think I swapped it for Alien breed tower assault. Now that was a game!

Duke Nukem forever must be a main one. Delayed for so long and it released and looked like it was running on an engine a decade old :D
Click to expand...

I waited so long for ROTR to come out, paid the full whack and played for about 10 minutes before wanting to break something. Pretty sure I had it on CD32. All of the Amiga Alien Breed games were class, I saw that one was released on PC but apparently not great.
 
Freelancer was pretty hyped up, but took so long in development that 3 years after the slated release date Microsoft had to boot Chris Roberts off the team just so they could finally get something out... and even then, it was still missing some of the most hyped features.
I note the similarities to the Roberts brothers' latest venture, Star Citizen.
 
I seem to remember a game on the Amiga called Megatraveller which went down like a sack of spuds. It was supposed to be a space faring role playing/bit of everything game, which would be the equivalent of something like Starfield nowadays, shoehorned onto a couple of floppy disks. Got panned at the time.
 
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