25 Most Overrated Games of All Time?

AriesGeek writes "GameSpy is running the 1st of a 6-part special on the 25 most overrated games of all time. From the article: 'Over the next several days GameSpy is taking a tour through the 25 most overrated games of all time. It's not a pretty list. It's a tale of tragedy where hype gets out of hand, or good licenses and great ideas fail to live up to expectations.' You think Zero Wing will be on there?" As with previous charts, predictions for the Top 5 are welcome, we'll run another story at the end of the week to see how people did.

Comments

Random Predictions

[MajikMan]

Daikatana
Tao Feng
Enter the Matrix
DDR
Unreal 2
Resident Evil (even though I love the game)
Sim Copter

Final Fantasy 7

[Gothic_Walrus]

This game has been hailed repeatedly as "The Best RPG of All Time" ... if you listen to fanboys. The game itself was okay, but that's all it is. FF7 didn't bring anything revolutionary to the RPG genre. Hell, there are other, better RPGs even within the Final Fantasy series. The only things that FF7 did truly right were being one of the earlier RPGs released for the Playstation and being the recipient of millions of Square's advertising budget.

Okay game? Yes. Best ever? Not by a long shot.

Re:Final Fantasy 7

[cloudless.net]

FF7 was so highly rated at that time because of the following reasons:
- Its graphics was way ahead of all other RPGs at that time. It took years for someone else to match that level.
- Its music was great, and it was a huge step from 16-bit consoles.
- It kept the great RPG elements and didn't try too hard to add new stuff. FF8 tried too hard by eliminating magic points, level ups, weapons, money etc, and it failed. FF7 simply feels like a great classic with a new face.

It is probably not the best RPG of all time, but it was the best RPG at that time. And I still love it.

Zelda 4 and up

[JFMulder]

The two Zelda incarnations on the N64 were in my own opinion totally overrated game. It offered somewhat new gameplay, but it just wasn't a Zelda game. It's like that old Coke commercial where you had two guys in front of abottle of a noname Coke-Clone and are comparing it to a real one :

Moves lile coke...
Looks like coke...
Smells like coke...
Tastes like... chicken???

It's as if Nintendo just took the visuals from Zelda and basic story elements (save the princess from Ganon, and you're Link), and used them for a totally unrelated game, like they did with Super Mario Bros 2, which is not a Mario game in Japan. Nintendo swapped the sprites for the American release and named it Mario 2 to cash in the name of the first game.

I remember the Zelda's prior 64 as an all out action game, while the two games on the N64 were about walking a minute in a direction on the world map, kill a monster, walk again, repeat until you reach the next dungeon. I haven't played the latest game, but it looked like a rehash for the 64 version but with cell shading, so I wouldn't call it innovative either.

Think about it:
- Zelda 1 was awesome.
- Zelda 2 was fun, but not a really innovative game.
- Zelda 3 introduced you more of the same, but had a city, somewhat 3d levels, talking characters, two worlds to explore who overlap and more special goodies then you could ever dream of.
- Zelda : The awakening fish or something on the Gameboy was mostly a rehash of Zelda 3.

After that, the only changes were 3D. Nothing to brag about here. Mario 64 was out as the same time as the console and already did that.

Re:The rest of the games (20-1)

[malex23]

#19 Homeworld maybe?

Hell, I hope not. Homeworld rocks... the only reason I'm not getting HW2 tomorrow is that I need to get things done this month.

Personally, if Master Of Orion 3 isn't on the list, I'll be pretty stunned.

My predictions

[Prien715]

1) Black and White: Cool technology. I bought it, took it home, and was bored in 3 hours. Most damn repetitive gameplay ever created. Which leads me to number 2....

2) Diablo 2: Hey look! It's a hack'n'slash. I can gain levels and I can kill lots of mindless enemies with my friends. I failed to see the appeal to the game when it came out, and, except for a brief moment, I still think it's extremely repetitive and mindless.

3) Everquest: See Diablo 2. Except here, you mulitply all the time factors by 5. Ability system is slightly better.

4) Metal Gear Solid 2: I hate to say this, cause I thought it was a great game, but after playing the first one, it didn't seem all that revolutionary. There's a pop-backlash against this game which had a good (albeit out there at times) story and solid gameplay which was in a class of its own with the exception of the first game.

5) Final Fantasy 7: Good, one of my favorites in the series. It managed to combine new technology in a good way (usually smoothly integrates FMV for the most part rather than the "Oh look, we're doing a movie" like many other RPGs, opening sequence is a good example). Ability system solved the problem of using unused characters (although at the expense of individuality) and had a deeper ability system than gaining levels and completing two quests (I'm looking in your direction FF4). Good storyline (other "old school" FF fanboys tend to dislike to sci-fi feel of the game compared to previous games, and then complain it was unoriginal). But like I said, it doesn't matter what's good or bad, only what people think. And for those of you wondering. I played the original when it came out, and have beaten every one since with the exception of 8.

TSO

[mrpuffypants]

If we're talking overhyped at all in context with the article then I firmly vote for The Sims Online.

Jesus Christ! It was on the fucking cover of Newsweek!!

People were expecting hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the service, they saw it bridging the gap and getting "regular folks" into online gaming.

And what happened? Nothing.

Few signed up for it, lag was everywhere, mobs formed in the game and overall it was boring! Who wants to play a game online just to chat with other people? At least in Everquest you get to hit things with swords.