Black & White - Most Overrated Game Ever?

Following on from our earlier story about GameSpy's 25 Most Overrated Games countdown, the Top 5 have been announced, and Lionhead's PC-based 'god game', Black & White, made it to the top spot, with GameSpy suggesting: "Sometimes... people want to love a game so badly that its reputation runs away with itself." Congratulations to an an anonymous reader for guessing right, before another commenter noticed screenshots for the Top 5 had already been uploaded, doh. Meanwhile, Penny Arcade chime in on the chart, commenting: "When you deny the profound effect of Donkey Kong Country's fully rendered sprites in 1994, making the system a bulwark against the 32-bit revolution, there is no educating you", and illustrating: "If a company that overhypes games does a feature on overhyped games, are they overhyping the game?"

Comments

The only one that chaffes me is DOA3

[Elwood P Dowd]

The rest of the games I either basically agree with them, or never heard of. (And I'm ignoring their confusion between overhyped and overrated.)

DOA3, however... had *excellent* gameplay. They accuse it of rewarding button mashing. My roomie's girlfriend played it a bunch, and pretty consistently beat the hell out of button mashers. I knew more of the combos and special moves, and I pretty consistently beat the hell out of her. My roomie had a better feel for the timing and range and pretty consistently beat the hell out of me. (And anyone else that ever played the game.)

They bitch about the counter system... what? What is the complaint? Is it too weak? Too powerful? Frustrating? What's frustrating about it? They say it's "flawed" but wasn't really improved in 3. Ok. I still don't know what that means.

The main reason I ask isn't because I'm positive that it's the best fighter ever. I ask because I'm so fucking baffled why more fighter game fans don't play it. Is there some flaw I'm missing? What's so much better in other games? Please, fill me in.

Re:I'd like to show my rebuttal

[DeadScreenSky]

The fact that anyone credits it with extending the lifespan of the SNES is beyond me...

Then maybe you should look at sales numbers sometime. It sold like gangbusters, and single-handedly brought the SNES decisively ahead of the Genesis in sales. It also ensured that the SNES would continue to sell tons of games even with the competition of newer consoles.