Summary
The current sad reality of the games industry is that if a game isn’t successful upon release, it’ll typically just die, and sometimes even completely vanish — especially if it’s an online game. Back in the early 2000s, however, games were allowed to trip and fall at launch, and despite probably never recouping the development costs, they could endure long enough to see opinions on them change.
The original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 are home to many such cases, so this list aims to take a look at some of the best games that got an unfair shake upon release.
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
An Acquired Taste
For casual gamers and manyTomb Raiderfans,The Angel of Darknessis one of the most disappointing games of all time. After the longest development period of any game in the series, the final result was marred by some rather clunky controls and a bunch of gameplay additions that most felt contributed nothing (good) to the gameplay.
Still, once (and if) players get past the original awkwardness, there’s an interesting, darker take on Lara Croft that many are sure to enjoy and see as much better than originally anticipated. While still not perfect, players who want to give this one a shot should totally do it through the pretty goodTomb Raider IV-VIRemasters.
Rule of Rose’sbiggest problem was playing akin to a classicSilent Hilltitle in an era after the release ofResident Evil 4. That, combined with some really heavy themes and a weak distribution, ledRule of Roseto gather weak review scores and to sell poorly upon release.
Sad, as it’s quite a memorable game — and would be even if the short supply hadn’t turned it into one of the most valuable PlayStation 2 titles in existence. Yes, the only reasonRule of Roseisn’t one of thebest horror games people haven’t heard ofis that it became very well known for its rarity and market value.
Urban Reign
The Future of Streets of Rage (that Everybody Ignored)
Games often get bad scores because they’re perceived to have bad gameplay, at least when compared to the games of their time.Urban Reignabsolutely does not suffer from that problem. It’s avery solid brawlerwith a vast set of incredibly fun moves players can use to kick the ass of hundreds of bad guys.
It plays like an improved version ofTekken Force, theTekkenminigame that plays like a 3D take onStreets of Rage. Urban Reignis incredibly fun in both single and multiplayer mode — where up to four friends get to fight it out — but the main campaign is sadly too repetitive, and the game ultimately ended up paying a high cost, review-wise, for that. It’s a shame, as it proved a very solid rebirth of theStreets Of Rageseries long before the latest title in the series came out.
One of the titles that gathered more hype in the time between the reveal of the PS2 and its release wasThe Bouncer, a rare title inSquareSoft’s librarythat would have players performing combos in real time on their enemies instead of planning them ahead of time in turn-based battles.The Bouncerwas met with average to negative reviews upon release, though that likely happened due to how much hype had been growing surrounding this new title from the people behind theFinal Fantasyseries.
The Bouncer’sonly real problems are that it’s pretty straightforward and also that it features a rather simple story. Those issues might have been the result of the game having been rushed to come out early in the console’s life cycle, and being straightforward isn’t much of a problem when the developers are going for aStreets Of Rage-like kind of game. Also, the story’s simplicity is actually not all that bad when looking at how over-complex the stories of some laterFinal Fantasygames can get.
Disaster Report
The Original Deadly Premonition
Upon release,Disaster Reporthad a bit of a polarizing effect. A survival game that featured no horror movie elements? One where the only horror ranged from more or less realistic tocompletely ridiculous?Few knew what to make of this game about escaping disaster-struck areas or saving others in such predicaments.
Still, if the success of the series that has already spawned three sequels is any indicator, people ended up understanding that there’s totally enough space for the “Disaster Horror” genre — even outside of the real world.
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
It Deserved Way More Love Than it Ended Up Getting
When transitioning from the original PlayStation to the PlayStation 2, fans of theCrashBandicootseries likely expected the game to change drastically. It did not. It looked much better than ever before, but it played more or less just like the previous games in the series — and this was viewed as a bad thing.Wrath of Cortex,just like the unfairly malignedCrash Bash, is a great addition to theCrash Bandicootseriesthat many have only recently been getting into.
So, in case anyone got excited to try this one out, please keep in mind this is notCrash Bandicoot 4, but the first fourth entry in the franchise. Pretty sure that’ll make navigating the continuity much easier.
Enter The Matrix
Brave and Bold
There are certainly tie-in video game adaptations that are better thanEnter The Matrix, but no other movie tie-in fits quite as well into the cinematic whole asEnter The Matrixdoes. This wasan incredibly ambitious titlethat took place at the same time asThe Matrix: Reloaded, and it added quite a bit of welcome content to the overall story.
Some of the game’s animations felt a bit clunky, but the gun play and Kung-Fu action were pretty damn fun for the most part. Plenty of people have gone on to decide that theStar Warsprequels are good, actually, so there’s no reason people shouldn’t also change their minds regarding a game that actually lived up to its ludicrously lofty ambitions.
