20 TERRIBLE Games That Had the Potential To Be AMAZING
“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” (2024)
Marvel's Avengers vs Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
At first, we had no reason to doubt Rocksteady. This was the studio behind the “Batman: Arkham” games, the company that showed how to make superhero games. Perhaps “Suicide Squad” was their chance to show how a live service game should be made? Nope. “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” proved all the live service skeptics right. While the story was solid and the gunplay was fun, the mission structure and world design was so mundane that the game quickly grew boring for most players after about thirty minutes. As for the live service elements, tell us, what is the point of having seven different currencies or sacrificing a proper ending just so you have an excuse to roll out more post-launch support?
“Choo-Choo Charles” (2022)
The second “Choo-Choo Charles” went viral, we were on board. The idea of a horror game featuring a demonic Thomas the Tank Engine was too goofy to pass up, and many shared the same sentiment. Unfortunately, novelty only gets you so far. Like “Resident Evil’s” Nemesis and Mr. X, Charles would show up at the most inopportune times and rarely ever give up the chase even if he couldn’t reach you. As for the cultists, you had no means of fighting back unless you ran all the way back to your train and took them out with your weapons there. With those two issues in play, “Choo-Choo Charles” wound up overstaying its welcome for some folks. Hopefully the money it did make will let developer Two Star Games flesh things out a bit more for a sequel.
“Alpha Protocol” (2010)
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We can admit that “Alpha Protocol” might be hard for some to digest. Some of us are already on board with it for the simple idea of Obsidian Entertainment making an RPG shooter themed around secret agents! Despite the neat idea, even we gotta admit the game is hard to recommend. It doesn’t run super well, the gunplay feels off and makes it hard to properly aim, the stealth is kind of hard to get around, and the different character classes don’t offer much in replay value. Overall, “Alpha Protocol” was a rare bump in the road for Obsidian that very, very few can tolerate.
“Panzer Dragoon Remake” (2020)
At one point in gaming history, “Panzer Dragoon” was one of SEGA’s coolest games on the market. However, as rail shooters have faded into obscurity, so has “Panzer Dragoon”. Perhaps a remake could have started a resurgence, which in that case, we would be up for a remake of the first game. The problem is that “Panzer Dragoon Remake” was unable to do just that. It was quite literally a one-to-one recreation of the first game with no bells or whistles to try and improve the tired formula. And with the game only lasting about an hour from start to finish, we have to wonder what the point of this was if it wasn’t to revive the IP.
“Wolfenstein: Youngblood” (2019)
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Contrary to what most folks were saying at the time, a co-op “Wolfenstein” was a really cool idea. Running around and blasting Nazis with oversized weapons and liberating areas of the world would have made for a fun game. Where “Youngblood” went wrong was how it approached the story and lack of any interesting ideas. Despite being an FPS with some RPG elements, there’s nothing in the mechanics to make Jessie and Zofia fun to play as. It was already bad enough that their dialogue was hit or miss with the banter. Sometimes, it was genuinely funny. Other times, it was obnoxious. And so, many dismissed “Wolfenstein: Youngblood” the second it dropped.
“Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite” (2017)
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The “Marvel vs. Capcom” games have a storied history of excellent mechanics and massive rosters. But for the fourth game in the series, Capcom aimed higher and included a story mode. Sounds like another fantastic addition to what would be a fantastic game, right? You couldn’t BE more wrong. The story mode had some incredibly awkward writing and an absurd quagmire of story beats cobbled together haphazardly. It didn’t help that much of the roster had some really weird proportions in their faces and bodies. They really couldn’t do better than this, huh?
“Kao the Kangaroo” (2022)
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With so many amazing 3D platformers coming out of the woodwork between Crash, Spyro, and the indie market, it seemed like there might be room for “Kao the Kangaroo”. Then, the demo came out, and it showed some troubling signs. By the time the game launched, well, the kangaroo was down for the count. “Kao the Kangaroo” succeeded in making pretty visuals, but failed in conjuring a captivating story or even coming up with a decent combat system. Considering Kao’s whole schtick is being a kangaroo with boxing gloves, it’s hard to believe that developer Tate Multimedia couldn’t come up with something more creative than what was delivered.
“Forspoken” (2023)
While we did defend “Forspoken” in our recent list of 10 Games That Received Unfair Criticism, we can understand why folks were dismissive of it. The story and writing are pretty freakin’ awful! It makes it pretty damn hard to want to like this game. But credit where it's due, there is a great game underneath it. The traversal is fun, the combat is spectacular visually and satisfying to take part in, and the boss battles are colossal in scope. Frey’s story did have potential at one point, but if one thing is certain, Gary Whitta and Amy Hennig did NOT write whatever was put into the final product.
“Bounty Battle” (2020)
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With “Smash Bros. Ultimate” wrapping up DLC at the time, there was enough room for some new platform fighters to fill the space. “Bounty Battle” had the right idea by making a game centered on indie games duking it out against each other. That is the game we got at launch, but holy crap, did it run like hot garbage! You cannot launch a fighting game with an abysmal frame rate and awful load times! This game could have popped off had there been some extra time to properly optimize its performance.
“Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” (2022)
At one point, “Wonderlands” looked like it could have been a bold, new direction for “Borderlands” since “Borderlands 3” was mediocre as hell. We really could have used more of Tiny Tina’s wild imagination in an expanded campaign of Bunkers & Badasses. Of course, Gearbox wasn’t willing to put in their hundred and ten percent. While much of the humor was stuck in 2012 tween mentality, character classes offered no room for players to experiment and felt like half-baked knock-offs of “Borderlands 2’s” selection of character classes. The gunplay was still fun, yes, but what’s the point when everything else felt so “meh”?
“Mighty No. 9” (2016)
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“Mighty No. 9” will forever live in infamy and serve as a blight on Keiji Inafune’s career, and deservedly so. This was a game that had the audacity to insult its own demographic and act like a hotshot while offering a bland experience and nothing interesting in its combat or level design. But there was a time where this game was looking like it could have been the next big thing. All you need to look at is one beautiful piece of concept art, showing a game that was striving to be a major evolution in the action-platformer genre. Yeah, not in this timeline. But hey, it’s better than nothing.
“AEW Fight Forever” (2023)
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For the longest time, WWE has reigned supreme as the top dog in wrestling games…but that’s because it’s only ever been the only option next to the “Fire Pro Wrestling” games. With the rise of the AEW, it was only a matter of time before the promotion would launch their own game to further compete with WWE. It went horribly. “AEW Fight Forever” was littered with about as many bugs and glitches as the older “WWE 2K” games. Meanwhile, “WWE 2K23” was pulling in big numbers even more. Some improvements have been made to “Fight Forever” since launch, but with such a lean roster and a dull campaign, AEW still has a long way to go in the gaming market to take on the head honcho.
“Silent Hill: The Short Message” (2024)
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Konami has been eager to bring “Silent Hill” back and do so in a way that is sure to sell gangbusters. That streaming stunt was not super well-received. As for free-to-play “The Short Message”? Well, if you want a game that advocates mental health, this game isn’t it. Never had we seen a game relish in its own misery without really diving into its own subject matter. All it seemed to want to say was “mental health sucks, but live a good life”. Okay…and? These days, if you want to properly explore mental health and effectively communicate the struggles of certain disorders, you have to go further beyond death, depression, sadness, anxiety, and self-loathing. There is more to these problems beneath the surface than just that. Just look at “Silent Hill 2”, which, hoo boy, that remake… It scares us in the worst ways.
“Meet Your Maker” (2023)
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Behaviour Interactive has long been working on “Dead By Daylight” since 2016 and is currently expanding that IP in fun and interesting ways. So, would a new IP from them possibly repeat the success of DbD? One would hope, especially for a game like “Meet Your Maker”! Think if “DOOM” was done in the style of “Super Mario Maker”. Build your lair guarding valuable resources in hopes of offing players while you go raid their lairs for their resources. Sadly, this game was dead on arrival. Players quickly found ways to implement cheap tactics, resulting in unbalanced gameplay. On top of that, the performance was unstable at times, and there simply wasn’t anything beyond build, raid, repeat. And so, the game has been largely abandoned by players since launch.
“Redfall” (2023)
Arkane Studios can make some really interesting games like they did with “Dishonored”, “Prey”, and “Deathloop”. But “Redfall”? It is really hard to find any redeemable qualities in this title. “Redfall” could have been a contender with its colorful cast of playable characters and vast lore between the town of Redfall and how the vampires managed to invade it. Sadly, this game was busted on release. Not only did the game run poorly even on the best internet speeds, the AI was beyond stupid when it came to recognizing the player and properly planning its attack strategy. Even the boss battles suffered in just how same-y each one felt. With reports revealing that Arkane staff was hoping Microsoft would cancel the game after the corporation bought Bethesda in 2020, it’s safe to say no one wanted this game even prior to its launch.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach” (2021)
For those of us too freaked out by the original games in how they force you to sit in one room, a survival horror set in the FNAF franchise was right up our alley. Then, you present the setting of it taking place in this massive indoor theme park? Dude, “Security Breach” should have been one of 2021’s biggest hits! Thing is that developer Steel Wool Studios didn’t run some thorough checks and balances. Many of the monsters lurking around the Pizzaplex were bugged in their pathing and behavior, resulting in many unfair deaths. Not even a PS5 version could make the game function as intended.
“Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection” (2024)
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As if Aspyr couldn’t screw up anymore “Star Wars” games as they did with “Knights of the Old Republic” and its sequel, “Battlefront Classic Collection” quickly became their biggest blunder. Many folks have been craving for a re-release of the first two “Battlefront” games but with visual upgrades and maybe some new maps. Aspyr said, “Hey, we’ll deliver”, but that delivery came with a huge caveat. “Battlefront Classic Collection” not only launched with various audio and graphical glitches, it also launched with only three servers available for online multiplayer. All of this led to this duology becoming the ninth Most Hated game on Steam. Aspyr is going to have to do a lot to win the trust of players again.
“Resident Evil 6” (2012)
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If you take the survival horror formula of the classic games or even the more action-heavy RE5, you can make “Resident Evil” work in just about any setting. So, if you wanted to take Leon and company and put them in a situation in China, Capcom would have had our support. But the slop churned out was unacceptable. The action was way too over-the-top with explosive boss fights, the story was kind of a mess to follow and keep up with, and of all the campaigns, you give Ada the worst one?? A “Resident Evil” game set in China has promise, so maybe a remake is in the works. But what we got in 2012 wasn’t it.
“Anthem” (2019)
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Even after the mess that was "Mass Effect: Andromeda", many had hope for BioWare. "Anthem" was going to be their first original IP in several years, and the devs were showing some confidence in their product. And those who played it prior to launch said there was some promise in the gameplay and combat. What we got was another looter shooter that was littered in damage numbers, glitches, and enough bugs to crash PCs and consoles. What happened here? Well, several staff members told controversial outlet Kotaku that the game was developed within the last eighteen months before launch. Turns out a lot of mechanics weren't even finalized or kept getting added and removed and added again during marketing. Despite promises to update and fix the game for a possible revival, BioWare eventually gave up on trying to make "Anthem" a thing and ceased support in 2021.
“Marvel’s Avengers” (2020)
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Honestly, this might be the biggest crash and burn in the games industry since Atari dropped "E.T." back in 1982. "Marvel's Avengers" could have been such an easy win for Square Enix. Could we have gotten a JRPG in the style of "Final Fantasy" or "Dragon Quest"? Or how about one focused on traversal and mobility like in "Kingdom Hearts"? We would have settled for a Marvel-themed "Bubble Bobble" spin-off. In the end, we got none of those! "Marvel's Avengers" turned out to be a live service game focused on collecting gear, increasing power levels, and mashing attack buttons in between cooldowns. It was a game that offered nothing and expected nothing from you except your cash. Square Enix took a massive sixty-million-dollar loss on making the game and wound up selling developer Crystal Dynamics and the "Tomb Raider" IP to Embracer Group. As for the game itself, "Marvel's Avengers" pulled from sale and had its servers shut down in September 2023. Which awful game do you think had some genuine promise? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!