Modern games that deserved the hate and those that didn't?

[Manhattan Sports Club]

Anyone got any examples of modern (as defined by this forum) games that deserved the harsh criticism they got, and some that didn't?

One that comes to mind is Sneakers for Xbox. Very misunderstood game that was hated by many. Metal Dungeon totally deserved to be slammed and should have never been localized. But Sneakers was one I think most people didn't grasp the concept of. It was actually very unique and had charm to it, IMHO. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I have yet to get an all S or A rank in it.

Blackstone is another pathetic Xbox localization that plays like a poor-man's Gauntlet. The low scores are justified.

Unlimited SaGa is kind of awkward but not as bad as some say if you take time to study and become accustomed to it. I'd also like to know more about what you folks think of Gotcha Force. It was very critically panned, yet everyone is eager to grab a copy in the collector world, and supposedly it has become a cult classic. What do you think?

[kupomogli]

Breath of Fire 5. The game is hated merely because it's not your traditional BoF which I can understand and it's mostly people who never played it which hated on it. The game goes from your traditional JRPG to a dungeon crawler style JRPG, additionally, some people who have played it don't like it because of its difficulty and how for some it feels you're required to repeatedly play through the game, dying and then restarting in order to get party exp so you can complete the game. The game is able to be completed without the use of the reset feature with conservative use of Ryu's dragon powers for some of the bosses closer to the end of the game. The game has a TRPG style combat system and an excellent story, although unfortunately some of the story is hidden behind multiple playthroughs.

Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy 7. Like the above, Dirge of Cerberus receives most of its hate because it's not really your traditional Final Fantasy. While it's easier to accept a spin off of the franchise into Crystal Chronicles, an action adventure game, making a sequel to FF7 into a shooter is like going to completely opposite end of the spectrum. Dirge of Cerberus doesn't have a good story, but the gameplay was made to be accessible to literally everyone. There's a normal and a hard mode. The default targeting has the reticule around five times as large as the standard targetting a third person shooter and when aiming at an enemy, it targets one of the enemies within that reticule, although you can reduce the size to a standard reticule size. There's a option for enemies that get too close. A lot of people complain about jumping and double jumping, it's there, it's useless 99.9% of the time, you don't have to shoot while jumping so you're a target for everything around you, move along.

Vincent's Cerberus firearm is also a customizable weapon and you can have three different quick swaps of Cerberus. As you progress through the game you'll get gold, parts, materia, etc. The gold can go towards items or to level up parts or purchase other parts. You'll customize the weapon with a few interchangeable parts that will determine the amount of damage you do to enemies who are short, mid, or a long range, the speed at which you fire, what kind of ammo you use, and what accessories and materia you have equipped. After finishing a mission you get graded and you have the choice between gold for the end of mission bonus or putting that towards experience to level up Vincent or get gold to put it towards items/Cerberus.

Lords of Shadow/Lords of Shadow 2. Lords of Shadow received hate from Castlevania fans because of the name slapped onto it. From everyone else, either it was a "God of War clone" or "it doesn't play like SotN," etc. Again, most of this is because people haven't played it and brushed it off. After people started playing it, it generally became accepted as a great game. Lords of Shadow 2 on the other hand got slammed by critics, so most users who haven't played it do the same, while everyone I know who's played it loves the game. If only Konami didn't feel the need to slap Castlevania over Lords of Shadow it would have became a much more successful franchise.

Dokapon Kingdom. Just because the game looks kiddy doesn't mean it's bad. This is an amazing RPG/Party game. It's simplistic yes, but also addicting and very fun as long as you have two or more people. Single player you can play with the extremely cheap AI who will rape you every second of the way, especially if there's more than one. There's also the whole competitive aspect against friends that you won't be enjoying when playing single player. It's like a much better version of Mario Party. This game was overlooked originally and commands a decent price on Ebay for both versions, quite a bit more for the Wii version as it was priced higher long before the PS2 version started increasing in price.

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As for overrated games that don't deserve their praise. God of War is among them. It's one of the least enjoyable of the DMC clones and the highest praised. So high that everything is called a God of War clone if it's in this franchise, and some, like Dante's Inferno which is an amazing game, is a blatant God of War clone in hopes to sell better. Dante's Inferno is like if God of War had a different skin, much better gameplay, and much better story. You'd have to play both franchises to get what I mean, but the way you open doors, open chests/use fountains, climbable areas, even QTEs, are ripped straight from God of War. Aside from QTEs and such, only the combat and storyline is different. So even though the genre takes most of its influence from DMC, Dante's Inferno pulls a lot of influence from how God of War did it and makes it better.

[Rickstilwell1]

I used to dislike Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit just for lacking a large roster of characters that had already been established in the PS2 series, but then I realized it is actually the best Dragon Ball game on PS3/360 even though new ones have come out since. It is the only one on those systems that is your traditional side-view fighter. All of the newer ones published by Namco Bandai have clunky controls. The Infogrames/Atari published Dragon Ball games from the PS2 era were so much better. Now I see why Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 still costs as much as it did when it was new. It was the best they could have done. Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi has nothing ultimate about it in comparison. After trying out all 5 PS3 games I just want my PS2 games back. I even still like Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 more than the last 4 PS3 DBZ games so far.

This is not counting the HD remaster of Budokai/Budokai 3 since that is just a port.

[Tanooki]

I wish I had a better memory of modern games that deserved to be slammed or not deserving of it but the only stuff I do recall has come up already and the big one being Castlevania LoD (1 and 2.) I actually had the original one, it wasn't bad, a bit buggy as I got it when it was new. Sure it was shamelessly like God of War but it was done nearly as well so I didn't care, but life, other crap and stuff got in the way and I never played more than a 1/3 of it, and I regret it. I'm going to with this monster new computer I bought snap up the PC version on Steam eventually and right that wrong as it was pretty slick. I loved the huge stone titan thing early on swinging all over and kicking its ass, same with the second one is about where I stopped. I saw not one nice thing said about the second one, so I've never touched it.


I do own the 3DS game and it's great and it gets crap for being awful and it is anything but shitty. the 3DS Castlevania LOD game is amazingly good. It's a weird bastard child setup of Castlevania 3, a little bit of SOTN layout exploration, and then the boosts to the life/magic bar of GoW along with the button combos for nastier hits.