Video Game Flops of the 90s To Fall Asleep To

Video Game Flops of the 90s To Fall Asleep To

The ’90s was a great era in gaming, but not every 
release was a success. Some titles underperformed, lost money, or even flopped completely. 
Some were victims of circumstance,   while others tried something new and bold that 
didn’t stick. Still more did well enough in one region but just couldn’t break out globally. 
And of course, there were some where, well,   let’s just say they got what they deserved.
Let’s begin with this category: Developed by DreamWorks Interactive as a sequel 
to The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Trespasser aimed   to redefine gaming but instead became a notorious 
flop, selling just 50,000 copies and contributing to the studio’s 2000 sale to Electronic Arts. 
Players control Anne, a plane crash survivor stranded on Isla Sorna, in what was marketed as a 
survival horror experience. Its standout feature was ostensibly a pioneering physics engine, 
letting Anne’s arm manipulate objects like crates   or weapons. But the controls were clunky and 
imprecise, often breaking immersion. And speaking of immersion, check out this weird HUD design: 
to check your health, you’d look down at your   character’s ample… uh, chest. I mean, I guess 
it’s unique; you got to give it that. The dinosaur ragdolls were a mixed bag—their lifelike flailing 
was innovative yet glitchy. AI caused them to get   stuck in terrain or act erratically, undermining 
tension. The open world promised freedom, but this is a mistake a lot of open-world games 
make: the environments just feel empty, and this   makes exploration more of a boring chore with no 
payoff. Making matters worse, performance tanked even on high-end 1998 PCs, with choppy frame rates 
and bugs galore. Overhyped and underdeveloped, Trespasser remains a bold but broken experiment.
Bubsy 3D, unleashed in 1996, was a disastrous stab at a 3D platformer that crashed and burned. 
Developer Michael Berlyn branded it his biggest failure, confessing that after glimpsing Super 
Mario 64 at the 1996 Consumer Electronics Show, he saw the writing on the wall—Bubsy was 
doomed. But time constraints locked in its   fate. Imagine you’re just about to release your 
first-ever 3D game; you think it’s pretty good, but the technology is new, so you’re really 
not sure what’s possible. Then you see what   Nintendo’s been up to, but it’s too late to 
reverse course. It definitely makes you feel a little sorry for him. But there’s no denying the 
game’s controls were a clunky mess, the graphics   were a blurry eyesore, and the levels felt like 
a lazy afterthought. Aimed to rival Mario, it instead became a punching bag of the genre. Even 
voice actress Lani Minella piled on, dubbing the   game a career low for her. Before this, Bubsy’s 2D 
romps ranged from not bad to actually surprisingly good. But not even revival attempts decades later 
could scrub off the black mark that was Bubsy 3D. The game was a misguided, if earnest, leap into 
the 3D world that tripped over its own ambition,   and it’s gone down as a flop for the ages 
and a lesson in hubris outrunning skill. A rare Mario entry for a non-Nintendo console, 
Hotel Mario flopped for a bunch of reasons, most notably the pricey and poorly received 
Philips console it called home. Following the   failed partnership between Philips and Nintendo 
to develop a CD-based add-on for the SNES, Philips decided to focus on their own home console, the 
CD-i. But on their way out the door, they managed   to hold on to the expensive licensing rights to 
some Nintendo characters, figuring that this was a surefire way to expand into the increasingly 
lucrative gaming industry and make their console   worth the cost. The strategy backfired because, as 
it turned out, a repetitive and boring game about opening and closing hotel doors can’t be saved 
simply by featuring a red-capped Italian plumber,   no matter how famous or popular said plumber 
is. But worse than the lackluster gameplay, the game is most notorious for its horribly acted 
and over-the-top cutscenes. Philips figured these full-motion cutscenes were the CD-i’s key success 
factor, and they spent a lot of resources cramming   in as many as they could. But instead, they became 
a laughingstock that most people probably never would have seen at all if it weren’t for their 
RAB revival as a YouTube meme in the mid-2000s. But hold on, we’re not quite done with the CD-i 
yet. Philips also thought they’d try their hand   at a Zelda game or two, and the results were 
just as atrocious as Hotel Mario. There’s just no getting around this: these games were 
hideous. And I get that these are the early ’90s,   so we’re not exactly expecting Black Myth: 
Wukong here, but consider that 1993 was the same year we got Gunstar Heroes, Star Wars: 
Rebel Assault, or even The Legend of Zelda:   A Link to the Past, and it just makes these 
clumsy attempts at innovating look all the more pathetic. Developer Dale DeSharone of the 
studio behind these games, Animation Magic,   blamed Philips, who pushed excessive use of the 
full-motion videos but without ponying up enough money to make them look good enough. He said tight 
timelines imposed by Philips also constrained the   eventual quality. Despite the setback, Animation 
Magic actually survived the rest of the ’90s, working on games like King’s Quest VII and even a 
canceled Warcraft point-and-click adventure game   that would have taken place after Warcraft 
II. As for the CD-i, it too limped along, believe it or not, only being discontinued in 
1998. But it never achieved the install base   Philips hoped for, its reputation irreparably 
damaged by these embarrassing failures. Rise of the Robots stormed onto the scene from 
UK developer Mirage with a multi-million pound marketing blitz, promising a revolutionary 
fighting game. Hyped for its advanced AI and cutting-edge graphics, it flopped spectacularly, 
becoming a poster child for overhyped disasters. Lead programmer Sean Griffiths bragged that they 
pushed the boundaries with this game, but what   was actually delivered was a sluggish, clunky mess 
with just one playable character in single-player mode, a laughably limited move set, and controls 
that felt like wading through mud. It was a   chore to play, and the so-called advanced AI was 
basically just a cheater that read player inputs, turning fights into unfair, scripted slogs. 
Multiplayer let player two take over one of the limited enemy fighters, but player one, for some 
reason, was always just locked to the standard   blue guy. Mirage’s PR manager Julia Coombs later 
confessed that expectations were set way too high. You can say that again. All the bold tech promises 
couldn’t save Rise of the Robots from its shallow   gameplay and bland design. Critics tore it apart; 
Edge magazine dubbed it a spectacular failure that barely qualified as a fighter. Rise of the 
Robots remains a cautionary tale that well-funded, dazzling hype means nothing when the 
product’s nothing more than a broken shell.  Superman: The New Superman Adventures, better 
known as Superman 64, hit the N64 in 1999 and quickly became a legendary disaster. Developed 
by Titus Interactive as a tie-in to the Superman animated series, this action-adventure game 
dropped players into a virtual Metropolis   crafted by Lex Luthor, who presumably was trying 
to bore Superman to death or something. Gameplay alternated between navigating repetitive flying 
ring sequences and tackling indoor puzzles against villains like Brainiac. The ring-flying mechanic 
remains to this day one of the most bizarre things   to behold about this game, apparently a result 
of heavy-handed constraints from licensors Warner Brothers and DC Comics, who barred Superman from 
punching real people in the game. Titus co-founder Eric Caen pointed to these political meddlings 
as the game’s undoing. Unsurprisingly, critics and players both slammed it for unresponsive 
controls, monotonous tasks, and shoddy graphics. The game needed to sell around a million 
copies just to break even, so despite moving   over 500K, Superman 64 was a notorious flop.
Releasing in 1997, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero was the brainchild of 
series co-creator John Tobias,   who really wanted to explore Sub-Zero’s 
backstory in an interesting way. Unfortunately, the game was a colossal flop that tried to twist 
the brutal Mortal Kombat fighting formula into an action-adventure game and somehow lost both in the 
process. In the game, Sub-Zero clumsily meanders through 10 side-scrolling levels that look kind of 
like Mortal Kombat but definitely don’t play like   it. The controls are a nightmare, like pressing 
up to jump and strangely having a dedicated turn button that complicated every move. Toss in 
instant death traps and infuriating level design, and this game is honestly a rage-quit machine. 
Critics hated it, players loathed it, and the   big dream of launching a Mythologies series based 
on other characters in the franchise was canceled. For hardcore fans of Mortal Kombat lore—and 
there are some—the game stands as a prequel   story tying into Mortal Kombat 4, and there 
were even live-action cutscenes, at least on the PlayStation version. But ultimately, nothing 
could save this thing from its atrocious gameplay. The Fifth Element, launched in 1998 as a 
third-person shooter tie-in to Luc Besson’s   hit sci-fi film, started life full of hope 
but instead played a role in the eventual bankruptcy of its developer, Kalisto, by 2002. It 
featured two playable characters from the movie: Korben Dallas, armed with an unlimited ammo 
gun, and Leeloo, who relied on melee moves   and grenades. The game blended distinct combat 
styles with a sci-fi flair, including mechanics like ceiling clinging and stealth-based sensor 
evasion. However, it faced numerous setbacks:   controls that didn’t respond well, a camera system 
that hindered gameplay, and shooting mechanics that just simply fell apart. Graphics lagged 
behind expectations, and poorly integrated film   clips muddled the experience further. Built on the 
troubled Nightmare Creatures engine from the same developer, it carried over many of that game’s 
technical flaws, compounding problems. Still, the soundtrack held up, and some movie fans found 
it enjoyable, though others were disappointed   by how the storyline strayed too far from 
the movie’s plot. Caught between the basic feel of pre-3D games and the depth of later 3D 
titles, it struggled to deliver on its ambitious ideas. This game’s poor performance, alongside 
other failures like Nightmare Creatures 2 and   The New Nightmare, helped seal Kalisto’s fate.
Shaq Fu, launched in 1994, was a fighting game flop starring NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq, 
who was, of course, a real-life basketball star,   gets warped to a bizarre dimension and has 
to battle his way back. That wild premise, matching a celebrity basketball player into a 
martial arts fighting game, was its standout   quirk. But it tanked hard. Punky gameplay, 
stiff controls, and bland character designs really dragged it down, especially next to slick 
giants like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat,   which nailed tight mechanics and had very deep 
and interesting rosters. Shaq Fu felt shallow, unbalanced, and rushed. Its developers, banking 
on Shaq’s fame instead of polishing the actual game itself. The expensive marketing campaign 
featured plenty of the popular giant himself, but that just added to the mounting costs. 
Shaq Fu was a major multiplatform misfire, a curious relic that leaned too hard on star 
power and stumbled over its own sloppy execution. Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties was an adult-oriented 
romantic comedy released in 1994 for the 3DO, with a limited run on the PC. Unique 
as an early Western visual novel,   it was marketed as a full-motion video game 
but instead delivered mostly still-image slideshows with subpar voice acting. The story 
follows Jon and Jane, pushed by their parents   into absurd romantic misadventures. The game 
aimed for quirky humor but almost entirely fell flat. Critics slammed its low production 
quality, nonsensical plot, terrible acting, and misleading advertising. It was so bad it even 
hurt the 3DO’s reputation, to the extent that it contributed to its commercial downfall. While 
it’s true that the console had a lot of problems,   the worst of these was the disappointingly small 
library of games, a problem made worse when some of the games were this bad. Plumbers Don’t Wear 
Ties later earned a sort of perverse cult status   as one of the worst games ever, boosted by 
the Angry Video Game Nerd’s 2009 review. This culminated, of course, with an enhanced re-release 
in 2024, cementing its legacy for some people, at least, as a “so bad it’s good” oddity.
Not every game that flopped was necessarily a bad game. Some developers bravely 
tried something new or different,   only to find that either they were way ahead 
of their time or couldn’t break out of a small niche fan base. Here are some games that weren’t 
afraid to take a risk, even if it didn’t pan out. Planescape: Torment is a PC-based RPG set in the 
Planescape multiverse, a unique Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The game’s renowned for its 
deep, philosophical story and complex characters. Players control the Nameless One, an immortal 
amnesiac seeking to uncover his past and the   reason for his immortality. Unlike typical RPGs, 
it emphasizes narrative and dialogue over combat, delivering a rich, text-heavy experience. 
There are some interesting elements here,   like changing character alignment and class based 
on actions and using death as a gameplay mechanic instead of a failure state. Its exceptional 
writing explores themes of identity, memory,   and redemption. But despite critical acclaim, the 
game flopped commercially. Its niche concept and unfamiliar Planescape setting, far removed from 
the traditional fantasy setting like Forgotten   Realms, confused many gamers. The focus on story 
over action narrowed its audience, and the bizarre marketing campaign probably didn’t help either, 
featuring slogans like “a corpse with irresistible   sexual charisma.” We have to imagine this repelled 
certain potential buyers. Lead designer Chris Avellone acknowledged the commercial flop yet 
emphasized its critical success and reaffirmed   his commitment to story-driven games, a 
decision that would earn him a tremendously successful career in the decades to follow.
Ultima IX: Ascension, the highly anticipated conclusion to the influential Ultima RPG 
series, flopped partly due to technical   issues like crashing, slow frame rates, and 
incomplete features. But the main reason was a controversial shift away from its traditional 
top-down view to a third-person 3D perspective. This change seriously alienated some fans, 
who also resented that a focus on the new 3D   functionality seemed to have represented a shift 
towards a more general audience at the expense of continuity with the lore from the earlier titles 
of the series. The failure significantly impacted developer Origin Systems, contributing to 
its decline and eventual closure by their   publisher EA in 2004. Creator Richard Garriott 
reflected, “We were pushing the boundaries of what was possible, but the technology wasn’t 
quite there yet.” This over-ambition turned   what should have been a landmark moment in 
gaming history—the fitting end to an important early pioneer—into an unfortunate footnote.
NiGHTS into Dreams is a Sega Saturn standout that’s held up remarkably well since its 
release in ’96. You’re guiding NiGHTS,   a jester-like figure, through wild, dreamlike 
worlds. The game’s visuals blend 2D and 3D elements in a way that feels fresh and innovative 
even today. The scoring system shines with its focus on pulling off slick moves, encouraging you 
to replay levels for that perfect run. Visually, it pops with its bold colors, and this pairs 
perfectly with a soundtrack that’s dripping in   nostalgia to our modern ears. The game is touted 
by fans as a classic that remains tough to put down to this day. Unfortunately, gamers at the 
time didn’t see it that way. While the failure can partly be blamed on the Saturn console’s lack of 
success, the real issue here was there just didn’t   seem to be a core audience for this kind of game 
with its unique blend of novel gameplay mechanics and bright yet unsettling palette. Yuji Naka, 
the producer, expressed pride in the game but admitted its sales disappointment. There was also 
plenty of blame to go around, as Sega’s marketing department was criticized for not showcasing the 
game’s innovation enough. NiGHTS into Dreams has made appearances on many a “top cult classics” or 
“hidden gem” list, and it did get a very welcome HD remake in 2012 that was well-received.
Bushido Blade, a PlayStation fighting game, seemed to have it all. The game had great-looking 
graphics, varied gameplay with eight different   weapons, six interesting playable characters, 
and heavyweight publishers in Squaresoft and Sony. Despite all this, it flopped commercially 
because of its unconventional gameplay. Unlike popular titles like Tekken or Street Fighter, 
which featured health bars and complex combos,   Bushido Blade focused on realistic sword 
fighting with one-hit kills, requiring precision and timing. In a genre largely dominated 
by rapid button mashing, the idea of precise, realistic combat confused some players, especially 
in North America. The magnitude of the flop here wasn’t as bad as some of the others on this list, 
with over 700,000 copies sold over its lifetime, but these numbers were a serious disappointment 
for a company like Squaresoft at its peak in   the ’90s. Bushido Blade’s bold design was 
both its biggest strength and the cause of its downfall. More of a swordsmanship 
simulator than an actual fighting game,   its niche appeal limited its mainstream success.
Vib-Ribbon is a visually unique and extremely interesting game that looks like it could have 
been developed by some solo indie dev in 2025 for   release on Steam, and if it was, it might have 
even been a success. A rhythm game featuring a quirky wireframe bunny traversing what looks like 
a hand-drawn setting, Vib-Ribbon had a unique   feature that seems impossibly innovative for the 
decade in which it was released: you could insert any standard audio CD—maybe your favorite Ace 
of Base album—and the game would procedurally generate a level for you out of it. Pretty cool, 
eh? So why did it fail? Well, just look at it. In an era remembered for flashy colors and graphical 
breakthroughs, the minimalist vector graphics   were just not something the average consumer 
could wrap their head around. In fact, the game never even released in North America because 
Sony was so afraid of the potential backlash.   Vib-Ribbon is a great example of the kind of 
experimentation that leads to truly memorable gaming experiences but just couldn’t find its 
footing in the limited landscape of the 1990s. It’s hard to believe Jumping Flash released 
less than 5 years after Pilotwings for the   Super Nintendo. A 3D platformer that takes the 
basic concept of the highly successful Pilotwings and expands on it tenfold with impressive real 
3D graphics and vastly more replayable gameplay, Jumping Flash nevertheless failed to connect 
with the gaming crowd of 1995. The game is   often viewed in retrospect as an influential 
early 3D console title that set the stage for games like Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider in 
the years to come. It was a necessary first step   in generating buzz for a 3D platforming genre, 
but unfamiliarity with the way such a game would work made potential buyers leery. The game was 
expected to do considerably better than it did, especially given its prominence as an early title 
for the PlayStation, coming out just a couple   months after the console’s release. And even 
though it didn’t break through, it did develop enough of a cult following to justify a couple of 
sequels and re-releases. Despite languishing in relative obscurity, Jumping Flash’s robotic bunny, 
Robbit, made enough of an impact to earn a small cameo in the 2024 game of the year Astro Bot.
Okay, so we’re kind of cheating with this one because ToeJam & Earl did flop, but only at first. 
The unconventional, surreal comic satire was pitched to Sega’s management as a mascot title 
to rival Nintendo’s Mario, which is why it was deemed such a failure when initial sales numbers 
came in way lower than expected. However, over the next year or two, the game built a following on 
the back of its unanimous critical acclaim. Word   of mouth and a spike in the sales of the Genesis 
console itself, caused by the far more successful mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, eventually ToeJam & 
Earl became a sleeper hit and a cult classic, even earning a sequel in 1993 that saw a lot 
more upfront commercial success. It took a while, but the game overcame its rocky start, with 
fans seeing past—or even coming to love—its   niche style and quirky humor. The turnaround has 
been so complete that Amazon Studios has even announced that a movie adaptation’s in the works.
The 1995 point-and-click adventure game I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is based on the short 
story of the same name, written by Harlan Ellison. Interestingly, even though Ellison wasn’t a 
fan of video games, he agreed to write the   story for this game, which legend has it he did 
on a mechanical typewriter. This game was dark, and I do mean dark. It’s widely regarded as 
one of the darkest video games ever created,   a reputation rooted in its unrelentingly 
bleak narrative, mature themes, and oppressive atmosphere. The game setting is a post-apocalyptic 
wasteland where a malevolent supercomputer has annihilated humanity except for the five player 
characters: Gorrister, Benny, Ellen, Nimdok, and Ted. For over a century, the computer has kept 
these individuals alive solely to subject them to relentless psychological and physical torture. 
Predictably, a large number of consumers were   not exactly falling over each other to buy a game 
that explored themes of guilt, insanity, genocide, the depths of human suffering, and other things 
I can’t even mention here. One of the scenarios,   set in a Nazi concentration camp, even had 
to be cut in some regions. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream achieved critical success, but 
the game never caught on, even after re-release   on Steam, where you can still find it today.
If you thought some of the other games on this list were weird, wait until you see this one. 
Based on the dream diary of one of its creators,   LSD: Dream Emulator is described as a “playable 
dream,” with exploration of surreal environments being the main point of the game rather than 
having any concrete goals. Creator Osamu Sato had the idea for LSD while playing a racing game, 
which he found boring because he was bad at video games, and he thought that it would be much more 
fun if the game didn’t require any kind of skill   to play—a game where the player is transported 
to a new dimension where you could experience things you never have before. He figured this was 
a game with the potential for a global release, for some reason, but its experimental nature and 
just overall weirdness kept it from achieving any amount of success, even in Japan, so his hopes 
were dashed. Despite the commercial failure,   the game has become somewhat of a cult classic, 
mainly owing to its strangeness, and copies have become rare and expensive over time. An English 
fan translation was released in 2020 if you want to try out this unnerving piece of art.
Developed by Almanic and published by Enix, E.V.O.: Search for Eden introduced an innovative 
concept as a side-scrolling game with an   evolution-based RPG element to it. Releasing more 
than 15 years before Maxis’ hit PC game Spore, E.V.O. similarly let you guide a creature through 
time, growing stronger by evolving new weapons   and other abilities, all in the name of a quest to 
win the hand of Gaia in marriage. There was a lot going for this game; for example, you could save 
up to 50 different creatures, allowing for tons   of replayability, and the controls were fluid and 
responsive and intuitive, if a little difficult, especially during boss fights. Unfortunately, 
there was a lot holding this back from succeeding, mainly the niche concept itself. If consumers 
could get past the evolution angle—which,   remember, was a little bit more controversial in 
the early ’90s than it is now, at least in the West—there was still the gameplay, which 
was extremely grindy. So even though the   game had a lot of polish and no small measure of 
originality, in the end, it failed to catch on. In Illusion of Gaia, Will, a young 
boy with psychic powers, embarks on   a quest to save the world from an impending 
dark force. Guided by the spirit of Gaia, he travels across ancient civilizations, solving 
puzzles and battling enemies using his ability to   transform into powerful forms like the knight 
Freedan and the shadow creature Shadow. The game was generally well-received by critics and 
did manage to sell a moderate number of copies,   but for the studio that managed to produce 
the successful ActRaiser games, and given how huge RPGs were becoming with blockbusters 
like Final Fantasy V and Dragon Quest V,   each selling millions in 1992, expectations were 
high. The unique setting—the 16th century Age of Exploration on an alternate version of Earth with 
unique settings like Incan ruins, the Great Wall   of China, and Egyptian pyramids to explore—was 
interesting but confused RPG gamers that were more accustomed to traditional fantasy settings. 
The game was praised for its puzzles, graphics,   and soundtrack, but its lack of a kind of distinct 
direction and purpose that its competitors in the genre had ended up making Illusion of Gaia 
one of the more unnoticed RPGs of the ’90s. There weren’t a whole lot of survival horror games 
on the Super Nintendo. In fact, the genre itself   was still considered fairly new and quite novel 
back in 1995 when Clock Tower released. Loosely based on the Italian horror film Phenomena, this 
point-and-click adventure has you take control of   Jennifer Simpson, who’s being stalked through a 
clock tower by the evil Scissor Man. Because of the relative rarity of survival horror games 
in the early ’90s, Clock Tower had an uphill   battle when it came to convincing players to give 
it a shot. As a result, the game never achieved mainstream success and didn’t release outside of 
Japan. But despite a lack of commercial success,   Clock Tower had a big impact on the genre, 
especially in Japan, where it influenced famous and popular series like Resident Evil and 
Silent Hill. Whether Clock Tower was technically a flop is debatable. The game’s director, Hifumi 
Kono, has pointed out the game’s low budget and small development team and suggested that the game 
sold well compared to expectations. Given this and the title’s undeniable impact on the industry, 
its place on this list could easily be debated. All it takes is one quick glance at 1996’s The 
Neverhood to see what made this game unique. Bucking the trend of the mid-’90s toward 
3D graphics, the developer went in a bold   art direction of making a game entirely with 
claymation. In the puzzle-heavy point-and-click game, you travel through a surreal landscape to 
confront the evil Klogg and restore the king’s   stolen crown. The game was developed by a ragtag 
group of former Shiny Entertainment devs that had worked together on Earthworm Jim. Their first-ever 
game together as a new development studio,   thus they called themselves The Neverhood 
Inc., and the team was led by Doug TenNapel, who had first conceived of the idea of a 
plasticine world way back in 1988. Unfortunately, despite its uniqueness, by the time The Neverhood 
came out in ’96, gamers had largely moved on from the point-and-click genre and even from 2D 
graphics in general in favor of more flashy   and fast-paced games. This meant that when The 
Neverhood came out, its gameplay and visuals had a dated feel that turned a lot of people 
off. The Neverhood Inc. went on to release a   couple more games, one platformer sequel to 
The Neverhood called Skullmonkeys, as well as 1999’s fighting game BoomBots, both of which also 
flopped, leading to the closure of the studio. “It’s kind of an exaggeration, but you could 
say I wanted to create an ‘unfun’ game.” These are the words of director Kazutoshi Iida 
during an interview about Tail of the Sun,   an intriguing game where you play as a caveman 
on a quest to build a tower all the way to the sun out of mammoth tusks. Iida wanted to create an 
“anti-Mario” game, a game about pure exploration without any linear story that leads to a happy 
ending. So when you start up Tail of the Sun,   you’re dropped into your home village and set free 
to do pretty much whatever you want with no goals, objectives, or guidance. This sandboxy, 
open-concept sort of game was pretty rare   in the mid-’90s, especially for consoles, 
and consumers didn’t get it. They found the gameplay aimless and dull. It probably didn’t help 
that the graphics were deliberately rudimentary,   with blocky models and pixelated textures 
befitting the prehistoric theme. Critics didn’t get it either, though, because they thought that, 
deliberate or not, the game was simply crude. Harvester is a point-and-click adventure game 
known for its meta-commentary examination of   violence in media, particularly video games. 
Set in the eerie fictional town of Harvest, the game follows Steve, a protagonist who awakens with 
amnesia and is thrust into a series of bizarre and violent scenarios. Through its self-aware design, 
graphic content, and player-driven choices,   Harvester challenges players to confront 
their desensitization to violence and reflect on its role in entertainment. The narrative 
culminates in a pivotal choice that underscores   the game’s message: depending on the player’s 
actions, Steve can either embrace violence, becoming a serial killer, or reject it, seeking a 
peaceful resolution. This binary outcome directly implicates the player in the cycle of violence, 
suggesting that media can influence behavior and   that individuals bear responsibility for how they 
respond. It’s a powerful statement about agency, challenging players to consider how their 
interaction with violent content reflects   their values. And people didn’t get it, with 
critics calling it stupid and confusing. The over-the-top violence, combined with the fading 
popularity of point-and-click adventure games,   resigned Harvester to flop status.
Sometimes games that might otherwise have become blockbuster hits flop through 
circumstances that are largely beyond their   control. Maybe the timing wasn’t right, maybe the 
marketing fell flat, or maybe the competition was just better. This next category includes 
games that were simply casualties of fate. When it released in 1999, Shenmue was among the 
most expensive games ever developed. Sega took a huge risk with this game, hoping it would help 
drive sales of its faltering Dreamcast console.   The bet did not pay off, with Shenmue selling 
only 1.2 million copies globally, a far cry from what was needed to break even. There’s a good 
argument to be made that if the game had come   out for PlayStation or PS2 instead of Dreamcast, 
it could have overtaken rival Grand Theft Auto, considering how advanced it was compared to GTA 
2. In fact, looking at the two side by side, it’s   hard to believe they came out in the same year. 
Often included in lists of the greatest games of all time, Shenmue did have its faults, with the 
pace sometimes criticized as too slow and sections   of the game forcing you to complete mundane 
tasks in order to progress. But fans remember the groundbreaking immersion that its open-world 
realism and attention to detail brought. The failure of Shenmue largely sealed the fate of the 
Dreamcast, but the game itself was kept alive with   two sequels, one of which was another Dreamcast 
flop in 2001, and the other was caught in development hell for more than a decade. Shenmue 
3 finally came out in 2019 after being saved by a Kickstarter campaign, but reviews were poor, and 
sales were little better than its predecessors. The sequel to a moderately successful 1994 game, 
System Shock 2 was developed on a tiny $700,000 budget—an unbelievable fact considering how great 
the game looks and performs. System Shock 2 stood out by merging first-person shooter and RPG 
mechanics, letting players customize skills   and abilities. Its gripping narrative and 
eerie atmosphere, set on a spaceship ruled by a rogue AI, were also groundbreaking. Its 
complex blend of first-person shooting, RPG, and survival horror defied mainstream genres and 
made it truly stand out in the crowd—or maybe it would have, rather, if anyone had ever heard 
about it. The big problem for System Shock 2   is that it never got the marketing that a game 
like this needed in 1999, with huge competitors like Half-Life and Unreal Tournament soaking 
up all of the attention. A rough start for   brand-new development studio Irrational Games, 
though they’d hang in there and deliver a few standout games over their history, most notably 
culminating with BioShock Infinite in 2013. By 1998, LucasArts had figured out that the 
point-and-click adventure game that they had   helped build from nothing was on its way out, and 
some changes were warranted. From a studio that made its name on the PC with games like Monkey 
Island, that meant a significant shift. But with   Grim Fandango, LucasArts showed that it was not 
afraid to innovate in the genre that it played such a large role in popularizing, embracing 
3D graphics, a unique Aztec noir setting, switching to keyboard-driven tank controls, and 
upping the game with especially high-quality   voice acting and sound design. If any game 
could breathe new life into this aging genre, it was Grim Fandango. Unfortunately, as it 
turned out, the timing just wasn’t right. The   winds had shifted towards more action-oriented 3D 
titles in the late ’90s, and while some adventure games could still turn a profit, like Escape from 
Monkey Island in 2000, gamers had mostly moved on. The third Panzer Dragoon to come out for the Sega 
Saturn, Panzer Dragoon Saga replaced the rail   shooter elements of the first two games with RPG 
elements, including semi-turn-based battles and random encounters, a welcome change for fans of 
the series and critics alike. Sega intended Panzer Dragoon Saga to compete with huge entries on 
competitor consoles, like Final Fantasy VII on the   PlayStation, believing that the company with the 
best RPG would win the console war. And in fact, Panzer Dragoon Saga earned such praise for its 
story, graphics, and combat that it became one   of the most acclaimed games to ever release for 
the troubled Saturn. So why did it flop? Well, by the time the game released in 1998, the writing 
was, of course, on the wall for Sega Saturn. In   fact, Sega had largely moved on and shifted its 
focus entirely to the Dreamcast. Their appetite for investing in any kind of marketing or even 
distribution of Saturn games was extremely low, so they only printed a limited number of 
copies for sale, especially in the West,   where they only printed around 20,000 copies. The 
copies sold out in the first couple days, leaving us to wonder what might have been if the company 
had gone all-in on this classic game. Given the   difficulty of emulating the Saturn, combined with 
uncertainty of demand, Panzer Dragoon Saga remains to this day probably the best game ever created to 
never have been re-released or remade even once. A sequel to the moderately successful Descent: 
FreeSpace the year prior, FreeSpace 2 was a solid space sim with beautiful graphics and fast-paced, 
exciting combat. It received critical acclaim and   even multiple Game of the Year awards, but unlike 
the first game, FreeSpace 2 bombed, selling only about a quarter of its predecessor. Even with a 
fairly efficient development process, it’s likely   that it failed to break even. Writing for the 
Daily Radar, Andrew Bub remarked that the game was one of the most unfairly overlooked titles of 
the year. So what happened? Producer Jim Boone has bluntly stated that the game failed simply because 
classic space sims were just going out of fashion, especially games like FreeSpace 2, which were 
optimized for the joystick, a peripheral that   was rapidly fading from use in the late ’90s as 
first-person shooters rose to prominence, putting the focus back on the good old mouse and keyboard. 
The flop was so consequential that the developer   parted ways with its publisher, Interplay, 
and was acquired by THQ the following year. Following the acquisition, the company totally 
shifted gears towards the action-adventure genre,   creating the long-lasting Saints Row series. The 
failure also impacted Interplay, who had already been suffering from financial woes for years. 
The company would continue to limp along, though,   in and out of bankruptcy, and funny enough, in 
2013, with the bankruptcy of THQ, they reacquired the rights to FreeSpace for only $7,500.
1996’s Guardian Heroes is a 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up for the Sega Saturn. That sentence pretty 
much tells you everything you need to know about   why the game was a commercial failure. Combine 
an unsuccessful console with a genre that’s well past its prime and 2D graphics when pretty 
much everyone else has made the switch to 3D,   and you’ve got a recipe for a flop, no matter 
how good the game is. And it is a good game, with its unique mix of beat ‘em up and RPG 
elements, featuring deep combat with combos   and special moves, an engaging story that 
branches and even has multiple endings, and stunning 2D graphics that could only be 
achieved in these waning days of the art form.   Guardian Heroes should have done better than it 
did, and maybe it would have if it were released on a different console or in a different year.
There’s a certain danger with creating a game in a well-established and popular genre, and that 
is that no matter how polished and perfected your   title is, it will always run the risk of being 
overshadowed by the classics that came before. Such was the fate of Hagane: The Final Conflict, 
an action platformer about a war between rival ninja clans. The game was praised by critics 
for its challenging gameplay, non-stop action, and good controls, and compared favorably to 
games like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi. In fact,   in a review in GamePro magazine, they concluded 
that Hagane was actually comparable to these established giants. And therein lies the problem, 
because as far as consumers were concerned,   why bother buying a game that’s comparable to 
Shinobi 3 when you could just play Shinobi 3? Yeah, there were darker graphics and 
some interesting gameplay mechanics,   but in the end, there just wasn’t enough 
that was new to stand out in a crowded field. Pocky & Rocky 2 is a top-down shoot ‘em up and 
a sequel to 1992’s Pocky & Rocky. When the first game achieved a moderate amount of critical and 
commercial success, developer Natsume got to work   immediately on a sequel, which improved on the 
original in multiple ways. Its standout features include a companion system with seven unique 
sidekicks controlled by a second player or AI, each with distinct abilities. Pocky can throw 
her companion at foes for powerful attacks and use magic to temporarily merge with them, 
unlocking special skills. The game also   offers varied stage designs, like auto-scrolling 
sections where Pocky rides mythic beasts, altering gameplay dynamics. Developed and published 
by Natsume, the game released just before the   North American side of the company split off to 
become independent. This complicated distribution and limited reach in that region. In the end, 
the game undersold the first Pocky & Rocky,   and the company didn’t try again until 2001’s 
Pocky & Rocky with Becky on the Game Boy Advance. If you were trying to release a high-quality JRPG, 
a sequel to a series you recently launched with some success, and you wanted to be sure your game 
stood out in the crowd, there were few years that   would have been worse to do it than 1995, with 
the absolute juggernaut mega hits Dragon Quest VI and Chrono Trigger releasing that year, as well 
as Trials of Mana, Arc the Lad, Romancing SaGa 3, Tactics Ogre, and more, plus strong holdovers 
like 1994’s Final Fantasy VI. Lufia 2 had a tough time holding its own. The game follows Maxim, 
a swordsman fated to confront the Sinistrals, god-like beings bent on destruction. With his 
friend Lufia, warrior Guy, and knight Dar,   Maxim journeys across the land, battling monsters 
and solving dungeon puzzles. Critics loved it, and the game built a small fan base of loyal gamers, 
but sales were nowhere near what was hoped for.   The field was just too crowded for this hidden 
gem to make a name for itself, though it did do just about well enough to keep the series going, 
and three more games would come out in the series,   culminating with Curse of the Sinistrals in 2010.
Gynoug, known in North America as Wings of Wor—why did they spell it with an O? It’s probably why 
it flopped; I wouldn’t have bought it. Anyway,   let’s go with Gynoug. Gynoug is a scrolling 
shooter that came out near the peak of that genre in 1991. The excellent Sega Genesis graphics 
rivaled any shooter that released in arcades, and the idea that you were flying through the skies 
as a warrior angel instead of piloting an aircraft   brought a bit of freshness to the concept. Similar 
to the RPGs of 1995, though, there was a large crowd of scrolling shooter games in the early 
’90s, and people didn’t have a reliable way of   knowing which ones were worth playing. This meant, 
unfortunately, some that deserved more visibility got passed over. It also didn’t help that Gynoug 
positioned itself as a bit of a niche player,   with punishing one-hit deaths and sometimes 
bizarre visuals, like Stage 5’s grotesque fleshy backdrop. To top it all off, limited marketing 
from third-party publisher DreamWorks in North America finally sealed Gynoug’s fate as a flop.
Mega Turrican, released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis, was a commercial failure 
despite its roots in the successful   Turrican series and despite several well-received 
improvements, like the new plasma rope mechanic, a more linear action-packed design, and better 
graphics. Developed by Factor 5, the game faced significant hurdles. Originally planned for the 
Amiga, it shifted to the Genesis but then sat   unreleased for a whole year due to publisher 
struggles. Data East eventually published it, but the delay thrust it into a crowded platformer 
market, competing with blockbusters like Sonic   the Hedgehog 3. This timing, alongside the Genesis 
nearing its life cycle’s end with the Sega Saturn looming, hurt its chances. Mega Turrican also 
suffered from poor marketing, lacking any major promotion in magazines or trade shows. Because 
of all this, and despite critical praise for   its graphics and gameplay, Mega Turrican was a 
flop, though it did do well enough to justify a couple of sequels on the Super Nintendo.
Comix Zone is an incredibly unique beat ‘em up for the Sega Genesis and PC that puts you in 
the role of Sketch Turner, a comic artist sucked   into his own creation, where he must fight through 
vibrant, hand-drawn panels. The game’s standout feature is its unique aesthetic, blending beat 
‘em up action with a visual style that mimics a   living comic book. Gameplay involves navigating 
across pages, breaking through panel borders, and interacting with the environment. Released 
in 1995 in the waning days of the Sega Genesis,   the game flopped commercially due partially to 
being overshadowed by next-gen systems like the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Developer Peter 
Morawiec from Sega Technical Institute noted it didn’t break even, and he blamed PlayStation’s 
rising popularity stealing its thunder. Further   hurting sales was the declining popularity of beat 
‘em ups in general as the ’90s wore on. A limited print run in Japan also hurt sales, though this 
version would later become a collector’s item.   What makes the failure of Comix Zone even worse 
is that everyone involved really seemed to want it to succeed. Sega even bundled a rock music CD 
with the game for free as an add-on for people who bought it. A movie adaptation was announced 
by Sega in 2022, though with no news since then, fans are left wondering whether it’ll 
ever actually happen as of 2025.  Knuckles’ Chaotix was one of very few 
titles to be released for the 32X, an ill-fated add-on peripheral for the Genesis 
that essentially converted the aging 16-bit system   into a 32-bit one. But with a high price tag and 
a lackluster game library, consumers found little reason to choose the 32X over an actual next-gen 
system like PlayStation or even Sega’s own Saturn. Named by some as one of the best games on the 
32X, Knuckles’ Chaotix expanded on the Sonic formula with innovations like the multiplayer 
tethering mechanic, connecting players to a   partner via a rubber band-like system. We actually 
have some early playable prototypes of Chaotix, which at the time was dubbed Sonic Crackers 
and featured Sonic and Tails, though these   fan-favorite characters were inexplicably removed 
from the final version. The game did, however, introduce new characters with Team Chaotix, a 
trio of detectives who would go on to appear   in many other Sonic entries in the future.
Virtual Boy Wario Land is a platform game where Wario explores 14 underground floors, 
collecting treasures and battling bosses.   The game’s standout feature is its use 
of the Virtual Boy’s stereoscopic 3D, enabling Wario to move between foreground 
and background, adding depth to platforming.   Players can acquire hats like the Bull Hat 
for increased strength, Eagle Hat for flying, and Dragon Hat for fire-breathing, with the King 
Dragon Hat combining all the abilities. Mini-games between floors allow gambling for more coins and 
hearts. The game has served as inspiration for   many titles since its release in ’95, including 
Donkey Kong Returns, Mutant Mudds, and Shantae Advance. Releasing for the patent-pending Headache 
3000—I mean, the Nintendo Virtual Boy—this entry in the Wario Land series was by far the biggest 
flop. But with only 770,000 units sold worldwide, pretty much every game for the Virtual Boy was 
a flop, making this a great example of a good   game that was just a victim of circumstance.
A tactical RPG and part of the Shining series that continued well into the 2010s, Shining Force 
III released in three interconnected scenarios, each led by a unique protagonist. Its standout 
synchronicity system links the three scenarios, letting choices in one affect the others 
for a unified story. But just one problem:   only one of the three ever released outside of 
Japan. This incomplete localization fragmented the story, alienating global players. Though the game 
didn’t exactly do gangbusters numbers in its home country either, due to the decline of the Sega 
Saturn, making it difficult for any games on that   console to succeed. And it’s a real shame too, 
because Shining Force III was unanimously praised by critics. In 2001, when Sega underwent their 
major shift away from manufacturing consoles, Charles Bellfield, who served as Sega of America’s 
VP of corporate and marketing communications,   revealed that the company had considered 
adapting titles from the Sega Saturn for the original PlayStation, and he specifically 
pointed to Shining Force III, noting that it’s   an ideal game that could have seen strong 
sales on the PlayStation platform. However, despite these intentions, the game was never 
re-released on the PlayStation or anywhere else. Called one of the best Castlevania games 
ever, one of the best action RPGs ever,   one of the best 2D side-scrollers ever, and indeed 
one of the best games ever, Symphony of the Night released in 1997 amid a flurry of activity in the 
gaming industry—activity that was almost entirely moving in one direction: three dimensions. This 
made Konami’s decision to stick to 2D for this entry very bold. They knew that by doing so, they 
could leverage the reputation they’d built over   time for tight, responsive, and challenging 
platforming, in addition to turning out some absolutely gorgeous pixel art-based graphics. 
But gamers weren’t buying it—literally. Symphony of the Night launched to the worst sales numbers 
in the history of the series, going back all the   way to 1986. The industry had so thoroughly moved 
on from 2D graphics, especially for platformers, that consumers were now conditioned to equate 
anything that wasn’t 3D with poor quality. But   when critics got their hands on the game, they 
raved. Perfect and near-perfect scores appeared in nearly every major gaming publication, and then 
the word of mouth spread: the new Castlevania   game was good, real good. The way it incorporated 
role-playing elements and exploration but without sacrificing what made the series great in the 
first place, the excellent soundtrack, and even,   yes, even the beautiful two-dimensional 
graphics. Excitement continued to build until Symphony of the Night not only overcame 
its abysmal launch but became a sleeper hit,   one that, together with games like Super Metroid, 
launched an entirely new genre: the Metroidvania. The world is an interesting place 
with lots of different cultures,   each with their own unique histories and peoples. 
This means that sometimes there’s going to be things that end up being popular in one place, 
even when everywhere else in the world just   doesn’t get it. Here are some games that did well 
enough in one region but flopped everywhere else. Discworld is a point-and-click adventure 
game adapted from Terry Pratchett’s satirical   fantasy novels. You play as Rincewind, 
a bumbling wizard incapable of magic, tasked with saving the Discworld from a dragon. 
The game’s unique charm lies in its sharp humor, mirroring the author’s renowned wit, which 
makes sense considering he was involved in   the writing. The game features hand-drawn 
graphics brimming with detail and puzzles packed with book references, which delighted 
longtime fans of the books. Discworld also   featured standout voice acting, with Eric Idle 
of Monty Python fame bringing the main character to life. The game released in Europe first and 
then in North America on the PlayStation and PC, and then in Japan on the Sega Saturn. But 
they may as well have stopped at Europe,   because almost nobody bought the game anywhere 
else. You see, the cultural relevance of Discworld outside of Europe—and even really outside the 
UK—is minuscule by comparison. It’s hard to   describe to an American just how well-known and 
popular Pratchett is in the UK, so it makes sense for a UK developer and publisher that global 
expectations would be high. Definite parallels   to 2024’s Better Man movie about pop star Robbie 
Williams, who enjoys a similar disparity between his level of notoriety across the pond. Discworld 
did well enough in Europe to earn a sequel,   which was similarly well-received in Europe and 
similarly completely ignored in North America. Landstalker, released in ’92 for the Sega Genesis 
in Japan and one year later in North America, is an action-adventure game celebrated 
for its unique isometric perspective,   a standout feature that added depth and complexity 
to platforming and combat. This perspective made gameplay both challenging and innovative, setting 
it apart from contemporaries. You play as Nigel,   a treasure hunter navigating dungeons, solving 
clever puzzles, and battling diverse enemies. The engaging story mixes humor and drama, brought 
to life by memorable characters and a vibrant,   detailed world. A catchy soundtrack really 
ties the whole thing together and enhances the adventurous vibe. Critics in 1992 loved the 
game, and even those in North America who got their hands on the import version, with GameFan 
magazine’s review declaring that “if this was an   American release, I would give it game of 
the year; it’s that good.” Unfortunately, when the game did release in America the 
following year, it largely went unnoticed.   The isometric perspective that had been so 
innovative the year before was actually a point of frustration for Western audiences that 
added difficulty and confusion. But Landstalker   did well enough in Japan to be re-released 
several times since and has even inspired spiritual successors like Alundra and Dark Savior.
1991’s Decap Attack is a weird game. Technically, it only released in North America and Europe, 
but it was actually a remake of a different game   that came out the year before in Japan called 
Magical Hat’s Turbo Flight Adventure. Magical Hat was a pretty short-lived anime series about 
a hero with, you guessed it, a magical hat that   he used to fight demons. So you might be asking, 
what’s all this got to do with Decap Attack? Well, the Magical Hat game was pretty successful in 
Japan, so successful in fact that developer Vic   Tokai wanted to release it globally, but he failed 
to get the licensing rights to the anime, so they reskinned the game with new art, a different 
plot, and changed level designs. What they   landed on played almost identically to Magical 
Hat but couldn’t be more different aesthetically: a game about a boy using his magic hat to fight 
enemies instead became a really weird game about a headless mummy that chucks a skull at his enemies. 
It was a bizarre concept, so while the game looked really good and played very well, gamers in 
the West were too confused to give it a shot. Omikron: The Nomad Soul, developed by Quantic 
Dream, which would later achieve notoriety for   games like Fahrenheit and Detroit: Become Human, 
was an ambitious adventure game blending action, RPG, and soul transfer mechanics, starring 
David Bowie, who also created the soundtrack   for the game. It was an expensive game to make. 
Director David Cage, who had some contacts in the music business after a 15-year career as a 
composer, wanted to create a game that was like a   movie-like experience, which was pretty creative 
in those days. Publisher Eidos became involved, and a senior designer there knew the guitarist 
Reeves Gabrels from The Cure, who had also   worked with David Bowie, and so the connection 
was made. On the back of Bowie’s star power, The Nomad Soul became a moderate success in 
Europe. Unfortunately, he carried a lot less   weight globally, especially in America, where 
the game totally bombed. Americans weren’t ready for this style of adventure game, and since 
the music scene there was more Eminem and   Britney Spears and less Ziggy Stardust, there 
was just no appetite for a title like this. A sequel was originally planned but canceled, with 
Quantic opting to move on to Heavy Rain instead. Seaman, a virtual pet game for the Sega Dreamcast, 
developed by Vivarium and released in 1999 in Japan and the following year in America, is often 
labeled a flop, but this oversimplifies its story. It sold around 400,000 copies in Japan, making it 
the third best-selling Dreamcast title ever there, but it faltered elsewhere, with modest North 
American sales. To call the failure in North   America unsurprising would be an understatement. I 
mean, just look at it. You’re tasked with raising basically a fish with a human face who’s 
constantly rude and sarcastic to you, using   Leonard Nimoy’s voice. It’s the sort of craziness 
that, for whatever reason, just works in Japan, but it doesn’t translate well anywhere else. On 
top of the impossible-to-get strangeness, Western gamers didn’t love the gameplay either. It’s 
really a virtual pet sim, not a traditional game   like most would expect on a home console, so the 
experience is pretty slow-paced and requires a lot of patience and dedication—not exactly traits that 
the average 1990s American gamer was known for. The voice interaction using the bundled microphone 
attachment did add a certain uniqueness, but let’s just say that more uniqueness is the last thing 
that this title needed to succeed in the West. Terranigma is an action RPG for the Super Nintendo 
that follows Ark, a boy from the village of   Crysta. After opening a forbidden box, he embarks 
on a quest to resurrect the world, destroyed by a cataclysmic event. Ark travels across continents, 
each tied to a phase of Earth’s history, to revive life and civilization. What made Terranigma 
exceptional was its innovative gameplay and   storytelling, especially the town development 
mechanic, where players could shape the growth of settlements through quests and interactions, 
enhancing the sense of immersion and agency. The   narrative also stood out with its philosophical 
depth, delving into themes of creation, rebirth, and humanity’s impact on the world. Complementing 
this was a soundtrack by Miyoko Kobayashi, celebrated for its emotional resonance and ability 
to elevate the game’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, Terranigma never released in North America since 
it got caught up in the closure of Enix America   in the year it came out. Since then, there have 
been pushes by fans to try to get a re-release, but developer Quintet, the same studio 
that did ActRaiser, Illusion of Gaia,   and Soul Blazer, has left behind a confusing and 
difficult-to-navigate licensing legacy. In fact, Terranigma’s artist, in 2021, said in an 
interview, “I don’t know about the director,   Mr. Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, because he seems to have 
disappeared. Probably the reason why the game has not been remade nor got subsequently sold 
is because Mr. Miyazaki cannot be contacted.” Unfortunately, it looks like fans in America will 
never get a proper release of this hidden gem. Created by Hideo Kojima, the famous developer 
behind Metal Gear, and originally released in   1988 in Japan on the PC, Snatcher came out for 
the Sega CD in ’94 as Konami was looking to bring a more interactive experience to Western 
players than their first go at the console,   which was ’92’s Lethal Enforcers. Releasing 
late in the Sega CD’s life cycle, Snatcher faced an uphill battle getting the attention of 
American console gamers, who were not inclined   to prefer this kind of adventure game. Compounding 
problems, the game ended up being slapped with an MA-17 rating despite massive censorship efforts, 
including the covering up of the nudity of the original. This limited the target audience to a 
small niche of older players on an unsuccessful console that was on its way out. Given all this, 
it’s no surprise that Snatcher failed in America,   selling only a couple thousand copies. 
When Konami decided to re-release the game for PlayStation and Sega Saturn a couple years 
later, they didn’t even bother trying overseas. Considering the lasting impact EarthBound has 
had on the RPG genre and gaming more generally, it might surprise some of you to learn that the 
game was a commercial failure in North America,   despite achieving moderate success in its home 
country of Japan. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. Rebranding the game EarthBound from 
Mother 2, Nintendo of America invested about $2 million in an ambitious marketing campaign. 
This was a substantial budget for a video game in the mid-1990s. The campaign leaned heavily into 
EarthBound’s offbeat tone, adopting the slogan “This game stinks.” to grab attention and reflect 
the game’s eccentric humor. To complement this,   they included foul-smelling scratch-and-sniff 
stickers in advertisements and highlighted bizarre in-game elements like battling piles 
of vomit and walking noses. The strategy aimed   to intrigue players with the game’s uniqueness. 
The game was also bundled with a strategy guide, with Nintendo figuring Westerners would probably 
need it, especially considering a general lack   of familiarity with turn-based RPGs in North 
America. The approach completely backfired. Nobody understood the humor, and the marketing 
campaign probably repelled more people than   it attracted. And the higher price of the game 
due to the inclusion of the strategy guide made the purchase all the riskier for any that might 
have been interested. And so EarthBound flopped   in North America, selling only a tiny fraction of 
what it had sold in Japan. The failure was a major disappointment for Nintendo, Ape Inc., and HAL 
Laboratory, but these huge names would, of course,   recover and move on to bigger and better things. 
The real losers in the ordeal were gamers in the West, who would have to gradually discover this 
timeless classic over the decades to follow. If you’ve made it this far, we’d really 
appreciate it if you would consider   subscribing to our channel and liking the 
video. Your support means a lot. [Music]

A soothing, nostalgic look at one of the greatest gaming decade’s misfires and missed opportunities. Hear the interesting stories and learn some intriguing facts about each video game.

Explore the forgotten flops of the 90s gaming era. From bad games like Trespasser and Bubsy 3D to innovative ideas that didn’t catch on like Planescape: Torment, and titles doomed by poor timing or regional differences like Shenmue and Earthbound.

Listen to help you fall asleep or just to learn something new!

Make sure you check out 2000s flops to fall asleep to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Q_-Kj0RyA

Check out our playlist for more videos in the Video Game Facts And Stories To Fall Asleep To series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3hIKWjkfSHnXTDTDGieeNYkoT1Eg59qP

0:00 Intro
0:15 Bad Games
11:00 Innovation Gone Awry
26:44 Casualties of Fate
43:12 Regional Differences

Corrections:
40:42 Gameplay shows Shining Force II

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