10 of the biggest duds in video game history

We saw plenty of great looking games at the recent E3 2015 conference. And while some of those will indeed live up to expectations, every single one is just a few bad decisions away from disaster.

All too often, we convince ourselves that a game is going to be awesome based on fancy tech demos, early impressions, or the developer's pedigree…only to watch in horror as 50 things go wrong and it turns out to be a mess. Here's a look at 10 of the biggest busts in gaming history.

Duke Nukem Forever (2011)

The one, the only. Long considered vaporware, this ill-fated shooter actually got released. It probably shouldn’t have.

First announced in 1997, Duke Nukem Forever was originally planned for a 1998 release. Ten years later, gamers still didn’t have anything to play, and when developer 3D Realms downsized in 2009, the game was seemingly cancelled. But where there’s a square-jawed, butt-kicking icon, there’s a way. Gearbox Software swooped in and resurrected Duke Nukem Forever a year later, and it finally hit shelves in 2011.

It should have stayed in exile. The final game was outdated and clunky. Critics slammed it, and all but the most faithful gamers opted to steer clear. Powered by the sheer curiosity factory, over 376,000 copies were sold in its first month. That dropped off dramatically, however, and the game quickly vanished from public discourse.

Daikatana (2000)

Before Duke Nukem Forever became the most famous first-person failure, Daikatana wore the crown. The brainchild of Doom mastermind John Romero, Daikatana was supposed to be a revolutionary step forward for the genre. But a controversial ad campaign raised hackles, and people hoping for the next Doom instead found a game with glitchy AI, a dated graphics engine, and gameplay that simply wasn't fun. Our friends at webcomic Penny Arcade summed it up best.

E.T. (1982)

To be honest, it's hard to remember at this point whether there was actually any excitement for this Atari 2600 debacle. But the film was red hot in 1982, so you can't blame Atari for trying to get a game tie-in out as soon as possible.

Of course, the rest is history. E.T. looked terrible — even for an Atari game — and its gameplay mostly consisted of you falling into holes. Poorly documented and almost unplayably cryptic, the game would later be blamed for the near collapse of the industry, with thousands of copies being dumped in a New Mexico landfill, only to be dug up last April.

Advent Rising (2005)

With a script from “Ender’s Game” author Orson Scott Card and a full orchestral soundtrack, Advent Rising had big ambitions. It was to be the first in a trilogy, featured a $1 million fan contest, and was promoted by publisher Majesco as the game that would put them on the map. But awful glitches, a curious design decision that made the characters look stretched out, and the cancellation of that fancy contest took the wind out of its sails. Speaking of, sales were weak, dooming the second and third installments to cancellation.

Superman 64 (1999)

The Man of Steel might be a formidable hero, but he’s been a pretty big video game bummer. Of all the stinkers bearing Kal El's name — and they are legion — this one’s the worst. Superman’s super-vision is useless thanks to the terribly thick fog. He turns like a blimp, gets stuck in chunks of the environment, and can’t lift his way out of all the broken game code. It's rightly considered one of the worst games of all time.

Kinect Star Wars (2012)

You can't blame gamers for getting excited about this Kinect catastrophe. Back in 2011, people still had faith in Microsoft's motion controller, and after wowing us with this cool trailer at the E3 conference that year, LucasArts had us all dreaming of epic lightsaber battles and Jedi force pushes. This was it: the game that would save Kinect!

Then it came out. Whoops! Not only was most of the stuff in that cool trailer nowhere to be found, but in its place was Han Solo doing this. Even that would have been tolerable if the controls worked (they didn't) or it had a cool story (it didn't) or it was really anything beyond a bunch of crummy mini-games (it wasn't). All that lightsaber practice, down the drain.

Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)

Gamers had incredibly high hopes for Colonial Marines. Developer Gearbox Software continually professed their love for the franchise, and indeed, it seemed pretty good in early looks. Picking up directly after the events in James Cameron’s classic "Aliens," this shooter was even considered canon by 20th Century Fox.

But even two sets of teeth couldn't save the final game, a laughably glitchy mess packing zero scares and tons of weak design decisions. Apex predator? More like evolutionary dead-end. Game over, man.

Tony Hawk: Ride (2009)

There was a time when you couldn't walk two feet in a video game store without tripping over a Tony Hawk game. When Tony Hawk: Ride faceplanted at retail, though, it marked the end of the line for the one-time king of extreme sports games. In a world of plastic guitars, drumsets and turntables, players simply had no interest in a janky skateboard controller, especially one that barely worked. But the Birdman’s not done: the series gets a new entry later this year.

Too Human (2008)

Meet the runner-up to Duke Nukem Forever for the Longest Development Time for a Lame Game Award. Initially planned for the Nintendo 64, Too Human then jumped to the PS2. It would keep on going, though, eventually finding its way to the Xbox 360 before finally hitting shelves nearly ten years after being announced. And while the end result wasn’t outright terrible, it wasn’t worth the wait, either. Lots of button mashing, lengthy, unskippable death sequences, and a short running-time led to mediocre reviews and tepid sales.

Pac-Man 2600 (1982)

Pac-Man? Great game. Pac-Man 2600? Not a great game. Not even a good one, really. While it's technically the best selling Atari 2600 game ever, this port of the arcade classic was ridiculously ugly and failed to capture the spirit of what made Pac-Man so enjoyable. Along with E.T., it contributed mightily to the death-spiral that doomed not only Atari, but the rest of the video game industry in the early 80s.

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