GBAtemp one off portal survey- most disappointing DS game

mightymuffy · Jul 15, 2012

Not entirely sure mine counts as it's a remake really:
Diddy Kong Racing DS! How can such a great N64 game (I preferred it to MK64!) have become such a shockingly bad game on the DS?! Everything was effed up: controls were shocking, graphics were horrendous, the additions were terrible, and the speech?! Don't get me started!

(another remake: Theme Park DS! Just... WTF?!)

Couple of surprising games popped up on here..! If DKR DS doesn't count I'll add mine: Final Fantasy Tactics A2.... huge fan of the PS1 & GBA games, bought this on day one, and despite numerous attempts simply can't get into it..... dull, boring, lifeless game!

Sora de Eclaune · Jul 15, 2012

The most disappointing game, for me, would have to be The Graveyard. It's a game by tale of tales. I've played their other games, and they're great. I expected a lot more from this game and got much less.

notmeanymore · Jul 15, 2012

ViRGE said:
I know some people liked it, but I'd put Star Fox Command on this list. You had to spend far too much time playing a bad turn based strategy game between missions, and then the missions themselves were lackluster because they were only all-range mode missions with absolutely nothing on rails. And of course the controls were a letdown; I think it was good on Nintendo's part to have touchscreen controls, but to only have touchscreen controls made the game hard (and unfun) to play.

People were expecting something akin to Star Fox 64, but the final product was nothing like that.

Just to counter, I found Starfox Command's controls to be more comfortable for me than StarFox 64 3D once I took the time to learn it all. Everything else, I agree with.

Guild McCommunist · Jul 15, 2012

JohnnyBlaze1986 said:
Nebz said:

Pokemon Black and White. I really had to force myself to play it and I absolutely love the Pokemon series. Something about it just leaves me extremely bored... I assume it's the collect 'em all, get all 8 badges, and defeat Elite 4 aspect that bothers me since I've been doing this every year since '98.

Personally, I think a lengthy, well-driven story with the Gym Leader and Elite 4 junk taken out or with less emphasis would probably have me play this series again. I've tried Black 2 and White 2 and that boring feeling is even stronger -__-.

inb4troll

Click to expand...

I think it's because they went in a different direction with the series with those games. They made it a little too intelligent for its own good(realizing that you're not as much of a hero as you thought you were and "corrupting" a man with "pure morals"). I thought it was a good try, but there could've been more added in the way of simple story.

Are people really arguing that they made Pokemon B/W 2's story "too deep"?

Really?

I mean really?

FAST6191 · Jul 15, 2012

@JohnnyBlaze1986 the first zelda game at least got hacks to support control hacks of various forms via dpad.

I somehow had never heard of CORE.

Diddy Kong Racing probably has to be one of my top ones but in retrospect I was not hyped for it in the slightest and knew Rare was a shadow of their former selves. Still I probably liked diddy kong 64 more than almost all of mario kart 64 and if MK64 had not had block fort battle mode then definitely.

I was kind of curious about black sigil and it would have made a great GBA RPG as it seemingly was intended to be but I am not counting that. Likewise I was kind of irked at Lunar: Dragon Song which saw you lose health if you ran in the game but that was more because I was after a straight up RPG and the DS pretty much had nothing for some time other than it (and then three on one day with the FF3 remake not so long after).

I am still not entirely sure what to think about the second advance wars but I can by no means call that disappointing.

I am not such a great fan of the Tetris party game but Tetris DS, the homebrew TGM port, the other homebrew and the GBA minna no soft title as well as emulation of the original and NES tetris 2 means I do not really care about that.

Ultimate card games- as I am not allowed to count a however many year wait it was (DS launch or thereabouts it was announced and finally saw it late last year) that does not work and it is probably the best card game collection for the DS although that comes with the disclaimer that I have not played all the ones worth looking at yet.

The first worms game I actually did not mind that much at the time, it is not a patch on the PSP versions or the sequel but I also liked the PS1 and GBA versions.

Micro machines I was really excited for (right from the really early e3 trailer) as I loved the micro machines games on the megadrive/genesis (although I do not speak of them as much as I might golden axe, streets of rage or bomberman it is up there) but I do not know if I can call it.

Orcs and Elves... have not put as much time into it as I might and having both enjoyed the shining series and played class of heroes on the PSP I do not know, it was not the only mobile phone to DS port that fell short as I also really wanted to enjoy labyrinth but did not get the chance. I suppose on the related note Izuna the unemployed ninja did not stack up against POWDER but both have room to exist.

Myst.... I am probably obliged to mention this but as I was always more of a 11th hour and 7th guest fan I can not say myst holds a place in my head and to be fair I do not think I did more than test it ran for someone once.

CSI games- I actually enjoyed some of the PC titles and you would have thought it hard to screw up a point and click/pixel searcher and some conversation/evidence minigames (see phoenix wright for a well implemented example on the DS)

Prince of persia... the GBA prince of persia I will dub one of the finest platformers ever made and if it was as long as say Mario 3 or something that would tip to unquestionably so and the DS games (although there were card battles and such) were not so hot.

Legacy of Ys... afraid Ys probably belongs in the http://gbatemp.net/topic/285807-legendary-games-or-franchises-you-have-not-played/ thread but I do recall some people not being as happy as they might have been.

I played puzzle quest 2 on the 360 and never really did anything on the spinoffs.

I think I need to actually play some games as looking through the rest of the games list it seems I have not played an awful lot of stuff.

Maikel Steneker · Jul 15, 2012

Arm73 said:
+1 to Metroid Prime Hunters.
I'm a huge fan , and I played every game in existence for every platform and finished them all, but this, it was just to shallow and multiplayer focused to be enjoyed on its own.
It was really a game that i was looking for on the DS after playing the 2 GC games, and sadly, I didn't even play it trough.
Just too boring, with the same boss over and over again....

But I have to disagree on M&L partners in time, I had a great time playing with that one, and the two babes were awesome !

I think your post demonstrates that a really big part of whether or not a game disappoints is what you expect of it. I loved Metroid Prime Hunters because it enabled me to play a Quake/Unreal Tournament style FPS on my handheld. However, I can imagine that someone expecting a sequel to Metroid Prime 2 would be greatly disappointed. I love the GameCube and Wii games too, but for an entirely different reason.

On the other hand, Partners in Time disappointed me a little bit because I expected a much more direct sequel to the original Mario & Luigi. I felt that everything that was added made the end product weaker.

Maybe this is not particularly relevant to this topic, but I felt I should point that out

Rydian · Jul 15, 2012

Maikel Steneker said:
I think your post demonstrates that a really big part of whether or not a game disappoints is what you expect of it.

Agreed here. After playing Yoshi's Island for the SNES, I was disappointed because it's a better game than the DS sequel (even in basic ways such as art/animation). If I hadn't of played the original, I might have enjoyed the second one more.

Joe88 · Jul 15, 2012

both zelda games
I cant stand that they put (forced) touch screen gimmick controls
even with the d-pad hack its pretty bad

KingAsix · Jul 15, 2012

Im surprised no one mentioned GS: Dark Dawn.....Though I thought about considering it, I was only disappointed in the story. Thought the game was easier than the others before it, they kept a "if its not broke dont fix it" mentality on the game play and ive always loved GS for the gameplay.

I was kinda disappointed about Megaman BN5DS.....They could have done so much more with the DS in my opinion. I guess they tried though

Wolfenpilot687 · Jul 15, 2012

I've had many DSappointments.

-Again: While initially seemed like a game that would appeal to my love of adventure games (having enjoyed Ace Attorney, Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk before), it turned to be a bore, and I have stepped away from it twice. I intend to give it another try someday.
-Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol: I tried this for a bit, but it seemed too infuriating on the beginning, due to the days in-game being too short for me to do something meaningful. I'm not good with this kind of pressure. But yes, I intend to try it again in the future.
-Wario: Maste of Disguise: The same reasons others had. I found this game to be simple, but perhaps to simple for its own good. Still, this is a trait that I have found in many of the first titles for the DS.

Nemesis90 · Jul 15, 2012

RupeeClock said:
I think the key disappointment of all DS titles would have to be Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

What should have been a stellar sequel to Superstar Saga, the game was actually quite a frustrating bore.
There were so few secrets to be found and ironically, for a focus on time travelling, a very linear progression. You could barely explore the surroundings and the present time basically had no exploration, such a wasted opportunity.
The battle system was an absolute step down. With the added in baby Mario brothers, who had severely lacking stats compared to their adult counterparts, lacking in capabilities and annoying button mapping (always to X and Y even when alone), having to account for four players simultaneously in the thick of battles was absolutely horrible, Superstar saga worked because it has two characters, and they knew this when they designed Bowser's Inside Story.
One of the biggest problems was the removal of bros maneuvers, or special attacks. In their place came items, a very poor design choice.

I never made the effort to finish the game because it was just so dull, the battles truly were unfun to play just because of the babies. Any time that Mario and Luigi were fighting alone was a blessing.

Edit: I think the other major Mario related disappointment was Yoshi's Island DS, a very generic sequel to the classic Yoshi's Island.
Someone else can write up about what was so wrong with that game, I couldn't even bother to play it past the second world.

Pretty much this. Hell i can barely remember any of the music from either games, and that's usually a STAPLE in Mario titles.

Ranma · Jul 16, 2012

Maybe 999? Got hyped up pretty hard on the internet, then when I check it out it's a poorly written point and click game. Maybe I didn't get far enough to see how good it could be, but that writing was so bad. It was like a 12 year old writing fanfiction levels of bad.

I could probably think of a ton of other games I was disappointed in, but that's the main one I can think of. I usually love that sort of game, too (the Cing games on DS, Broken Sword, etc)

Nathan Drake · Jul 16, 2012

My biggest disappointments:

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: I was surprised to not see this one mentioned until a few pages in. I mean, most who have played the GBA Golden Sun games found them to be great. They actually had some challenge, decent music, a decent story, and secrets that were worth going after. After those two titles, it took most of the last decade to release a title on the best selling handheld of all time, only to screw it up. The story was garbage, the points of no return were bogus, the characters were shit, and the entire thing concluded indecisively and abruptly. I mean, the game ended on a cliffhanger, and now the developer doesn't even think they'll bother with a fourth game. Dark Dawn is one of the biggest disappointments on the DS that I've encountered by so very far.

The LoZ DS games: Might as well judge them equally, since Spirit Tracks is just Phantom Hourglass with a train instead of a boat. Annoying touchscreen controls were enough to really damage the experience (not necessarily bad, just unnecessary). The stories weren't that great. I mean, more generic than the average Zelda storyline? You dun goof'd. I know most of us don't really play Zelda for the story, but when you screw up the action portion, the story better at least be decent to keep me interested. Nope! These are easily some of the worst Zelda games out there. I think Spirit Tracks was actually more disappointing, since we were all hoping that they had actually learned from Phantom Hourglass. Guess not.

Forstride · Jul 16, 2012

Definitely Star Fox Command. The Zelda games are a close 2nd.

Star Fox Command just completely sucked IMO, and the 2 DS Zelda games just didn't have the same charm that Zelda games usually do. I didn't really have a problem with the controls, graphics, etc., but the gameplay felt dull, and the game just felt lacking in general. I mean, it was a portable game, so there were limitations, but they could've done a better 2D game.

DSGamer64 · Jul 16, 2012

pas said:
DSGamer64 said:

Metroid Prime: Hunters

By far and away this game was supposed to be good, but like most DS shooters, the controls wound up feeling clunky and inaccurate. The character models were really mediocre and the game itself did not have a lot of depth to it. Seemed like Nintendo was basically beta testing Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection with the game.

Click to expand...

On those not liking Metroid Prime Hunters:

Heavily disagreeing... I still play this game once in a while since it is simply ... fun
I can agree that this game falls short storywise in comparison since I'm currently playing Metroid Prime Trilogy. However shouldn't we be happy at all that we got any kind of Multiplayer MP that is kinda packed with content before the Prime Saga ended ?
It might not be good if you excpected a full blown story mode, cause this game was always meant to be ... multiplayer focused.
However since it seems Nintendos philosophy to always keep fun over graphics/too much singleplayer content in this case - works pretty good for MPH and thats why most people will disagree.
And lets admit it:
Wifi for this game - cheaters aside - works quite remarkably better than for many other DS Games.

Well, my choice falls on: Dragonquest IX

I love many SE titles (FFVII KH chronicles) however I was really disappointed that this one turned out to be turnbased in the end.

I anticipated it when it was still meant to be action based, however it being turnbased kinda killed it.

I disagree, Dragon Quest 9 was exactly like every other Dragon Quest in the franchise. Why would it not be turn based? They aren't going to Final Fantasy-ize it by trying to go with a free roaming combat system or a Tactics style game, that would kill all appeal by the hardcore Dragon Quest fans who continue to buy the games after all these years. Now Rocket Slime, that game was pretty fun but horribly repetitive, too bad it didn't have WFC tank battles.

JohnnyBlaze1986 · Jul 16, 2012

Guild McCommunist said:
JohnnyBlaze1986 said:

Nebz said:

Pokemon Black and White. I really had to force myself to play it and I absolutely love the Pokemon series. Something about it just leaves me extremely bored... I assume it's the collect 'em all, get all 8 badges, and defeat Elite 4 aspect that bothers me since I've been doing this every year since '98.

Personally, I think a lengthy, well-driven story with the Gym Leader and Elite 4 junk taken out or with less emphasis would probably have me play this series again. I've tried Black 2 and White 2 and that boring feeling is even stronger -__-.

inb4troll

Click to expand...

I think it's because they went in a different direction with the series with those games. They made it a little too intelligent for its own good(realizing that you're not as much of a hero as you thought you were and "corrupting" a man with "pure morals"). I thought it was a good try, but there could've been more added in the way of simple story.

Click to expand...

Are people really arguing that they made Pokemon B/W 2's story "too deep"?

Really?

I mean really?

No, the FIRST Black and White. But, surprisingly people are actually complaining about going back to the old type of story for the sequels. Go figure. Pokemon is Pokemon to me. I love them no matter what....

Nathan Drake said:
My biggest disappointments:

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: I was surprised to not see this one mentioned until a few pages in. I mean, most who have played the GBA Golden Sun games found them to be great. They actually had some challenge, decent music, a decent story, and secrets that were worth going after. After those two titles, it took most of the last decade to release a title on the best selling handheld of all time, only to screw it up. The story was garbage, the points of no return were bogus, the characters were shit, and the entire thing concluded indecisively and abruptly. I mean, the game ended on a cliffhanger, and now the developer doesn't even think they'll bother with a fourth game. Dark Dawn is one of the biggest disappointments on the DS that I've encountered by so very far.

GODDAMMIT! You just HAD to remind me. Just when I had that abortion BLANKED from my mind. Thanks a lot!

MarkDarkness · Jul 16, 2012

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Fun, great graphics, collection of minigames with a plot, and a favorite of mine: card collection. It all seemed to line up really well, and the game seemed promising early on. I was really psyched. And then... the time came to actually use the cards in battle, and that system sucks hard. The battles are simply not fun at all, rigged, and bring nothig to the table other than grievance. They simpyl ruin the game to me. I went ahead and completed it, but goddamn, I did it out of spite.

dgwillia · Jul 16, 2012

BlueStar said:
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters DS. Awesome games on the NGPC, but gash on the DS. Horrible cheesy graphics, unwieldy interface and, best of all, a bug that meant the game couldn't be completed until they sent out fixed version.

This so much. Easily my most played NGPC game.

Tried the DS version and wanted to cry

Also i want to throw in a vote for Viewtiful Joe. 1 and 2 were my favorite Gamecube games ever, then the DS and PSP games came along and ruined the series. (And seemed to kill the chance of any sort of sequel, still hoping we manage to get HD remakes of 1 and 2)

Maikel Steneker · Jul 16, 2012

Wolfenpilot687 said:
-Chibi-Robo! Park Patrol: I tried this for a bit, but it seemed too infuriating on the beginning, due to the days in-game being too short for me to do something meaningful. I'm not good with this kind of pressure. But yes, I intend to try it again in the future.

The beginning is pretty stupid, but the length of the days gets extended quite fast. You really should give it another chance, it's a very charming little game.

Ranma said:
Maybe 999? Got hyped up pretty hard on the internet, then when I check it out it's a poorly written point and click game. Maybe I didn't get far enough to see how good it could be, but that writing was so bad. It was like a 12 year old writing fanfiction levels of bad.

Really? I consider 999 to be one of the best DS games. I found the puzzles to be really challenging, but I felt really good after solving them all by myself. This also made the story seem more important to me.

Costello · Jul 16, 2012

I must admit I was hugely disappointed by the Zelda games.
Stylus gameplay is a terrible idea to me, it ruined everything.
I must have posted this a thousand times already, I apologize to anyone who may feel irrirated by my post

GBAtemp one off portal survey- most disappointing DS game

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