Which games had the most NEGATIVE influence on the industry?

[Underball]

Super Mario Brothers (series). The marketing shift to pandering to the 3-8 year old cutsie kiddie set with Hello Kitty/effeminate mushroom and cartoony bullshit ruined almost the entire 90's decade until Doom and the return to teen and adult themed games made a comeback.

 

But really Nintendos kid-focused strategy and unnecessary editing and neutering if video games to appease political blowhards was the worst.

Actually, the entire industry was focused on teens and young adults, as those were the target demographic of Arcades, young people with money of their OWN to spend.

 

But Nintendo exploited the Sesame Street aged audience, and that snowballed into bullshit like Pokemon, "Bronies", and creepy pedophilia-influenced hentai and japanime where the focus on sexualizing young girls takes precendence.

 

Nintendo spawned creepy bullshit like 4chan.

Super Mario Brothers (series). The marketing shift to pandering to the 3-8 year old cutsie kiddie set with Hello Kitty/effeminate mushroom and cartoony bullshit ruined almost the entire 90's decade until Doom and the return to teen and adult themed games made a comeback.

 

Yeah man, Bubble Bobble was just terrible.

 

Along with Burgertime, Pooyan, Frogger, Bubbles, and Kangaroo. The list goes on.. and on.. and on.

 

It's not like video games were all aimed at adults and then Nintendo came along and made everything too kiddy. The industry was almost entirely aimed at kids until the violent mature-rated games came along.

 

What's wrong with kiddy and cartoonish anyway? A game has to be all gritty, dark and violent to be fun? You're not a REAL MAN if you play a game with cartoon mushrooms in it? *flexes bicep*

 

The grudge that some posters here harbor against Nintendo is ridiculous. Like Mario and Luigi took turns raping them as a child and now they hate all things Nintendo.

[Austin]

[The Dord]

I really wouldn't blame specific games. Though, certain specific games started trends that were copied and lead towards bad games.

 

Terrible trends:

 

3D: yes 3d is great. Looks great, gets you more immersed in a game, etc., but 3d started a trend of games that suck you in, force you to play for hours on end (even when it's a boring game), and then end up having zero replay value because you got so sick of the game when you were playing it, but kept playing because you wanted the reward of finishing it.

 

Unlockables/collectables/minigames: in practice some of these are great. Though, at some point they became more of a necessary addition to a game than a nice bonus. "Well if Blockbuster Game X has extra content, we need it in our game too." This has lead to diverting time and attention away from game design and forced resources into adding unlockables that not everyone will see (Game reviewers tend to be responsible for this belief that a game needs "extras" to be good)

 

Copycat game design over innovation: you've all seen this a million times before. In reality it is MUCH easier to make a copycat game than an original one. With a copycat, the basic blueprint for the game is already done, and mild success is almost ensured. With innovation, you are headed into uncharted territory, where failure is a distinct possibility. Unfortunately the games/music/movie/entertainment/anything industry is more about profit than quality.

 

Copycat mentality: this is the mentality created by copycat design; this is more about the consumer than the designer. The copycat mentality is basically a mindset that says " Blockbuster game X was great, so all good games must be like blockbuster game X" This is the thinking that limits what type of games people play, and in turn fuels copycat game design, because these games (regardless of how bad) will sell.

 

My 2 cents.

 

I agree, It's especially bad on the mobile market-- there's a lot of cloned games! (Temple run clones, water physics games, jewel puzzle games, etc)

[Netsurfer_x1]

Ok, I know I'm gonna catch crap for this one, but here goes:

 

Gimmicky Hardware: The best recent example is EVERYONE who has made a motion-sensing controller. It was tolerable when the Wii did it (But even Nintendo have realized they f-ed up by going that route almost exclusively), but now that Sony & Microsoft are trying (and failing epically!) to make their own motion sensing controllers. The result: A glut of mediocre (at best) games that pander to this gimmick. I guess they've forgotten: Quality software makes a good console, not gimmicky hardware!

[GodzillaIsMyCopilot]

The games that have had the most negative impact on gaming are the ones worth playing that we didn't.

 

Instead of complaining about the megahits that brought megaclones with them (which is a phenomenon that will always occur in mass market), we should be seeking out the unsung classics, and using avenues like this to make sure everyone plays them.

 

After the games, the gamers kill the culture.