NES games that disappointed you

[schuwalker]

20 minutes ago, Gemintronic said:

Speaking of games with random mysterious unexplained objectives:

 

Athena was already a sub par platforming experience.. THEN you get stuck with an invincible end boss unless you collect certain hidden things.  The game gets so tough though I just thought I had to "git gud" so I spent hours trying to defeat the last boss!

I believe that was Micronics that made that one too...

[Tanooki]

Micronics was largely an NES dumpster fire of failure, even when they got it pretty close enough to right, they cheapened the look/sounds of the games just enough to where you know their art department and coders were sub-par as the company was as more could have been done (like Ghosts n Goblins.)

[zetastrike]

From the POV of someone exploring the library years after the fact, Metal Storm can go straight into the fire.  I was very excited to try it after seeing screenshots, I love 80s Japanese mechanical designs, I saw the parallax and was very impressed.  Then I played it.  Watching yourself die over and over again while struggling with controls and needing to plan your moves is never a fun experience.  I guess I wanted it to be more Mega Man like, but that's just not what it is.

[Game&Watch]

Ninja Turtles, that was way too hard, and bit just as a kid--that game is a nightmare in terms of difficulty. Too bad, because there's a good game buried there.

[glazball]

Dragon Power because... well, have you played it??  The box art looked decent enough, only to get it home to discover you play as a silly monkey boy and the gameplay is completely unsatisfying.

 

One bullet I luckily dodged was Urban Champion, mentioned above.  I clearly remember being at Target as a kid holding it and Karate Champ in my hands trying to decide which to get.  I went with Karate Champ, which was only slightly better.  Neither aged particularly well.

[Tanooki]

Dragon Power is Dragon Ball, neutered, and messed with in many ways  beyond just censoring out Goku and his adventure.

[Cynicaster]

On NES I remember being quite disappointed by virtually all arcade ports from roughly '88 - maybe '89 - onward. 

 

There was a fairly brief period of time in the early-to-mid 80s where the NES was able to support very nice home versions of arcade games.  The most faithful ports are probably the ones that were popular in arcades a few years before coming to NES (think Star Force and games like that).  There were also examples of nice ports that arrived not too long after being popular in arcades (highlights for me were 1943; Bubble Bobble; Konami hits like Contra, Jackal, and Rush N Attack). 

 

But by the end of the 80s - and especially into the 90s - the "hot" new arcade games of the day were just too divergent from the NES in hardware.  The result was compromise-ridden, watered-down, underwhelming ports, kind of analogous to what we had seen on the 2600 several years prior when its reach started to exceed its grasp.  Someone mentioned NARC - that is a very good example among many (for me, others include: Bad Dudes, Klax, Robocop, Smash TV, Afterburner).  Even if some of those ports are "pretty decent considering the limitations of the hardware" that's kind of beside the point because it offers no consolation; the games still pale in comparison to the arcade experience, which created the disappointment factor for me.   

 

ETA: this widening gap between arcade experience and home was the prime driving factor behind me emptying my bank account to buy a Genesis in '91.  I was salivating over arcade ports of Altered Beast, Golden Axe, After Burner II, Ghouls N Ghosts, etc. and the system did not disappoint.  

Edited December 10, 2021 by Cynicaster

[4300]

Festers quest and Rambo immediately come to mind.  Those games were frustratingly awful,  even as a kid. 

[+jeremiahjt]

On 12/8/2021 at 9:43 AM, wongojack said:

These comments make me realize that I have never seriously tried to play Super Pitfall.  I know the point of this thread is to tell me to stay away, but maybe I'll give it a try?

I rented it as a kid, well because it was Pitfall, and was not impressed.  I always wanted to beat it though.  Within the last year or two I went through it to the end.  With a guide handy there is some fun to be had, but I cannot imagine beating that game without a guide.  Even if you map everything and realize that jumping in random spots makes things appear how could you ever figure out jumping into that bird.

[mbd39]

13 minutes ago, jeremiahjt said:

I rented it as a kid, well because it was Pitfall, and was not impressed.  I always wanted to beat it though.  Within the last year or two I went through it to the end.  With a guide handy there is some fun to be had, but I cannot imagine beating that game without a guide.  Even if you map everything and realize that jumping in random spots makes things appear how could you ever figure out jumping into that bird.

 

I've encountered people who claim to have beaten it without a guide. I'm with you, I don't understand how it's possible. Game is way too cryptic.

[Frozone212]

Mylon's secret castle and Kung Fu can go straight to hell.

[crade]

Uncanny X-Men was the worst..  How come GI-Joe and Batman had good companies license them and my favorite comic gets frickin LJN

[+Razzie.P]

On 4/4/2022 at 3:41 PM, crade said:

Uncanny X-Men was the worst..  How come GI-Joe and Batman had good companies license them and my favorite comic gets frickin LJN

As a fan of Conan The Barbarian, I completely understand.

 

[+FujiSkunk]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:47 AM, NE146 said:

Oh speaking of disappointing NES games I got another. Donkey Kong. It was pretty baffling at the time popping that in hoping for finally a 'good' version of Donkey Kong that you knew your NES could do, only to realize that as good as it looked, it was still half-baked with missing animations and no 2nd stage/conveyer belts.

I'm just now reading this thread, so I'm late to the punch, but I have to second Donkey Kong and also throw in Mario Bros.  How the company that made the arcade games and the more-than-capable home hardware couldn't also make accurate ports of those games on that hardware still mystifies me.  Donkey Kong Jr. fared better, though it still baffled American players who weren't used to seeing all four screens in the very first level.

 

I wasn't an NES owner back in the day, trying my best to stick with Atari and the 7800, so of course the real disappointment for me here was how Atari used creative license interpretation to port games from their fiercest competitor to their own console, and then based those ports on the inferior NES versions!