Legendary video game fails

There are some shockers on this “biggest video game fails” list, and perhaps a game you have never heard of.

These games are historical in their failure, marking serious blunders in gaming history, and what may have been the longest in-development joke we’ll ever see.

Duke Nukem Forever

There is no other game that I would like to see at the top of this list more than Duke Nukem Forever – it was terrible. Meant to be a sequel one of the greatest DOS games of the era, Forever failed to accomplish what it set out achieve.

Development started in 1996 using the Quake II engine. In 2001, 3D Realms announced that they would release the game “when it is done”, a phrase many game developers now use when revealing their latest titles.

8 years went by and there was no sign of Duke Nukem Forver; but in 2007 3D realms teased us with a short trailer, then silence again.

With the closure of 3D Realms in 2009 we all thought Forever was finally dead, but nobody can kill Duke. In September 2010 publisher 2K games reported that Duke Nukem Forever was in development at Geabox, and that it would release on 6 May 2011; then of course there was another delay to 10 June 2011.

After 15 years in development, the world was let down by Duke Nukem. The game received extremely low review scores; Destructoid labelled it the “Shittiest Game of 2011”, and Zero Punctuations listed it as the 2nd worst game of 2011. According to VGCharts the game has only sold 370,000 copies.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600)

Who hasn’t watched E.T? It was like the Avatar of its day. The video game was another story… Released in December 1982, the game sold a mere 1.5 million copies resulting in a $536 million loss ($ 1.6 billion Today).

The game was developed, coded and shipped in 5 months and Atari estimated to sell 5 million copies. Many copies were returned for refunds due to customer dissatisfaction.

The game basically destroyed Atari and played a part in the “Video Game Crash of 83”. Legend has it that in 1983, truckloads of unsold Atari boxes, ET games, and hardware were crushed and buried in a landfill.

Link: The Faces of Evil / Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon / Zelda’s Adventure (CD-i)

Due to a business deal with Nintendo in the early 90’s, Philips found themselves with license to create games based on Nintendo’s characters.

At the time, their Philips CD-I console was not selling well, and three Zelda games were produced – Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, and Zelda’s Adventure.

These three games were made with little involvement of Nintendo, and were exclusive to the CD-I. Link: The Face for Evil and Zelda: Wand of Gamelon were released in 1994, both at the same time, and looked and played the same due to their development cycle. Zelda’s Adventure released in 1995.

Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon used a side scrolling mechanic introduced in Zelda II and what we have just experienced in A Link to the Past. The cutscenes were horrid due to the game unable to produce sound effects and music at the same time, creating an unprofessional mock of the franchise.

The reception was extremely negative with critics saying that The Faces of Evil and The wand of Gamelon were “the worst thing to happen to gaming” and must be “avoided at all costs.”

In the end, not only did these Zelda games fail, the Phillips CD-I also went under.