25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History

[AndrewB]

Brought to you by GameSpy.

Really, extraordinarily insightful and interesting. Lots of research must have gone into this. Be prepared for about 2 hours of addictive reading.

[Bloodshedder]

It took you two hours to read that?

[Ichor]

I think the E.T. disaster should have been a lot higher on the list, like maybe in the top three. That game (as well as Atari's idea of Pac-Man) not only decimated the once great Atari and turned it into an empty shell of a company, but it was the catalyst in the big video game crash of around 1984. It was also one of the absolute worst games of all time.

[AndrewB]

I think their top 5 were the least interesting to read, and seemed to be retellings of ones on the bottom of the list.

I also think the E.T. story should compete for #1. I enjoyed reading about Duke Nukem Forever, as well as Ion Storm.

This was probably 3 hours reading total for me. 25 full page-articles, plus 5 pages on GBA backlight kit, plus a 5-page idiot-interview...

You know, I've never cared to think about it much, but I have a lot of respect for GameSpy after reading through this stuff.

[Ichor]

And yes, Tengen's Tetris was a lot better than the one from Nintendo. not only was it better looking and had better music, but the gameplay was actually a little better. It seemed to give all the pieces with an almost equal frequency, even the long, straight lines. I could play on the maximum speed (which was about as fast as falling raindrops) for quite a long time and rack up some seriously huge points. For some reason, I couldn't get past level 4 or 5 in the Nintendo version.

[AndrewB]

Tetris in any form can be addicting, but the one I've played more than any other is Tetris DX for Gameboy Color.

It's frustrating the way the game conspires against you to give you the pieces you need the least, and hold off on the 4-liners when you need them the most.

[mewse]

AndrewB said:

Tetris in any form can be addicting, but the one I've played more than any other is Tetris DX for Gameboy Color.

It's frustrating the way the game conspires against you to give you the pieces you need the least, and hold off on the 4-liners when you need them the most.

thats probably more psychological than anything else, but tengen's nintendo version also showed a piece count on the other side of the screen in 1-player so that you knew the game wasn't holding out on you, heh

[Ichor]

And even if they were, I learned how to get around that by getting a few one or two liners using pieces in strange ways while waiting for the big line. Of course, when you have a bunch of useless blocks piled up to near the top, getting a tetris is usually the last thing on your mind.

[Arioch]

I've made it to the 30's in Tetris DX scoring around 500k. I haven't tried this with an original Tetris GB cart.

[Amaster]

Interesting article. I think the whole Tengen Tetris thing should have been number one though.

Tetris is quite addictive. But I found Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Genesis/Mega Drive) to be more enjoyable. Especially with two players.

[doomedout]

Arioch said:

I've made it to the 30's in Tetris DX scoring around 500k. I haven't tried this with an original Tetris GB cart.

Let's throw a party shall we in celebration of your feat!

Heh.

Nice read though.

[mewse]

doomedout said:

Let's throw a party shall we in celebration of your feat!

meow. i sense contempt.

[Little Faith]

Do all Gamespy articles serve as a hagiography of John Carmack?

[Alboroto]

Little Faith said:

Do all Gamespy articles serve as a hagiography of John Carmack?

Just all of them =)

[The Flange Peddler]

interetsing read. But they seem to have missed out Commodore and the CD32 fiasco.

[IMJack]

They already appended five pages of stuff, beyond the first 25 items, that came up in their forum.

[AndrewB]

Anyone played fastest-to-40-lines in Tetris DX? My record was 1:51.

[Psyonisis]

I've heard a lot about that E.T. game, but have never played or seen it. Can a game really be that bad?

[Gokuma]

I have to correct them on something. The directional pad on that "monstrousity" of a remodeled US Saturn pad is superior to any other I've used (except true arcade quality joysticks are best for fighters). 360's, 720's, and other moves in fighting games work much better with it. The buttons on the controller aren't the greatest, but the d-pad is the best.

[Amaster]

Psyonisis said:

I've heard a lot about that E.T. game, but have never played or seen it. Can a game really be that bad?

YES. IT IS HORRIBLE. The manual actually has to tell you what to do in each stage of the game. Nothing in that damn game makes any sense.

[Sephiroth]

Psyonisis said:

I've heard a lot about that E.T. game, but have never played or seen it. Can a game really be that bad?

OMG yes!!! i own the damn thing and it IS total crap. not only is it lame to play, and about impossible. but nothing makes sense. however games just as bad have come out.

by the way i dont think the xbox controller is that bad. i find it move confortable than any out now, and i dont have huge hands. though it did take some getting use to, like 30 minutes.

[Sharessa]

Heh. That was a great read. It didn't really say anything about the horrible Wolf 3d SNES port, but oh well. Also, I used to think Deep was annoying, but at least we don't have this guy:

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/readers/index2.shtml