10 Black Sheep Video Games

Nintendo waited to capitalize on the huge success of its 1990 Super NES flagship game.Super Mario World.Shigeru Miyamoto made Super Mario World a typical tour-de-force. This blockbuster redefined platform gaming and introduced conventions still used today. Other companies would have released SMW2 a year later, but Nintendo follows its own schedule.

Almost six years later, near the Super NES life cycle's end, Yoshi’s Island appears. It is a cartoonish, goofy take on platforming never seen before.

The hand-drawn look is common now. Back then, it was revolutionary and caught the eye. Miyamoto chose the exaggerated crayon animation style as a reaction against the computer-rendered sprite graphics from games like Donkey Kong Country, which were common then.Donkey Kong Country.prevalent games at that time.

The game was awesome. However, not every entertainment giant approved of showing their mascot as a diaper-clad mewling infant clinging to a homicidal dinosaur that spits out weird eggs.

The Pokémon franchise moved from GameBoy to N64 with Pokémon Snap in 1999.Pokémon Snap., a relaxing 3D first-person rail photography sim. It is based on a top-down turn-based RPG about capturing and training cute animals to fight in pits of death.Pokémon Snap shows animals to fight.It is in pits of death. There is little overlap in those Venn diagrams.

In the game, you ride a small golf cart and photograph Pokémon. You repeat this. You repeat this. There are no fights, no captures, no leveling up. The game is very Zen and relaxing. You must plan your photo compositions. You are an artist. Plus, using a Pester Ball to annoy local wildlife is always fun.

Star Fox.Star Fox (1993) showed Nintendo’s new Super FX chip. This delivered revolutionary 3D graphics to a home console. Fox McCloud, a gruff furry, zoomed through the galaxy in his spaceship blasting aliens with a squadron of fighters.Star Fox 64.Star Fox 64 (1997) gave the same fun plot and new graphics. What did Nintendo make for a sequel?

Five years later.Star Fox Adventures.Star Fox Adventures (2002) launched for the GameCube. It featured Fox, but he lacked his coolest item—his spaceship! Instead, he ran alone on a primitive world, killing foes with a stick or similar object.

Rare developed the game originally as Dinosaur Planet.Dinosaur Planet., and it was basically a Zelda clone.Zelda.While fun on its own, Star Fox Adventures was like sending Captain Kirk to the Gorn planet for a full season.Star Fox Adventures.like tossing Captain Kirk down to the Gorn planet for a full season.

Until Wii Sports arrived, the original Super Mario Bros. was the best-selling Nintendo title in history. A pack-in game with nearly every NES console, SMB defined platform gaming for decades. So how did Nintendo follow up on one of the most beloved games in history?Wii Sports.came along, the original Super Mario Bros.Super Mario Bros.was the best-selling Nintendo title in history.Super Mario Bros. is the best-selling Nintendo title in history.. This pack-in game came with almost every NES package. SMB defined platform gaming for decades. How did Nintendo follow up on one of the most beloved games in history?

The Japanese sequel toSuper Mario Bros.later released asThe Lost LevelsThe Lost Levels for NES almost matched its predecessor. It felt harder, which American players disliked. So, the Mario developers chose a different path.

Based on a Japanese vertical-scrolling prototype calledDoki Doki Panic, Super Mario Bros. 2(1988) felt like a strange, hallucinatory experience from a story inArabian NightsMario shared the stage with Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach. Mario flung beets at enemies and chased Shyguys. A cross-dressing dinosaur was the main antagonist. Birdo became a cult favorite, and SMB2 was a huge hit.

After the huge success of the first twoBanjo-KazooieRare should have perfected this formula. Another globe-trotting adventure for the witty pair? More co-op platforming, bigger worlds, and wilder collectibles?

No, not quite. Kids! Let's all get jobs at the junkyard!Nuts & Bolts(2008) for Xbox 360 focused on building vehicles from scrap.

To beat the evil witch, you must build cars, boats, motorcycles, and planes for stunt challenges. Platforming appears, but mostly, you design vehicle blueprints in your lab or pilot them through courses.

Building a virtual erector set and making odd contraptions was fun. Still, this differs from the bird and bear journeys in the prior two games.

Character development offers little for Bomberman. He is a small pixelated character from 1983. His existence involves running through mazes and dropping bombs. Some plot exists if you likeBombermanlore (he is an intergalactic policeman or something), but that matters little.

Bomberman: Act Zero(2006), an early Xbox 360 game, turned the lovable blockhead into a brutal cyborg warrior fighting for survival in a dystopian future. The highly advertised “First-Person Battle” mode (it was actually third-person) received widespread criticism. This game was terrible. Many consider it one of the worst games ever.

The first twoDrivergames offered open-world adventures where players raced cool, real cars in cities worldwide. The 2004DRIV3R(ugh, that spelling) was a flawed and divisive third entry. Imagine the developers brainstorming this. “You know what the newDriverThe Driver game needs less driving.

Yes, D3 featured long missions where you ran on foot, stumbling awkwardly while trying to shoot people. Driving itself was brutally hard, and missions took hours. The voice acting, however, was excellent if you like Michael Madsen.

Some sites gave the game stellar ratings, even though reviews were generally poor. Allegations of bribery and review fixing sparked the “DRIV3Rgate” controversy. This controversy raged in gaming media for a while, leading to accusations, recriminations, and forum threads disappearing as everyone denied everything. Basically, the game industry kept doing as usual.

Turok: Dinosaur HunterThis was a surprise hit. It was a first-person shooter. Acclaim first featured it for Nintendo’s ambitious new N64 console in 1997. The game used a Valiant Comics series. It mixed elements of Doom and Tomb Raider in a lush prehistoric setting. Turok became a huge blockbuster, earning critical praise and selling millions of copies.

It has a 2002 follow-up.Turok: EvolutionAcclaim returned to dinosaurs for the third time, and things did not go well. The story was messy. It featured a time portal between the Old West and a dinosaur jungle called the “Land of the Lost.” The multiple graphic bugs, poor AI, and slow gameplay were bad enough.EvolutionIt has also earned its own special honor.

You would think they couldn't mess up an evil cyborg riding a dinosaur, but you were wrong. More than ten years later, Electronic Gaming Monthly’s yearly award for the worst video game villain of the year is still the Tobias Bruckner Award, named after the main cyborg bad guy inWorst video game.The villain of the year is still known as the Tobias Bruckner Award, named after the main cyborg baddie inTurok: Evolution.

The originalSyndicateSyndicate is a true classic. It is a real-time tactical shooter with an overhead isometric view. Bullfrog Productions released it in 1993. Bullfrog Productions really hit their stride after games likePopulousandPowermongerIn a dystopian future, corporations take over the world. They battle each other for control of addictive microchips.

Starbreeze Studios rebooted the series nearly 20 years later withSyndicate(2012) is a first-person blast-em-all set in a cyberpunk future. Fans of the first game with fond memories of the groundbreaking strategic gameplay were slow to adopt it. It is a generic, unexciting shooter. It had its moments, but it shared nothing with the original.

Poor Mega Man. He was one of the original badasses of the 8-bit era. The earlyMega Mangames were not just hard; they were also fun. Plus, he had his own mythology! Who can forget Dr. Wily or Dr. Light? But when the Blue Bomber entered the blocky 3D age withMega Man Legends, he never found his footing.

Launched on PlayStation in 1997, the first game got a cold welcome from hardcore fans, and sales were poor. The sequel got a lukewarm response too. Despite the activism of hardcore fans, the third version was eventually canceled. That was an unfortunate end for one of themost recognizable charactersin game history.