Thanks to the sharp rise of the gaming industry over the last few decades, there are now a plethora of new video games releasing every single week. Consequently, it can be tough for new releases to stand out, as anything that isn't a recognizable IP or made by a respected studio tends to get lost in the crowd.
However, there are some occasions when an upcoming game is announced with an ambitious concept that manages to turn heads and capture the imagination of gamers. Some of the most critically acclaimed games like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Dark Souls, have also been some of the gaming industry's most ambitious releases, so it's always exciting when a new, innovative game comes along.
Unfortunately, not all games go the same way as the aforementioned three. There have been numerous games over the years that had a fantastic idea on paper but fumbled the execution and struggled to live up to its lofty expectations; often because the ambitious idea proved to be a bridge too far for the developers.
10 Too Human
Too Human was an Xbox 360 exclusive developed by Silicon Knights and released in August 2008. The game's release date was a far cry from its original plan, as, believe it or not, the game was originally planned to be released on the PlayStation 1 in 1999.
The action RPG had plenty of interesting ideas on paper, such as its unique blend of Norse mythology and cyberpunk settings. Unfortunately, the game instantly felt dated upon release, as its ambitious 1999 ideas weren't as fresh nearly ten years later.
9 Duke Nukem Forever
The Duke Nukem franchise is one of the most iconic names in the first-person shooter genre, which isn't bad for a series that was once dismissed as being yet another DOOM clone.
Impressively, Duke Nukem Forever had an even longer period between announcement and release than Too Human, as the game's 2011 release date was a whopping 14 years after it was first announced. The game was initially being developed by 3D Realms, though Triptych Games, Gearbox Software, and Piranha Games had to take over in 2009 following 3D Realms' downsizing.
Duke Nukem Forever promised to take the classic series and re-invent it into an excellent modern adventure, though, like Too Human, the once ambitious title felt bland by the time it had finally released.
8 Crash Twinsanity
The Crash Bandicoot franchise had a tough time adjusting to life on the PlayStation 2. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the first Crash game to release on the console, was heavily criticized for lacking innovation and being too similar to Crash Bandicoot: Warped. So, to try and mix up the Bandicoot formula, Traveller's Tales decided to create a sci-fi Crash game titled Crash Bandicoot: Evolution.
Unfortunately, the game had to be scrapped part-way through development, as trailers for the first Ratchet and Clank game showed that Insomniac Games had a similar idea. This led to Crash Twinsanity, an equally ambitious game that offered huge open levels, a range of characters to play as, and numerous different gameplay mechanics. Some of the great ideas shone through, but the game had to be rushed due to the scrapping of Crash Bandicoot: Evolution, so many of the interesting ideas were poorly executed.
7 Spore
There are many pieces of media that sound like that going to change the entire shape of their industry when they're first announced, only for them to be largely forgotten about a few years after their release. Spore certainly fits into this category, as Electronic Arts' fantastic marketing of the game made it seem like something truly special, only for it to be rarely mentioned today.
To be fair to Spore, it didn't deserve some of the harsh criticisms that it received upon release, as although it didn't live up to expectations, it's still a thoroughly enjoyable and unique game that is worth checking out for those with EA Play on PC.
6 No Man's Sky
It's fair to say that the perception of No Man's Sky has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows since its initial August 2016 release. The game instantly became one of the gaming industry's most highly anticipated titles after its first few trailers, and the hype for it grew and grew as time went on. Unfortunately, these high expectations came crashing down when the game was released, as the final product wasn't what people expected, which even lead to an investigation over false advertising.
To their credit, Hello Games persisted with the game and finally took it to the promised level of quality after around three years of it being on the market. If there's anything to learn from No Man's Sky, it's that it's better to undersell and overdeliver rather than oversell and underdeliver.
5 Jurassic Park: Trespasser
Jurassic Park: Trespasser is a PC exclusive that was developed by DreamWorks Interactive and released in October 1998. The first-person shooter looked set to offer a range of innovative gameplay features, such as a physics-based engine and regenerating health. The game deserves respect for attempting to deliver these forward-thinking mechanics, though sadly, the game wasn't able to execute its innovative features.
Jurassic Park: Trespasser's ahead-of-their-time mechanics made the game difficult to run on even high-end PCs at the time, while the game's physics engine was poorly executed and ended up making the protagonist seem perpetually drunk.
4 Cyberpunk 2077
The most recent entry on this list, Cyberpunk 2077 was the follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game that made CD Projekt Red one of the gaming industry's most esteemed studios. Consequently, their next game was always going to have a lot of expectations on its shoulders, though few people predicted that it would be quite as highly anticipated as Cyberpunk 2077 ended up being.
With an open-world reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, an engrossing cyberpunk setting, and the inclusion of fan-favorite Keanu Reeves, Cyberpunk 2077 was already being treated like a guaranteed success years before it was released. Cracks started to show when the game was subject to multiple delays, though few people predicted the disastrous launch that took place in December 2020. The game had numerous issues, including game-breaking bugs and a lackluster open-world, that made the game one of the biggest disappointments in the gaming industry's history.
3 Shenmue
Shenmue differentiates itself from the majority of games on this list, as it managed to deliver on its sky-high ambitions. Shenmue was released in late-1999 and offered an incredible open-world experience that was many years ahead of its time.
However, Shenmue's high-quality and innovative mechanics came at a huge cost, literally. It was initially believed that the game cost $70 million to make, though director Yu Suzuki has since claimed that the figure was actually closer to $47 million. Either way, it was a ridiculous amount of money at the time, as, according to The Guardian, every Dreamcast owner would have had to buy the game twice for its to make a profit.
2 APB: All Points Bulletin
APB: All Points Bulletin was initially released in June 2010 on PC, before coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The game turned heads in the build-up to its release after being branded with the unofficial tagline of "Grand Theft Auto but online."
All Points Bulletin's ambitious open-world multiplayer concept sounded fantastic on paper in 2010, though the gameplay struggled to keep players engaged, and it ultimately fell flat.
1 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was marketed as being one of the best releases of its time, only for it to crash the home console industry and almost destroy the entire concept of video games - suffice to say, the game thoroughly earns its spot on this list.
Following the enormous success of the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, Atari decided to try and cash in and create a tie-in game that would be released before Christmas. To accomplish this, Howard Scott Warshaw was given just over five weeks to create the game. Unsurprisingly, the game was a disaster, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is still considered to be one of the worst games of all time to this day.