Games That Launched To Awful Public Consensus And Then Came Back Extremely Positively But I Didn't Forget
you fuckers.
51 Games
poster child #1 because its maybe the most wrong that the gamers have ever been
posterchild #2 for showing that gamers arent just picky and insecure, but stupid also
probably gonna get crucified for this for some reason: this game did not deserve a second chance. people seem to forget just how disastrous the launch was and how much CDPR took advantage of its consumerbase because an anime with the same name came out and was good. public opinion is far too easily swayed and this game is undeniable proof as this game should have shut down CDPR's doors with the state it was in. the fact people just trust them not to do it again is insane.
being right about this one the whole time was honestly kind of a detriment for me because now that this is the most popular metal gear game the community is full of dumbasses that assume the main series isnt as epic or memeable
we were probably right the first time but i need to replay to verify. undeniable proof that graphics are the thing people care most about though
the game was completely broken on launch with no content and scammed a lot of people, but theres a fallout TV show now so people are saying this was always good. lesson for studios: you dont have to make your game good if you release a mediocre streaming series later
again, being right about this one turned out to not be worth it now that this one game is the most oversaturated genre on earth
"This game is so fucking cool and I have always been the first to think that. Please buy the remake." - Shuhei Yoshida
media literacy award
gamers were so mad that this wasnt MGS6 and instead a serene hiking game about the beauty of interaction and connecting with other humans. some conundrums solve themselves
launched as what the gamers considered "DLC" for arkham city (which it isnt not) and was pretty quickly forgotten about for it. then arkham knight came out and we started drawing lines where the "trilogy ended," on top of some brief recent resurgence.
no comment
josef fares is beloved now for not just the fuck the oscars guy but also making a fantastic award-winning co-op game, but i remember all the gamers denouncing him for coming from movies and making this game "too cinematic" and for it having "bad writing" (it does, but everyone came to realize thats the best thing about it)
the episodic release model and generally poor functionality of this game received some harsh and well deserved criticism, but then we got two more of the same thing and just got over it i guess
people were mad as hell when this was all there was to play on gamecube but once we got an actual 3D mario and zelda it was easy to go back and recognizing peak
everybody (including me) thought this game would be awful because of the team's previous Avengers game and also the trailers being horrible, so the game flopped. once everyone went back to play it they realized that its actually very, very good and probably still not enough people are willing to find that out
once again i was right about this one because the "gameplay first" crowd realized that if they were to actually stick to their principles they would have to realize this game does actually go hard
launched as just "chinese GTA" which was incredibly reductive in two different ways even back then but since has gotten a lot of appreciators
massively underperformed and was seen at the time as too different from 1 and 2 but, again, the gameplay first gamers have recently gone back to the ps3 to find a new hidden gem to rediscover
confession: i was one of the people that was incredibly excited for this until i saw that it was an isometric brawler and not a "proper" NMH so i didn't play it until later. respect to the real ones that didnt lose faith because you were not the majority
terrible victim of the dunkey effect
might very well be poster child #3 but it hasnt quite reached public acclaim like some of these (this will change when capcom runs out of games to remake)
we're all right about this one. we just gotta wait for them to catch up
killer visual aesthetic goes a longer way these days than it did back then
im not gonna say this game has "public acclaim" but after the complete shitshow prior to launch regarding bayonetta's VA the reception was pretty good relatively speaking
wasn't as huge a "comeback" per se as it was that it was another case of realizing that things can get so much worse than this
from "god of war clone" to "one of the best licensed games." now we just need people to realize the film its based on is even better. backloggd needs to remerge this with the PS3 one because who in their right mind played the PS2 version
what can you tell me about the reapers
so-called hallway simulator 2009 has gotten a lot more shooters in the common age
one of the most famously awful fighting game launches did admittedly turn into a pretty good game by the end, but man you just gotta see how BAD that launch game was to believe it. SF6 is goin great though
another good example of "too little, too late" when this game was a huge critical and financial failure at launch and only after bethesda and arkane decided never to make a game like it again did gamers say "hey, this is alright"
may or may not have been well deserved hate but when the director got fired and the sequel got cancelled for completely valid reasons, all of a sudden there were a whole lotta shooters for Days fucking Gone
i mean you already know
again this is mostly pre-release awful reception but when the first trailer dropped i feel like the general reception was "i dont like that it stars a black person/the mc has the fake-black-haircut" and then it came out and people realized its actually just as fun as the trailers made it look but nobody noticed i guess
came out at the height of fatigue and was subject to a lot of criticisms of that general movement more than itself, but nowadays is considered a pretty good co-op game
this one is a bit of a stretch but i swear every time a new CoD comes out with a dogshit campaign this is the one people keep going back to so they can tweet "remembering the BEST COD CAMPAIGN"
theres a 0% chance you people dont change your minds about this
(for historical purposes, DD2 launched with a really poorly optimized PC port and numerous microtransactions. every capcom game for the past near-decade has had these same issues but the gamers decided to take specific fervant issue with this game only. it will be known as one of Capcom's best games.)
(for historical purposes, DD2 launched with a really poorly optimized PC port and numerous microtransactions. every capcom game for the past near-decade has had these same issues but the gamers decided to take specific fervant issue with this game only. it will be known as one of Capcom's best games.)
just kidding this game fucking sucks but watch it get a resurgence
(everything after this game is something i actually did forget/didnt know about. dont let the gamers know these got past me)
(everything after this game is something i actually did forget/didnt know about. dont let the gamers know these got past me)
(suggested by Djungelskog)
(suggested by Dizzy even though theyre super wrong about this one)
"I feel like Bioshock Infinite is kinda this way. I remember that game being a shit show from fans on launch, but now it seems to be generally regarded as fun / mid."
"I remember getting dunked on super hard for defending this game in any capacity on launch. Now it seems the be the case that people consider it just 'fun'."
"I feel like Bioshock Infinite is kinda this way. I remember that game being a shit show from fans on launch, but now it seems to be generally regarded as fun / mid."
"I remember getting dunked on super hard for defending this game in any capacity on launch. Now it seems the be the case that people consider it just 'fun'."
(Suggested by Maelstrom)
"its been weird seeing assassin's creed unity go from being called the worst thing ever at launch to the last good asscreed game and (occasionally) one of the best"
"its been weird seeing assassin's creed unity go from being called the worst thing ever at launch to the last good asscreed game and (occasionally) one of the best"
(suggested by stovetop)
(suggested by mediocreampuf)
"I think Pokemon Black/White 1 fits. So many people fucking trashed the new Pokemon designs and now gen 5 is considered to be one of the best games Pokemon has to offer."
"I think Pokemon Black/White 1 fits. So many people fucking trashed the new Pokemon designs and now gen 5 is considered to be one of the best games Pokemon has to offer."
(suggested by FunBus)
"I think Pokemon Black White probably deserves a shout for just how loud people were against that game, specifically. Sorry Ice Cream and Garbage Pokemon you ruined the public opinion of those games for like, a good few years. Just ain't right"
"I think Pokemon Black White probably deserves a shout for just how loud people were against that game, specifically. Sorry Ice Cream and Garbage Pokemon you ruined the public opinion of those games for like, a good few years. Just ain't right"
(suggested by Ollchops)
"while maybe not completely hated it was defintley not liked upon release, and now I've even heard lots of people call it the best 3D Mario game (which isn't true) but I see basically no 3D world haters now."
(and VSLazer)
"everyone was whiny at launch because it wasn't the 3D Sandbox Mario they wanted but when Odyssey came out and everyone finally got what they wanted they flocked back to it and pretended like it was peak all along."
"while maybe not completely hated it was defintley not liked upon release, and now I've even heard lots of people call it the best 3D Mario game (which isn't true) but I see basically no 3D world haters now."
(and VSLazer)
"everyone was whiny at launch because it wasn't the 3D Sandbox Mario they wanted but when Odyssey came out and everyone finally got what they wanted they flocked back to it and pretended like it was peak all along."
(suggested by gril_cheese)
"game got a bad rep at first because it had to follow up from sonic 06 and there was no saving the brand at the time
nowadays it's considered one of if not the best sonic game"
"game got a bad rep at first because it had to follow up from sonic 06 and there was no saving the brand at the time
nowadays it's considered one of if not the best sonic game"
(suggested by Philia)
"Nowadays it's not hard to see people look past the original price and length and call it awesome or with a better designed level than any base in The Phantom Pain."
"Nowadays it's not hard to see people look past the original price and length and call it awesome or with a better designed level than any base in The Phantom Pain."
(suggested by Zakdj)
"Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was DESPISED by the fanbase for years just for it to have a massive shift to now being considered one of the best, I had to live through the fanbase hating the hell out of it and the switchup it eventually saw was insane."
"Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney was DESPISED by the fanbase for years just for it to have a massive shift to now being considered one of the best, I had to live through the fanbase hating the hell out of it and the switchup it eventually saw was insane."
(suggested by The_Gaming_Dog12)
"FFXIV has to be here. So bad they canonically ended the world."
"FFXIV has to be here. So bad they canonically ended the world."
58 Comments
@The_Gaming_Dog12 i was actually aware of that when i put it on here but im manifesting it
Oh my bad, I reckon ur right but it’ll take like 10 more years. Also for CoD I think infinite warfare would be a better fit, the multiplayer is ass but the campaign gets a lot of love nowadays (also has one of the most disliked trailers on yt)
any CoD could really fit the bill as it continues to get worse but i feel like ive seen Ghosts the most often
I know you already got Drakengard on here but I think Nier probably deserves it too
Great list lol
Great list lol
I feel like Bioshock Infinite is kinda this way. I remember that game being a shit show from fans on launch, but now it seems to be generally regarded as fun / mid.
@Djungelskog i considered Nier and thought about using drakengard as a catch-all, but it does belong on here
@Dizzy i feel like Bioshock Infinite belongs on the opposite list to this one, i remember it getting mass critical acclaim from everybody at launch and as time passed being harshly torn apart. i remember Matthematosis made a critical video around launch and the reception around it was “holy crap, hes so bold.” if anything i considered bioshock 2 but i dont think that one was as hated as i remember
@Dizzy i feel like Bioshock Infinite belongs on the opposite list to this one, i remember it getting mass critical acclaim from everybody at launch and as time passed being harshly torn apart. i remember Matthematosis made a critical video around launch and the reception around it was “holy crap, hes so bold.” if anything i considered bioshock 2 but i dont think that one was as hated as i remember
@MultiGenre
Weird. I remember getting dunked on super hard for defending this game in any capacity on launch. Now it seems the be the case that people consider it just "fun".
Weird. I remember getting dunked on super hard for defending this game in any capacity on launch. Now it seems the be the case that people consider it just "fun".
@Dizzy admittedly i dont know or remember much about the public consensus on Infinite. i know for sure it got critical acclaim but in all fairness thats not all this list is about, ex. Last of Us 2
Wind Waker "maybe the most wrong that gamers have ever been" fucking PREACH
its been weird seeing assassin's creed unity go from being called the worst thing ever at launch to the last good asscreed game and (occasionally) one of the best
no man's sky?
You can probably put most Zelda/Pokemon games here, but I think Pokemon Black/White 1 fits. So many people fucking trashed the new Pokemon designs and now gen 5 is considered to be one of the best games Pokemon has to offer.
To be fair the biggest issue with 2077 at launch was the technical issues and even then just the console version. If they had released the PC version by itself even in the same launch state the game would not have been as hated. Console release was definitely unforgivable and it at best took 6 months if not a year to actually be playable which is insane.
I think Pokemon Black White probably deserves a shout for just how loud people were against that game, specifically. Sorry Ice Cream and Garbage Pokemon you ruined the public opinion of those games for like, a good few years. Just ain't right
Totally agree with 2077. The game is proof that devs/executives can get away with anything. The state of "modern (AAA) gaming" shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
@Kaiji97 i remember hearing a lot (never played myself, yet) about how Cyberpunk 2077 does have a lot of really great artistic merit, and that the poor performance was really its only big flaw. i totally understand why that is worth noting but its also why i think CDPR should not continue to be supported because executives could take advantage of such genuinely talented people so easily by releasing whatever the fuck whenever they want.
does Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts belong on here? or are people still mad about that one
Prey 2017 is proof of how damaging a bad name can be. I personally ignored it out of spite for Bethesda killing Prey 2 and only a year later did I discover Prey 2017 was the EXACT kind of game I like. They marketed it terribly and gave it the name of a game Bethesda killed, it's like Bethesda were intentionally sabotaging the game.
Bioshock 2. It was smeared as "oh its not as good and fresh as the first time", even though it is arguably a much better game. Now atleast most people seem to agree, but I didnt forget damn it.
I mean if no man's sky is here, FFXIV has to be here. So bad they canonically ended the world.
you are so right about CDPR, it IS insane how much people praise them now given how shitty their practices were
This is maybe a stretch but when Earthbound released everyone hated it and now it's seen as one of the best games of all time
I think maybe you could also say 3D world because while maybe not completely hated it was defintley not liked upon release, and now I've even heard lots of people call it the best 3D Mario game (which isn't true) but I see basically no 3D world haters now.
Also KH3 maybe? game was trashed completely upon release and now people play it and realise it's pretty good
And if you want the biggest stretch you could maybe say Sonic 06? the biggest stretch I could think of, but I've seen lots of people like the game now, though maybe thats just Sonic fans and also P-06 has defintley made people see the game in a more positive light. However I don't know if this can really fit because I don't think the general consensus is that the game is terrible, though it's defintley becoming a more common opinion to like it nowadays .
I think maybe you could also say 3D world because while maybe not completely hated it was defintley not liked upon release, and now I've even heard lots of people call it the best 3D Mario game (which isn't true) but I see basically no 3D world haters now.
Also KH3 maybe? game was trashed completely upon release and now people play it and realise it's pretty good
And if you want the biggest stretch you could maybe say Sonic 06? the biggest stretch I could think of, but I've seen lots of people like the game now, though maybe thats just Sonic fans and also P-06 has defintley made people see the game in a more positive light. However I don't know if this can really fit because I don't think the general consensus is that the game is terrible, though it's defintley becoming a more common opinion to like it nowadays .
sonic unleashed
game got a bad rep at first because it had to follow up from sonic 06 and there was no saving the brand at the time
nowadays it's considered one of if not the best sonic game
game got a bad rep at first because it had to follow up from sonic 06 and there was no saving the brand at the time
nowadays it's considered one of if not the best sonic game
You should put Super Mario 3D World here, everyone was whiny at launch because it wasn't the 3D Sandbox Mario they wanted but when Odyssey came out and everyone finally got what they wanted they flocked back to it and pretended like it was peak all along.
if dizzy is super wrong about bioshock infinite, then RE6, DMC and drakengard shouldn't even be on here considering the average takes on them
NEVER FORGET
@Ollchops earthbound might fit but i dont just want to consider poor sales "awful public consensus." i dont think people despised earthbound, they just thought it looked dumb and didnt play it.
3D world could also maybe fit but like you said it definitely wasnt hated. its also a little hard to gauge how many people hated it vs. how many people just didnt play it because nobody had a wii u
KH3 definitely launched to awful public consensus and would be great for this list but i dont think its come back "extremely positively" yet, there is definitely still a stigma around kingdom hearts that its corny over the top anime/disney garbage. i wish i could put it on here
@gril_cheese unleashed is the only sonic game i ever bought on launch and i loved it but i definitely remember what youre talking about. people definitely hated it because it was a "stupid premise" and like... no other reason
if it did come back that would warm my heart because i loved the werehog sections
@VSLazer after some serious deliberation i've decided you and Ollchops may have your way because your spiteful wording convinced me. mario fans were definitely super entitled (as always) about their toys and only once it came to the god console Switch did they put on airs. well said fellow hater
3D world could also maybe fit but like you said it definitely wasnt hated. its also a little hard to gauge how many people hated it vs. how many people just didnt play it because nobody had a wii u
KH3 definitely launched to awful public consensus and would be great for this list but i dont think its come back "extremely positively" yet, there is definitely still a stigma around kingdom hearts that its corny over the top anime/disney garbage. i wish i could put it on here
@gril_cheese unleashed is the only sonic game i ever bought on launch and i loved it but i definitely remember what youre talking about. people definitely hated it because it was a "stupid premise" and like... no other reason
if it did come back that would warm my heart because i loved the werehog sections
@VSLazer after some serious deliberation i've decided you and Ollchops may have your way because your spiteful wording convinced me. mario fans were definitely super entitled (as always) about their toys and only once it came to the god console Switch did they put on airs. well said fellow hater
thank you all for the great suggestions and please keep them coming but also know that i won't be putting any more zelda, sonic or pokemon games on the list because the effects of the release cycle of those is very well documented and like @mediocreampuf said you could put all of them on here so let WW, B&W and Unleashed stand as a catch-all thank you very much again and have a wonderful day
MGSV: Ground Zeroes. Nowadays it's not hard to see people look past the original price and length and call it awesome or with a better designed level than any base in The Phantom Pain.
The_Gaming_Dog12
1 month ago