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Developers who fell from grace...

J

jarrod

Banned
...so which developers have been huge dissapointments for you this generation? My top 3 would probably be...


03 Dream Factory They started out last generation as a hugely promising developer, composed mainly of ex-Namco and AM2 staff iirc and heading Square's big push to diversify beyond RPGs. Tobal 2 is still the best looking PSone fighter I think. Their transition to this generation has been absolutely catastrophic though, with dissapointment after dissapointment. What happened?

Last Generation
-Tobal No. 1 (PlayStation) Square 1996
-Tobal 2 (PlayStation) Square 1997
-Erghiez: God Bless the Ring (System 12) Namco 1998
-Erghiez: God Bless the Ring (PlayStation) Square 1998

This Generation
-The Bouncer (PlayStation 2) Square 2000
-UFC Tapout (Xbox) Crave 2002
-UFC Tapout 2 (Xbox) Capcom 2002
-Kakuto Chojin (Xbox) MGS 2003
-PRIDE GP 2003 (System 246) Capcom 2003
-PRIDE GP 2003 (PlayStation 2) Capcom 2003
-Crimson Tears (PlayStation 2) Capcom 2004
-Kenju (Atomiswave) Sammy 2005
-Yoshitsune-ki (PlayStation 2) Banpresto 2005



02 Nintendo EAD Probably the highest profile fall from grace, in a sense I think GameCube's downward spiral can in large part be attributed to the drop in EAD's game quality. It's sad to see a developer's games barely make the grade when they used to set the standard just a few years back. N64 arguably has the strongest 1st party lineup of any platform, compelling software that demanded purchase. GameCube just seems pitifully redundant in comparison, despite Pikmin. At least things look to be slowly turning around.

Last Generation
-Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1996
-Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1996
-Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1996
-Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1997
-Shindou Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1997
-Shindou Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1997
-Yoshi's Story (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1997
-1080° Snowboarding (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1998
-F-Zero X (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1998
-Pokémon Stadium (Japan) (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1998
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1998
-Pokémon Stadium (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 1999
-Mario Artist: Paint Studio (64DD) Nintendo 1999
-Mario Artist: Talent Studio (64DD) Nintendo 2000
-The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 2000
-F-Zero X Expansion Kit (64DD) Nintendo 2000
-Mario Artist: Communication Kit (64DD) Nintendo 2000
-Mario Artist: TPolygon Studio (64DD) Nintendo 2000
-Pokémon Stadium 2 (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 2000
-Animal Crossing (Nintendo 64) Nintendo 2001

This Generation
-Luigi's Mansion (GameCube) Nintendo 2001
-Pikmin (GameCube) Nintendo 2001
-Animal Crossing (GameCube) Nintendo 2001
-Doshin the Giant (GameCube) Nintendo 2002
-Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube) Nintendo 2002
-The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube) Nintendo 2002
-Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire (GameCube) Nintendo 2003
-Animal Crossing e+ (GameCube) Nintendo 2003
-Pac-Man Vs (GameCube) Namco 2003
-Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GameCube) Nintendo 2003
-The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube) 2004
-Pikmin 2 (GameCube) 2004
-Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (GameCube) 2004
-The Legend of Zelda (GameCube) 2005



01 Sonic Team I'd say this one was the most dramatic drop. Sonic Team's Saturn and early Dreamcast stuff was so ahead of the pack, both in technical and design aspects. During the latter half of DC and the 3rd party shift though, their game quality just took a nosedive... to the point where they're one of Sega's worst teams imo. Worse yet, they ate UGA and drove Miz away. I can't even concieve of the current Sonic Team coming up with something on par with NiGHTS or Burning Rangers. A real travesty.

Last Generation
-NiGHTS ...into dreams (Saturn) Sega 1996
-Christmas NiGHTS (Saturn) Sega 1996
-Sonic Jam (Saturn) Sega 1997
-Burning Rangers (Saturn) Sega 1998

This Generation
-Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast) Sega 1998
-Samba de Amigo (Naomi) Sega 1999
-Sonic Adventure International (Dreamcast) Sega 1999
-Chu Chu Rocket! (Dreamcast) Sega 2000
-Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast) Sega 2000
-Samba de Amigo ver. 2000 (Naomi) Sega 2000
-Shakka to Tambourine (Naomi) Sega 2000
-Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) Sega 2000
-Samba de Amigo ver. 2000 (Dreamcast) Sega 2000
-Chu Chu Rocket! (Game Boy Advance) Sega 2001
-Shakka to Tambourine 2001 (Naomi) Sega 2000
-Shakka to Tambourine 2001 Power Up! (Naomi) Sega 2000
-Phantasy Star Online Version 2 (Dreamcast) Sega 2001
-Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast) Sega 2001
-Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (GameCube) Sega 2001
-Phantasy Star Online (PC/Windows) Sega 2001
-Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II (GameCube) 2002
-Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II (Xbox) 2002
-Sonic Mega Collection (GameCube) 2002
-Sonic Advance 2 (Game Boy Advance) Sega 2002
-Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (GameCube) Sega 2003
-Sonic Pinball Party (Game Boy Advance) Sega 2003
-Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GameCube) Sega 2003
-Sonic N (N-Gage) Nokia 2003
-Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II Plus (GameCube) 2003
-Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution (GameCube) Sega 2003
-Puyo Pop Fever (Naomi) Sega 2003
-Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (PC/Windows) Sega 2003
-Sonic Battle (Game Boy Advance) Sega 2003
-Sonic Heroes (GameCube) Sega 2003
-Sonic Heroes (PlayStation 2) Sega 2003
-Sonic Heroes (Xbox) Sega 2003
-Puyo Pop Fever (PlayStation 2) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (Dreamcast) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (GameCube) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (Xbox) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (Mac OSX) Sega 2004
-Sonic Heroes (PC/Windows) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (Game Boy Advance) Sega 2004
-Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (PC/Windows) Sega 2004
-Astro Boy (PlayStation 2) Sega 2004
-Sega Superstars (Eye Toy) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (PC/Windows) Sega 2004
-Puyo Pop Fever (Pocket PC/Palm OS) Sega 2004
-Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PlayStation 2) 2004
-Sonic Mega Collection Plus (Xbox) 2004
-Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst: Episode IV (PC/Windows) Sega 2005


...anyway, who let you down this generation?


edit-added in lists. Man, Sonic Team's really gone port crazy. :/
 
Overworks, because they should be making f*cking RPGs.

Torika, because they're gone (T_T)
 
Rare - their N64 era was decent enough but they completely blew it this gen. They had so much potential too. :\

Suikoden Developers (KCET?) - Suikoden 3 showed weakness in the series and Suikoden 4 was just... :(
 
Square: aside from FFX (which I found to be superb), and to a lesser extent KH, I've been disappointed with their output this gen. Where are this gen's Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross, Xenogears and Vagrant Story?

EDIT: I'm only referring to the Square side of Square Enix. Enix seems to be doing as well, if not better, than last gen.
 
Rare. To think the developer of games like DKC, Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye and CBFD have not had any quality output in the last few years is dissapointing.
 
Yeah, Square really has been poor this gen, relative to last.

And Final Fantasy Online is NOT FFXI. Damn them screwing up my library.
 
Miburou said:
Square: aside from FFX (which I found to be superb), and to a lesser extent KH, I've been disappointed with their output this gen. Where are this gen's Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross or Xenogears?
Click to expand...

I thought about them... But DQVIII is really nice and putting the old school FF onto the handhelds was like God finally listening to me
 
Miburou said:
Square: aside from FFX (which I found to be superb), and to a lesser extent KH, I've been disappointed with their output this gen. Where are this gen's Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross or Xenogears?
Click to expand...


This year looks good for them. Radiata Stories, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest VIII, Drakengard 2 etc.

They are fine.
 
Blackace said:
I thought about them... But DQVIII is really nice and putting the old school FF onto the handhelds was like God finally listening to me
Click to expand...

I meant only the Square side of Square Enix, since from my understanding they have their own separate development teams.
 
The problem with EAD is that they passed from do 1 or 2 games in two years to do the double or the triple in the same amount of time.

Sonic Team need to do an offline Phantasy Star for Playstation2 (the game rocks on MegaDrive and MasterSystem).
 
Miburou said:
I meant only the Square side of Square Enix, since from my understanding they have their own separate development teams.
Click to expand...
Yep. Divisions 1-8 are Square teams, Divisions 9 & 10 are Enix. In Square's defense though, they seem to have gotten sidetracked by their big WonderSwan push and are now splitting a lot of R&D towards GBA/DS/PSP/PC/mobiles. They're not as focused on one platform is all and I'd expect that trend to grow with the next gen consoles.


Nightbringer said:
The problem with EAD is that they passed from do 1 or 2 games in two years to do the double or the triple in the same amount of time.
Click to expand...
Er no. In fact EAD's output was heavier in the N64 days, usually 4 games a year.


jett said:
Every game DF developed after Tobal 2 is shit. I seriously think they just got lucky with that one. :P
Click to expand...
Tobal No. 1 and Ergheiz are both pretty good too. Their first real stinker was The Bouncer, and even that was more dissapointing than outright bad. Kakuto Chojin was just horrible though. :/
 
It seems almost like all the big time developers of the 16-bit 32-bit era have gone downhill. And now we have new ones. I guess after about 15 or so years the original soul of the development team kind of dissapears as old employees leave and new ones come on board. Sonic Team has to be one of my biggest dissapointments. So much talent not put to good use. I can't really bitch about Overworks. After Skies of Arcadia, they still have 2 years or so to get their stuff together and impress me again. As far as Square goes, they've been going downhill for me since FF7. I liked 8, 9 made me gag, 10 is sooo trying to appeal to the 17 year old crowd I can't even get into the damn game. It's like they made an FF for the Beverly Hills crowd and teenage mall shoppers. FF needs a change, or they need to make something not called Final Fantasy for a change.

Current Sega favorite: Smilebit. Too bad more people didn't buy JSRF.
 
another vote for RARE
I don't see them ever coming back to the old levels
Still I enjoy reading xbots hyping up PD Zero and Conker they sure took over the RARE flag waving better than the Nheads ever did :D
 
Bungie!

Halo was a polished masterpiece, Halo 2 feels like a rushed hack job with messy textures, flakey AI and worse level design than the first games later levels. What happened?
 
jkooXL said:
Bungie!

Halo was a polished masterpiece, Halo 2 feels like a rushed hack job with messy textures, flakey AI and worse level design than the first games later levels. What happened?
Click to expand...

You may want to watch out for the firestorm ahead.

But yeah I agree that Halo 1 was better than Halo 2 IMO.
 
jkooXL said:
Bungie!

Halo was a polished masterpiece, Halo 2 feels like a rushed hack job with messy textures, flakey AI and worse level design than the first games later levels. What happened?
Click to expand...

same gen?
 
Both Squeenix and EAD, but remember that this generation isn't over yet. Both EAD and Square have their big guns left. FFXII and Zelda. It could change things.
 
Id software.

Their last three efforts were Quake III, Quake III Team Arena, and Doom 3. All were very dissapointing.

However, I'd attribute alot of their downfall in the publics eye due to people's taste in the genre switching over to a more tactical style of play (thanks alot Counterstrike) from the run 'n gun cooridor shooter Id are famous (and only capable of making) for.
 
A dubious amount of grace in the first place, but Shiny is a contender. Neversoft is another. Volition deserves a heartfelt nod.

Thanks publishers...
 
I'll take one "Rare" and one "EAD", please.

I would say Sega, but they've been disappointing me for so long now that I expect that as their norm.
 
Yeah there are some I've forgotten about:

1) Rare (Nuff said)
2) Shiny (Remember Earthworm Jim? What about MDK? Did you guys just lose talent or something? ugh...)
3) Silicon Knights (loved Legacy of Kain, after that blah)
4) Id Software (not really bad but I think devs have caught up to them)
 
Razoric said:
You may want to watch out for the firestorm ahead.

But yeah I agree that Halo 1 was better than Halo 2 IMO.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I have no preference for either coke or pepsi, both taste great in my Barcardi.
 
Shiny and Rare. They both gave birth to some games that succeeded in making the name of both companies sound astonishingly inappropriate.
 
Nintendo is still on top, in my opinion. Their games are as fun as ever.

Acclaim is a developer I used to really like. But then they started to suck.
 
Sega during the hippy free love independent sub-studio bullisht Dreamcast days.

Damned hippies went and screwed up a great track record coming off of the Saturn/arcade and screwed up all the internal teams.

The only good left at Sega is AM2 and the rare Sega/Red collaboration. =_=

A damned shame.

I forgot about Capcom.

Yeah, Capcom used to be a name for quality gaming that I could trust back in the early 90's. Now it's all crap. =_=
 
Blizzard - Warcraft 3 sucked. Where's my Starcraft sequel?
Rare - For obvious reasons.
Sega - Seems like since they went 3rd party all their games have dropped in quality.
Acclaim - They used to have a pretty good lineup during the N64 days, but after the N64 retired they dropped back down into the gutter.
 
Rare- come on make a game.
Shiny- I loved Earthworm Jim. And now Enter the Matrix
Sega - So Sad
Nintendo- I don't care how much money they make a year, how big the war chest is, when you go to a E3 and you think Pacman is a showcase title at your conference, something is wrong
Square - The current generation Final Fantasy titles are no where as good as previous generations.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
Sega during the hippy free love independent sub-studio bullisht Dreamcast days.

Damned hippies went and screwed up a great track record coming off of the Saturn/arcade and screwed up all the internal teams.
Click to expand...
200% agreed!

People look aty me funny whenever I try to make the same statement. DC is the most overrated platform around, if not for Capcom & SNK ports, it wouldn't be worth owning. This is really where Sega took a nosedive, well before their 'platform agnostic' mantra.


The Take Out Bandit said:
The only good left at Sega is AM2 and the rare Sega/Red collaboration. =_=
Click to expand...
I think Amusement Vision is the brightest division currently (especially now that they've eaten Smilebit's nosports teams and dropped the Virtua Striker group). AM2's doing okay again now though after being sidetracked with Shenmue for years.
 
I am not agree with EAD "fall", they developed some masterpieces last gen sure, but they have been really solid this gen from my point of view, with some really interesting titles like Pikmin 1&2 and Four Swords and some really nice games like Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker that I refuse to see as the "crap" the way lot of people tend to think about them. Mario 64 is way better that Mario Sunshine, but this is one of the finest 3D platforms this gen, at least the one that offer the purest moments of platforming I have experimented this gen (not waterpack scenaries). And I love Wind Waker even if it´s content it´s not on par with Ocarina and his story and significance it´s low compared with it, it´s a special game for me and I don´t regret loving it even if I understand perfectly the failures and the reason of the dislike forward them

And Double Dash is much better than Mario Kart 64 IMO. A lovely game to play with people that doesn´t get how to control videogames. Playing my little brother and me in "cooperative" mode using the kart was a really nice experience.

But everyone has his opinion and I can see the reasons of Jarrod one, I don´t pretend to impose my point of view ;) I doen´t have Nintendo in a higher level that other producers or studios, in fact my personal tastes suits better with other types of games. But I have no problem with thinking about them as a producer solid as a rock.

Rare would be my take even I didn´t love them past gen, but their production values have dropped like a stone. Shiny it´s a disspaointment so far for me even if I didn´t vomit in front of Enter the Matrix (it´s was an average experience sightly interesting at moments so far comparing with some terrible, terrible games I have played this gen). But their last games are a dissapointment for a company that always had crazy and ambitious designs on hand.

Altered Beast alone makes Sega worth to be here as well. They can´t go lower than that (yes, this time is serious), this is the point I expect ressurection from them.
 
Sonic Team and Rare are definately my top choices. I don't know if I would include EAD--they haven't been amazing, but they have been solid with release schedules and frankly Pikmin 2 redeemed them in my eyes. I think Zelda will also show that they have got together again.


Square's another one I'm reluctant to put into the fallen grace category, even though I disappointed with the lack of variety in their output when compared to the last couple of generations.
 
The Take Out Bandit said:
I forgot about Capcom.

Yeah, Capcom used to be a name for quality gaming that I could trust back in the early 90's. Now it's all crap. =_=
Click to expand...
RE4 is crap?

They've really dropped the ball when it comes to fighters, but otherwise they're doing pretty well.
 
I think Capcom's actually been pretty good overall this gen. They've released a few stinkers sure, but on the other hand they've also released greats like Power Stone, Viewtiful Joe, Steel Batallion, Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, Dragon Quarter or the GBA MegaMans. They're doing much better overall than most of the large Japanese publishers I think.
 
Every developer has their ups and downs in the creative cycle. The shift to 3D in the N64 era forced EAD to set their own standards and in doing so created a great number of masterpieces last-gen, but this gen doesn't really give the same opportunity to those franchises. EAD is really just lacking a 'home-run' title, their titles this gen are still consistently of good quality, if not great, and they still have a Zelda so I won't count them out yet.
 
jarrod said:
I think Capcom's actually been pretty good overall this gen. They've released a few stinkers sure, but on the other hand they've also released greats like Power Stone, Viewtiful Joe, Steel Batallion, Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, Dragon Quarter or the GBA MegaMans. They're doing much better overall than most of the large Japanese publishers I think.
Click to expand...

yeah capcom has been good this gen. Don't forget Zelda minish cap! How can someone say they fell of the grace...
 
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