The game that everyone hates you for hating...!

[MrEco]

Every once in a while I come across a game that seems to be all of three things. 1) It's generally popular. 2) It has a large fan base that I interact with on an almost daily basis. And 3) I hate it/don't like it/couldn't bother to care for it. As you can guess people get very protective of their favourite little $50 plastic disk and feel the need to "rip me a new one"(As those crazy kids say nowadays ) and teach me all of the reasons why my opinion is factually wrong. Has this ever happened to you? If so, what was the game, and what are your reasons for not liking it?

This has happened a few times with me.

Halo 3 -
I don't like it because the first Halo was revolutionary(And by "revolutionary" I mean it was the only good game on the Xbox at the time, and the first really good FPS that anyone had seen since last Thursday) for the genre. Halo 2 improved massive amounts on the first game. And Halo 3 just pumped up the graphics, added a Super Laser with a power level of over 9000 that everyone could "shoop" their "whoops" with, and put in a half-assed level editor.

Super Smash Bros'(Series) -
It's a fighting game. I'm not into the fighting game genre. But apparently some people(I'm talking about you Jared Steinberg) seem to confuse it with Jesus and think that I will go to Hell if I don't pay 100% respect and love to the damn game even though I just don't like fighting games!

GTA(Series) -
I find the GTA games very repetitive. Every mission is some kind of variation of killing people, stealing something(Usually a car), or holding a mentally retarded NPC's hand while they steal cars and kill people. Add in the between mission freedom of being able to go anywhere, steal any car, and kill any random passerby, and you get my own personal hell(Well at least after the first hour, since that's how long it takes for the novelty to have worn off). Actually it's not just the repetitiveness. It's the combination of being repetitive and not having enough of a variety of things to repetitively do.

These are just three very good examples, although it has happened to me before with many other games.
Please share your own story of despair. Then maybe I can stop feeling so lonely.

[Citizin]

That "Guitar Hero" crap. It's a lame novelty that makes a shitload of money and wont quit. Really is something that everyone loves, and nobody realizes that it is just mainstream garbage. I almost feel the same way about the Halo's, but that could just be for their huge popularity for a rather average game that I found pretty boring. "Guitar Hero" just plain sucks.

Also games largely based around multiplayer. Don't care for it, everyone else goes apeshit.

I agree with you about Super Smash Bros.

[MrEco]

That "Guitar Hero" crap. It's a lame novelty that makes a shitload of money and wont quit. Really is something that everyone loves, and nobody realizes that it is just mainstream garbage. I almost feel the same way about the Halo's, but that could just be for their huge popularity for a rather average game that I found pretty boring. "Guitar Hero" just plain sucks.

Also games largely based around multiplayer. Don't care for it, everyone else goes apeshit.

I agree with you about Super Smash Bros.

I completely agree with you. Multiplayer is fun but I want to be able to get a good, long game out of my $50. Also, the thing that annoys me most about Guitar Hero is that they come out with a sequel every few days practically. Not to mention that each game is just an "improved" version of the last game. You can go play the original Guitar Hero on the PS2 and get the same experience as if you played the newest Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Metallica Rock the 80's Super Slam. Or whatever the hell it's called.

[dlmvii]

I don't like Resident Evil.
Sorry

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Anything that Jeff Minter has ever made. Seriously his games rock but they didn't ever revolutionize the industry, they just kept slightly modifying Tempest with different names.

[Original_Name]

Definitely agree with you about Super Smash Bros., but for a different reason. While I'm not a massive fan of fighting games, there are a number of them which I really enjoy. But I find Super Smash Bros. to be just about the worst major fighting game in existence. It's literally just characters with a repertoire of about five moves running across a few two-dimensional planes, relying solely on the hideously luck-driven power-ups to overcome their enemies. I would say that the only reason the franchise succeeds is because it's plastered with some outstanding Nintendo fan service, but people who've hardly played video games before it absolutely love it, too. I don't understand how so many people can go so gaga for an unresponsive, mushy mess of a control system and purely luck- and choice of character-driven outcomes.

Guitar Hero and Halo I completely agree with as well. Grand Theft Auto to me is the culmination of Western video game development, and, as with Western video game development itself, I halfway love it and halfway hate it. The concept is marvelous - set a character in a huge, open world and allow him to do what he pleases with a few missions to progress him towards an ultimate goal if he sees fit. I love this concept; games like the Elder Scrolls series do this marvelously, and I'm a big fan of those titles. Now you take the bad half - the majority of the missions focus primarily on meaningless manslaughter, whilst 7th grade locker room-caliber jokes flash across your screen in advertisements. They're fantastic in their ways, but utterly pedestrian in presentation and execution.

Another one that appears less often on lists such as this is Donkey Kong Country. I don't know if it's a Nashville thing or what, but Donkey Kong Country was insanely popular around here. I remember playing it on a demo station right around the time it game out, and while I was absolutely blown away by the graphics, I thought the game itself sucked. Look at the Sonic games - they had huge branching pathways; the level maps were half as tall as they were long in many cases! Then Donkey Kong Country, which has to be just about the most linear platformer I've ever played. It offered absolutely nothing new to the genre; a complete step back in all the ways that matter. And yet, it seems like it was everyone's first game around here, and they get so defensive about it! It drives me crazy!

"Are you wearing a Dreamcast shirt? Are you serious? Sega sucks, dude! They sucked since they started with the Genesis!"
"Wow, you're a real asshole. So what, you're a Nintendo fan? Sony?"
"Nintendo! I've been playing them forever! I started with Donkey Kong Country; that's still my favorite game ever!"
"Why? It looked cool for the time, but the gameplay was actually a step down from even the first Super Mario Bros. All they added were some boring mine-cart bits."
"Well, you only say that because Sonic was YOUR first game. Sorry I don't have the same tastes as you! Sonic's just like Mario, but faster!"
"Well yeah, of course. That in and of itself adds a ton to the game. Think of the complex physics system that had, especially considering the time. In the third zone there are parts where you have to ramp up a quarter-pipe and bounce along bumpers to reach certain areas, and the velocity and distance you'll have when you jump from the vertical wall of the quarter-pipe varies depending on your speed, so that added a whole new dimension to the gameplay. That wouldn't have had the same effect had the character moved in a slow, cumbersome manner like in Donkey Kong Country."
"Fuck you, you just say that because it's your first game. That's why Nintendo beat Sega."

Which is exactly where I lose my sanity.

[Ack]

I hate Super Mario 64. But then again, I despise the vast majority of the platformer genre, so this shouldn't come as much surprise. The only platformers I truly get any joy out of appeared before the 64-bit era.

Being a Virtua Fighter fan, I've never understood people's love for Tekken. I find it clunky and slow. I do have to admit that the characters have interesting design, but beyond this high point, I've just never gotten it.

I also find the Halo series to be utter garbage, with a hack story, repetitive visuals, and AI about as intelligent as a bucket of dead shrimp. It was better when it was called Marathon.

Oh, and one important confession: I haven't played a Sonic game in over fifteen years. And I don't plan on it anytime soon. I don't necessarily hate it, I just don't have any desire to play it.

[MrEco]

I don't like Resident Evil.
Sorry

Don't be.

[glynnahab]

I hate just about every 3D platformer. My kid always wants to play Mario Sunshine, and it annoys me to even watch that game. I don't think platformers should even be in 3D. Too much camera bullshit to put up with. But I do love me some good 2D platform goodness.

Also, I'm with you guys about Guitar Hero and Smash Bros. I never liked either of them. I hate Smash Bros Brawl mostly because of Mario's super-stylish Abercrombie and Fitch overalls.

[MrEco]

Definitely agree with you about Super Smash Bros., but for a different reason. While I'm not a massive fan of fighting games, there are a number of them which I really enjoy. But I find Super Smash Bros. to be just about the worst major fighting game in existence. It's literally just characters with a repertoire of about five moves running across a few two-dimensional planes, relying solely on the hideously luck-driven power-ups to overcome their enemies. I would say that the only reason the franchise succeeds is because it's plastered with some outstanding Nintendo fan service, but people who've hardly played video games before it absolutely love it, too. I don't understand how so many people can go so gaga for an unresponsive, mushy mess of a control system and a purely luck- and choice of character-driven outcomes.

SSBM's control system was definitely clunky and slow feeling to me. SSBB's controls were improved much and it no longer felt like I was controlling a pregnant blue whale. Now it just feels like I'm controlling a regular blue whale.