These reboots actually hurt their franchises. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the video game reboots that completely missed the mark.
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00:00What did you find 10 years ago?
00:02I need you to access G.U.N.'s database.
00:05Specifically, find out what materials the Scepter of Darkness was made from.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the video game reboots that completely missed the mark.
00:24Number 10 – Flashback
00:30Oftentimes, it's best to just leave the classics in the past.
00:33The original Flashback released in 1992 and gained a lot of praise for its use of rotoscope animation.
00:39It got a sequel a couple of years later, and then nothing until Ubisoft remade it in 2013.
00:44Things could have gone really well.
00:45The development team consisted of those who created the original and fans that worked within Ubisoft.
00:50Sadly, very well is not how it went.
00:53There was nothing really that memorable about this reboot.
01:01It could be beaten in about four to five hours, and its gameplay was incredibly bland.
01:05In fact, one of its most frequent criticisms at launch was its lack of personality.
01:09But hey, at least it came with the original.
01:20Number 9 – Sin City
01:23The Sin City series was once a titan, showing everyone that the seeming simplicity of maintaining a virtual landscape could actually be incredibly addicting.
01:35This 2013 reboot brought that reputation and longevity to a screeching halt.
01:40At launch, it had a ton of technical issues that made it unplayable.
01:43This included lost save files, if you could even connect because there were also frequent network outages.
01:54More than a decade later, it remains one of the most disastrous launches we've ever seen.
02:00Even still, when you could play, reduced map size and missing features from previous entries made it an overall lackluster experience.
02:06A mobile game released the following year, developer Maxis closed the year after that, and Sin City has stayed silent since.
02:13Number 8 – Spy Hunter – Nowhere to Run
02:30Spy Hunter was a huge arcade hit for Midway in the 80s that eventually branched out to consoles with sequels.
02:352006's Nowhere to Run served as a reboot, though not in the traditional sense.
02:40Starring Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, it's a tie-in to a movie that was never made, and in keeping with many other tie-ins of the era, it's a pretty bad one.
02:54While the cinematic quality of the game was praised, almost no one enjoyed actually playing it.
02:58This was the first entry to let players leave their car, as the others all focused on vehicular combat.
03:03But doing so was extremely boring and brought down everything else that wasn't even that remarkable to begin with.
03:10Number 7 – Alone in the Dark
03:25Alone in the Dark is a forerunner of survival horror and has had a few reboots over the years.
03:29For the failed 2008 comeback, quality depended on your platform, with the Wii's version being particularly rough.
03:35However, even looking at the platforms it was best suited for, the reboot left a lot to be desired.
03:40Most didn't care for its poorly written episodic narrative, nor the grander emphasis that directly impacted the scares the series was known for.
03:53The bigger city environments didn't leave as much room for the spooky atmosphere, nor did the large set pieces.
03:58Add on poor controls, especially during those driving sections, and you've got a reboot that should stay in the dark.
04:06You're the only one that can stop this, Edward. I'm just too weak.
04:09Number 6 – Homefront The Revolution
04:182011's Homefront was so mediocre, we would have been surprised for it to get a sequel, let alone a reboot.
04:24And yet, that's exactly what happened.
04:26Like its predecessor, 2016's The Revolution had you fighting against the occupation of the US by North Korea.
04:31Only here, it happened under different circumstances.
04:34However, the premise failed to entice players even more this time around.
04:42The story was uninspired, the characters were bland, and although it had solid weapon customization, the gunplay was about as basic as you could get.
04:49But the element that truly hindered Homefront was its many bugs that genuinely hurt the player's experience.
04:54Even if everything else hadn't been generic, its performance was still a mess.
05:04Number 5 – Sonic The Hedgehog
05:11It's a good thing Sonic was already so popular, because something this bad would have killed lesser franchises.
05:15Released in celebration of the series' 15th anniversary and holding the same title as the original, Sonic 06 was meant to take the series in a more realistic direction.
05:23Considering it's about a super-fast-talking hedgehog who collects rings and fights a mad scientist, that line of thinking is completely baffling to us.
05:35Regardless, the tone, story, and romance between Sonic and a human princess clashed horribly with what Sonic was meant to be.
05:43There wasn't any solace to be found in the gameplay either.
05:46The camera and controls are both poor, while the frequent bugs are rage-inducing.
05:56Number 4 – Golden Axe – Beast Rider
06:05Sorry SEGA, we're going to pick on you again.
06:08The beat-em-up Golden Axe stood out in the arcade among others thanks to its fantasy setting.
06:12It got several sequels before going quiet in the mid-90s, and so SEGA attempted to reboot it with 2008's Beast Rider.
06:18Games at the time were growing darker and grittier, and so SEGA attempted to follow suit by upping the violence and sex appeal.
06:28Not only was this ham-fisted and cringey, but it was in disservice to the original games.
06:32Playing was even worse.
06:34Gameplay grew repetitive very quickly, while the actual controls were a nightmare, including while riding on beasts, which was unfortunately the game's main selling point.
06:50Number 3 – Space Raiders
06:52Many companies have taken a simple but effective arcade classic and completely ruined it by trying to expand on it.
07:04Space Raiders is a reboot of Taito's Space Invaders, and thankfully one most don't remember since it's horrible.
07:09Instead of the top-down view, players fend off waves of aliens as a third-person shooter.
07:13Unfortunately, that's about the biggest update the game offers.
07:23Moving from left to right and clicking a single button may have been fine in the arcade days of old, but it's entirely dull here.
07:29We'd rather have gotten retro graphics with a spin on gameplay than the other way around.
07:33Those graphics didn't even look good, making the whole experience sting even more.
07:44Number 2 – Dungeon Keeper
07:52Even today, the concept of Dungeon Keeper is incredibly inventive.
07:55The 1997 original and its sequel put you in the role of the villain designing and defending your dungeon full of loot and monsters against an invading hero.
08:03Fans may have killed for a reboot at one point, but in a classic monkey-paw scenario, what they got was a mobile microtransaction-heavy atrocity.
08:16Gone was the strategic dungeon designing, replaced by generic tower defense.
08:20Worse, the amount of time that you had to wait in order to do something was excruciating, which, of course, could be eased by purchasing several in-game currencies.
08:28This level of predatory greed is one of the things that turned EA into such a hated company.
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08:56Number 1 – Bomberman Act Zero
09:04There are many things that can ruin a reboot, from poor design choices to a complete disinterest in the legacy that came before it.
09:09Bomberman Act Zero ticks all the boxes.
09:12For those unfamiliar with the series, there would be almost no way to tell that this dreary, muddled dud was in any way connected to the cartoonish, decade-standing franchise that came before it.
09:28There isn't a single aspect that wasn't panned, including its drastic shift to a darker tone.
09:32But the repetitive gameplay and level design, an unnecessary and poorly implemented first-person mode, and issues with AI made it pretty unfun to play to.
09:40Thankfully, Bomberman abandoned everything about Act Zero and is still going today.
09:50What reboot hurt a favorite series of yours? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
09:59In the mood for more awesome gaming content? Be sure to check out this video here on Mojo Plays.
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