Old Wizard's Top 10 Most Overrated Video Game Franchises

10. God of War

God of War 2 on the Playstation 2 had to be one of the most over-hyped video games to ever be released. The reason could be that IGN gave the first game in the series a 9.8, even though it was pretty much nothing more than a repetitive hack and slash game. While there are puzzle portions to these games, they are really slow and they only serve to slow the games down. There’s also no real innovation in either game. But if you’re a big fan of mindless button mashing with good graphics, you’ll probably like this series, but I doubt that many fans of the golden age of video gaming who have played classic games like A Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger would give this game a 9.8.



9. Guitar Hero

I’ve never been able to figure out why anyone likes the Guitar Hero series. Why has this franchise sold so many games? Is it because of the shitty background graphics? Or maybe it’s the bad music in the series, especially in the third installment, the so-called “Legends of Rock,” which features songs from overrated bands like Kiss, and the Sex Pistols. It’s because of these reasons that unlike many of the other franchises on this list, the Guitar Hero games aren’t just overrated, they aren’t even good. When you think about how bad these games are, it’s hard not to laugh at the fools who pretend to “riff” with their most rock star inspired poses in their dorm room, surrounded by a bunch of drunk or stoned friends. It’s also hard not to include Guitar Hero on this list.


8. Tekken

Every time I hear someone say that Tekken is the best fighting series ever made I think that he or she is a rookie. Anyone who has ever played the Street Fighter series would laugh when hearing this claim. The graphics in the Tekken games are good, but the fighting is utter crap. It mostly consists of button mashing. You’re either executing a 9-step combo that takes away half of your opponent’s life, or you’re getting in one hit that puts them in the air and then you juggle them until they die. Or my personal favorite, you knock them on the ground and do three sweeps before they can get up. Compare this style of game play to a much more fun fighting game like Super Smash Brothers Brawl where it’s much harder to button mash effectively, and you’ll see one of the many reasons why Nintendo is currently dominating the video game market.



7. Halo

When someone tells me that Halo is the greatest video game franchise ever made (and believe me, this happens a lot. O-W must have received a hundred emails asking us why we left all three Halo games off of our Top 100 Video Games List) the first thought that pops into my head is that the person telling me that is twelve years old. I don’t think that you’ll find too many old school gamers who have played truly epic games like A Link to the Past or Super Mario 3 saying that Halo is the best video game franchise of all time. Does Halo really compare to old SNES classics like Super Metroid or Mega Man 2? The first game is short, has repetitive level designs, and a pretty small array of guns. The second game is often heralded for how “revolutionary” because players can wield two weapons at once, steal vehicles and have online multiplayer. Have these people ever played GoldenEye or pretty much any other first person shooter made since Doom 2? Yes, the Halo games can be entertaining for an hour or two at most, but don’t ever say that either one is better than Super Metroid.



6. Sonic

Sonic 1 was a pretty good game, and Sonic 2 could even be considered a great game. Even we wouldn’t deny that. But after Sonic 2, the Sonic series was worn out. While Sonic 2 was an improvement over Sonic 1, in the third installment of the series everything stayed the same. There’s Sonic, and Tails, and new levels with shitty music (compared to the often overlooked soundtrack of Sonic 2.) Sonic 3 though is championed amongst Sega gamers as continuing the Sonic “tradition” of always improving games. Oh yeah, you could play as Tails. Whew, what an improvement that was. And then when Sonic went to 3D, we saw a new low point of the series. The 3D games veered further and further away from Sonic’s simple, yet elegantly satisfying roots, and entered into a territory of uninspired game play, pointless mechanics, and annoying supporting characters.



5. Half Life
I’ve owned Half Life for about six years now and I can honestly say I’ve maybe played it for a total of two hours. The Half Life games suffer from several shortcomings, not the least of which is a complete lack of enemy variety. People often ask us why we’re such big fans of older games, as opposed to newer games. Compare how many different types of bad guys there are in Half Life 2 to a game like Super Mario 3 and you’ll see why we like games from the 16 bit era so much more than the games released today. The game play is repetitive, and neither game in the series has a huge selection of weapons. I’m not saying that Half Life 1 and 2 are bad games, but neither game is deserving of the massive hype that surrounds this series. With Half Life 2 receiving an average rating of 96%, and Maximum PC calling it “The greatest game ever made” we think that the Half Life series deserves its spot on this list.



4. Ghosts N’ Goblins
Talk about overrated. For some reason the Ghosts N’ Goblins series is one of the most loved video game franchises among retro gamers, and yet I have to wonder when the last time any of the people who constantly defend these games had actually played them last. 1/8th through the first level of the first Ghosts N’ Goblins you’re surrounded by mounds and mounds of enemies. As you’re walking as your character, you’re basically surrounded by a force field of enemies coming at you from every possible angle. Okay, maybe if you had a lot of energy or someone decent armor, you could take the level one onslaught of nefarious enemies. As you walk, you see that you do have armor, looks like pretty strong armor, until a weak ass looking bird swoops down, barely hits you, and your armor comes flying off. Not even faux-Halloween armor is this poor. I’m pretty sure that if a bird touched a plastic suit that you wore for Halloween, it wouldn’t come flying off. As your worthless armor comes flying off, you’re left with an almost-naked character who is left with nothing on except underwear. Q: Who wears nothing under armor? Am I inept to mid-evil tradition or is there something completely untenable about someone wearing nothing under armor? You’re basically left naked running around in the wild with a force field of petulant enemies surrounding you at every second. This stultifying game play leads you to give up after 1 to 2 minutes making you feel like shit and making you retire to much more germane games with more sane difficulty levels. If you still wanted to play Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts after playing this game, then you’re probably insane.



3. Resident Evil
If there was ever a video game franchise that didn’t deserve the endless praise from the mainstream video game press it’s the Resident Evil series. Before you even read the reviews of a new RE game from IGN and Gamespot you just know that it is going to get a nine point something. Resident Evil 4 received a 9.8 from IGN and a 9.6 from Gamespot. Really, is RE4 a close to perfect video game? Sure it looks cool for a while, but then it becomes dull as hell. You walk around and random things attack you. Its not scary, it just bad horror flick shit when someone comes from behind you trying to attack you. You get the usual weapons to fight off the usual suspects. You can get devoured by parasitic monsters everywhere you turn. Where have I seen this before? How about every fucking Ghosts N’ Goblins remake there ever was. The over-the-shoulder approach to this game couldn’t save it from being just plain dull. I’m not saying that the Resident Evil games are bad games, they just don’t deserve the exorbitantly high scores they constantly receive from the mainstream video game press.



2. Grand Theft Auto
Old-Wizard’s dislike of the GTA series is well known. Like many modern day video game franchises, the GTA games focus too much on being realistic and too little on the actual game play. IGN gave GTA 4 a 10 out of 10, while giving a really fun game like Super Mario Galaxy a 9.7. The only rational explanation for this is that press version of GTA 4 must have come with some drugs. Was GTA 4 really perfect? Did these guys even play the game before Rockstar gave them a boatload of cash? Why is this game perfect? Is it because it looks good? Is it because you have a cell phone in the game (which is fucking annoying by the way)? Anyone who can’t find some little fault with a video game shouldn’t be a video game critic. While the sleek graphics of the Grand Theft Auto games may look good enough to fool the sheepish mainstream media, anyone who reviews the game for themselves will notice how they mimic our worst instincts of modern pop culture, like our love for unadulterated violence and hedonistic images. The Grand Theft Auto series is unquestionably one of the most overrated video game franchises of all time.


1. Pokemon
Ask almost any twelve year gamer what the best RPG of all time is, and they’ll probably tell you that it was Pokemon. But ask any old school gamer who has ever played Final Fantasy 3 or Chrono Trigger what they think of the Pokemon games, and they’ll tell you that they were an annoying fad at best. It was because Pokemon Red and Blue that civilization had to endure the endless amounts of Pokemon-mania that came after it. The characters were irritatingly soft, and the game play tried too hard to be simple, and lacked the kind of depth needed to make a RPG great. The games in Pokemon series certainly tried to act like an RPG, with turn based battles and areas in which you could speak to another friend, but c’mon, look at some of the enemies you had to face; happy bats and mice that looked like the kind of mice your cat brings back to you to show you affection. RPGs are great in that they transcend the small ambitions of the real world and escape into epic fantasies. Pokemon lowered the standards for the great game style of the RPG