Top 5 most over-hyped Nintendo games
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 7:55am by Blake
Originally published September 26th, 2007
As gamers get bombarded with Halo 3 coverage this week (deserving or not), MSNBC has compiled a list of what they believe to be the five most over-hyped video games: Halo 3, Madden, Daikatana, Enter the Matrix, and Pac-Man in that order.
The list got me thinking, “What are the most over-hyped Nintendo games?”
Here’s my list (do share yours):
- Super Mario Bros. 3. And you thought Halo 3 marketing was bad — Nintendo coerced Universal Pictures to release a 100 minute commercial for the game in the form of 1989’s The Wizard. Luckily, both the movie and Mario 3 were bodacious.
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I love me some Link. I like him better than Mario. But man I’m tired of seeing and hearing Ocarina of Time regarded as the greatest game of all time for nine years running. Surely it doesn’t take a decade to crown new greatness?
- Killer Instinct. Despite paid advertisements suggesting otherwise, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, and Eternal Champions this game is not. Cool graphics, though.
- Pokémon Red, Blue and Green. This is the greatest selling game (20 million sold) of all time, on any platform, excluding bundled games. Can someone please tell me why?
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Despite GameSpot’s inconsistency when docking points from sequel games, Jeff Gerstmann’s 8.8 (and controversial) assessment of Twilight Princess was a spot on score, even calling the game “great.” Rating something less than a nine doesn’t have to mean it isn’t worth your time, your money, or your gamer love. It all depends on what you think a review score should be.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
“Pokémon Red, Blue and Green. This is the greatest selling game (20 million sold) of all time, on any platform, excluding bundled games. Can someone please tell me why?”
Agreed. I finally gave the series a shot with Pearl, and it didn’t do it for me.
“The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I love me some Link. I like him better than Mario. But man I’m tired of seeing and hearing Ocarina of Time regarded as the greatest game of all time for nine years running. Surely it doesn’t take a decade to crown new greatness?”
I liked Majora better. Feel free to stone me to death. It was a fresh take on a solid game. The atmosphere as the third day came to a close was one of the most unreal and amazing game experiences I’ve ever witnessed.
I’ll give a list later. Gotta think about this.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Super Mario 64- Super Mario 64 is amazing. In that way it isn’t over hyped or overrated. But to this day people still use it as a platformer measuring stick when there have been several great platformers since with more polish. And yes I loved Sunshine.
Goldeneye- It’s a decent game, but coming over from PC shooters it just didn’t seem all that special. But I’d easily take an average PS2/Gamecube/Xbox RPG over this any day.
Super Mario Bros. 2- I just couldn’t stand this game. My friend enjoyed it and it got some great reviews though. But I couldn’t see why.
Animal Crossing- It’s just too repetitive. The Sims and Harvest Moon do a better job. Some aspects are deep (house customization), but others aren’t deep enough (interacting with other characters & tasks/goals).
Star Fox 64- I played it many times but never got into it. I wasn’t a big fan of Rogue Squadron either, so it’s probably just the genre itself rather than the game.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
This thread is confusing “overhyped” with “overrated”, in a big way… I see examples of both.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I see Super Smash Bros. Brawl as being overhyped and a game like Super Mario 64 being overrated. It was good, not great for me.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I have to agree with dubnobasswithmyheadman. Halo 3 is way overhyped. It doesn’t matter how good the game is, it can never live up to the hype. I don’t think the Pokemon game was overhyped. Pokemon was incredibly popular then and it sold amazingly well. Overrated maybe, but not overhyped.
I totally disagree with arguement #2. All because it’s 9 years old, doesn’t mean that something better has to have been released. Many people list Ocarina as the best game ever made with good reason. It’s certainly mine. I keep waiting for a game that can topple it, but it hasn’t happened yet.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
. “But man I’m tired of seeing and hearing Ocarina of Time regarded as the greatest game of all time for nine years running. ”
Blasphemy!!(lol i´m kidding)
September 26th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
i dont see how mario 3 was overhyped. it was released at a time when the industry was a lot smaller and there was no internet. i dont remember this game be overhyped at all. not that it doesnt deserve the hype.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Hmm it’s really hard to make a concrete list since Nintendonever really over-hyped game the way MS did Halo3 or EA does Madden.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I will defend Pokemon R/B until my dying breath. I love RPGs where you may customize your party. In pokemon R/B there are 150 characters whose movesets you can optimize to your liking. Possible party combinations come in at 150C6 = 1.42X10^10. That is a massive number of individual PARTIES, including parties of all one character (6 Pikachus FTW). Not to mention different movesets and power-ups that make each character unique. Top that with a giant world to roam, plenty of sidequests, battles and trading, and you sir have a game that deserves it’s spot in the top games of all time list. The iterations lose some of the impact, but the original surely deserves all credit given and not given.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I think you’ll find that more recent games are worse off in this respect. The collective power of the Internet is far worse about spreading hype than the handful of gaming magazines in print in the 80s or early 90s were.
Twilight Princess was and Smash Bros. Brawl is being inflated beyond reason. The first Zelda 64 got mountains of hype, which was probably deserved considering it was doing things that people really hadn’t seen before. I think Nintendo Power must have been instructed to go totally nuts promoting Uniracers, probably because it was meant to be a sort of “Sonic killer.”
There’s a clue: people tend to hype the shit out of anything that’s supposedly going to “kill” another franchise or title.
If we’re counting games that Nintendo published but didn’t personally develop, Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64 are the worst offenders of them all.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Pokemon may have been over-hyped in one point with lots of advertising to make it look like a children’s game, but it’s far from over-rated. In fact, it probably has the most solid gameplay of any RPG I’ve played. That 20 million number was well-deserved.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I guess I don’t have enough exposure to video game-hyping sources to have a really good opinion on this subject…
…but how can you say that Brawl is over hyped if the game hasn’t even come out yet? Perhaps it is the appropriate amount of hyping. I know I’m ridiculously excited, but Melee IS my favorite game…
September 27th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Super Smash Bros. Melee is way too overhyped. It was a fun game, yes, butit gets a 9.2 on my rating scale. It’s good, but not wonderful.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:33 am
“This thread is confusing “overhyped” with “overrated”, in a big way… I see examples of both.”
While I appreciate the distinction of crappy games that were over-hyped initially, isn’t every over-rated game the result of the reviewer giving into hype, hence the over-rating?
September 27th, 2007 at 7:45 am
I have to agree with DrewMG, OOT was such a hoot it was hard not to get carried away. But Majora’s mask lay in the shadows really (more so to do with the failing N64 at the time) it didn’t really get snapped up. The atmosphere is the best I’ve ever came across to this day in any game. Quietly haunting.
As for overrated, World of Warcraft.
September 27th, 2007 at 9:29 am
How dare you question Ocarina? How dare you?!
September 27th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Leaving aside the Nintendo games for a moment, the original article’s inclusion of Pac-Man is hilariously inept, showing that Ken Smith, the person writing it, has no knowledge of either videogame history or even Wikipedia.
The fact is, “Pac-Man Fever” and all the merchandising of Pac-Man happened two years AFTER the game’s release, after it had already become a national sensation in the US and was being superseded by Ms. Pac-Man in the marketplace. Pac-Man itself was released with comparatively little fanfare and it was people watching other people playing it that got them interested, much more like Wii Sports than Halo 3. Namco had very little to do with the hype; while they may have been a little too eager to license Pac-Man out, there was plenty of unlicensed Pac-Man stuff around before they got in on it.
Oh yeah, and he even included a screenshot of Ms. Pac-Man instead of the real thing.
Now, if he’d included the Atari home versions of Pac-Man, those were legitimately overhyped. And I think he should have included Super Mario Bros. 3 in the list as well, because it was certainly hyped far more than Daikatana and Enter the Matrix put together.
I know most people reading this are kids or young adults, and have probably only played Pac-Man in emulated or NES form. But he chose to do an article incorporating history, so he should have taken the time to get it right…. maybe even ask someone over 30. “Grampa, what were video games like 25 years ago?”
September 27th, 2007 at 10:13 am
“But man I’m tired of seeing and hearing Ocarina of Time regarded as the greatest game of all time for nine years running. ”
Well, tell developers to put out a better game then.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I’d personally say that Wind Waker is a better game.
But then, I’d also say that Majora is a better game, and I know I’m virtually alone in that opinion.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Yeah, windwaker was pretty sweet. I’ll give you that.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Of all of the games on the list, Super Mario Bros 3 is the only one I ever saw a commercial for. Thats what hype is to me. The other games, I deliberately sought info on them before making a purchase. Hype to me is something that you cannot escape. You hear about it somehow. Over-hyped is when you’d need to live in an isolation chamber for six months to avoid being repeatedly conked over the head with the damn thing until your sick of it.
(*cough* halo 3 *cough*)
I guess what I’m trying to say is, I like what nintendo has done, and what they are doing now. Brawl is a game that I’m excited about. There is lots of infoout there on it, but I am not being bombarded with it. I choose to read blogs, I choose to visit the site every day to see whats new, I control the hype. When the game gets closer to release I expect to see those two guys drop by some family’s house and throw the smack down with some four player free for all action. Although the original commercial for the N64 one was probably my favorite game commercial ever, it doesn’t really matter to me what they do. They have my money. I just hope they don’t come out with Smash Soda and the like.
To wrap things up, the most overhyped nintendo game ever was gyromite with ROB the robot, I remember those commercials and that thing was crap. Didn’t live up to the hype at all.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
“This thread is confusing ‘overhyped’ with ‘overrated’, in a big way… I see examples of both.”
To me, ‘overhype’ is the marketing and over-the-top positive reviews of a game before its launch, and the game not living up to the hype when people finally play it.
‘Overrated’ is the over-the-top positive reviews of a game AFTER its launch, when other games that have come shortly before or after turn out to be much better…
September 27th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
“Pokémon Red, Blue and Green. This is the greatest selling game (20 million sold) of all time, on any platform, excluding bundled games. Can someone please tell me why?”
Answer: because Pokémon Diamond/Pearl had not come out yet!
September 27th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
[...] Top 5 most over-hyped Nintendo games (Infendo) [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Super Paper Mario was way overhyped, but not by Nintendo… The review scores were way too forgiving for the worst Mario RPG I’ve ever played. Compared to Superstar Saga and Legend of the Seven Stars, SPM was pretty lame.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:45 am
“I’d personally say that Wind Waker is a better game.”
Wind Waker WOULD HAVE been the better game if it weren’t for that lazy/obnoxious fetch-quest for the Tri-Force shards towards the end. It was better in the sense that it did a great job of building upon that emotional connection that was forged with people who played Ocarina
If I had to make a list, it’d have to include:
1) Any Pokemon game
Never liked Pokemon. Never saw it’s appeal
2) the Paper Mario games
Please…none of the Paper Mario games can hold a candle to Mario RPG.
3) Super Mario Sunshine
Too much like Zelda, not enough like Mario.
4) Star Fox 64
It was tons of fun, but I don’t understand how people hold it above the original or even Assault, which was just a far more polished 64.
5) Metroid Prime
It was OK, as far as shooters go, which is saying something, given that I tend to loathe FPS games.
6) Twilight Princess
I don’t think it was over-hyped, per se, but there was an undeniable feeling of ‘been there, done that’ with the game. Plus, it wasn’t in any way really connected to what Nintendo what built with Ocarina/Majora/Wind Waker. It was just…a (fantastic) Zelda game.
Lame!
September 29th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I agree you’re confusing Overhyped with overrated but that aside…
OoT deserves every piece of credit it gets in my opinion. It truly is the greatest game of all time,. You said it doesn’t take a decade to crown new greatness? Apparently it does… and counting.
I think Majora’s Mask is possibly one of the most underrated games ever. It’s absolutely brilliant, though just shy of OoT (maybe because it wasn’t Hyrule? Who knows). Wind Waker is also awesome and I think it’s probably better than Majoras but again, just shy of OoT. The story, and the way it linked into OoT, was somethin else.
I’ll agree with you on (the awesome) Twilight Princess though because of one simple fact. It was billed as an OoT beater. It wasn’t
September 29th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Oh and the original Pokemon games are brilliant.
The series has lost it’s shine because of the stupid amount of Pokemon in it now though I think.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
A website that makes its bones on over-hyping games makes a list of over-hyped games? That’s some zen poo right there.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
1. Super Smash Brother’s series. It’s a great game yes, but the game get’s way too much attention. Everyone I know played Brawl nonstop and it got boring, because we never played Mario Kart Wii. It’s overhyped and overrated because of certain aspects being broken. No one should be able to spam Pit’s shielding abilities at all, cheap tactic. And the online is completely broken as well.
2. Pikmin series. Everyone told me how great it was so I had decided to pick up the first copy back when it was still new. I tried it and couldn’t get very far and never finished the game because the time constraints were messing me up. I would gladly go back and try it again though now that I’m several years older and wiser, Maybe when Nintendo rereleases the Pikmin games for the Wii.
3. Pokemon series. Alright it was a cool concept during the first generation. Second generation made it way better with the time of day and day specific events. However once the third generation came around, they took out features that made 2nd Gen cool and made it way too complicated to catch all of them. It’s even more annoying in that some players who decided to pick up RSE later on can’t get characters like Deoxys without a cheating device because of the stupid Nintendo events. Then make it even more crazy by having to trade around more than 100 pokemon just to catch them all. Nintendo needs to release a feature for the Wii that allows players to connect their DS’s and GBA’s to the wii (via wireless/GBA-GCN link) and allow players to pay like 200 Wii Points to get the Event pokemon without worrying about getting hacked characters from friends.
4. Goldeneye. Yeah the RCP-90 was badass, but the game became overrated very fast. I enjoyed it for what it was but when you play the same games with your friends nonstop because they’re afraid to try a new game, it get’s annoying.
5. Twilight Princess. I never thought I’d say a zelda game could ever be over hyped but I just did. I preordered this game just moments after I saw the E3 reveal on G4. Waited several years to get it. I loved the game for the art style and the story but the game was way too easy. Ocarina was good but that too is overrated now. I think Phantom Hourglass or LInk’s Awakening is the best Zelda game.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
1. The Super Smash Bros. series. I’ve never understood the hype for these games. Just because they’ve slapped beloved Nintendo characters into a fighting game doesn’t make it the best thing since sliced bread. As a fighter I find it to be merely average. Brawl has been the worst in terms of hype in the series.
2. GoldenEye – again I never bought into all of it. A good FPS but I never found it to be as great as everyone said it was.
3. Ocarina of Time – yeah I said it. I enjoyed Majora’s Mask more and *gasp* even Twilight Princess more.
“A website that makes its bones on over-hyping games makes a list of over-hyped games? That’s some zen shit right there.”
Yeah that is pretty classic.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
“This thread is confusing “overhyped” with “overrated”, in a big way… I see examples of both.”
Exactly.
That is why I wont even bother with a list.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
“Pokémon Red, Blue and Green. This is the greatest selling game (20 million sold) of all time, on any platform, excluding bundled games. Can someone please tell me why?”
because they were fun games
and DrewMG pearl and diamond are not rly the est ones in the series
in my opinion it was gold silver and crystal
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
That’s a really tough list to et down to just 5. i think nearly every major Nintendo release since the N64 came out has been terribly overhyped by so many fans.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I have to admit that Ocarina of Time was the best game ever for 1 – 3 years…but life gos on.
I really have to agree with Pokemon being over hyped (its also repetitive to me). Isn’t just like any other RPG? Feel free to stone me for that comment, if you feel the need to, but I’m sticking with my word.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Pokemon was an enthralling adventure into a vast world filled with collectible creatures and battling. Every new area would reveal an elusive new enemy (or friend, if caught) and the game was chock full of stuff to do. Not to mention it’s about 10 times funner than any other RPG out there.
That is why it sold so well. Assisted by a card game, a TV show, toys, Burger King, a Movie, etc….
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Pokemon Green? Did I miss something? I could have sworn there was only Red and Blue until Yellow came out.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
[...] Article here [...]
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I really enjoyed Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2 (both arcade versions.) They never did a great job by porting the combination of the two into Killer Instinct Gold for the N64. I also remember the SNES game. I still have the CD that came with the game, Killer Cuts.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:26 pm
i’m not sure what you meant by overhyped, but i definitely disagree about SMB3 and OOT. i also don’t think they’re overrated.
SMB3 will always be a platformer that gave me the exploration platformers had before only dreamed of.
OOT was amazing. and nothing was overrated about it. i agree about TP, which never impressed me.
sm64 was and remains to this day fantastic fun.
as for goldeneye, i think my opinion would have been different had i been a pc gamer back then. but it was great to play with friends back in the day.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
“Pokemon Green? Did I miss something? I could have sworn there was only Red and Blue until Yellow came out.”
only came out in japan
December 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Have there ever really been any “overhyped” Nintendo games? Compared to other platforms, Nintendo rarely launches a big ad campaign and tie-ins for its games…
…except for Pokémon spin-offs. While the core games are still great, the spin-offs (colosseum, dungeons, puzzle games, etc. with Pokémon plastered all over them) get just as much hype, and they are nowhere as close to greatness.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
oot was not over rated or over hyped. i still feel the same way playing it today as i did for the first time, so it has done its job holding the crown very well. something over hyped or over rated gets old before the games over or the second time you play. when you play a game for 9 years and still feel like its the first time you can’t argue with that.
also on another note majora’s mask was under rated and under hyped. i think the problem with that was the demos they had set up. when i played the demo i was stuck at the beginning as a deku scrub. i had no idea why i looked like that and didn’t like not be able to change back or having a weapon (bubbles c’mon), but i still knew the game would rock, so i bought it and realized what was going on. for someone less intrigued or not an avid fan this could have been a put off. no link, no sword, no items what the hell is going on here? they should have made a demo disc that picked up a little later in the game so people could see the cool transformations and gameplay. i’ve heard people bad mouth it because you stay young link the whole time. who cares you get to be a zora and a goron. awesome!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Overhyped? Hyped, maybe. And those ended up great.
PokeMon Yellow equals awesomeness =D.
Majora was better than Orcarina, especially that Goron Mask transformation =D.
Metroid Prime Hunters was the greatest online game Nintendo made, and as close as they will get to Halo until The Conduit =D.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl. ‘Nuff Said =D.
GoldenEye was BADASS =D.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I think the titled should be overrated, not overhyped. That being said, all those games should NOT be on the list. They are heralded for deserving reasons. Here are some for me.
1) Animal Crossing – The game has no point, unless you’re playing the GCN title and can seek out NES games.
2) Donkey Kong series on SNES – I always thought the jumping was really wonky. never saw the appeal
3) Harvest Moon – You farm. You get married. Big woopie.
That’s all I got. Most Nintendo games are considered great for good reason.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
On the note of Pokemon.
Firstly, It is overhyped. The whole idea of Pokemon is. What with, like gojguy said, movies, cards, Hasbro, fast food toys, spin offs (I loved the Dungeons, though.),the 6-year olds on ads for the stuff, it is, and aimed at a small portion of the audience who plays the game. Overrated, eh, maybe, but not massively.
I’d say I like the immense amout of species they have now, but they should have at least retired some temporarily. Keep the partner pokemon who follows you, but be able to switch it out.
Thank the Lord they’ve brought back nighttime. keep it.
As a side note, MMO and actual 3d RPGs could be very good things for it…