Trivia Browser

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Olympic Hockey Nagano '98
Olympic Hockey Nagano '98 (1998)
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3
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Olympic Hockey Nagano ‘98 is the only game ever to receive a round 0 review score from IGN.
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Complaint, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 11, 2023
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Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust (2009)
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This game is the second Leisure Suit Larry game to feature no involvement from series creator Al Lowe. Around the time the game was released, Lowe wrote this testimony about the game on his blog:

"All I know about BOB is what I've read online. VU [Vivendi Games] (and later Activision, Team 17 and Codemasters) did not consult me nor discuss anything about this game with me. In fact, they've expressed no interest in me whatsoever! For a while, I hoped that they would remember to send me a review copy. Now that the reviews are in, it's just as well that they didn't!

In case you missed the news, Sierra announced another Larry Lovage game (although this time they spelled his name with an extra "E" i.e., "Loveage" ): Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust. A few months later, after Activision merged with VU, they cancelled it, along with many other VU titles. In early 2009, the game's developer Team 17 announced that Codemasters had picked up the title. It was released at the end of March. No advance copies were released to reviewers (always an ominous sign).

Originally, the game's Executive Producer, John Melchior, claimed it had "open world sand box gameplay," racing, platforming, and puzzles and yet also repeated four times that "it's an adventure game." As another warning sign that rarely bodes well for good gameplay, Larry BOB proudly features its voiceover talent, which includes some D-list "stars." Mr. Melchior wanted to make a game that "Al Lowe would like to play." I wonder why he didn't just ask me?

Ah, well; it can't be worse than Magna Cum Laude, can it?

Now that the reviews are in, the answer is: Yes, it can!"

Lowe then proceeded to list several negative reviews of the game from various major outlets, before concluding with:

"My Take: Thank you, VU Games, for keeping me completely away from this latest disaster!"
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Complaint, Development, General, Real Life, Reviews
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month November 9, 2023
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Kao the Kangaroo
Kao the Kangaroo (2000)
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2
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During development, Kao's name was originally going to be Denis the Kangaroo. This is reflected in some early reviews of the game at the time, which still refer to him as Denis.
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Development, Early Idea, General, Name Change, Reviews
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month November 8, 2023
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The Police Mystery
The Police Mystery (2023)
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0
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General, Meme, Real Life, Reviews, Social Media
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month November 6, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016)
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At E3 2015, Nintendo unveiled a new game as an event played during the Nintendo World Championships competition entitled "Blast Ball", with many in attendance noting the game's resemblance to Metroid Prime Hunters. Days later, during the 2015 Nintendo Digital Event, Blast Ball was announced to be part of a full-fledged Metroid Prime spin-off game entitled "Metroid Prime: Federation Force". The game received heavy critical and fan backlash upon its reveal, with common complaints including the choice to reveal a Metroid Prime spin-off title almost ten years after the last traditional Metroid Prime game and after a six-year gap from the similarly polarizing Metroid: Other M, the utilization of a chibi art style, and a seeming lack of Samus Aran or a single-player mode (Samus would later be revealed to be in the game as a side-character and single-player functionality was later confirmed during E3). The reveal trailer received a heavy dislike-to-like ratio on YouTube, having at least 87,000 dislikes and only 10,000 likes as of this writing. Furthermore, a Change.org petition to cancel the game received 7,500 signatures 24 hours after its creation, and received 24,108 signatures prior to its closure.

Nintendo acknowledged the negative pre-release reception of the game several times, but still defended the game overall, with Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie giving similar statements about trying to propel the Metroid series by challenging the traditional gameplay formats that came before it and made up the essence of the franchise. Fils-Amie also compared the fan reaction to the game's reveal to that of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which also received heavy criticism for its art style and gameplay compared to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The game's co-producer and Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe on the other hand had much more conflicting reactions, initially stating that he had expected the negative reception, but later remarking that he was quite surprised by the negative reception and criticized the heavy criticism against the game's graphics, but in both cases he still asked players to reserve their judgements until they played the game.

During the March 3, 2016 Nintendo Direct five months prior to the game's release, an entire segment of the Direct dedicated to the game was hosted by Tanabe, where he addressed fan criticism, explained the development history of the game, showed a more in-depth view of the story mode, and offered a glimpse of Samus' role in the game. Some people believed this segment of the Direct showed that Nintendo was doing "damage control" for the game after the criticism it received at its reveal. Fan reception did not improve, as shortly after the release of the Direct and a subsequent trailer, it started to receive thousands of dislikes like the reveal trailer, prompting Nintendo to disable the like/dislike ratio. Metroid Prime: Federation Force was noticeably absent during E3 2016, but would receive more coverage and trailers from Nintendo in the immediate weeks leading up to its release, where it ultimately received a mixed to average reception from critics and fans.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Competitive, Complaint, Development, Model, Online Play, Reviews, Social Media, Sprite/Graphical Animation
person aa1205 calendar_month November 4, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Buck Bumble
Buck Bumble (1998)
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Buck Bumble was criticized by game journalists for having a high level of distance fog. On this topic, Fabian Blache of Q64 Magazine jokingly claimed:

"I am sure the fact that the game is set in England will be the excuse for its presence in this title."
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Complaint, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 23, 2023
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Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Legaia 2: Duel Saga (2001)
subdirectory_arrow_right Mad Maestro! (Game), Mister Mosquito (Game), Eidos Interactive (Company)
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In 2002, Eidos Interactive launched a new label known as "Fresh Games", with the first three games released under said label being Mister Mosquito, Mad Maestro!, and Legaia 2: Duel Saga. The idea behind Fresh Games was to publish titles that otherwise would likely not see a release outside Japan, particularly those best described as "quirky" and "odd". For example, both Mad Maestro! and Mister Mosquito had been praised in magazines, and Eidos felt they deserved a chance to be released worldwide.
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Development, General, Reviews
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month October 17, 2023
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Rise of the Robots
Rise of the Robots (1994)
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The UK children's gaming TV show Bad Influence did major marketing work for Rise of the Robots, devoting a large chunk of its Christmas special to the game and designing a new opening sequence based on Rise. Ironically, when the game launched, Bad Influence gave the game an extremely low score, much like most other gaming publications that were hyping up the game.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Inspiration, Multimedia Adaptation, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 15, 2023
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EastEnders
EastEnders (1987)
subdirectory_arrow_right Macsen Software (Company)
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Due to the poor reviews that the EastEnders game received, publisher Macsen Software would deny its existence to the gaming press.
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Complaint, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 29, 2023
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Cookie's Bustle
Cookie's Bustle (1999)
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In 2023, an unknown person by the name of Brandon White bought the UK rights to Cookie's Bustle under the fake company name of "Graceware" and began filing DMCA takedowns against any website or video with documentation of the game, in some cases fraudulently using the name of Nintendo, believed to be in an act of copyright trolling. This led to an uptick in interest in the game, with many content creators streaming, making fan works based on, and reviewing the game in retaliation.
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Anti-Piracy, Censorship, Complaint, Copyright, Fan Works, Real Life, Reviews, Secret
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 11, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Bubsy 3D
Bubsy 3D (1996)
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Attachment The US box art of Bubsy 3D contains quotes from a review by PSExtreme magazine claiming the game to have received a "Gold X Award". For many years, the combination of the magazine's obscurity and the generally-accepted notion of the title's low quality led many to believe that the quotes and award were faked.

This was disproven in 2018 when Redditor Alex Winding provided a scan of the magazine to Retrovolve writer Josh Wirtanen.
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Advertisement/Commercial, Real Life, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 8, 2023
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Bubsy: Paws on Fire!
Bubsy: Paws on Fire! (2019)
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The Nintendo Switch launch trailer for Bubsy: Paws on Fire! contains a review quote from the French gaming news website Vandal claiming "This is probably the best game Bubsy has ever had..." In the full review, this is followed by "but that's not saying a lot".
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Advertisement/Commercial, False Advertising, Reviews
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 5, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Forspoken
Forspoken (2023)
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On February 3, 2023, 9 days after Forspoken's release, Square Enix released the outline of the Results Briefing held on that day, which showed some insight on the publisher's takeaways concerning its recent game releases.

While the briefing primarily focused on the financial results of numerous underperforming "small and mid-sized titles" that released in the quarter of October-December 2022 to try and fill the gap for declining net sales in the "HD Games sub-segment", the company decided to make a comment on the sales and reception for Forspoken. On page 6 of the outline, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda stated the following:

"Reviews of “FORSPOKEN,” which we released on January 24, 2023, have been challenging. However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future. That said, its sales have been lackluster, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings."

The effects of the game's negative reception would come to fruition on February 28, when Square Enix announced that its developer, Luminous Productions, would be absorbed back into Square Enix on May 1 to "further bolster the competitive prowess of the Group's development studios". Despite Forspoken's failure, Luminous Productions said that they would remain committed to the game in the meantime, releasing patch updates and working on the game's upcoming DLC "In Tanta We Trust", which would later release on May 26, after the studio's closure.
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Development, Downloadable Content (DLC), General, Real Life, Reviews, Sales
person ProtoSnake calendar_month March 11, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra
Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (1991)
subdirectory_arrow_right Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (Game)
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Attachment Scorpia is the pseudonym of a video game journalist who was most active from the early 1980's through 2009 and was known for writing controversial and harsh reviews of adventure and RPG games published in Computer Gaming World magazine. One of her most notable reviews was a lukewarm review of Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World that supposedly angered the game's designer, Jon Van Caneghem, so much he wrote a lengthy response defending the game and lambasting the review that was also published in the magazine. He then named an enemy after Scorpia in the game's sequel, Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra. In a 2019 interview with Kotaku UK, Scorpia stated there was never any true bad blood between her and Caneghem, but expressed disappointment that he didn't make the monster she was named after "big and nasty".
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Character Design, Development, General, Inspiration, Real Life, Reference, Reviews
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month August 27, 2021
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