Top 7... Death Rattle Games
These games didn't just flop, they brought down entire companies
Death Rattle Game:
Okami | 2006
Set in a water-colored era of wondrous Japanese mythology, players took control of an able white wolf embodied with the spirit of a goddess and a warrior. But more importantly, you fought enemies, solved elemental puzzles, and mended universal wrongs with the power of the Celestial Brush, a novel control scheme which involvedaggressively painting strokes with the PS2's analog sticks.
Short story, shorter: Critics sang Okami's praises, we awarded it with the coveted "Too Beautiful to Live" award in 2007, you continued to ignore it, and The Gods of Mediocrity descended and took Clover Studios away from us.
Last chance
An imaginatively independent developer that got better and better with each distinctive game, until it finally created what most consider a masterpiece in 2006? Of course they had to be stopped! With titles like Viewtiful Joe 2 and God Hand, Clover made games unlike any other,and it's a goddamned shame its crowning achievement had to go the Citizen Kane route and be completely unappreciated in its own time.
Due to lack of sales, Capcom Japan, opted to dissolve Clover rather then pour money into hyper-creative properties that sold like De Loreans powered on Coke II. Though, in a wayOkami and Capcom didn’t kill Clover - you and your consumer indifference did. Jerk.
But… come April, you'll get a chance to redeem yourself by playing Okami on the system it wasborn to be played. The Celestial Brush has joined forces the Wii Remote. No stranger to handling the properties of others, Ready at Dawn (Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus developer) will bring an identical version of Clover's swan song to the extremely suitable Nintendo Wii.
Hope for Resurrection?
Not for "Clover Studios." But no sooner had it dissolved, than the founding members rose from the ashes to createSEEDS. Though titled less ambitiously, it’s safe to assume their commitment to originality will remain wonderfully in tact.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
This new indie D&D campaign setting brings Studio Ghibli and Zelda: Breath of the Wild aesthetics and worldbuilding to the tabletop RPG, and I'm already scheming hard as a DM
I've seen enough: Assassin's Creed Shadows will beat Black Flag as my favorite AC game as Ubisoft says it lets you "Naruto run" as the "fastest Assassin" it's ever made