When it comes to Ubisoft games, they’ve gotten into a rhythm of featuring extremely similar open-world maps that are just different enough to be successful, and they’re even making an open-world Star Wars game. And while most of those games are becoming tiresome and there are some clear growing pains starting to show in the formula, they are by no means terrible.
However, before becoming the go-to free-roaming developer, Ubisoft had many other stumbling blocks. Whether it’s several notoriously bad tie-in games to movies, failed attempts at making motion control a thing, or even making video-games for restaurants, Ubisoft has a slew of games they wish gamers would forget.
Watch Dogs (2014)
Though Watch Dogs isn’t necessarily a terrible game, it is easily the most disappointing of them all, as there were so many high expectations due to the promises that Ubisoft made to gamers. The developer released promotional videos of what looked like the most beautiful video-game ever made, but the result is one of the buggiest and murky looking games of its generation, and the frame rate constantly slowed down. However, all the mistakes were rectified, as Watch Dogs 2 is one of the best Ubisoft games of all time.
Call Of Juarez: The Cartel (2011)
Before The Cartel, the Call of Juarez series was a brilliant western-themed first-person shooter and the first game is actually one of the best western video-games that isn’t a Red Dead Redemption game. But the third game switched things up by being set in the modern-day and being about a Mexican gang. All of the environments are bland, grey, and not detailed in the slightest, and none of the series’ charm that it was known for is present in The Cartel.
Beowulf: The Game (2007)
There are a ton of great video game tie-ins to movies, But more often than not, very little effort is put into them by the developer, and that’s no truer than with Beowulf: The Game. Being based on the action fantasy movie of the same name, the hack and slash game is a massive rip-off of God of War, with some tiresome rock climbing thrown in. It’s another game that looks ugly and plays terribly, and as the movie is completely fantastical with some incredible visual effects, the same can’t be said about the game.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000)
Before Batman: Arkham City became one of the games that defined a generation, the caped crusader had a rocky road in the gaming industry. The Batman Beyond animated series is great, and Return of the Joker, the feature-length movie, is one of the best animated Batman movies there is, but the same cannot be said of video game adaptation of the movie. Being a simple side-scroller, the game didn’t do the movie justice in the slightest.
The best thing going for it is that it gives off the futuristic look of the TV show and has the same color palette that everybody loves. Besides that, it’s filled with pointless extras that never get used and it’s ultimately a bland beat ‘em up.
Self-Defense Training Camp (2011)
Self-Defense Training Camp is one of many of Ubisoft’s failed experiments with the Xbox Kinect. Ubisoft was determined to make motion control the next big trend in the gaming industry last decade, but each game proved that wasn’t going to happen. The release is barely even a video game, as it’s more like a martial arts simulator than anything else. But the poor and unresponsive controls were never enough for the game to truly replace trainers, and Ubisoft was completely wrong in thinking that it would.
Charlie’s Angels (2003)
Being based on both the first and second movie in the series, this video-game tie-in is highly regarded as one of the worst video games ever made. The gameplay is extremely simple and it sees players arbitrarily punching and kicking their way through hoards of enemies for no apparent reason.
Players can control all three of the Angels, but it seems pointless, as none of them have any specific skills that are unique to them. What’s even worse is that in almost every level the Angels are skimpily clad, and it doesn’t do much for the way female characters have been endlessly objectified in the video-game industry.
Fighters Uncaged (2010)
Why Fighters Uncaged ever got made in the first place is a mystery, as it doesn’t make a lick of sense on paper either. The game is again an experiment with the Xbox Kinect, as it captures players’ movements, which is how the characters fight. Fighters Uncaged was one of the very first games that used the Kinect, and because of this, it wasn’t exactly the smoothest use of it, as the motion sense didn’t do its job and didn’t track half of the players’ movements.
Hooters Road Trip (2002)
Just like the Charlie’s Angels tie-in video-game, Hooters Road Trip is another game that objectifies women in the worst way possible, as the rewards for completing each mission are literally real video clips of girls working in the infamous restaurant. And besides that, the actual gameplay is awful too. The whole racing game is made solely to promote the restaurant, and the link between the restaurant and racing is a mystery.
The Expendables 2 Videogame (2012)
Being yet another video game tie-in to a movie, it’s unlikely that anybody had any high expectations for The Expendables 2 Videogame, as it’s a tie-in game based on an already mediocre movie franchise. However, the game still somehow managed to aggravate gamers. There are loads of reasons the franchise should keep going, but this video-game isn’t one of them. The Expendables 2 Videogame is a top-down shooter a la Killzone, but unlike Killzone, it’s boring, soulless, and repetitive.
Fighter Within (2013)
After the disaster that was Fighters Uncaged, one would think Ubisoft would give up on the Xbox Kinect technology, let alone ones that were fighting specific. Coming three years after Fighters Uncaged, Fighter Within was just as bad, and it was as if Ubisoft hadn’t learned from the mistakes in that three years. The graphics were a little better, but the gameplay was just as bad and it comes off as a terrible Mortal Kombat clone, and it’s one of the worst fighting games ever made.