State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition
Remasters are great in theory, especially when the game struggled to perform well on the last generation of consoles. With that in mind, State of Decay was a perfect candidate to receive an update for Xbox One. Sadly, the zombie survival game still suffers from performance issues, even with the added power of Microsoft’s all-in-one home entertainment system.
Devil’s Third
Tomonobu Itagaki, known for creating the raunchy fighting series Dead or Alive and reviving the Ninja Gaiden series, worked on Devil’s Third since 2009. After bouncing around different publishers, and changing game engines, it isn’t surprising that Devil’s Third (which ended up being published by Nintendo) turned out to be a mess. While North America still hasn’t had the displeasure of playing it, both Japan and Europe have played the shooter.
Run Sackboy! Run!
It’s alright if you didn’t know that Run Sackboy! Run! came out this year. This free-to-play endless runner was released on PlayStation Vita earlier this year to little fanfare. You get what you pay for, though, as even LittleBigPlanet’s charming visuals can’t make this anything more than yet another forgettable mobile game.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
How could a sequel to one of the Nintendo DS’ best games go so wrong? While Kirby: Canvas Curse had a delightful painted world to explore, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse features boring level designs. Throw in that you can’t actually see the gorgeous high definition visuals while you play (since you have to stare at the Wii U GamePad), and you have one of the most disappointing sequels in recent history.
Ultra Street Fighter IV
Ultra Street Fighter IV is a fantastic fighting game, and it made all the sense in the world to release a version of the game on PlayStation 4 to whet the appetite of fans ahead of Street Fighter V in 2016. Sadly, the PlayStation 4 version launched with a myriad of different issues, including input lag, which made it one of the worst ways to play. Thankfully, this version has been patched, but the issues still managed to secure Ultra Street Fighter IV a spot on our list.
Tune in to COGconnected in a couple days when we bring balance to the force with our 10 best first party published games of 2015!