Top 10 Worst Video Game Product Fails Ever

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Video Game Product Fails!

For this list, we aren’t looking for games that failed but rather peripherals and accessories that just didn’t pan out. Whether it was because of faulty programming or just overall cheap quality, these peripherals failed to become financial successes.

Let us know in the comments if YOU’VE ever had the misfortune of using any of these!

Want to embrace your inner photographer or take goofy pictures with friends? Well, do yourself a favor and get a real camera - NOT the Game Boy Camera. While it was a cute novelty that gave us a window into the future of cameras in handheld consoles and phones, you couldn’t save and relish in your pics unless you had the flimsy Pocket Printer. This is where the experience is ruined as Pocket Printer would print your creations on thermal paper (aka “the kind of paper used for cash registers”), which was flimsy enough for ink to be easily smeared. Again, cool in novelty, but the enjoyment lasts about as long as it takes to refill a register with the cheap paper.

One impressive feat in gaming is how we can pull off complex actions with the press of a few measly buttons. Well, Capcom decided a few buttons weren’t enough and what gamers really needed was a deck of controls akin to that of military technology. Despite “Steel Battalion” seeing critical success, the same could not be said in the financial sense, as it bombed harder than a patrol boat trying to take on a nuclear submarine. Who knew that people wouldn’t want to spend two-hundred dollars for a controller that was only developed for ONE game!? And to think, this was made to show “what can be done in the game industry,” as producer Atsushi Inaba puts it. At what cost, though?

If “Guitar Hero” was a literal cash cow, it would have died from milk fever after the obscene amount of band-specific spin-offs or the obscene amount of handheld spin-offs. Our money is on the handhelds on account of how terrible the Grip peripheral was. Players had to insert this into the Game Boy slot of their DS, holding the system sideways, and pressing buttons while strumming the touchpad. Yes, there was too much physical movement involved for a game, and it made us wish we had a “Guitar Hero IV” instead. We didn’t need a true sequel that could have shaken up the formula. Noooooo, let’s go with something that’ll make us look like uncomfortable doofuses! That’s what the kids are into, right?

Wanna spend a ludicrous amount of money to look like a rejected Ghostbuster? No? Then, stay away from the Aura Interactor. Released in 1994 for the SNES, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD, this clunky plastic backpack was designed to immerse users with their games through vibrations. Basically, it was an oversized Rumble Pak, and it would vibrate to just about any sound effect, making the entire experience uncomfortable. Oh, and the Power and Filter dials barely made a difference in the vibration and audio quality. And this is why we don’t wear haptic suits… yet.

While we could have put the Virtual Boy on here, the infamous red headset is more of a platform than it is a peripheral. The Power Glove, on the other hand, is more than deserving to be here. Despite having sold a million units, the Power Glove was proof that even the coolest ideas should not always come to fruition, as it made playing games even more difficult with its odd and inaccurate controls. Seriously, how are you even supposed to use this thing? If it weren’t for the cultural impact it made (having been in 1989 film “The Wizard”), this ancient peripheral could have been forever lost in time.

Who would have thought that “Kinect Adventures,” a game that requires no hands to play, would get a peripheral to make set up a bigger pain in the keister? What exactly was wrong with the Kinect Game Boat aside from the absurd name? Was it easy to tear? Susceptible to mold? We wouldn’t be surprised if both were true, but the most common complaint among critics was how the product reeked of plastic and ink as soon as you opened the box. To make matters worse, it did nothing but make the game frustrating to play, not to mention uncomfortable to sit in with another person. If you’re a sadist looking to burn money, good luck finding a unit!

Of all the ancient peripherals from the 80s and 90s, the SEGA Activator was the worst. With the idea of turning buttons into physical inputs, one would think the Activator existed for the sake of novelty, and the quality certainly implies that. Users would place themselves inside the ring and gesture in different directions to play their game. The exaggerated marketing hid one crucial detail, though - the device was not as accurate as the commercials led you to believe, and the absurd price point of eighty bucks made it clear that consumers should spend their cash on another game rather than malfunctioning plastic. Also, yes, the footage you’ve been seeing is an actual official instructional video for the product!

You know what the Wii really needed? Something to clamp onto our finger to make it seem like we were using some kind of homemade medical equipment. That’s exactly what Nintendo thought we needed when they announced the Wii Vitality Sensor at E3 2009. The device was to hold your finger and help players relax by emitting pulses. However, it was revealed throughout the years that the Vitality Sensor was failing to provide consistent results during the testing phase, and it wasn’t until 2013 when the late Satoru Iwata finally said that the project was canceled. It’s okay - we have a feeling this wouldn’t have sold well anyway.

Here’s an interesting question - what’s big, plastic, and is a hundred dollars of poorly designed technology? If you answered “the skateboard for ‘Tony Hawk Ride,’” then congratulations - you haven’t erased this from your memory either! It was designed to bring a sense of immersion to the game by having users awkwardly pedal their foot against the floor and tilt the board to steer. However, these controls barely worked, making the experience incredibly irritating. Perhaps what’s more shocking is that the game and board managed to sell more than a hundred thousand copies and even spawned a sequel.

Before we reveal our number one pick, here are a few Dishonorable Mentions…

Because Who Wants Motion Controls in a Moving Vehicle?

It Was Apparently Being Used for… Other Things

Supposed to Combine GamePad Mouse Controls, Not Confusion & Awe

Now Anyone Can Turn a Dial & Press Buttons! … Oh, Wait

Whose Idea Was It to Replace Buttons with a Pad to Stand & Tilt On?

Remember how THQ gained a reputation for churning out licensed game after licensed game throughout the 2000s? Well, the company’s life ended unceremoniously after the disastrous launch that was the uDraw GameTablet. While it managed to sell over a million units on the Wii and garner decent review scores, the tablet severely underperformed in sales. Approximately 1.4 million units went unsold, and THQ suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue loss, forcing the company to shift focus into other ventures. Alas, THQ would close its doors in 2013, only to make somewhat of a return when the company trademark was acquired by Nordic Games, thus birthing THQ Nordic.