Topic: Overrated Games.

So we all have games that everyone else seems to think is the bestestestestest game ev0r, and we think are simply average games that are massively overrated. Let's talk about some of them in this thread.

I'll get us started...

Halo: Combat Evolved. Xbox
So here is the deal - this was a big fish in a small pond. It wasn't brilliant, it was a pretty boring, bland, average FPS game. Compare it to, say, Goldeneye, and it's not fit to share the same universe. Thing is, there was a massive lack of quality software at the time on the Box, and Halo had to carry the console. Peeps played it because peeps had nothing else to play.

Ok, that was the obvious one, now one that people will throw stones at me for...

Super Metroid. SNES
That's right, I said it, Super Metroid. It's boring. I played it on the SNES, it bored me. I played it on the Virtual Console, it continued to bore me. This is my argument - what exactly do you like about Super Metroid? If it's the platforming, play Super Mario World, it's far superior. If it's the adventure, play A Link To The Past, it's far superior. Sure it's a clever bit of software, but how often when you play Super Metroid are you actually having fun? And how often are you backtracking through a bland looking tunnel, to shoot a slightly different color door with a slightly different weapon?

I'm not saying it's a terrible game, but it's not one of the very greatest game ever made. And, btw, it's not the Metroid games as a whole that I don't get on with, I love Metroid Prime.

Anyway, let's have some of your own overrated games that everyone else seems to rave about.

Anything Halo and Sonic CD. Ugh some people love those games too much. Sonic CD's OK, but not the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I don't even want to talk about Halo.

Any of the Halo games
Guitar Hero
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II
Timesplitters 2
Castlevania (only the first one. The rest of the series is awesome.)
Super Mario RPG
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Final Fantasy X- combat feels a bit dated, too linear, and has way too many long, unskippable cutscenes.
Gran Turismo
Kid Icarus- it was good, but not the "forgotten legend" that everyone makes it out to be. It started out way too hard, the fortresses got extremely confusing, and there was some really strange design decisions. Of Myths and Monsters was much better, contrary to popular belief.
Secret of Mana- Final Fantasy Adventure is far superior. This was just shallow and repetitive, though I've only played it in single-player. Does it's true greatness only show in multiplayer?

I think there's more, but thats all I can come up with at the moment.

Super Castlevania IV - It's by no means a bad game, I just think the whole eight-directional whipping kinda lessens the challenge; not to mention the lame Dancing Spectres boss.
Streets of Rage I - At first I thought it was good, but that was before playing the far superior Streets of Rage 2. After that, SoR1 justs seems slow compared to it. It's still decent, but not great.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World - [sigh] Such a shame. It wasn't as good as I expected it to be, and I really couldn't get into it.

Oh, there are others, but I'll get to them in a moment.

Halo 1 and 2: I own and do like them, but they are incredibly overated games in my opinion, no matter what you say, I love to play them, but giving it a 9 would be to generous, it deserves more like an 8 at the most. I can't say about the 360 games. I refuse to buy another 360!
Okami: Once again fun, but I don't know where all the praise comes from, I found it average and unique, but not worthy of a 9.
KOTOR II: Just a bland rushed sequel of KOTOR!
Gran Turismo Series: I know people love it and I love it, but the series really needs to evolve. Hopefully Gran Turismo 5 can change this!
Final Fantasy XII: I rather liked random encounters......Plus It was overhyped, the system worked for KOTOR and would hvae worked for this....if the DAMN Liscene system wasn't there, too much frustration put me off the game.
Kingdom Hearts: Good, but like Okami, I don't know understand the high scores, maybe I'll like it better if I actually play through the whole game.
Dead Rising: I've played it and I absolutely hated this game, I really got bored with it and I avoid it when I go to my friends house.
WoW: ......I Can't Say Anything good about it......$15 a Month.......boring.......(Best Left Untouched!)

Some more I forgot are:
Castlevania
Double Dragon
Zelda 1
Final Fantasy IV
Twilight Princess
Street Fighter 2
BTW, this is my personal opinion.

I hate Halo with a passion. Everytime I go to fight someone in Multiplayer, they already have a vehicle.

Now, remember, I respect your viewpoints.

I also respect the viewpoints of every peep, no matter how wrong they may be.

Glad to see there is a lot of agreement on the overratedness of Halo. Even though overratedness isn't a word, it's a good thing a lot of us see that Halo is not as good as a lot of people think.

I might as well get this out of the way so we can move on: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Star Fox 64, anything with Kirby in the title, anything with Final Fantasy in the title, everything released on the Genesis, and of course your mom. Now, I'm just saying overrated, not necessarily bad. Seriously, I like your mom, she just doesn't really make the top 5.

Also, Trin, I take issue with your second choice for two reasons. First of all, Super Metroid may be super easy, but it's still Metroid and it's still super. Secondly, I'm the one with controversial opinions about widely praised first-party Nintendo titles. Get your own thing.

All Halo's - pretty self explanatory.
The Sonic series - The 2D games don't deserve the praise they get. They are decent games, but definetly no 7, 8, or 9. And all the 3D ones suck. Most overrated series, next to Halo, IMO.
Kingdom Hearts - Played it, don't get what the big deal is.

Theres probaly more I forgot.

Super Metroid is a bit boring, inferior to Mario World as a platform game, and inferior to A Link To The Past as an adventure game, and therefore not 'the best game ev0r'. I don't find it super easy... probably because I don't play it well.

As for your other choices, Ocarina is overrated. I'm actually playing it at the moment, and it's clunky, quite a small world, has't aged very well, and is getting a bit tedious is some of the temples. It's still great, and I'll finish it, but it's not the best game ever... it's not the best Zelda.

You are right about Metroid Prime III as well. Average game, not a patch on Prime.

I can also almost agree with you on Final Fantasy, apart from 7, of course, which is a masterpiece.

Mario Galaxy is pretty special as well, so there we must agree to disagree.

And finally, on the subject of your mom, again we are almost in agreement. Perhaps she could just lose a few pounds and maybe get a new hair style, and she's all good by me.

Quite a lot of agreement on these overrated games... more than I thought. It seems it's just a lot of hardcore fans making a lot of noise about them...

How could I forget about the extremely overrated OoT. Doh!

Final Fantasy 7.
It's a great game but idiots on the Internet have blow it's greatness way out of proportions.
The same goes for Chrono Trigger.

Super Mario Galaxy

Trin, I don't know why you associate Super Metroid with Mario or Zelda. It couldn't be more dissimilar to both. There are platforms, yes, but it is not a platformer. It's open world like Zelda, but there are none of the other characteristic adventure elements like shops, characters, or even plot... aside from some background story. It is a genre unto itself. The game's focus is on mood and atmosphere, and of course exploration. I don't think you're approaching it right to enjoy it.

That's not to say that I'm writing off a dissenting opinion for being dissenting because there are plenty of good reasons not to like it, but saying that it is a worse platformer than Mario and a worse adventure game than Zelda is like saying it is a worse basketball game than NBA Jam.

Also, Final Fantasy 7 was the worst out of the series that I've played so far. I've played 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 12. Way too slow and dark for me. I like the earlier ones best, though I should add that many of those listed I have barely played at all. 7 I got only as far as when you get to that girl's house who joins you, and I got bored shortly after we journeyed out of her house.

NBA Jam rocks!

Super Metroid isn't a platformer, no, and nor is it a straight up adventure game... but you do jump from platform to platform, and you do explore... you do not play basketball, so it's not quite the same thing. Perhaps it's problem is that it is, as you say, a game that relies on mood and atmosphere, and as it's a SNES game, there is only so much mood and atmosphere it can create.

I approach it from the point of view of wanting to enjoy a good video game, and come away bored. As I say, it wasn't very good when I played it years ago on the SNES, and it's not very good now on the virtual console. I will finish it at some point, but it is not, to get back to the first point, a genuine classic, as Mario World and Link to the Past are.

Final Fantasy 7 is the best RPG ever made. If it's dark, turn the lights on.

there's no such thing as an overrated game. A game can only be as good as whoever is playing it thinks it is.

@Adam - you basically stopped before the game started....7 starts a LOT slower than the rest of the games in the series--I'd give it a chance until you get out of Midgar--it really takes until about halfway through the first disc for most of the systems to truly hit their stride--some aren't even unveiled til the second disc. It's really quite an awesome game when you invest some time in it. But yeah--it isn't the end-all RPG.

Agree wholeheartedly with the Sonic Series--the first was quite an achievement graphically...they really never got better than the first game. And I think Super Metroid has LOADS of atmosphere...that whole initial romp through uninhabited Zebes was mind-blowing when I was a kid...although to disprove a lot of these "it's really not that great"s, I find myself saying "When I was a kid..."....maybe the impact can't be felt these days.

Super Metroid? Come on that deserves all the praise it gets. It improved on the earlier metroids by making it much easier to find your way around. I'd much prefer super metroid to any zelda game. Did you play through the whole game? I think all the exploration, action, and platforming elements come together perfectly. Obviously not everyone likes the same things though.

Ok, now my picks:

halo - already been said but its just nothing special. bungie themselves have made better with the marathon series.

goldeneye - lots of fun but pretty clunky controls and aiming plus single player is just ok. multiplayer is lots of fun despite faults but I actually think the timesplitters games are actually better made. definitely not bad but when people talk about it likes its the best fps ever made thats going a bit far.

guitar hero/ rock band - why haven't people gotten tired of these yet? there is not much different from sequel to sequel and the basic gameplay is pretty boring. music/rhythm games can be really creative and interesting but these games totally slowed the progress of these genres and made things boring and uninspired. Luckily there has been a ton of better music games and some cool ones still occasionally come out such as:
good games - Parappa the rapper, cool cool toon, vib ribbon, Gitaroo man, otocky, rez, bit.trip, even harmonix's own frequency