15 Video Game Franchises That Tried Something Wildly Different (And Failed)

15. Bomberman: Act Zero

With his cutesy design and brightly coloured costume, Bomberman was an easily recognisable video game character in the 90s and 2000s. By then, the Bomberman series had developed a reputation as a colourful, family-friendly set of games perfect for multiplayer fun. The games featured a top down camera where players had to navigate maze-like arenas, using bombs and other power-ups to kill their opponents.

In 2006, the series was bizarrely rebooted as Bomberman: Act Zero. Gone was the cutesy, colourful tone. In its place was a gritty, sci-fi aesthetic that the studio was hoping would appeal to a more mature audience. At the time, games like Gears of War were all the craze, and developer Hudson Soft clearly felt it could get in on the act with this new look.

The core gameplay retained some familiar elements, but it took place in otherwise unrecognizable, bland industrial arenas. Bomberman himself was an unnamed cybernetic soldier, and his enemies were clones. The franchise's identity had been completely stripped away in an instant, leaving fans wondering what the heck the developers were thinking. Judging by the reaction of fans and critics after it was released, pretty much everybody agreed, these changes were not wanted or needed.

It came as no surprise when the next Bomberman game dropped the entire sci-fi aesthetic, and returned the series to its roots. Bomberman: Act Zero was written off as a one-off experiment which failed miserably, and today, fans of the series remember it as probably the darkest time in the franchise's history.