10 Ambitious Video Game Gimmicks That BOMBED
1. The Nintendo Power Glove
At the top of the pile of defunct gaming gimmicks, though, is the Nintendo Power Glove, an infamous virtual reality peripheral released for the NES in 1989.
In theory, it allowed players to control NES games using only the glove, while its array of programmable functions would let players register their hand and finger inputs in real-time.
In reality, the Power Glove was a fiddly, unresponsive hunk of junk, and only two games were ever actually released for it specifically.
Despite being largely panned by the press, it sold close to 1 million units, possibly thanks to it featuring prominently in the Nintendo-backed 1989 film The Wizard, where it was infamously referred to as "so bad."
The Power Glove was ultimately discontinued the year after it hit stores, and today remains the textbook example of botched gimmick hardware which failed to meet expectations.