10 Most Embarrassingly Poor Console Launch Games Of All Time

6. Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (PS3)

Gundam Really, there should be better game than one which allows you to commandeer a giant walking robot and kick several acres worth of arse, so it still baffles me to this day how consoles can't seem to get it right. We've had several attempts at bringing this mechanised carnage to life €“ including the MechWarrior and Armored Core Games €“ but still, to this day, nothing's managed to truly excel and become something genre-and-platform-defining. It was into this breach that Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire stepped, and to be fair to it, it wasn't average. However, it instead falls face-first onto the other side of the divide, being so pant-soilingly awful that it would probably accept mediocrity as a compliment. Again, the formula can't be too difficult in terms of getting gamers with pads-in-hand €“ you've got a well-established story, giant robotic carnage and those robots are wielding freakin' huge lightsabers. Much like sticking bacon with sausages, or bacon with chicken, or bacon with bacon, this can't possibly go wrong. Yet strangely, it does. Gundam had the dubious honour being PS3's first ever truly awful game, and that's not a bad achievement for something which came out on day one. Sure, Genji was poor, but not game-breakingly so €“ Gundam actively shoots itself in the foot so many times that you'll be surprised it's got anything resembling a foot left. Between the hideously choppy framerate, the dull, generic environments and awkward, repetitive combat, there's just nothing to recommend about it, which is sad considering you're piloting a goddamned death machine.
Contributor
Contributor

Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.