10 Ways Trailers Let You Know A Video Game Is Secretly Awful

2. Trying Too Hard To Be "Funny"

Notable Offenders: Mighty No. 9, Crackdown, Deadpool

Personality goes a long way in life, and where video games are concerned, charming marketing can certainly help paper over a game's actual deficiencies.

But it's sensible to be distrustful of any trailer that just feels like it's trying a little too hard to be uproariously funny and chummy with the player, because there's a good chance the marketing team knows they're desperately struggling to fill the game's soulless void of quality content.

Take Mighty No. 9, which infamously joked about making the game's bosses "cry like an anime fan on prom night," a line which not only upset the anime-loving quarters of the fanbase, but also underlined how flagrantly tone-deaf and ill-judged the project was as a whole.

And then we have Crackdown, which tried to coast way too hard on the (admittedly considerable) charms of Terry Crews in its trailers, in a clear attempt to compensate for how completely soulless the actual gameplay was.

A sprinkling of humour to cement a game's tone is fine, but making a trailer more of a cringe-worthy stand-up routine than an actual gameplay showcase? No dice.