4. Daikatana
John Romero was the creative force who gracefully sat on a toilet and continued to forcefully push with all his might, veins protruding in his head, teeth grinding while imprinting the seat with his hand prints like it was the Hollywood walk of fame, and dropped this brown pile of gaming turd onto our doorsteps. Gamers were Harlem shaking with anticipation as the creator of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein prepared his latest gore fest for the world and the media coverage that built the hype around Daikatana turned Romero into one of gamings first rockstars. The hype was justified, but only in the pre-production phase as Romero had a stellar back catalogue of titles on his CV already, and he had planned to deliver his ultimate knockout blow to the gaming world with his latest vision. Daikatana, set in 2455 was planned as 24 levels across 4 different time periods with 25 weapons and 64 different monsters to mash which had gore enthusiasts chomping/champing (get over it) at the bit to get their hands on the final version and probably volunteering themselves to lick the toilet seat Romero sat on. The game was hyped from 1997 and constantly delayed until its eventual release in 2000 where it was mauled, beheaded and stuffed for show, probably in similar fashion to Bambis mum. The protagonist was partnered with two sidekicks that were essential to solve puzzles to advance buts they were equipped with some truly terribly AI thus sucking any iota of enjoyment right out of the cartridge or CD, depending on what format you sullied with a purchase. The delays were primarily waiting for the Quake II engine to be finished so it could look up to date with the fancy graphics at the time, but demo versions constantly disappointed players with the main campaign very rarely on show and already paled visually in comparison to Quake III and Unreal Tournament. Outside of the development office controversy built up after a one page advertisement for Daikatana offended many gamers, and (typically) non gamers. Romero eventually apologised for this brash promotion but many inside the development team were becoming frustrated at the delays, Romeros lavish lifestyle and the fact he hired his girlfriend as a level designer. The game suffered its biggest slice of controversy when most of the original development team quit and formed their own company, Gathering of Developers, who are no longer with us, company wise, I am not sure about their personal health. Daikatana eventually saw the light of day, despite its critical misfortunes and a 3 month rushed N64 port, the game sold 200,000 copies, which Romero said covered the cost of development. The Ion Storm Dallas office was closed as a casualty to the hell of Daikatana, a name that will forever bring shivers and shingles to those who think about it for a short period of time. Now to scratch my itchy arms.