8 Video Games That Wasted Genius Ideas

Hey, who remembers Marc Eckō's Getting Up? Yeah, probably not many of you. A 2006 release for the Playstation 2 and Xbox, Getting Up's central concept was that of a young graffiti writer building his reputation by tagging the streets and subways of New Radius, a city under the control of a repressive, Orwellian government. It's clear that developers The Collective had done their homework, as its exploration of graffiti culture was authentic and well researched, and the game's intentions were very good indeed.

Unfortunately, despite tagging in its various forms being central to the game's objectives and plot, the mechanics felt underdeveloped and barebones.

Throwing up a tag was boiled down to simply covering a large enough area with one button held down, and while some attempt was made to elaborate on techniques such as rollers and wheat paste, the player actually spent more time fighting enemies with a finicky and over-designed combat system.

Graffiti ended up playing second fiddle, vital to move on in the game but given less time to breathe than punching guys and some truly broken and unpolished stealth.

Had resources been allocated better to focus more on creating art and less on combat, we'd have had something truly special.