Bad Idea on Paper, but a Great Success

[Svrhero]

Which games if you were to sum them up in a few words seem like an awful game, but due to excellent execution and development turned out to be great games?

My example is Cooking Mama, a game where you prepare food.

or

The Sims, a game where you play as somebody else without much happening but in a sped up way.

 

[mik1]

Animal Crossing but thats a bit similar to sims so ill think of another

Pikmin
Brain Age

Only ones i can think of right now

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Who the hell thought combining a social sim where you are forced to attend school would go great with dungeon crawling, demon summoning action? I was proven wrong. Persona 3 and 4 are fantastic.

 

[Daymo]

Plants Vs Zombies, I heard popcap was making it and I thought it would be pretty bad, like very little to do and kind of bland. Instead, it was full of charm and very funny, it sounds like a really dumb idea but is one of my favorite games.

 

[Sacman]

Who the hell thought combining a social sim where you are forced to attend school would go great with dungeon crawling, demon summoning action? I was proven wrong. Persona 3 and 4 are fantastic.

Exactly... I went in expecting a poorly paced bore... but they we're fantastic games...<.<

 

[Svrhero]

Angry Birds

Flick various angry birds at wood, glass, stone to kill pigs... right.

 

[Ranylyn]

For me, the "Bad idea on paper but Great Success" is definitely Rune Factory.

Combine Harvest Moon style farming and social interactions with more RPG elements and dungeon crawling, with a plot driven by dungeon progress? I went in thinking "Heh, this is going to be silly." Three days later I realized that I hadn't slept at all since I turned my DS on.


It's always these kinds of games I enjoy the most. When I go in with an open mind and not expecting to be drawn in, these are the game series I get addicted to. Such at the Original Ogre Battle (My RPG experience before that was basically limited to Final Fantasy) or .hack//G.U. (I wasn't sure how a fictional MMORPG played entirely offline would hold up. Holy hell.)

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

Harvest Moon (shut up, it was a great success and is also awesome)
I mean come on, what must have that pitch been like ?
"Okay, so here it is, better sit down, this one is going to be great:
You inherit a farm.
And then you work on said farm!"
".... get the f*ck out of my office."

Perhaps you meant "Huge Success", because on paper, Portal sounds like an awful idea. A puzzle FPS? That sounds like an easy way to make a flop, but it's awesome.

Well of course.
I would even go so far as to say it was a triumph.

 

[Cogwheel]

Hm. Well, I'd say Bioshock.

System Shock 2 underwater with genetic engineering and Ayn Rand. Sure, that'll work.


In other news, Captcha's getting Lovecraftian. "Squamous", apparently. And that's after I refreshed a bunch of times so it'd stop expecting me to type runes or whatever those are.

 

[Fitzcaraldo]

Perhaps you meant "Huge Success", because on paper, Portal sounds like an awful idea. A puzzle FPS? That sounds like an easy way to make a flop, but it's awesome.

Well of course.
I would even go so far as to say it was a triumph.

Indeed. It is hard to overstate my satisfaction with that game.

Anyway, on topic, Minecraft: you dig for hours on end to find small amounts of things that are actually useful, oh, and half the time your supposed to huddle, terrified, inside your dank cave.

 

[Svrhero]

Harvest Moon (shut up, it was a great success and is also awesome)
I mean come on, what must have that pitch been like ?
"Okay, so here it is, better sit down, this one is going to be great:
You inherit a farm.
And then you work on said farm!"
".... get the f*ck out of my office."

Perhaps you meant "Huge Success", because on paper, Portal sounds like an awful idea. A puzzle FPS? That sounds like an easy way to make a flop, but it's awesome.

Well of course.
I would even go so far as to say it was a triumph.

I lol'd pretty hard.

Also, every Katamari game.

 

[Neverhoodian]

"A first person shooter with conspiracy overtones where the protagonist is a mute, geeky scientist with glasses."

Who would'a thunk it?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney...

Guy A: "So you're a super powered defense attorney?"

Guy B: "No a regular defense attorney and you use evidence and many Objection!s to find the real killer and get your client found not guilty"

Guy A: "That sounds so bad dude"

And so a legend was born...

 

[iamthelizardqueen88]

"Ive got it lets combine Final Fantasy and Disney in a game where you play as a 14 year old boy who uses a giant key as a weapon"

6 games later and Kingdom Hearts has barely lost any steam

 

[gardyna]

hmmm Minecraft (even though I play it i till can´t believe how much fun it is)

Kingdom hearts (the peanut butter (final fantasy) and jelly (disney) of videogames)

Mirrors edge (platforming FPS you must be mad (the game is not great but i had a lot of fun with it))

super Mario (this is basicaly an acid trip)

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

Katamari. The concept doesnt seem that much fun, but it is.

 

[Tornd]

"Let's make a game where you're a fairy boy with a wooden sword that has to go fight a pig demon to obtain triangles."

 

[Svrhero]

I was going to write that the pitch for Guitar Hero would've been odd, but I think that would have sounded pretty awesome right from the beginning.