Video games are a funny medium. When things start to look less than ideal for game companies, they’re quick to redesign and reboot characters. However, generally these reboots err too far on the side of “edgy” or just plain lame. Gaming has come a long way, but sometime awful reboots like this pop up. For the sake of recording and shaming those who have made the most egregious offenses in that category, here’s our list of the worst reboots in video games.
Ten Worst Reboots in Video Games
Bomber Man Act Zero
Photo Credit: True Achievements
From cute little guy with cartoon bombs to edgy android, this was a terrible redesign. Bomber Man Act Zero is the first of many “edgy” games on this list. The most common theme here is game devs simply trying to hard to be taken seriously.
Sonic Boom
Photo Credit: Sonic News Network
Sonic has hardly been the best when translated to 3D. In fact, with a few very notable exceptions, 3D Sonic is more of a joke than a franchise. Sonic Boom takes this to new heights by reimagining the whole Sonic crew in a more tribal setting. It just looks weird, and the whole series looks like some kind of fan creation. That’s not good for one of gaming’s biggest icons.
Prince of Persia Warrior Within
Photo Credit: SegmentNext
Prince of Persia has been a huge name in gaming for years. The reboot, Sands of Time, was an awesome return to form for the legacy franchise. Its sequel, Warrior Within, however, tried far too hard to make the Prince dark and brooding. Another case of edginess ruining an otherwise good character, this is one better left forgotten to the sands of time!
Doom 3
Photo Credit: Nuuvem
Entirely missing the point of Doom, the third entry in the series played its horror tropes straight. One of the main errors it made was in demon design. Where earlier demons were over-the-top and almost goofy, Doom 3 introduced redesigns that made us cringe. The pinky demon, for instance, went from being a minotaur to some kind of mole rat with robot legs. Don’t even get us started on the ugly meatball demon design.
Alone in the Dark
Photo Credit: VideoGamer
The 2008 version of Alone in the Dark was not a particularly good game. It was buggy, ugly and not terribly well-made. The worst sin the game committed, though, was the treatment of its main character, Edward Carnby. The once stoic and serious investigator became a weirdly erratic and awkward jerk. He was uncharismatic and really just drug the whole game down.
Crash of the Titans
Photo Credit: Crash Mania
This ill-conceived reboot brought redesigns for nearly every character in the series. Crash himself looked like a bad DeviantArt original character, for one. Most egregious was Tiny Tiger, who had somehow morphed into a weird parody of Mike Tyson. Unoriginal, unfunny jokes were commonplace, and the gameplay was entirely uninspired and boring.
Bionic Commando 2009
Photo Credit: Geek.com
This unfortunate game exists, and that makes us sad. In this game, 80’s action hero extraordinaire Rad Spencer is renamed Nathan Spencer and made edgy and emo. Oh, and his wife is his bionic arm. Or something. This game is legitimately awful, do yourself a favor and never play it.
Conker: Live and Reloaded
Photo Credit: GameStop
Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a hilarious riff on the previously family-friendly platforming franchise. Conker: Live and Reloaded was an underdeveloped, overhyped mess that somehow managed to look worse than the N64 game it was based on. Rare really went downhill after being acquired by Microsoft.
Perfect Dark Zero
Photo Credit: Perfect Dark Recon
No, seriously, Rare really dropped the ball on their legacy franchises when they got acquired by Microsoft. Perfect Dark Zero is a great example of this. Supposedly a prequel to the original Perfect Dark, this one features a younger Joanna Dark. However, she appears less like her usual bad-ass self and more like a Hot Topic wannabe. Another case of edginess derailing an otherwise great franchise.
DmC: Devil May Cry
Photo Credit: PC & Tech Authority
The very worst reboot in the history of video games belongs to the boy band-looking “Dante” from the ill-conceived DmC: Devil May Cry. The Devil May Cry series was experiencing strong sales, great reviews and had a thriving fanbase. In order to piss off everyone, though, Capcom tore it down and rebooted the series under Western developer Ninja Theory. For whatever reason, the beloved goofy badass Dante was replaced by a high school student who was trying far too hard to be gritty.
Forgetting all of what made Dante such an effortlessly likable character, this game saw him morph into a petulant brat. Needless to say, fans were displeased and are still awaiting a proper Devil May Cry 5. Thankfully, that very game is in development and slated for a March 2019 release. Hooray!
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