There are all form of reasons why game got check , from a lack of resources on the evolution side to corporate government on the publisher side . Nobody need to play a uncollectible or unfinished game , but we still ca n’t help but sense a tinge of disappointment when a game we are look forward to gets bear on beyond its original release engagement even if we roll in the hay it is typically for the dear . That said , when game delays get down stretch out into years by when they were originally supposed to come up out , there is often more going on behind the panorama than just a need for extra polish– and it ’s usually not secure news .

As the title of this leaning indicate , however , things are n’t going to be all doom and gloom here . We ’ve jab up an adequate number of instance of games that got hang up in development for a protracted period of time and ended up being deserving the postponement as well as games that were monolithic dashing hopes . It should also be noted that not all of   our " not worth the wait " entries are necessarilybadgames , just that they did n’t cease up living up to the anticipation that their years of plug sic us up for .

Not Worth The Wait: Spore

Will Wright ’s billet in the pantheon of legendary video game designers is firmly cemented ,   as he is the brains behindSimCityandThe Sims . In fact , it ’s only someone with Wright ’s stature that could have his as - of - yet last telecasting secret plan release be something as monumentally disappointment asSporeand still not have anyone question his legacy .

Sporeis nothing if not challenging , and it ’s certainly fun to spate around with … for a picayune while . But it rapidly becomes unmistakable that it never quite reach what it set up out to achieve from a technical or artistic stand , and what was leave behind to make up for that fact is gameplay that is extremely simplistic and insistent .

Worth The Wait: Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

Sometimes , a game   is in development for so long that the original platform   it was in development for is retired before the game is finish . Such was the case withEternal Darkness , which began aliveness as a Nintendo 64 game before developer Silicon Knights realized it would n’t be done soon enough and they or else resolve it should be a launching game for the GameCube … though that also turn out too challenging of a deadline .

WhenEDfinally hit stores in June 2002 , it was n’t a vast seller but received in high spirits eclat from critics and gamers alike , remaining one of the most - requested games from that era for the HD remaster discourse .

Not Worth The Wait: Daikatana

What is it about   FPSs from industriousness legends that seem to have   a tendency to go so seriously ? After being one of the fundamental creative forces behind such iconic   form of address asWolfenstein three-D , Doom , andQuake ,   John Romero leave behind i d Software in the mid-’90s to work his own company ( Ion Storm ) and knead on something with which he eventually had full creative restraint .

First announced in 1997 , John Romero’sDaikatanafell dupe to a legendarily troubled development cycle and abysmal review military post - launching . The game remains a cautionary tale for consider your own hype , letting self get the best of you , and fail to admit the other people who help get you to where you are .

Worth The Wait: Alan Wake

Even though Finnish telecasting game developer Remedy Entertainment has been around for 23 twelvemonth , they ’ve only managed to unblock seven unique video secret plan titles in that clock time . Much of that has to do with how long the company took to make its   two most well - known releases : Max PayneandAlan Wake , with those game alone taking a combined 12 year to make .

Alan Wakewas first announced in 2005 for " next generation console , " and would n’t find its mode to Xbox 360 until 2010 ( with a personal computer version following a whole two days after ) . But it was free to spout reviews and legion awards , includingTimemagazine calling it the best game of the class .

Not Worth The Wait: Perfect Dark Zero

Those who were around for the rip between Nintendo and its longtime developer collaborator Rare   remember what a Brobdingnagian shock it was . Even more surprising was that it was Microsoft who snatched up the UK - free-base developer , enlisting the team to hopefully do for the Xbox what they had done for the SNES and N64 .

Having long - awaited sequelPerfect Dark Zeroas an Xbox 360 launch game was extremely exciting ,   and expectations were sky high after year of delay that press the biz from one console to the next . Sadly , PDZended up being one of the vainglorious disappointments of the 360 ’s launching batting order , and the franchise has never recovered .

Worth The Wait: Fallout 3

Bethesda is take a lot of flack these days , as is theFalloutseries , and rightfully so . But people would n’t be so hard on the company or disappointed in the current state ofFalloutif both had n’t place such a high streak with the release ofFallout 3 .

Van Buren , the code - name hand to what was originally intended to be the thirdFalloutgame , was exclude down in 2003 after about five years of development . presently after , Bethesda acquired the rights to the series and started theirFallout 3from chicken feed shortly after . While some old - schoolFallout / Wastelandfans feltFallout 3strayed perhaps too far from its lineage , the game   is otherwise considered a modern classic .

Not Worth The Wait: Too Human

With a game likeEternal Darknessunder its belt , not to name the classic RPGBlood Omenand the well - meet GameCube remaking ofMetal Gear Solid , Silicon Knights should be a caller that is commend fondly by gamers . But it was n’t just the inclination of founder Denis Dyack to   go to war with anyone who criticise his games that wound   the once - dear company ’s reputation — it was major letdown likeX - Men : DestinyandToo Human .

bulge out development as a PS1 biz , Too Humanfinally tally the Xbox 360 in 2008 and still felt clumsy and bare . Dyack vehemently defended his game in interviews and on substance board , but that ultimately just made things worse .

Worth The Wait: Resident Evil 4

It has been aver that as many as four versions ofResident Evil 4were thrown out before work jump on the one that actually got released . After six years of false first , RE4finally hit the GameCube in 2004 and was almost nem con hailed a chef-d’oeuvre .

Considered one of the expectant and most influential video game ever made , RE4completely change third - mortal activity game in particular , setting the mechanical and tonic guide for next classic likeGears of War , Batman : ArkhamAsylum , andThe Last of Us . RE4has since been ported to just about every platform that has been relinquish in the last 15 years , and   it never stops feeling fresh   or exciting .

Not Worth The Wait: Galleon

Remember how we alluded toTomb Raider ’s creator leave the franchise behind to make an inferior aper plot ? Well here is that biz , the pirate adventure gameGalleonbyTomb Raiderand Lara Croft designer Toby Gard .

After grow justifiably dun   with the grow originative hindrance by publisher Eidos — particularly in the way they were amping up Lara ’s strong-arm assets   to market the serial publication — Gard leave office developer Core Design and left Lara behind so as to create a plot he ’d have full originative ascendance over . After age of delay , Galleonfor Xbox proved an instantly - block dud , and Gard would finally recall toTomb Raiderto help head the acclaimed 2006 reboot .

Worth The Wait: Owlboy

Inspired bySuper Mario Bros. 3 — specifically , the mechanics of the Tanooki wooing — Owlboyfeels like a love missive to mid-’90s 2D platformers that will delight both gamers who develop up during that epoch and those that are just looking for an like an expert - crafted Metroidvania - style escapade .

Collage of Willow and Clash of the Titans

Luffy looking shocked in one piece with pointy teeth with the silhouettes of the five elders and imu in the background

Cropped image of the Summer Skate cover

Leon S. Kennedy holding a handgun while zombies stalk him in Resident Evil 4.

Spore video game

Alex Roivas from Eternal Darkness

Daikatana

Alan Wake shines a flashlight into the darkness

Perfect Dark Zero for Xbox 360

The Lone Wanderer Fallout 3

A photo of Baldur holding his sword in the video game Too Human

Leon and Ashley in Resident Evil 4

Galleon video game Xbox

Owlboy gameplay