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Well-Intentioned but Misguided Game Gifts

M

Mr. F

Banned
Grandparents, parents, estranged aunts and uncles. Harbingers of the well-intentioned but misinformed game gifts that graced you on birthdays or Christmas or whatever else.

For me, the most memorable was the first Christmas after I had a Gamecube and was dying to get Luigi's Mansion, but ended up receiving Disney's Party, a poorly thought-out Mario Party knock off that was super boring and not fun remotely at all.

Disney%27s_Party_GC.jpg


The weirdest part - Hudson, the team responsible for Mario Party also made this game.

Anyway, what were yours?
 
M

mas8705

Member
I wanted to get Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 for my birthday and my friend thought, "I'll get you a Dragonball game!" He instead gave me Dragon Ball: Sagas.

Needless to say, I wasted no time pointing out the error and showing him that Sagas and Budokai were two different games and got it exchanged. Glad I dodged that bullet when I did.
 
M

Manzoon

Banned
When I was in elementary school, my parents gave me the NES Friday the 13th game on Valentine's Day right before leaving for school in the morning.

Still scratching my head about that one.
 
M

mattwhite924

Member
This thing.

NU72q2f.jpg


It's a bootleg NES with a handful of games built in (repeated thousands of times in the menu to make it seem like more). It has a Famicom cart slot on the back of the controller, which could be cool, but the games never play quite right, and it just makes it awkward to hold. The buttons are mushy and don't work half the time anyway.
 
U

Unspoken90

Member
I was really into extreme sports when I was younger, and I played a lot of Tony Hawk and other extreme sports games. So One Christmas my sister got me Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer for the GBA. Was never really into surfing, but the game was alright for what it was.
 
F

FN-2187

Member
My wife (then girlfriend) got me this game for my birthday back when it was new because she knew I loved Evil Dead 2:

evil-dead-hail-to-the-king-55113436.jpg


Game was AWFUL! I had already read reviews of it, so I knew it was supposed to be terrible, but it was a sweet idea, so when I opened I had to feign excitement.
 
L

LinkSlayer64

Member
Manzoon said:
When I was in elementary school, my parents gave me the NES Friday the 13th game on Valentine's Day right before leaving for school in the morning.

Still scratching my head about that one.
Click to expand...

lmao


Someone gave me "The sims: Bustin' Out" for Gamecube, obviously, it was a game they wanted, as they were the PC Player. I would've preferred he burned me one of his pirated copies of Deus Ex, that game was tons of fun multiplayer.

Just recently my friend got me one of those tiny clone genesis consoles, I did not know how bad they were either, but it was great for a laugh. Plus, I don't mind playing games with distorted sound, it just constantly makes me chuckles, it's the fucking INFRARED CONTROLLERS that really blow my mind, I move my hands an inch and suddenly no more inputs lol. Good thing it has Phantasy Star 2 and 3 for me to play, so that's cool. (Plus I still have my genesis, so it's okay, and the thing accepts normal genesis controllers)
 
A

AzureSkies

Member
mattwhite924 said:
This thing.

NU72q2f.jpg


It's a bootleg NES with a handful of games built in (repeated thousands of times in the menu to make it seem like more). It has a Famicom cart slot on the back of the controller, which could be cool, but the games never play quite right, and it just makes it awkward to hold. The buttons are mushy and don't work half the time anyway.
Click to expand...

oh shit

I had this as a kid in the early 2000s (my grandmother bought it for me on a TV shopping channel) and played the hell out of a lot of the games included. Made me fall in love with Duck Hunt, Excite Bike, Devil's World, MUSCLE, Urban Champion and a ton of obscure Famicom games.

It was pretty fun. It had a habit of overheating and crashing a lot though.
 
L

LeleSocho

Banned
I asked for Donkey Kong Land 3 and got a bootleg 50 games in 1 that had the cover of Donkey Kong Land 2 but was actually called DKL3
 
C

capylikesgames

Banned
I remember asking my mom for Sonic Unleashed (Wii) as a birthday gift, but she ended up getting me Sonic and the Black Knight instead. Hahaha. I played through the entire game, to make the best of it. Not a title I'd recommend.
 
S

ShadowSoldier89

Member
Getting bad games as gifts was always painful as a kid, but as an adult that has help a mystery game tournament, I'm so glad so many old trash games are multiplayer.

Here's to you Tom and Jerry War of the Whiskers
 
B

BlakeofT

Member
My best friend and I don't understand each other's gaming tastes fully.

Once he got me a Tony Hawk game on the Wii. I thought the series was dead and I might have turned it on twice. Don't even know what it was called.

One year for Christmas, I wanted to get him something for his athletics (he ended up liking this part of the gift so not a total failure I hope) and a video game. He hasn't upgraded to PS4/XBONE yet so I got him South Park Stick of Truth on 360. Pretty sure he never played it haha. Should have gotten a hearth stone gift card if such a thing exists.
 
M

mattwhite924

Member
Cisce said:
oh shit

I had this as a kid in the early 2000s (my grandmother bought it for me on a TV shopping channel) and played the hell out of a lot of the games included. Made me fall in love with Duck Hunt, Excite Bike, Devil's World, MUSCLE, Urban Champion and a ton of obscure Famicom games.

It was pretty fun. It had a habit of overheating and crashing a lot though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's honestly pretty close to being decent. Like frustratingly close. If the buttons were a bit better, and the d-pad worked right, and the games sounded right, then it might have been a really cool machine. I still had lots of fun with it, but I always wished it was just a tad better.
 
C

Chessr

Member
I never gets games from my sister. She wont buy them for reasons. This year i did not wish 1 but other stuff. Did not even get any of that lol.

So til:dr i never gets games so i never get bad ones
 
V

Vinc

Member
Had an N64 with no games for the longest time and only got to rent a game once in a while. When my mom came to me and said she was going to blockbuster and asked if I wanted something, I excitedly told her I'd love to try "the game with the dinosaur with the huge tongue", meaning yoshi's story. She came back with Chameleon Twist. I actually kinda liked the game in the end, but it sure wasn't Yoshi's Story!
 
HellforLeather

HellforLeather

Member
Around the time the N64 came out I was deciding between that and the PS1...when my brother bought me this for Christmas.

PO'ed%20[U]%20[SLUS-00097]-front.jpg


We werent close so it was a pretty big deal and actually solidified my choice for a PS1. The game itself is pretty shit though. Its a Doom clone with goofy weapons and enemies. I remember one enemy was a pair of legs attached to an ass and nothing else. It would shoot, what I assumed was, dookie projectiles.
 
A

AColdDay

Member
I have only received absolutely awesome games for gifts, but my best friend (who is a CoD casual gamer) received a PSP with Metal Gear Acid as a gift from his wife.

She bought him the PSP, and then picked out Metal Gear Acid because it had a high metacritic score. That was so not his type of game and he busted her chops immensely about buying a game just because a score was high.
 
E

ElBoxyBrown

Banned
My uncle didn't know what to get me for Easter so he got me an Easter basket with candy and a copy of Onimusha. I wouldn't call that misguided though. lol

My aunt on the other hand got me Celebrity Deathmatch for Christmas.
 
E

eliochip

Member
Aunt got me Metroid Prime instead of Zelda.

Initially disappointed (on the inside atleast).
It turned out to be one of my favorite games of all time though.
 
I

Iva Demilcol

Member
I was going to say nobody gifts me games... except my little brother who usually check on the internet what game is cool before buying it. I've got Crysis 3, Bioshock 2 and Assasins Creed Black Flag from him. I was not interested in Crysis tbh, but I played it because he gave it to me. Bioshock 2 in the other hand is probably the coolest gift I could've asked for, and I'm not really interested in AC but I didn't say anything and then he told me he didn't know if I was interested in the "new" Killer Instinct... which made my heart shrink because I could've gotten the physical version of KI.

I gift him games from time to time too: the Tomb Raider reboot, Dark Souls, Arkham City, Spider-man games (because for some reason he likes to play Spider-man games).

My dad bought the XB360 Halo Reach Limited Edition and a bunch of Halo and Forza games for me when I was living in another country... but he ended up using the console himself xD . I guess I was the perfect excuse since I don't think my mom would approve if my dad said he wanted to buy a 360.
 
Kikorin

Kikorin

Member
When I was a kid, me and my brother asked for Christmas a PS1 with Tomb Raider 2.

We were so excited on Christmas morning to try it, but when we opened we've seen that our dad bought us the PS1 with Resident Evil 2.

We were happier than ever anyway, but when we tried the game we were to much scared to play it. Luckily we played for weeks with the Demo One (and with RE2 too, but was a nightmare and we only use it when our parents were with us because was too much scarier).
 
L

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
capylikesgames said:
I remember asking my mom for Sonic Unleashed (Wii) as a birthday gift, but she ended up getting me Sonic and the Black Knight instead. Hahaha. I played through the entire game, to make the best of it. Not a title I'd recommend.
Click to expand...

To be fair, that's a lose-lose scenario for your mom.
 
M

Mr. Phellps

Member
It didn't happen to me, but a girl from my class on third grade asked her grandma for a GameBoy Color for her birthday.

She got one of these:

SihkTBb.jpg
 
G

Grettir_the_Swole

Member
I have no bad experiences with misguided gaming gifts because I've almost always fallen in love with them later on.

Growing up with ulcerative colitis, I've been to the hospital a few times in my life. Once when I was in the third grade I was in the hospital for two weeks. Constant cramping, couldn't stop the bleeding, couldn't eat anything and I could barely drink any large amounts of fluids. It was pretty awful for my parents to watch. That was until my father discovered I stopped complaining completely once I started playing video games. My dad brought over my N64 from the house and bought almost every used game our local Blockbuster was selling for the console. (Back then the games were insanely inexpensive) Not only did I get about 30+ games that day, including classics like Glover, Super Mario 64, Chameleon Twist, and SSB 64, the doctors were so amazed at my immediate turnaround in pain tolerance they convinced one of the local Tampa Bay Buccaneers players to buy a few dozen N64s for the entire children's ward at the hospital.

Back then I was just getting into gaming and I owe so much of my early tastes to that moment. And needless to say I'm glad I was vicariously able to help out other sick kids at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa.
 
T

thechristoph

Sir!
My parents had a run of getting me games I rented and didn't really like for that year's Christmas gift.

It started with Top Gun on NES. That is a poor game. In fact I think I remember them saying "Well we knew you had already played it but we didn't know what else to get you." Didn't want to be a spoiled brat so I pretended to love it. Owning games was rare so I wasn't going to be a jerk about it (I was fortunate enough for my parents to rent a game at least twice a month).
 
L

Lunar15

Member
I actually have a story about the opposite situation: When I was 10 I wanted some computer game that I can't even remember the name of. My friend had it and I thought it looked cool (it was probably really crappy). My aunt, who heard I wanted this game, I guess went to the store to buy it but the guy behind the counter recommended StarCraft instead. I remember being polite when she gave it to me, but I was really bummed because I had no idea what starcraft was and it actually looked way too violent compared to what I usually played at the time.

I decided to try it and, you know, it was fucking starcraft. I loved it.
 
L

Lys Skygge

Member
I feel like I was pretty good at letting my parents know what I did/didn't like when it came to video games. So I never received any bad games I didn't want. I certainly asked for plenty of terrible games however lol.
 
W

w0s

Member
My girlfriend bought me Skyrim and then a month later said she would never buy me another game because of how much I played it.
 
T

thesaucetastic

Unconfirmed Member
I think my mom unintentionally got us Link's Awakening when we wanted Ocarina of Time.

But Link's Awakening is my favorite game ever so I'm glad for that.
 
A

AmaterasuOkami076

Member
Mentioned in passing that I was looking forward to Donkey Kong Country: Returns as I loved the original trilogy. My brother got me Donkey Kong: Jet Race for my birthday, thinking it was the new one I was after, which wasn't actually out yet.

Wasn't a great game, but I appreciate the thought. Ended up getting Returns on day 1 anyway and enjoyed it.
Tropical Freeze blows it out of the water though.
 
D

dukie85

Member
My bro knows I like games, but he was so far off base of what games I like... He bought me Amped 3 Snowboarding... needless to say, I returned it immediately.
 
L

LordofPwn

Member
My grandma is very religious and knew I liked video games. She bought me a game with "God" in the title for christmas.

It was God of War.

I was 15.

Well intentioned, misguided, but man was it awesome!
 
A

AmaterasuOkami076

Member
jred250 said:
I have only received absolutely awesome games for gifts, but my best friend (who is a CoD casual gamer) received a PSP with Metal Gear Acid as a gift from his wife.

She bought him the PSP, and then picked out Metal Gear Acid because it had a high metacritic score. That was so not his type of game and he busted her chops immensely about buying a game just because a score was high.
Click to expand...

That seems a tad harsh. It's nice she did some research on looking up critically acclaimed games for the system she just bought.
 
Maxey

Maxey

Member
The one time my parents ever gifted me a game was around 15 years ago and it was some mid 90's budget strategy game I barely touched. I don't even remember what it was called.

So yeah, that's me.
 
woopWOOP

woopWOOP

Member
I liked cartoons. I liked drawing.
So my parents gifted me this for one of my birthdays
ACME_Animation_Factory_Coverart.png

It's basically like Mario Paint, but without the charm.
Turns out drawing with a D-pad gets old real fast
Also the extra mini games suck real bad

Actually forgot I owned the game until this thread refreshed my memory
 
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