Gaming's would-be innovators

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15 ambitious failures that tried to change the world

We recently took issue with the claim that “gaming has not yet had its Citizen Kane”.As you can see, we managed to find 25 games that qualified for that title – and you had plenty more suggestions besides.

We’d have had no trouble whipping up a counter-list of dismal flops. For every Battlefield Earth or Plan 9 from Outer Space, there’s a Superman 64 or Bubsy 3D. But what about the noble failures? If gaming has its Citizen Kanes, does it also have its Showgirls, its Waterworlds and its Heaven’s Gates?

Above: This Heaven’s Gate. Not, you know, that other one

These are the games that said they were going to change the industry, and ended up falling short. Just as you can call Kane massively influential without thinking it’s the best movie ever (that’s The Goonies, obviously), these aren’t the worst games ever: just titles that contained the seeds of something great, but failed to come through.