3. 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

What the hell is this? A 20-minute-long arcade game where you drive a truck down highways. Yep.

Whose fault is it? Sega's world-famous AM2 studio, the brains behind revolutionary titles like Virtua Fighter and Shenmue.

What happened? AM2 is known for creating innovative, high-quality, and often genre-defining titles. When you play an AM2 title, you can usually expect well-developed mechanics, deep gameplay, and state-of-the-art visuals. 18 Wheeler, an arcade outing that received ports on the Dreamcast, Gamecube, and PS2, has none of these.

What's wrong with 18 Wheeler? Besides cargo truck driving a theme that is never, ever done right in games (when you're in the same territory as Big Rigs and Big Mutha Truckers, you know you've got problems.) 18 Wheeler is about as shallow a game as they come. Pick a truck, dodge obstacles through four stages (and maybe some quick bonus levels), and you're done. Skill is completely optional. It's an experience that's over in the amount of time that it'd take to write a blog post about how much the Sopranos finale sucked. One could say that its simplicity is due to its nature as an arcade game, but that excuse doesn't hold up - Even AM2's light-gun games like Ghost Squad and Virtua Cop 3 have some depth and skill in their mechanics for players who want to aim for high scores.

As shallow as the arcade original was, 18 Wheeler was far worse in its console incarnations. A versus mode and a few additional ranking challenge options were the only additions to the home versions. The arcade game at least gave you the novelty of simulated truck controls, which offset the short, braindead gameplay a little bit. It's a rip-off in the bargain bins at twenty bucks, let alone its original fifty-dollar asking price.

Aftermath: Amazingly enough, there's actually a sequel to this called The King of Route 66. With arcades dying across the country, however, it wound up getting far less distribution than its predecessor. Unfortunately, it hit the PS2 as well.