Summary

• Demo Discs were iconic and missed, but we understand why they're gone.
• Live-action actors in cutscenes dove deep into the uncanny valley.
• Full-Body Motion Controls like the ones used by the Kinect were gimmicky and unwelcome.

The video game industry as a whole has always been plagued by fads and trends. Some piece of technology that's brand-new will be hailed as 'the future of gaming,' only for it to basicallꦡy disappear overnight. Some of these trends can prove fun, b꧙ut ultimately, they get lost to the sands of time after a year or so, or sometimes, even after only a few months.

But, which of these short-lived trends is truly the worst? We've broken down so𒐪me of the worst, quickest fads ꧅the gaming world has ever experienced. So join me for a retrospective of some of gaming's weirdest mistakes.

8 ♌ 𝐆 Demo Discs

I Actually Miss These

As our headline suggests, Demo Discs are one of those oddball gaming trends that burned fast and furious. A lot of games,🌳 particularly in long-running franchises, would often come with a 20-minute demo for another game inside the package. I honestly really miss these, but understand why they might've been costly to produce.

Demo Discs were actually how I got introduced to iconic games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I remember playing the 20-minute demo for that game over and over again late into the night. Now, the evolution of this trend really is open betas, which just don't⛄ have the same magic.

7 ℱ Live-Action Actors ✃

Uncanny Valley

We all love a good cutscene, but this particular trend almost ruined them for me. A lot of point-and-click adventure games,💟 or sometimes mystery games, would use live-action actors inserted into a video game space for their cutscenes. While these certainly have their charms, theyꦗ oftentimes veer into uncanny valley territory.

Plus, a lot of the games that used this technology are just a lot older, so the visual quality just wasn't ever ꦫas good, nor was the audio. Ultimately, this is a trend I'm glad is long gone.

6 💎 Full-Body Motion Controls

RIP Kinect

Motion controls, as a whole, have always felt gimmicky, and for the most part, are largely out of the gaming zeitgei🙈st. However, there's one particular element of motion controls that is truly dead in the water, and that's full-body motion.

This was most famously popularized on the Kinect, which allowed you to use your entire body as a controller. Wii Fit also comes to mind as a game that tried to get yoඣu to use your entire body in tandem with the Wii Fit board to serve as one unified con൲troller. Don't gaming companies know that gamers just want to sit down and be comfortable?

5 Dark Graphic Trends 𒁃

Everything's Got Like, A Glare

This trend, in some ways, still really plagues the industry, but there was a ti♑me in the mid-2000s when almost every single game was either incredibly dark and hard to see or had a sepia filter over the entire thing. Now, games are allowed𝓀 to be much more colorful.

This trend, in some ways, is similar to the way the 2010s were dominated by grayscale movies. Ultimately, this is another trend that I'm 💛really glad is gone, as I much prefer a bright cartoonish vibe to an overly dark one.

4 To♏uchscreen Functionality෴

Remember The Wii U? Me Neither

Obviously, nowadays, we still have touch screen phones and tablets, but there was a time wh🥀en a lot of different consoles were trying to implement touchscreen mechanics into their consoles. Sure, it could work on some mobile consoles, but wheꩲn it came to something like the Wii U, it couldn't be more useless.

True, the Switch still has touchscreen functionality, butꦡ it's not really used all that much. Person⛄ally, when I'm gaming, particularly at home, I only really need one screen, thank you very much.

3 𓆏 Movie Tie-Ins 🥀

I Do Miss CD-ROMS Though

Kids of the '90s in particular will remember this one. For a long time, every single game had a direct game tie-in. It's true, we still have movie and video game crossovers, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dune: Awakening comes to mind. But these games tend to be 𒉰more 'in the world' of the movie, rather than a direct copycat.

I'm old enough to remember when every Shrek movie got its own v🍃ideo game spin-off, in which you just play through the events of the movie. A ton of Pixar mov༺ies also had tie-ins, and frankly, we really don't have much need for these types of games anymore.

2 Mobile Home Conso🥃le Connections

What Are All These Cables For?

This next item on the list is a very specific call-out. Duringꦇ the height of mobile gaming𒅌 consoles, there was a lot of emphasis placed on connecting consoles like your Game Boy to your GameCube for additional gaming possibilities. Personally, though, I have a bone to pick with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures.

This game required so many different connective cables and consoles to play properly that it just wasn't worth it. There's a lot of merit to the game if you c💯ould get it to work, but frankly, I don't ever want to hear the phrase 'Game Boy Advance Link Cable' ever again, or I riot.

1 𒉰 Game-Specific Controllers 𝓀

Looking At You Again, The Legend Of Zelda

This last one is another controller-based gripe. There are a few games that come to mind when it comes to controllers that were designed specifically for games. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Mario Kart wheel is one, but the ⛎one that sticks out the most in my mind is the ꩵLink's Crossbow Training controller, lovingly named the Wii Zapper.

I'm sorry, but I just don't want to buy more controllers for one game ever again. The idea is cute, but in practice, it really doesn't matter, and it always feels like a total waste of money. I'm personally so glad that we're back to the trend of gaming controllers that are optimized for pro play, as opposed to feeling ꦕgimmicky.