Just for fun, let’s run down a few of the games that I was considering for the big list, but that didn’t quite make the cut. There are any number of reasons why a game didn’t make it, chiefly it’s because I had to trim the list down from over 100 to a svelte 50.
| Game Name | Quirk |
| 1080ยบ Snowboarding (N64) | Marketing teamup with Nintendo and Eddie Bauer |
| Blades of Steel (NES) | Hockey game where fighting was more fun than the actual hockey. |
| Double Dragon (Arcade) | Sure, it’s a classic, and most everyone’s heard of at least one game in the series, but I couldn’t think of anything that made the game particularly unique. Aside from the cheesy soundtrack. |
| Double Dribble (NES) | Other than the digitized voice on the title screen (that sounded like it was saying ‘Bubble Bibble’), I couldn’t think of anything particularly interesting about this game. |
| Dragon Warrior (NES) | Packed in with an issue of Nintendo Power magazine |
| Excitebike (NES) | This game, originally released for the Famicom Disk system, still had the option to save the tracks you designed… to the Disk system that never existed on American shores. |
| Fast Draw Showdown (Arcade) | Laserdisc game that pitted you in the old west in a series of fast-draw competitions. Unique idea and just plain fun. |
| Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (GameCube) | RPG Game that requires teamwork and is best played with four people, each with their own Game Boy Advance hooked up to the game. Very cool game if you can get three of your friends to help you play it. |
| F-Zero X (N64) | Similar to Excitebike in that is was compatible with the 64DD (disk system) so that people could design their own tracks and save them to the disks. Since the 64DD never materialized in the US, this feature was essentially worthless. There is a random track generator left as a remnant of the editor. |
| Gauntlet (Arcade) | “Don’t shoot the food!”
That’s all I could come up with. |
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | It was popular… but I couldn’t think of anything particularly unique about it. |
| Gunstar Heroes (Genesis) | Excellent game that managed to pump out some 3D effects on the Genesis hardware. |
| Harley’s Humongous Adventure (Super NES) | The animation in the game was done with claymation. |
| Myst (PC) | Unique game. Kind of like a text adventure with pictures. |
| Ninja Gaiden (NES) | The story between action scenes played out like a low-budget ninja movie. |
| Nintendo Playchoice 10 (Arcade) | Arcade system that let you play several games that were available for Nintendo’s home systems. One quarter at a time. |
| Rampage (Arcade) | “You too can destroy Peoria for $0.25 a day!” Prior to the game’s release, press releases were sent to newspapers all over the nation. Many of them printed headlines like the one quoted above. |
And there you have it. A partial list of the games that weren’t quite good enough to be on the Big List. This almost makes me want to compile a list of games that aren’t good enough to be on any list… but that’s another article.