The 25 Most Unnecessary Games of All Time

Burger King is hardly the first company guilty of using video games to sell their wares. Everybody from 7up to McDonald's to Dominos Pizza are guilty of using popular video game developers to help get the word out, and let's not even get into how many video games are based on movies and TV shows. But if I was going to indict every unnecessary licensed product then there would be no room for anything else, so we're going to make a bold move and suggest that of all the games based on licensed food products, these Burger King games are definitely the most unnecessary.

Burger King is quick to claim that the high sales of the three Burger King Xbox/Xbox 360 games (which include Sneak King, Big Bumpin' and Pocketbike Racer) are proof positive that gamers like their creepy mascot, The King. I suspect the sales have more to do with the timing and the price. All three of these games were released around the holiday season last year, so it stands to reason that a lot of these games were bought as cheap stocking stuffers. And speaking of cheap, at only $5 these games were inexpensive enough for even people only mildly interested in Burger King to pick them up as novelty items. Heck, some people just wanted the cheap achievement points.

But whatever the case, there's no denying that these three games were extremely popular and helped Burger King score some inexpensive advertising. But no matter who you are, most agree that the Burger King games aren't very good. In fact, I would go as far as to say that they are simply dreadful in every way possible. These games certainly didn't fill in any holes in the Xbox 360 library; we already had better stealth games, better racing games, and better car combat titles. So if these games aren't good and they don't bring anything new to the table, then what are they even doing on the Xbox 360? As far as I can tell the only reason these games exist is to promote the Whopper, and a part of me feels like that is a gigantic waste of our time. I'm not saying that all advertising is bad and evil, but it's going to take a lot to convince me that these Burger King games are anything other than unnecessary.

Pokemon Battle Revolution may be the newest title on our list of the most unnecessary games of all time, but that doesn't mean it's any less unnecessary. Let's face it; thanks to the overwhelming success of the Wii and Pokemon, this online-enabled "fighting" game will no doubt sell millions of copies on name recognition alone. But don't do it, don't be one of those suckers who runs out to the store and buys this game at $50, all you're doing is setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment.

If you've played any of the Pokemon Stadium games (which have been featured on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube), then there's no reason for you to spend your time playing this game. What this game does is allows you to watch your Pokemon characters fight on your television. That's it. That's all you do. Sure the characters look better on your gigantic television, but the games play out in the exact same way as they did on your handheld. Is it really worth the money to see the same fights brought to life using polygons?

But Pokemon Battle Revolution does come with one giant selling point: It's the first game on your Wii that supports wireless online multiplayer games. After years of wishing and waiting, Nintendo has FINALLY released a game that has online support, so now all of the Nintendo fanboys can stop whining about being left out of the online party. But wait ... people that own the two most recent Nintendo DS Pokemon games (which you need to play Battle Revolution) already have the option to go online and pit their favorite Pokemon character's against the world. You certainly don't need to spend $50 to play against the world, just like you don't need to spend $50 to see what it's like when Pokemon characters fight. This Wii game doesn't add anything new to the Nintendo DS Pokemon game; it's just another way for Nintendo to sucker you into a game purchase. Be a smart gamer, just say no to Pokemon Battle Revolution because it's easily one of the most unnecessary games of all time!

While it's certainly not my favorite installment in the exciting (and weird) Metal Gear Solid series, Metal Gear Solid 2: Subsistence (or Sons of Liberty as it was originally known) is still a solid game full of interesting ideas, a mostly entertaining plotline, and some at least one or two really cool boss battles. So what's it doing on this list of the most unnecessary games of all time? Well it's not Metal Gear Solid 2 that is unnecessary, per se, it's more about the version and the system it's on. Metal Gear Solid 2 is still a game worth going back and playing, but maybe not if you only own the original Xbox!

To date Metal Gear Solid 2 is the only version of Kojima's popular franchise to grace a Microsoft console. For those keeping track, Subsistence was the second version of Metal Gear Solid 2, a repackaged (and renamed) game with more content and a few minor adjustments to the hugely popular 2001 title. But since this is the only Metal Gear Solid game to hit the Xbox it leads you to wonder why anybody would actually want to play it. It's not that the game makes a lot of sense if you've played the other Metal Gear games, but there is a certain context that is missing by only releasing the middle installment. Where's the first Metal Gear Solid? And what about Metal Gear Solid 3, the Xbox players don't deserve to see what happens next (or, as is the case with this game, what happened in the past) for Snake?

If you're going to start releasing a story-driven franchise on a completely different console it's important that you make sure those people who are playing your game for the first time are brought up to speed with said story. Can you imagine the confusion a Microsoft fanboy might have when he turns on and plays through Metal Gear Solid 2 only to discover that it's the only installment he will ever see? Couldn't they offer some sort of extra video that explains the first game, much like what Shenmue II did when Sega took it from the Dreamcast to the Xbox? Would it have killed Konami to give Xbox owners a version of Metal Gear Solid 3? Even if it's a couple years late that still would help keep Subsistence from being a completely unnecessary Xbox game.

I hate Deal or No Deal. I mean, I absolutely hate the show and am constantly bewildered by how popular it is. I'm a huge fan of game shows, too, so it's not like I don't appreciate the idea of people going on TV to try and earn a little extra spending money. But Deal or No Deal is completely useless, there's absolutely no skill needed to play the game and it takes Howie Mandel entirely too long to resolve the whole issue. If I wanted to watch 40 minutes of dramatic acting and people not telling us what we really want to know, then I would go back and watch some reruns of Lost!

But I digress; the reason that Deal or No Deal is on this list has nothing to do with my complete hatred for the show. Deal or No Deal is so unnecessary because you're spending money on something that free on NBC's website. If you really wanted to test your guessing skills with an interactive version of Deal or No Deal then why not just head over to the Deal or No Deal page and start clicking away at the two dozen briefcases? There's no reason for you to spend $30 of $40 on a game that does exactly the same thing, no amount of shiny graphics is going to mask the fact that all you're doing is guessing at briefcase holds the small money and then being disappointed when the banker only offers you $25,000.

Hell, you don't even need a computer to experience that kind of excitement. You can literally make your own Deal or No Deal game out of paper. You can do this with little pieces of paper on your computer desk, there's no need for Howie, the banker or those (mostly) beautiful models. You don't even need briefcases. To all of the people out there that actually bought this game, let me see if I understand your decision: You actually went to the store and bought a game that not only requires no skill, but also won't give you any money at the end of it. Did I get that right? Now really, when I put it that way doesn't it just seem like a truly unnecessary purchase? I thought so!

I'm a huge Final Fight fan! I'm the kind of purist snob that balked at the idea of buying an edited version of the game at the Super Nintendo's launch, and the moment the Sega CD version came out in Japan I imported a copy just to own it. Hell, I even suffered through Saturday Night Slam Masters because it had Haggar in it. As a fan of Capcom's brawler I don't feel that there's anything unnecessary about resurrecting Final Fight, I would be one happy camper if Capcom took us back to Metro City for one more massive brawl.

But as much as I love the series, there's no denying that Final Fight: Streetwise is a wholly unnecessary product. Perhaps part of me is swayed by my disappointment over the final product, Streetwise never once feels like the classic arcade brawler I remember from my childhood. Oh sure, some of the characters are here, but somehow Capcom managed to lose all of the fun and excitement of the first game in this ugly 3D "upgrade".

The reason this game is on the list is not because of its terrible graphics, sluggish play control and repetitive gameplay. Instead I feel Final Fight: Streetwise is unnecessary because only a few months earlier Capcom had released Beat Down: Fist of Vengeance, which is essentially the exact same game with a different name. These two games play the same, they look the same, and you're even going through similar locations. In fact, Beat Down is so similar that when I first played it I started to wonder if this was just a renamed version of Final Fight. But it's not, and in less than six months Capcom decided to release two games that are, for all intents and purpose, exactly the same. You know something's wrong with your game when even a huge Final Fight-lover like myself deems your game unnecessary.