When it comes to anime franchises, many video game adaptations fall short of what fans want. There may even be more flops than hits, which is surprising since the built-in fanbase should make these games a slam dunk. Unfortunately, they are more often than not incredibly lazy, banking solely on the name.
Some are bigger disappointments than others, be it because the franchise should have been simple to adapt or that the concept was solid enough that developers would have to go out of their way to make it bad. These are some of the worst flops you can find, as well as some of the worst games.
10 One Piece Pirate's Carnival
A Mario Party style game with a One Piece skin should have sold like hotcakes, giving younger fans of the franchise something fun to play. The problem is that many have tried to recreate the enjoyment of the Party series of games and failed, One Piece Pirate's Carnival being another among them.
Most of the minigames aren't very fun, and there isn't a whole lot of them, to begin with. You can't have a game like this and lack in variety, but that's exactly what happened.
9 Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler
There are times that games don't translate well to handhelds due to the lack of buttons. Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler shouldn't be one of those considering it's based around a card game. Of any genre, that should be the easiest to create due to the rather static gameplay.
Not so here as games can drag on for what feels like an eternity, without any way to save your progress. Add in the fact that there is very little strategy to the battles, and you have a dud of a game.
8 Yu Yu Hakusho Spirit Detective
This is especially egregious because this was Yu Yu Hakusho's first foray into North American gaming as most of their games released in Japan only. While it was never the heights of Dragon Ball Z in popularity, it was well known in the states, and Spirit Detective should have been a launchpad stateside.
Instead, we got an awful game that doesn't have a single thing going for it beyond using a unique set of objectives on each map. That's all well and good, but with combat as grating as this game has, no one is going to bother to finish those objectives.
7 Eureka Seven Vol 2: The New Vision
As you can tell from the title, this is the second entry into Eureka Seven's foray into gaming, and you'd think that would let them iron out the chinks that were in the first game. You'd be dead wrong as they didn't change or fix anything, releasing another game that had overly long and dull story sequences that drowned out any moments where you could play the actual game.
It was like Metal Gear Solid, but lacking in any of the fun tied to those games. It's just so strange they could mess up every game tied to a pretty beloved franchise.
6 Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
Zatch Bell may not be the most popular anime ever, but it did have a good solid following and was consistently on television. As with many games on this list, this was the first of the series to hit the shelves in North America and should have been better than it was.
It had a wide array of characters in it, something that's a must in a fighting game. The problem is the actual gameplay was awful, so broken and rudimentary that it tanked the whole franchise.
5 Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
Gundam has its fair share of follies, but many end up having a cult following, and even the Gundam Dynasty Warriors games are fun for what they are. Crossfire is none of those things as it was a disappointment to even ardent fans of the series.
If you want one reason why look at that graphic and then realize the game was on the Playstation 3 rather than the 2. If that wasn't enough, the whole game feels like it wasn't even finished, a beta test they sold as a finished game.
4 J-Star Victory Vs
A game that has some of the biggest names in shonen, what could go wrong? As the more recent Jump Force found out, a whole hell of a lot. Jump Force at least has entertainment value, despite being overhyped. J-star Victory, on the other hand, has none of that.
Instead, it's as bland of a fighter as you can get, ruining what should have been a slam dunk. It's still amazing that they messed up a game that let you battle as all your shonen heroes and villains.
3 Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles
Thank god the Ninja Storm games exist because Naruto has had more than a few clunkers in its arsenal. As with Dragonball related games, anything with Naruto's name tied to it should both be easy money and a simple game to create.
Dragonblade Chronicles showed that wasn't true at all, offering some of the dullest combat you can imagine. Worse than that, it was released on the Wii while not properly taking advantage of the motion controls inherent in that system. It was a mess that should have been far better.
2 Dragonball Z: Ultimate Battle 22
It's one of the pioneers of the Dragon Ball franchise as far as North America goes, right there with Budokai as far as a release date goes. You'd think with arguably the most popular anime franchise in the world, they'd put out a better product.
Instead, this is what was given to us, one of the laziest games ever created and one of the worst offenders in just banking on the name. Thank god the franchise had the popularity that it did, letting it gain it's footing with the later Budokai games.
1 Beyblade Vforce: Super Tournament Battle
Beyblade has a cult following to it, even if it never hit the heights of popularity that say a Yu Gi Oh did. There's even some that like this game despite its many flaws. It could have been so much more though, helping carve out a niche for a game type that had no competition at all.
Sadly, it was horribly executed as there was no story to speak of, shoddy controls, and an audio issue you'd expect from a little kid making home videos.