5) Spore
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When you’re Will Wright and you’re the creator of The Sims, people will be understandably excited for what’s coming next. In 2007, that was Spore – and it was The Next Big Thing. Tracing the evolution of life from a single cell into full-on space colonization, it was a life simulator of the highest order.
But unlike The Sims, where player agency was key, Spore turned out to be nothing more than 5 mini-games glued together. You moved from one stage to the next (cell, creature stage, tribal, civilization, space) simply going through the motions. All the complex interconnected gameplay systems that that were teased in promotional videos turned out to be utterly meaningless. Spore was neither here nor there.