Baltimore’s Worst Game Ideas: Episode 1

Baltimore and the surrounding areas are home to a large list of game developers. You get to play many of their great game ideas, but what about the ideas that never make it past the development process because they’re just plain awful? Here at BaltimoreGamer, we dive through the dumpsters of the local game companies and find the terrible game ideas they have thrown away – so you don’t have to!

Roller Coaster Tycoon: Six Flags America Edition

A special edition of the popular Roller Coaster Tycoon game series, based on Maryland’s own Six Flags America theme park. Players rack-up points by building rides that are too short and have uncomfortable seats. Fans of other Roller Coaster Tycoon games might be familiar with the feature that lets you read the thoughts of your guests. Some thoughts you may often find in the Six Flags America Edition include “My butt still hurts from that last ride” and “I’m starting to see why they went bankrupt.” The game is beaten when you can successfully go eight years without building a new roller coaster.

Baltimore Pimp Tax Advisor

Players take on the role of a tax consultant who advises pimps and prostitutes on how to evade their taxes. They must also try to avoid being caught by their superiors or videotaped. Perhaps the most difficult part of the game is that the tax advice they give actually needs to be good. The “Pimped Out Edition” of the game would come with a force feedback accessory that allows players to be physically “pimp-smacked” if they give bad advice. Needless to say, the early testers were less than thrilled and the project was canned.

Baltimore Ravens Football 2007

Relive the 2007 Baltimore Ravens season – a football season so embarrassing that it actually has a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to describing its failure. After losing several players in the off-season, you’ll be subject to injuries, fumbles, and other frustrations. However, if you are a truly skilled player you can get through the season without falling into the 10-game losing streak that the Ravens did in real life. In a market that buys sports games whose names are associated with success, it’s not surprise that this project was never finished.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Johns Hopkins

After seeing an early demo, Tom Clancy refused to sign off on this project. This time, Sam Fisher must sneak into Johns Hopkins University. The demo was nearly impossible to play, because every time the player would enter a building, they would immediately be killed by a student wielding a Samurai sword.

Brawl on the Beltway

We’ve all played tons of fighting games that take place in the empty streets of a city. There seem to be an unlimited number of bad guys to fight, but never any cars going by. One game designer thought it would be cool to have a fighting game on a busy highway Route 695 with lots of cars going past. In Brawl on the Beltway, players would have to fight off thugs while dodging hundreds of oncoming cars. The result was a game even more frustrating than actually driving on 695.