For whatever reason, Spartan Strike has only ever been released on PC, iPhone, and Android. So, is it worth checking out? Well, the controls and missions are a bit better than the first game, and it adds Prometheans from Halo 4, but it’s still a pretty standard twin-stick shooter at its core. But if that sounds interesting to you, this is by far the most readily available game on this list as you can download it right now if you have a PC Game Pass subscription.
2. Tetris 2
There are actually two versions of Tetris 2. One was released for the ZX Spectrum, and the other was made by Nintendo. They’re both pretty obscure, but for our purposes, we’re talking about the game released for the NES, SNES, and Game Boy.
After the massive success of the first game, more versions of Tetris were inevitable and almost guaranteed to be equally successful. However, Nintendo made the classic mistake of changing too much with Tetris 2. Instead of clearing lines with falling blocks, Tetris 2 tasks you with matching blocks of the same color to clear pieces that are already on the board. Yup, it’s basically Dr. Mario with a Tetris skin but somehow worse than either Dr. Mario or Tetris. Nintendo pretty much pretends this game doesn’t exist, and honestly, it’s probably for the best. Notice how other developers have never again tampered with the classic Tetris formula as much as this game did.
1. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
Speaking of ruining a classic game with unnecessary changes, it’s hard to top how badly Pac-Man 2 messed with the original.
There are plenty of Pac-Man sequels and spin-offs, yet this 16-bit abomination is the only one bold enough to call itself Pac-Man 2. Remarkably, that’s just the beginning of this title’s many, many missteps.
Do you know how the formula of going through a maze, eating pellets, and avoiding ghosts has aged incredibly well despite being more than 40 years old now? Well, there’s not much of that here. Instead, Pac-Man 2 is a platformer with point-and-click elements. Oh, but you don’t really control Pac-Man directly. Instead, you solve puzzles to change his mood to get him to do things. And a lot of those puzzles are surprisingly difficult to solve. Plus, it’s all accompanied by some of the worst, tinniest music of the era. There are some obscure sequels that are worth checking out, but this is definitely one that’s best forgotten.
