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Best Game No One Played

The game industry is extremely competitive. Sometimes being good isn't enough to propel a game to commercial success. In spite of their great qualities--and in spite of critical acclaim--certain games fail to draw the kind of public attention they seem to deserve. The cause of this can be bad marketing, bad timing, an overly ambitious design, or something else. Here are our five finalists for the dubious distinction of Best Game No One Played. By this industry's high standards, they're commercial failures--each of these has sold fewer than 50,000 copies to date (according to data from the NPD group).

Amplitude (PS2)

Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
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We all but named it "most likely to succeed" as far as rhythm games go. But the masses certainly didn't flock to Amplitude.

Clock Tower 3 (PS2)

Publisher: Capcom
Developer: SunSoft
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Featuring graphic cutscenes directed by one of Japan's most legendary cinematographers, this survival horror game should be experienced by any fan of the genre. But most survival horror fans probably don't even know it exists.

Otogi: Myth of Demons (XBOX)

Publisher: Sega
Developer: From Software
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Though a number of high-profile Xbox action games turned out pretty disappointing, this one came out of left field and is truly excellent. Too bad most Xbox owners couldn't relate that to you firsthand.

Port Royale (PC)

Publisher: Tri Synergy
Developer: Ascaron GmbH
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For years, PC gamers have dreamed of a spiritual successor to the classic Sid Meier's Pirates!. They got one in Port Royale, but they were apparently too busy being nostalgic to take notice.

Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation (GC)

Publisher: Bandai
Developer: Aki Corp.
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One of the coolest wrestling games of the year sold only a fraction of the number of copies that far worse wrestling games managed to sell simply because they had some recognizable personalities. In an alternate reality, Meat is more popular than The Rock.

And the Winner is...