There are so many random and pointless games that have released for all consoles ever since their creation. And sometimes they’re just so bad, they become the core of the myth surrounding why the North American video game crash of 1983 happened. Yeah I’m talking about ET. But then you get the huge shit it out and package it games that also happened starting with the NES. Weirdly, that didn’t tank the industry.
However, sometimes there’s games that get released which are so puzzling you have to stop and wonder… why? Titus is once again proving their worth as an entity that I just cannot understand how they became so big that they bought up both Virgin Interactive and Interplay Entertainment. The games with maybe one or two exceptions, were junk. But they managed it. They really did. And then their shit caught up and they went bankrupt.
But I didn’t realise there was one series that Titus released which was pure mind boggling that I have to question, who bought this? Yes, that’s right. I’m talking about Virtual Chess.
There are three games in the Virtual Chess series with the first being for MS DOS. Okay, maybe buying a game for your incredibly expensive PC of the early 90s was cheaper than a chess board with pieces. Though if you can afford an early 90s PC you can definitely afford a real chess set. But it was also ported to Windows 95 several years later. And so people must be stupid and buying this video game of a real cheap physical board game. So again, who are these people and why are they so bad with money?
But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no. A sequel was released called Virtual Chess 2 also for Windows 97. Because that makes sense. Like, the first game just wasn’t chess enough. You had to go and buy the sequel to play… chess.
Oh but wait, there’s a third and most baffling game in the series. The third and last game. Virtual Chess 64. That’s right, it’s a chess game for your N64. A game that is quite literally nothing more than big standard chess.
Remember the N64 used cartridges. And cartridges were, and still are but not to the same extent, expensive. So this console game would have likely cost at least £50 but probably more. Think what you could have done with that money instead of buying chess for the N64. Like, you could have bought a real chess set and some cool other stuff like a decent video game. Or a real expensive good looking chess set.
I want to believe this is why Titus went bankrupt. These forking screwed up decisions that over time became increasingly obvious how bad they were, everyone realised and stopped buying their games. Yes Superman 64 definitely couldn’t have helped. Nor The Blues Brothers 2000 game, based on a movie no one asked for, was a critical and commercial flop and is forgotten about. Good job Titus. Good job.
