WALL OF TEXT EXPLAINED: What you're looking at is an episode of Countdown w/ Defunct Games published before 2006. As you can tell, something has gone horribly awry. I won't bore you with the technical details, but it has to do with the old layout being incompatible with the new. Eventually, we would like to retrofit these old episodes of Countdown, but that will require a significant amount of time. As Defunct Games has only a limited staff, we aren't sure when we'll have the chance to fix this article. If you absolutely need to know what this article said, get a hold of us on Twitter or leave a message in the comment section below. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you will enjoy the episodes created post-2006.

#5 Not All Ports Are the Same Both Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing ports were mediocre at best, and Acclaims port of Mortal Kombat II didn't look or play as good as Super NES version. And to add insult to injury, Doom couldn't compare to the Jaguar version. And there weren't a lot of original properties, so, needless to say the early software didn't exactly excite a riot. There were a couple early gems, but for the same price many people were simply buying other things. Without a strong line up the 32x couldn't stand a chance. #4 No Sonic, and All Knuckles Makes the 32x A Dull System The Super NES launched with Super Mario World, the Genesis really took off after Sonic the Hedgehog, and Crash Bandicoot did a great job of bringing younger gamers into the world of the PlayStation. So, why not launch with a Sonic game? Well, that would make too much sense, so Sega launched with what they hoped would be the next Sonic . Knuckles. Oh sure, he was hot off of an appearance in Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, but Knuckles Chaotix is not only a terrible 32x game, but one of the worst platformers of all time. #3 Virtua Fighter Doesn't Sell in the U.S. It likes like Sega always falls into the trap of thinking that Virtua Fighter is more popular than it is in the U.S. Not to take anything away from it's brilliance, but only the Japanese really understand the appeal of the game. In the U.S. the game may sell a few units, but there is always something more popular, be it Street Fighter II or Tekken. The 32x failed in large part because Sega didn't have a strong line up of games. Sega also relied on Virtua Fighter (and Virtua Fighter II) to sell its Saturn. #2 It Had the Ugliest Packaging Ever Oh sure, the Sega Genesis games ended up using the same packaging, but only the Sega 32x games used the gaudy yellow packaging. The flimsy cardboard packaging is one of the worst designs of all time, and until they implemented it Sega's games had all used a nice plastic box. These boxes came off like some company trying to save a little money. It's also very difficult to take out the game without ruining the box. This is a terrible packaging scheme . no question about it. #1 The Name of the Game is NOT on the Top If you go back through history you'll see that every system that succeeded had the name of the game on the top. The Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo, heck, even the PlayStation 2 all had their names on the top of the cart/box. Look at the Sega 32x, or how about the Nintendo 64, or even the Atari Jaguar . all had covers, but no name on the top of their cart. Coincidence? I think not. What If There's Some Reality ... What if there really is something to my theory? What if the 32x really failed because the top of the cart didn't feature the name of the game. Most of the major systems have featured names on the top of their software, but some (including the 32x) did not. Were these systems doomed from the get-go?? Check out some other defunct systems that may have been cursed. Nintendo 64 Atari Lynx Neo Geo Pocket Bandai WonderSwan