A claim.... To Fail!
A company gone but not forgotten Acclaim were for many a developer that produced the TUROK series of games however they were so much more than that.
Of all the things that will stand the test of time their courting of controversy is a thing of legend. Here RetroGameGeeks very own 'Jamalais' will take you through some of their finest moments in complete and total failure.
Take it away Jam.....
Turok Evolution
So let's get the main one out the way. Turok: Evolution was released multi platform in 2002. In the UK Acclaim advertised the incentive for members of the public to legally change their name to 'Turok,' and become quite literally human billboards to advertise the game. In return they recieved £500, a Xbox and a copy of the game. In exchange Their name (including surname) would be changed to 'Turok,' on all their personal documents, that included driving license, utiliy bills and passport.
Suprising over 10,000 people applied to do this but the lucky winners were Ross Davison, Paul Frederick Codling, Matthew Grist, Andrew Ian Boughflower and Lheila Rebeccah Oberman.
Unlucky for them the game was a flop being heavily critizied for poor framerate and being a average game at best.
Lucky for them after one year the 'Turoks' were allowed to change their name back if they wish, though they would have to go through all the legal procedures again. Its also rumoured they asked a couple to name a baby 'Turok,' however no proof of this happening exists.
Shadowman 2
Also released in 2002. Acclaim in proper poor taste asked families who had recently lost loved ones if they wanted to post advertising billboards on the grave stones and specifically quoted: "poorer" families might be especially interested.
This obviously caused a lot of uproar as even the Church of England quoted there was no way it would allow any of it's graveyards to be used in such a fashion. A spokesman for them said: "There was enough fuss with plastic flowers in churchyards."
A spokesman for Acclaim said it appreciated that people may find its advertising offer offensive but that others might see it as a good way of procuring "a subsidy to burial costs to give their loved one a good send-off". The spokeman rejected the suggestion it was a cynical media stunt.
Well the stunt was a flop for Acclaim as it turned out you need planning permission from local authoroties to advertise on graves whether it was on public or private property. They also never stated how much they would pay people if they did agree to advertise.
BMX XXX
Finally for today we come to the final 2002 release (yes these were all released the same year). Originally starting as Dave Mirra BMX XXX.
BMX XXX was a poor attempt to sell a piss poor game to gamers with the incentive it had boobies in it. Reviews and even gamer reception was not positive. Publicity for the game was not good as several stores including Toys 'r' us and Wal Mart flat out refused to stock the game. Even Sony refused to publish the game unless it was heavily censored, leaving just a crap BMX game. Australia removed all nudity entirely from the game.
Acclaim almost released the game without Dave Mirrias permission, once he realised what was happening, he sued Acclaim and publically disowned the game saying he was not involved in the project. A good thing too as the game totally bombed in the reviews and Acclaim even published misleading financial reports to hide the failures from the investors.
Well all this didn't work out because Acclaim went bankrupt in 2004, due to poor sales and production of average at best games.
RGG's Final Thoughts...
Prior to 2002 Acclaim were actually doing quite well, thanks to the very successful series of Turok games on consoles such as the Nintendo 64, their sports games and racing titles like Extreme G everything seemed rosy.
​At RetroGameGeeks we liken Acclaim to OCEAN software in that when the next generation arrived (PS2/Xbox/Cube) they simply went the wrong way.
Their games became stale and poor and their advertising did the complete opposite of what they wanted, eventually after too many failures and huge debts they went away forever.....Bye Bye Acclaim.
- Jamalais