10 Video Games That Made You Say "What Were They THINKING?!"
9. What's With That Face? - Seaman
When Vivarium announced they were developing a fishing simulator which relied on voice commands, it sounded like the project was doomed. Not only did it seem like a pretty uninteresting concept, voice commands have always (and still are) a difficult mechanic to produce effectively in video games.
To the surprise of everyone, Vivarium's work, Seaman, was an utter triumph.
The microphone wasn't perfect, but the voice command system was more accurate than almost any other game at the time. Despite Seaman's simple presentation, gamers spent hours teaching language to their fish and building a rapport with him.
All in all, Seaman turned out better than anyone could've hoped.
Seaman's success is extra surprising considering how absolutely terrifying the titular character looks. I mean, I understand the developers need to give Seaman a distinct appearance to stand out, but why did they settle on "fish with a realistic human face?" Why not make him look cute? Or conventionally marketable? Or... anything except what he looks like?
Even though Seaman sold pretty well, it would've done better if the studio gave the lead character a more appealing design.