Just like how some games can come out of nowhere and surprise you since you had low or no expectations for them, hype and high expectations can disappoint you when a game doesn't turn out as good as you had hoped.Our picks for the Most Disappointing Xbox 360 Games of 2009 aren't necessarily bad games (in fact, many of them reviewed quite well), but they are games that we expected to be better and were let down by the final product.

1. Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

Onechanbara is a series I have always been interested in.Zombies and hot women is a pretty darn good combination.I had heard it wasn’t great, but still held out hope that the appeal of chopping up zombies would be enough.Heck, I was a click away once upon a time from importing a Japanese 360 just to play the series.Then it finally did come out in the U.S. and I got to play it at last.And it is freaking horrible.It looks awful, plays awful, has terrible Achievements, and not even zombies and hot chicks are enough to overcome the laundry list of problems.More »

2. WWE Legends of WrestleMania

On paper it seems like a great idea – bring all of the WWE legends into one game and massage the gameplay a bit to reflect the vastly different style used in the 80’s and early 90’s compared to today.In execution, however, Legends of WrestleMania was a mess.It turned out the gameplay wasn’t just “massaged” it was completely changed and it flat out wasn’t fun to play.The list of legends was only really mediocre as well since there were some big names missing.I’ll admit I’m not much of a wrestling fan anymore, but I do fondly remember the Legends, and this game was a massive letdown.More »

3. Bionic Commando

A mixture of hype, pretty screenshots, nostalgia, and a hotshot up and coming developer put Bionic Commando on most gamers’ list of games to watch out for.When it finally came out it was a mess of poor design choices and clunky, unresponsive gameplay that was ultimately pretty forgettable.What about that hotshot up and coming developer?GRIN faded away into nothingness after a string of incredibly poor games.Sounds like a disappointment to me.More »

4. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits

If there is one thing we have learned over the years, it is that making Guitar Hero / Rock Band games isn’t as easy as it looks.Konami tried it and failed.Neversoft struggled (but are much better at it now).And Beenox, the team behind Smash Hits, failed miserably despite having a seemingly easy job of simply putting the best GH songs together into one game.Smash Hits suffers from bad note charts, an odd gameplay feel, and poor sound quality (major no no in music games).Bad times.More »

5. Fight Night Round 4

While still a good game, Fight Night Round 4 was a sizable disappointment for us.We still consider FN Round 3 as one of the best 360 games overall and had high hopes for RD4.What we got instead of a “bigger, better, deeper” sequel was a completely different game.It was arcadey instead of realistic, and the great parry and blocking system was thrown out the window in favor of something not nearly as satisfying.Round 4 was just plain not the game we were expecting.More »

6. Brutal Legend

Jack Black, heavy metal, rock legends, blood and gore – Brutal Legend should have been awesome.Clunky driving controls and an unnecessary focus on a poorly implemented RTS battle system completely killed the mood.The characters and dialogue and music and humor are all still great, but the game just isn’t that fun to play, unfortunately.More »

7. Tekken 6

Tekken 6 isn’t a disappointment because of the gameplay – no, it is still quality Tekken gameplay, which is crazy fun.It is a disappointment because of the poor online performance, awful Scenario Campaign mode, long load times, and so-so presentation.We just expect more from Namco, and in particular their fighting games.More »

8. Need for Speed: Shift

Need for Speed: Shift makes an incredibly impressive first impression.It is fast and gorgeous looking and an adrenaline rush since you are always racing right on the edge or disaster.As you move further into the game, however, and get faster cars, the gameplay starts falling apart.Glitches pop up where cars are bouncing around the track and ramping over each other, and at high speeds the controls are completely awful which makes the game nearly unplayable without assists.You’ll love it to start with and hate it by the end.More »

9. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

You can’t blame gamers for having higher expectations for MUA2.It comes from a line of good games and we thought we’d be getting more of the same level of quality.Instead, we got a dumbed down, oversimplified, repetitive, shallow disappointment.The cast of characters and storyline were also not really mainstream-friendly, which made it harder for non-comic book nerds to get into.It was still fun, don’t get me wrong, just not quite the game we were hoping for.More »

10. Ninja Blade

To say Microsoft’s lineup of exclusives for the Xbox 360 in 2009 were bad is an understatement.It is clear Microsoft had given up on 2009 before the year even started and conceded it to the PS3 when the tentpole exclusive that was supposed to fill in the gap between Halo games was freaking Ninja Blade.Sure, Ninja Blade looks pretty, but it has some of the most awful, repetitive, QTE-filled gameplay you’ll find.This game was just sad.More »