Acclaim Circling the Drain

As of August 26th, 2010, anyone who visited Acclaim’s website was greeted with a fairly solemn message stating all of their games will no longer be in service.

Co-founded by a former Activision employee, Acclaim Entertainment’s historical timeline is an odd one. Back in the early gaming days of yellow-clad men shouting “Get over here!” and when basketballs being on fire somehow ensured an easy bucket, Acclaim and its games were household names in the gaming world. They weren’t a Nintendonian juggernaut, but everyone at least played and enjoyed an Acclaim game or two. They were generally responsible for licensed titles back when those were widely regarded as respectable and console ports of popular arcade games back when that was how good games came to the masses. In retrospect, however, Acclaim’s eventual doom wasn’t really too difficult to spot. It developed or published an array of legendary titles, but the list of its forgettable titles will forever remain larger.

The Good Stuff

• Mortal Kombat
• Mortal Kombat II
• NBA Jam
• Smash TV
• Burnout
• Crazy Taxi
• Shadowman
• Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Stuff of Note

• The Chronicles of Spellborn
• BMX XXX (because of the controversy)
• Various 8bit and 16bit Simpsons games
• The other Turok games
• NFL Quarterback Club
• Various 32bit and 64bit South Park games
• Various 8bit and 16bit Spiderman games
• Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 1, 2, 3
• Legends of Wrestling 1, 2

Obscure Cult Favorites

• Trog!
• Revolution X (which, oddly enough, had a Trog! easter egg)

Eventually Acclaim Entertainment fizzled out and a former Activision employee bought the name and founded Acclaim Games, helping Acclaim live on in spirit. The company shifted its focus toward free-to-play online games, involved in noble failures, such as the Chronicles of Spellborn, and conversely, things that make gamers who remember Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam shed a tear, such as Ponystars (which actually still exists due to creator Feerik’s salvation).

Earlier this year, Playdom, a company focusing mainly on Facebook and MySpace games, acquired Acclaim Games, which some speculate lead to Acclaim Game’s somber farewell.

Good-night, sweet gaming prince of old. If for any reason, because we’ll never get that next-gen, blockbuster, multimillion dollar budget Trog! sequel with online leaderboards and clan functionality.

(via Massively.)