Tie-in video games allow you to play in your favorite fictional realms without having to resort to using your stupid imagination. But for every kick-ass Batman game, there are hundreds of crappy cash-ins just waiting to con you out of your money. However, while some brands will be forever tarnished by their death pit of Atari cartridges , others luckily nixed their games at the last minute to save face and save their fans from having to write lots of hate mail. For example ...

5 A Cancelled Lord Of The Rings Game Really Nailed The Endless Walking Part Of The Franchise

You can't fault The Lord Of The Rings for not being epic enough, with its sword fights, magic duels, massive siege battles, and elven snowboarding. So it's not surprising that the franchise would eventually dip its hairy Hobbit toes into the waters of gaming. But long before the PlayStation or Xbox tried to capture the glory of the movies, there was almost a The Lord Of The Rings title for the Atari which focused on the less-talked-about part of the fellowship's journey: the long-ass nature walks.

Retroist

Teased by these badass Ringwraiths that appear in the game as eight blue pixels.

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Judging from the canceled game's box art, Atari's The Lord Of The Rings could have been a terrifying battle against the evil Ringwraiths in their pre-Labor-Day outfits. Disappointingly, instead of the white-knuckle brawl Middle Earth fans were hoping for, the game was mainly comprised of monotonous walking. You play Frodo, journeying to Rivendell. That's pretty much it. The only excitement comes in the form of avoidance. There are Ringwraiths to look out for, but they aren't the most dangerous foe Frodo must saunter away from. For reasons unknown to all but the developer and his big bag of LSD, a big part of the game is trying to not get hit in the damn face by errant birds.

Parker Brothers

Which makes this double as a Fabio game, too.

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If there was any honesty in marketing, they would have called it Brisk Evening Stroll: The Game and used the press release to beg for forgiveness. But rather than just admit failure, the makers of the game used the dark magic of weaseling out of it, allegedly informing inquiring customers that the game was merely sold out. Not exactly the most convincing lie, trying to make people think that a bunch of gamers were fighting for the privilege of playing a game that looks like one of Santa's elves wandered into a Hitchcock movie.