Why They Lost

Recently, I posted a list of twenty-four different games I play or have played in the past, ranked from those I like least to most. I didn't, however, say much on why they're in the order they are. This is the first post on that topic, covering the games I listed as being the least interesting.

#17 -- All Flesh Must Be Eaten

What it is:
All Flesh Must Be Eaten, often abbreviated AFMBE, is a game using the Unisystem game system, also used for other games including Witchcraft, the games set in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe, and something I've never heard of called Conspiracy X. I have no experience with the rest of the Unisystem but understand it's well-liked in general.
The game itself is basically the game for playing zombie survival horror, and it's most notable for including a zombie creation system from which the GM can easily build any kind of zombie he wants to use, ranging from slow-moving B-movie jokes to blindingly fast, wall-crawling, intelligent hunters. It wouldn't take much work to re-skin the zombies as monsters of various sorts, either.
Why I dislike it:
To be honest, I'm just not that into zombie survival horror. And if you're not a huge fan of zombie movies and zombie games and the like, this game doesn't have a lot to offer you other than a sort of incomplete generic system. Also, in the event that I do want to run a survival horror game, I think I'd either use GURPS for customizable and gritty mechanics, or Call of Cthulhu for the general doomed-ness 0f it all and the simulation of stress, terror, and emotional fatigue in the Sanity mechanics.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
It really is a decent game for handling zombies, and the rules are simple enough to teach to people. It comes in a single, small, easily portable book. It's very good for one-shots and short campaigns. It doesn't cost a lot. And every true geek has a zombie apocalypse survival plan he'd love to test out, so you can get a lot of enthusiasm from the right group of players with this game.

#18 -- The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game (d20)

What it is:
The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game is a d20 system game set in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It was written long before the series was complete (I think it's still being finished, in fact, taken over Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death) but it's accurate up to maybe halfway through the books, which is easily sufficient for gaming with.
Why I dislike it:
It's d20, and yet it fails at one of the things d20 tries its hardest to excel at: game balance. And while it's interesting to see the magic system from the books codified in game system terms, the D&D-esque system of spell levels and spell slots is a very poor fit, even with the more flexible variant this game presents.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
It's the Wheel of Time game. As far as I know, there isn't another one. If you're really into Wheel of Time anyway, and you use the d20 system, you can get a few decent games out of it, maybe even a campaign. I don't like messing with licensed settings because it often feels like all the important stuff is already being done by main characters, but if you don't mind throwing out the continuity or staying to smaller-scale heroics, it is a very detailed world.

#19 -- Ars Magica, Fourth Edition

What it is:
Ars Magica, one of the most interesting games I've played. Set in a version of medieval Europe where the supernatural really exists. The player characters are magi in the Order of Hermes, an organization of powerful wizards. Really, a good game, and it would rank higher on my list if Ars Magica Fifth Edition weren't so much better.
Why I dislike it:
Well, the obvious first; Ars Magica 5e has been out for long enough now that it's just as richly detailed as 4e, and it's significantly better designed. 4e feels clunky in the same hard-to-explain way that the older editions of D&D felt clunky. It has a great many arbitrary, ill-defined rules and contradictory examples. The ideas present are amazing, but the implementation is lacking something. I got one or two good games out of Ars Magica 4e, but I had to house-rule far too many things to make it work.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
It's free. No, really. Atlas Games released the core book of Ars Magica 4th edition back when 5th edition came out. I think the idea was advertisement, in the form of: 'here, look at this awesome game. You can have it. There's a better version of it out now, if you don't mind paying a little.' As far as I know, you can still go to atlas-games.com and download the .pdf version of Ars Magica fourth edition, completely legal.

#20 -- Tri-Stat dX

What it is:
A generic point-buy system sort of distilled from Big Eyes, Small Mouth, the 'anime' RPG. The dX in the name comes from the dice mechanic, which is based on the genre and power level of the campaign (so you can run Tri-Stat d6, Tri-Stat d10, etc.)
Why I dislike it:
Bad mechanics, mostly. Lots of good ideas, and as a point system it's simpler to work with than GURPS, but... any pretenses of balance are an illusion, most of the point values seem pretty arbitrary, and the rules really only work within a narrow band of power: if you run a d12 game, weak characters don't work right, and if you run a d6 game, it's hard to differentiate between more skilled characters.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
Last I knew it was free, though it might be hard to acquire now that Guardians of Order is gone. Still, though. Not gonna recommend this one. If you want Supers, there are games that do that better. If you want a point-buy chargen, GURPS is tons better for it. If you want a game with an 'anime' feel... well, I'm not sure, but Tri-Stat never really felt very 'anime' anyway. You might be able to pull something anime-esque off with a cinematic system like FATE.

#21 -- d20 Modern

What it is:
Third edition D&D in the modern day! d20 rules, but more of an 'action hero' setting than one with wizards and swordsmen and such. That's all there is to it, really.
Why I dislike it:
It's d20, which I've acquired a distaste for after several years of struggling with the same errors in the rules. And for what it does (modern, somewhat cinematic, possibly with magic or psi added in) I get better results using GURPS or World of Darkness.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
It's not quite free -- ideally you'd want the actual book -- but the System Reference Documents are out there somewhere, free to reference and perfectly legal. You can get a good sense of what the system's like without having to invest much into it, so you don't need to take my word on whether it's a good system or not. Anyway, it's also pretty well-made for a d20 product and you can run a pretty good game with people that are already familiar with 3e or 3.5e D&D, without having to teach a new system. Pick up the Urban Arcana supplement, and you can even run what is effectively 'D&D Modern', which has a kind of charm all its own. Seriously, if GURPS and WoD didn't make this so redundant to me, it would be much, much higher on my list of games.

#22 -- Star Munchkin

What it is:
A parody game making fun of Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and any number of other sci-fi series and settings. Star Munchkin is also a card game, and this RPG is its d20 incarnation.
Why I dislike it:
d20 again, with all the usual complaints. In addition, this being a joke game, no real effort was put into balance, and the jokes aren't even all that funny.
Why you should (maybe) buy it anyway:
Unlike its cousin, the D&D-esque Munchkin, the jokes conceal an actual usable game. It's cheap, easily portable (the books are much smaller than the standard RPG book size), and it is kind of funny. You can probably get a good game or two out of it before your group decides to lynch you. Also worth noting is that it, bizarrely, actually has a fairly decent system for custom-building star ships that might be worth a look. If you find it in a bargain bin or something, it won't hurt to pick it up, just don't spend too much money.

#23 & #24 -- Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second Edition, and GURPS, Third Edition, respectively

What they are:
The games that got me into gaming. My first two RPGs. Not the oldest of games, but old games nevertheless, from the ancient days when dinosaurs roamed. AD&D 2e was my introduction to RPGs, and GURPS was my first serious foray into something outside of the typical D&D dungeon-crawling fare.
Why I dislike them:
They're old and clunky, and newer games have developed that do what they did, but better and more smoothly. I actually recommend GURPS 4e for both, personally, with the Dungeon Fantasy .pdfs if you want to run something that feels AD&D-esque.
Why you should (maybe) buy them anyway:
I won't really argue that these should be bought; I mean, good luck even finding them. That said, there's something to be said for the old clunky charm of AD&D, so picking that up if you see it might not be a bad idea. I can't in good faith recommend picking up old editions of GURPS, but the supplements are many, often relatively cheap even now, and pretty good reads and references even without the rest of the system.