Everyone expected it to be disappointed AFTER this year's E3. That lowered the bar, but it lowered it this year, so I still think it counts. Last year, people were hoping this would Nintendo's answer to games like Guitar Hero, or at the very least something both traditional and new gamers could enjoy.

As for WallE, WTF? It's a ****ing DISNEY game (strike one) aimed at KIDS (strike two) based on a MOVIE (strike three).

I'd list it as follows:

1) WiiMusic (for reasons above)

2) Force Unleashed - most anticipated SW game since KOTOR and it fell flat on three (4?) platforms, giving it the edge over console exclusives.

3) Too Human - Like a real human, a decade of development wasn't enough.

4) Haze - This year's Lair

5) Alone in the Dark 4  

Honorable Mentions

MGS4 - Because it isn't being ported to the 360

Final Fantasy XIII - Because it is.

Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)

Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar / Rockstar North)

are not exist in that list...

Plodding - usually means slow and unexciting

Earnest - used in a good sense it means serious, honest or sincere. As this is meant as a criticism, I think it means the story took itself too seriously and forgot the fun.

Free Radical didn't make Goldeneye, Rare did...

The most disappointing game that I bought and was really looking forward to in 2008 was MGS4... it was a beautiful game graphically, but I think there were too many mini-movies in the middle of the action. It almost felt like a game in the middle of a Blu-ray movie...

I'm not saying that it was bad game, it's done very well and a lot of people like it, but for me personally, I was just disappointed. Maybe the hype made me expect too much?

To me most definetly the biggest disappointing videogame of 2008 was FarCry 2, i was so looking forward to it, being that the first was extremely good, and it's open-world FPS game was a good inovation for the time.
I dunnu, farcry2 seems very empty and pointless to me, get a mission, drive, shoot, rinse, later, repeat. The only thing that trully impressed me in the game was the lighting effects, like the way the sun shines trough the trees (but that wasn't something we hadn't seen before).
I think they tried too hard to make a crysis clone in open-world africa that they fell way short of making a fun game :/

sigh spore could have been so good..... as wii music could have been good (remember mario paint).....mirriors edge it would be nice if i didnt feel like a drug runner in a game that lacked play testing not fun at all.

I would have seconded Spore if the reviews didn't put me off to it before. I decided on that point that my anticipation and yes, heart where broken enough

FAR CRY has map editing , the game excels on this, dont get me wrong...

Wow, that's a surprisingly good list.