Recently, I set out on a quest to track down a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 for the Super Nintendo – a game that I awarded a paltry 3/10 to some time ago. I didn't seek out a copy as a strange kind of punishment, or to be ironic – I wanted to re-own it because, despite being pretty terrible, I've got a genuine, heartfelt connection with it.
Back in 1994, when Lord of the Rings originally hit the SNES, I was already a seasoned fan of the acclaimed fantasy series. My introduction to Tolkien's world wasn't the book trilogy – or even the child-friendly prequel novel, The Hobbit – but Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of the first two Lord of the Rings books – The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers – and, following this rather uneven (but still beloved) primer to Middle-earth, I read the original books a few years later. By the time I'd hit my teenage years, I was hungry to consume as much media relating to the series as possible – which, back in the early '90s, wasn't as easy as you might assume (Peter Jackson's blockbuster movies were still some way off).
As you can imagine, I was keen to get my hands on Lord of the Rings for the SNES, despite the only other game based on the series that I'd played – War in Middle-earth on my Atari ST – being something of a disappointment. Interplay, the company behind the SNES outing, had already created two Lord of the Rings games for personal computers, but I'd only seen screenshots in magazines and had never actually played them. Therefore, I was entering into the SNES version with a degree of optimism – optimism which only increased the more I read about the grand scope of the game in magazine previews of the period.
The release of Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 was delayed somewhat, and by the time it eventually arrived in 1994, excitement was building for the next generation of gaming, with the 3DO and Atari Jaguar already available and the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn both looming on the horizon. Still, I was a committed fan and the fact that Interplay's SNES game borrowed heavily from the 1978 animated film only cemented my desire to actually play it.
However, removing my rose-tinted specs just for a moment, I was aware even then that this was not a good video game. The controls were stiff, the environments dull and the gameplay painfully repetitive. There wasn't even a battery backup option, so you had to input an annoyingly laid-out password every time you wanted to continue your adventure. And, as the 'Volume 1' in the title suggests, this wasn't even the full story – it ended the moment you reached Rivendell, which meant that a whole host of other amazing moments in the books were missing. Still, at least the music was good – in fact, I'd argue that it's one of the best soundtracks on the SNES.
Despite its obvious, crippling failings, I persevered. This might have been because, back in the mid-'90s, I had little in the way of disposable income (I was still at school) so I had to make sure I got the maximum amount of enjoyment and entertainment from every game I purchased – even if it was terrible. However, I still feel that my longstanding connection to the world of Middle-earth is what really convinced me to keep on going; I still love Tolkien's works (even after two decades over what could charitably be described as over-exposure in the wake of Jackson's movies) but Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 came at a time when Frodo, Samwise and Gandalf were merely fringe players in the world of popular culture, and the fact that they starred in a game on my SNES somehow made the whole venture feel a lot more appealing than it actually was.
And here we are, in 2021. Many years after selling my original game when I jettisoned my SNES collection to purchase a PlayStation (forgive me, Miyamoto!), I've gotten around to picking up another copy – not to play, but to merely have in the collection to remind me that not all games have to be stone-cold classics in order for you to love them unconditionally.
What 'bad' game do you love beyond all reason? And what's the story behind that relationship? Let us know with a comment below.
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Friday the 13th. The NES version. Chrissy was the best character.LJN was crap, but I rented them. I even liked Jaws.
Sonic Forces. I've played through it multiple times. For me it's such a fun game to just zone out to and enjoy the music, speed and hilariously stupid storyline.
Back in the day I did have a soft-spot for Bubsy on the SNES too. I'd love for it to come to NSO... come on, it's a better platformer than all those caveman games!
Mine has always been the original Street Fighter. I find it absolutely fascinating, because as clunky and unbalanced as it is to play, the seeds of absolutely everything the series would later become are all already there.
Bad games I loved? Oh, so many... But the ones that come to mind first:
Honestly, it's more of a "I want to like it because it has good qualities but more bad ones than good", and the game would be Secret of Mana. I fully intend to be attacked for this opinion, but I don't care; Secret of Mana, for all its praise, is not a particularly well designed or executed game.
It has fun parts, sure, great visuals and music, yes; but it really does play rather awfully, and it's the most apparent when you hit the endgame stages. I have spent over a decade trying to understand if I was missing something, but every time I try the game again, I am instantly reminded why I think it's a bad game to play.
Two games come to mind.
Deadly Premonition is on the bad side of mediocre in terms of gameplay but it's charming in its own way.
Fragile Dreams makes deadly premonition's gameplay look like Bayonetta or Sin and Punishment 2 in comparison. Yes it's that bad. Still there's something about it that sucks you in.
I guess mine would be Xenoblade Chronicles 2? It isn't objectively bad compared to others but I can admit it does have its share of issues and got a pretty immense amount of backlash. I didn't even realize how divisive that game was until I beat it. Despite all of its flaws I still find myself coming back to it lol.
Cell Damage! I always thought it was the best party game but everyone else seemed to hate it.
The worst game that I absolutely love that isn’t influenced by nostalgia is paper mario colour splash, but that isn’t a bad game at all, just a hated game.
If I incude nostalgia it’s probably harry potter and the goblet of fire. All 3 games prior on pc still hold up today but GoF was never a good game, fun in co-op tho.
Megaman X6. It remains one of my favorite entries in the series, despite being a misshapen lump of Engrish.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. This game for some reason has a 54 metascore and is therefore on par with games like Fallout 76. But I absolutely love it. But I guess many other people also love this game but I can understand that this game could be very boring to many other people
Mario DDR for the Gamecube is unironically the absolute best Mario game of all time, change my mind
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
I don't think it's a bad game per sé... it's just really easy and has a bad reputation because of that. But let me tell you I couldn't even beat it as a kid because I got stuck in the Fire Dome maze. Of course later I beat it easily but, y'know.
There's probably more but I can't think of any more right now, FF Mystic Quest (or Mystic Quest Legend as it was known over here) is just the one I think of any time this kind of subject is brought up.
I don't have the heart to say a game I enjoy is bad. If you have fun with a game then it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, therefore it can't be "bad".
Sonic 06, it was a "it's so bad it's good" game such that I 100% completed the game on Xbox 360 (all achievements unlocked).
Castlevania 64 and Mystical Ninja featuring Goemon. Sure the platforming was bad, but they both had some really cool moments.
I’ve really given it some thought on my commute and honestly I don’t think I have one. So not everyone has a bad game they love. Maybe the Tron arcade game from the 80s?
Young Merlin! It was one of the first games I owned on the SNES and it was... Wel, just, WOW! But still everytime a gem sparkles in the waterfall I just melt! Nostalgia!
@Vortexeo I agree, the gameplay just isn't for me. The battle system seems both overly complicated and overly simple at the same time. The story telling is also really bad. Every character has a hidden motivation, for the sake of being mysterious.
That said I've played it for 120 hours lol
I don't know. I can't honestly think of one off of the top of my head. Even as a child, I still was very mindful of reviews on games before I asked my parents to buy it. I don't have a whole lot of duds in my collection.
Depends. I love a looooot of games that get reviewed badly. But that's not the question here I think. Any game I like I don't consider bad so that would automatically make it none.
@Dpullam
Same here.
@Darlinfan Maybe 'bad' was the wrong term. Maybe I thought that because nobody talked about it.
@starman_jr
Castlevania 64 has a Metascore of 78. That's not a bad game. It's also one of my favorite games of all time, mainly because of the music and atmosphere.
Dragons Dawn of New Riders. The game is fine, but nothing mechanically special. But I love it, I grew up with Httyd, and have an original dungeon crawler game was a ton of fun, even if it was simple.
Rockin' Kats on NES. It's such a bland bog-standard platformer, but something about it charms me. Same with Yo! Noid.
Devil's Third on Wii U
@Vortexeo if that is the case it is also on my list as it is both on my top 3 games on switch and top 5 RPG of all time lol
Street racer (SNES) and then especially the battle mode
Star Wars: Yoda Stories
@harouhiko The single player I thought was awful, but I really enjoyed the multiplayer
I always liked the Jimmy Neutron games even though they were probably the worst GameCube nick games considering they were based off the most unpopular nick series. But because of my love for Jimmy Neutron was so great, considering my profile pic is Hugh Neutron.
@Yosher That Mystic Quest OST is awesome too! And the sprites showing 'damage' over time.
@pariah164 Illusion of Gaia is good! Just how good it is may have been enhanced by nostalgia for me as well, but it definitely isn't bad.
I enjoyed Final Fantasy I&II on GBA. Put a lot of hours into that even though most of the main sequence had already been released by then. Regularly voted amongst the worst FFs, I just enjoyed the simplicity.
I don’t know if it’s remembered as a bad game, but I used to love dungeons and Dragons Warriors of the Eternal Sun on the mega drive despite it having several issues
@moodycat A game can be anti-fun to play, but strangely compulsive.
Ninja Clowns on the arcade could be seen as a terrible beat em up but the ridiculous off-the-wall nature of everything in it more than makes up for it. In the second stage alone you’re fighting hot dog venders and bearded ladies at a circus before facing against a giant chicken as the boss! Absolutely crazy stuff and I love it.
I think u hit on something interesting that back in your youth whenever u had a game u played it to death even if u knew it to be bad. I can relate to that, maybe we all can. Today I am fortunate to have a load of options but even a quite good game I mite not play for long because there is always something better. Is having too many options a good thing. I don’t think so at all, which is why Netflix and all that twaddle scares and bewilders me. Anyway I can’t think of a bad game but I game I feel that need a bit more love that I can always go back to is alien storm on md collection. Great graphics sound and fun simple gameplay and pretty easy! Xxxx
Sonic R and Sonic 06.
Sonic R was the first Sonic game I owned and its just so unique that I can't not love it. I would love to see someone have another go at an on-foot Sonic racer (and bring back tag and the balloon hunt!). Plus it was the first fully 3D Sonic game which was mind blowing at the time.
Sonic 06 is like watching a train wreck. It's also the closest we've had to Sonic Adventure 3 and did have a few neat ideas hidden behind its awful execution.
@Broosh Oh yeah absolutely! It definitely had its charm and the OST was incredibly rocking, a definite highlight of the game. I still love to listen to it sometimes to this day.
Mine is generally perceived as "bad", but objectively it isnt THAT bad: Dirge of Cerberus FFVII for PS2. The only shooter I've ever finished xD
@SpringDivorce "Mine has always been the original Street Fighter"
Ohh, you reminded me of another bad one I liked... Street Fighter: The Movie, the PS1 game! It's so bad it's hilarious and I love the Mortal Kombat looking characters.
I’ll go with Binary Domain…it got slated when it came out and it was honestly awesome!
Most are PS2 era or later for me:
-The Xenosaga Chronicles. I adored this quirky series. Despite it being lampooned at the time.
-The Lord of the Rings PS2 games. They are, very silly Hack-n-slashers. But I am also, a rather big nerd about anything Tolkein.
-The Solus Project. This is an XB1 game still available, really it's a kind of boring walking simulator, but I love it anyway. Just hit a mystery sci-fi vibe for me.
While I don't personally believe it's a bad game, many people do consider Other M to be bad. I think it's fun and I've beaten the game several times.
In my recent Resident Evil binge, I had a lot of fun with RE Gaiden. It is a rough game with questionable design choices (especially combat). But when I looked up strategies it turned out I was playing it totally wrong, so with the right approach it is a clunky but tense experience for Gameboy.
I do love Asphalt 3D on the 3DS and Spy Hunter on the Vita (yes the Vita version runs and looks better than the 3DS version), despite their abysmal Metacritic ratings.
They're just fun arcade style experiences which I love (and have loved for more than 40 years).
I genuinely love Metroid Other M. Both for the gameplay AND the story. In fact, it's one of my video game stories ever, regardless of its faults.
I also love Adventure of Link and highly prefer it over LttP or the original LoZ.
I don't consider either of these actual bad games, but I know a lot of people do.
Dauntless is a very meh game but i really enjoy playing it for some reason
007 Nightfire, Minority Report on the Cube etc. Love a lot of games because of nostalgia.
I bought several games featured in Nintendo Power because I didn't realize that third-party games featured there were paid-for ads. There's no excuse for Astyanax, but I had a good time with The Adventures of Bayou Billy and Lester the Unlikely.
Sonic Shuffle
Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. It's basically a spreadsheet disguised as a game. Still played them for ages, and strangely enjoyable.
If I like it, it's not a BAD game, it has to do something very important to me very good. If critics praise it, it's not necessarily a good game either.
But I don't think Calling or A Shadow's Tale or Fragile Dreams or Deadly Creatures got praised as much as I would have praised them, back in the Wii days. And there's some obviously well known "so bad they're good" games, most of them have a cult following already. And there's the GAME OF THE YEAR and BEST SELLING stuff I never got into.
It's in my profile pic... Devil's Third! It was probably my second favorite Wii U game after Splatoon. Yeah, the graphics were an absolute mess, but it was so much fun! I know it will never happen, but it's the only Wii U game I'd actually want ported to the Switch, just so they could fix the problems. Also, even the critics that trashed the game admitted that the multiplayer was actually pretty good. Since the Switch isn't getting any Call of Duty games, this would actually fill the niche of online shooters that aren't Fortnite.
@Cia Wow, didn't realize the metascore was that high. I just know it's had a bad reputation, especially compared to other Castlevania titles. Nice to know others appreciate the atmosphere and music as much as I do!
Two games I own and played to death on the mega drive are Taz mania and Asterix and the great rescue. Even at the time I could see their flaws but I mastered them and had a lot of fun with it
Pro Wrestling for the Master System. It's a.. Er.. Classic.
@Darlinfan Hard Driving was the kind of game that was cool if your friend had it. It certainly was a novelty. But that said, play it a few times, and I've pretty much gotten all the Hard Diving I need. It would be hard to justify actually paying for it.
Hmmm, there are probably a few games that I have played that people are genuinely bad that I have loved and enjoyed, but I can't think of any specific games at present. The closest thing I can think of is Mario Is Missing for SNES; if for no other reason, that I kind of enjoyed the music and seeing sprites and characters from Super Mario World at a younger age where every little detail caught my attention.
@1ofUs That reminds me that I actually enjoyed that F2P Elder Scrolls game on Switch for WAY longer than I "dare to admit" is what I'd say, but I'm just admitting it right now and don't feel bad about it.
I enjoyed Yoshi's Island on the 3DS, because it was still genuine, cute, colourful, joyful Yoshi at its core.
Oh, also Mario Party 10 just for the feeling of trouncing CPUs as Bowser.
@starman_jr Also came here to mention Castlevania 64. I almost wish this game would get some kind of remake or sequel.
I also love Goemon but I didn't know that it is considered a bad game. Compared to the sequel it is a bit short and easy, but for what it is it's really well done. I almost feel like this game was the first 3D Zelda.
@Darlinfan I know. Catwoman is terrible, but like the movie, it's almost so bad it's good.
I have actually just thought of another. Rise of the Robots on SNES. Absolutely rubbish fighting game, but I just loved the concept of it, and the presentation complete with the terrible animations of the robots prior to each fight, and the ones after each fight, including the one for the penultimate fight where the main character kicks the robot off a cliff/building side. I am actually half tempted to bring it out and play again just to be reminded of how absolutely b***s**t the third fight was.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is considered a horrible game. I love it though.
Bullet Witch
Ooh and 1-2-Switch, which I can understand why it’s considered bad, but I still love it.
Too many to name from nostalgia, so I'll roll with Super Double Dragon (SNES). Somehow I mastered it back then and genuinely enjoyed the look of everything. But that frame rate! Wow! It would've made an awesome arcade game that played properly.
A runner-up would be Fighters Destiny (N64). It's probably the best fighting game on the system, but that isn't saying much with so few to choose from.
@sketchturner I always preferred Zelda II over the original too. Can't say I preferred it over LTTP but it's very underrated. I think a big complaint was the difficulty, but not Ninja Gaiden or original TMNT hard in my opinion.
I will always love Metroid Other M and Legend of Kay. I replay both of those more than any other games. I can't even say why I love them, but I do.
@moodycat
Disagree there. Look at, for instance, Superman 64. That is an objectively bad video game. People may have gotten enjoyment from it, but I doubt it was in the way intended.
@Dezzy When I was a kid, I played that game to death! I had a love/hate relationship with it. Somethings drove me nuts but I always came back to it and beat it a few times.
Juicy Realm on iPhone—it’s a silly rogue-like that does nothing new, but I had a lot of fun with it. And you battle fruit, so there’s also that…
I think one of the worst things I spent a lot of time on, it was in the pokemon games they had the dream world thing and you had to play these really bad games on the pc in order to get pokemon with their hidden abilities.
@chipia Yeah maybe Goemon isn't technically a bad game, but it absolutely shows its age (just played it through again last week.) The controls and camera are frustrating but that's just because it's one of the first 3D platformers. I give it a lot of credit for doing what it did before Ocarina of Time came out.
@Darlinfan YES. Halle Barry was amazing for doing that. The movie has very few bright spots, and nothing compares to Michelle Pfeiffer's transformation into Catwoman, but Halle Berry did the best she could with what she had for a script.
Hmmm, a bad game that I like...I guess Capcom Fighting Evolution for ps2? It's a perfectly playable fighting game, but a pretty lacklustre and lazy effort from Capcom considering their pedigree. I like it because it's the only game where Ryu can fight a T-Rex.
@Clyde_Radcliffe
Funnily enough, the arcade version (and I think maybe even the Saturn version) were based around the Super SFII engine and supposedly pretty good, if ugly. The PS1 version was completely re-coded for some strange reason.
The first Bubsy: I don't own the game, but played it a lot back in the day. I loved the character, graphics, music, the fast Sonic-like gameplay and the animations. I was really excited when I learned there would be a sequel on snes, but I never found it in our dutch shops. I guess it never came out in Europe. Later I learned there's also another sequel on genesis.
I also love Bomberman 64 and Bomberman Hero. And I loved the Hudson-soft games I downloaded on the Wii. And A shadows tale, one of the last Hudson games. Hudson was never in the triple A area, but somehow they always hit a soft spot with me.
Cyberpunk 2077, does that count as a "bad game I love" or a "decent game everyone loves to hate"... dark souls, which I love, but friends hate because of the "clunky" gameplay, no story and the difficulty.
I love both Lester the Unlikely and the first Bubsy, but I don't consider them bad games.
@Samuel-Flutter
Ah, another Bubsy lover! I am not alone then.
@Yosher @Broosh I immediately thought of FF : Mystic Quest when I read the title of this article! It’s not bad but it’s too much of an RPG « by the numbers » to be a good game as well. It was even sold with a guide in case you got lost. And yes that soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard, too.
@jsubbuteo
Oh yes, I love Metroid Other M too. Felt very fresh back in the day, I should really replay it someday.
For me it was Sonic and the Black Knight, the controls were janky, but the look was cool (for the time).
I played the heck out of Bill Lambiers Combat Basketball for the SNES
I don't even consider it bad, more like mediocre, Sonic 06.
In 2005 I was in middle school, on a quest to play every Sonic game I could get my hands on, when the game got announced for everything except Wii, I had no choice but to give up on it. I would go to Compusa to play the Kingdom Valley demo and absolutely loved it: the visuals, the sound, being able to home on the rails, everything was different and more detailed yet felt very much like Sonic.
I kept watching youtube videos over and over and fell even more in love with the game. I have yet to play it, and the excessive hate it gets makes me even more eager to play it, but there's just no way I'll buy a 360 or PS3 just for this lame game, and Xenia can't run on my PC.
I love the gameplay, I think this is the best way to do Sonic in 3D, every game after 06 has been "Run, Boost, 2D section" while 06 feels more dynamic and varied.
A considerably large chunk of the arguments for why it sucks don't affect my view of the game, Silver is cool, Elise's relationship with Sonic isn't romantic, loading screens don't make the game, I think this one has been talked to death but intrusive glitches don't occur if you play the game as intended as I've seen in countless playthrough videos. The glitches make the game even more fun to replay.
My only real complaint is Eggman's terrible redesign, and the human characters looking extremely boring.
Fallout Shelter…. Not that it’s bad, but AI have 135 hours on it. I bet most people get bored with it after 10-20, if not much less.
@starman_jr Zelda II is one of my favorite Zelda games and I don't understand how it gets so much hate for its difficulty although From Software games are trending.
In a lot of ways Zelda II feels like the first Souls game to me.
According to a lot of people, Metroid Other M and Paper Mario Origami King are such bad games. However, I enjoyed them so much!
Other ones I've always loved and I've got great memories of them are two games from PSX that aren't considered great, so maybe nostalgia is playing a part here (I was very little by then). They are the original Ape Escape and Legend of Legaia. Loved them at the time! I don't know what it would be like to play them now, though XD
I can't really think of any. There are bad shows and movies I enjoy, that I can criticize at length yet still enjoy. The Danganronpa 3 anime comes to mind.
For games the closest I can think of is something like Fire Emblem Warriors. It's not really bad, just repetitive, but I vibe to it on occasion.
I have other games like Code Name S.T.E.A.M. where I love it and others hated it, but that's something different entirely.
Not sure this is critically hated like some of y’all’s but - the og Bubsys because a friend of mine grew up on it. Memories I cherish
I can only think of NES games atm:
Zelda 2 AoL - first Zelda game I ever played back in the 80s. I liked the big 2d sprites look over the top-down look of the original.
Fester’s Quest - I hated this game but I’m including it here because I never beat it. I got to the final boss and died which meant I had to restart the whole game over again. I never played it again and therefore I would play this game again to say I finally beat it.
Deadly Towers - this game is crap but I kinda got the hang of it regardless once I used graph paper to map out the dungeon mazes.
Amagon - not a great game but I still got into it. Kinda grew on me tbh.
I don't play bad games!
I have a weak spot for The Adventures of Bayou Billy that game is pretty damn bad.
But it did something to me back in the day.
I also find the original TMNT NES game to be charming.
Sonic 3D Blast on the Saturn! Definitely better than the Mega Drive/Genesis version but still much maligned but I love it!
I guess mine will be KILLER IS DEAD
everyone hates it, 64 metascore, supposedly sexist, incoherent and button mashy. To me: a masterpiece one of the best games of all times, love the story, the combat system, the visuals. Best Suda51 game for sure. i just love this game I have the special edition thank god! ( and it works awesome on the Xbox series consoles)
@Clyde_Radcliffe
Yeah, man! I didn't even realize Bubsy was a hated game from the SNES era until recently. I owned both games and played the heck out of them! In fact, alongside DKC and A Link to the Past, they were games I was convinced I had to have an SNES for.
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (SNES version, LJN Classic)
Batman Forever (Snes)
Mighty Bomb Jack (Nes... and Switch Virtual Console)
Special Mention to N64 Nagano Winter Olympics 98. It is so bad that it is not even in any "Worst Games List". But I like it.
@AlienigenX That game is pretty dope, I played it myself when I had a mild fever, the kind where lying in bed gets you restless but doing anything else than gaming is out of the question.
I tell you, that art and presention really came to life.
@Wargoose Great to see Fragile Dreams to get a shoutout! Though honestly, I didn't know most would consider it a "bad" game. Yeah, the controls were a bit rough at time, but man there was so much emotional impact in that game--it really stuck with me.
@khululy I wish I had experience it the first time during a fever…. Perfect setting😉
Obviously I wouldn't call it a bad game because I love it, but apparently I am in a minority of gamers who never could get enough of Cool Spot on the Sega Genesis.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for me. Despite all the hate it gets it’s a lot of fun (at least I have fun anyway).
I dont know if i have any. I've bought games that look good but everyone agree there were bad. But i tend to have really good taste in games.
Edit: Wait...i thought of one, a big one that was super divisive. I loved Final Fantasy 13. I though the art style was great, the music was epic, the story drew me in, i even liked the fast battle battle system as it was a refreshing change. I even loved the corridor gameplay. I get so tired of every game trying to be open world, sometime i just want a straight forward game where i dont get distracted by side stories.
I will admit, i got 20 hours in, gave up and took me a year or 2 to go back. But when i fully read the lore and pay attention to the story i loved every minute of it. 13-2 less so, was not a fan. LR I haven't played.
@nofriendo I dunno about now, but as a kid, man I loved Cool Spot.
I dont know it its considered bad but for me its yoshis story, game had a weird design were you could only play 1 stage per world, gathering the fruit would sometimes cause to accidentally beat the level before I was done playing in it, and the bosses were meh. But god I love that game to death lol
ESPN Xtreme Games on PSX. I knew it was a bad racing game at the time, but darn it if my friends and I didn’t play the heck out of it. It was so satisfying when you kicked a street luge player trying to speed pass and sent them into a crash that would land any real person in the hospital!
I guess mine would be Dark Souls 2. I love that game, but the majority of users seem to hate it!
I can't think of anything that's like a 3 outta 10 bad. But I've had a blast on tons of mediocre titles.
SONIC 3D BLAST! (genesis)
Paper Mario: Sticker Star (and Paper Mario: Color Splash, for that matter)
I actually enjoyed the resource management as it added a whole new layer of strategy for me to undertake (save for the Thing Stickers, which I only used for "puzzles") and being given a wide variety of attacks to take on enemies with was satisfying. I even liked it more than The Origami King.
Another one:
Nights: Journey into Dreams (Wii)
Just listening to the music makes me really nostalgic, probably because I bought that game during a particularly happy time in life.
I have seen a lot of love in the forms for the Super Star Wars games. Personally, I didn’t like them. I would probably consider them mediocre, though, and not bad.
After disqualifying several games on the ground that i actually still like them for their own good reasons, i settled on Resident evil 6. Unlike most games i play, the main story mode just feels too loose and weightless to go back to nowadays. I Still play it every once in a while though because a lot of the action sequences in that game are ones you simply cannot get anywhere else, and the mercenaries no mercy mode is a rush like no other. Also mentioning Postal 2. In that game, the comedy is simply not my thing, it will crash for the strangest reasons, hit detection can be a mystery, but the massive amount of freedom the game gives you (Some scenarios even let you get away without killing anyone!) earns it a "...Go on???" in my book that i find myself looking back fondly on every once in a while. Even though i have all reasons in the world to despise it.
I guess what constitutes a bad game is purely opinion beyond an obvious broken game like Big Rigs Racing or LJN games. Personally i don't think i like any crappy games but I'm sure others may look at my collection and disagree.
@Vortexeo I love Xeno 2 but my god the map navigation is terrible! Its almost as if it was an afterthought.
Beetlejuice on NES, NES Friday the 13th, Kid Klown, Mr Mosquito, Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder, people seem to hate FFXV for some reason but I truly adore the game, Simon’s Quest also tends to get a lot of hate, Megaman X6…
Honestly, I’ve liked about 80% of the NES games I’ve played to some extent, but anything I owned as a kid I played to death whether it was good or not. I hold the bad NES games in higher regards than the bad PS2 games.
I loved Quest 64.
@SpringDivorce Yeah, the arcade version looks a lot better on YouTube. I believe it has a different soundtrack too!
Digimon World 3 is what comes to mind for me, though it does seem to be held in high regard among digimon fans so if that even counts. I loved that game when I was a kid. And the soundtrack is still amazing. I checked.
Funky Barn on the Wii U. It was the early days of the console and there was little that interested me. My wife, who doesn't game, saw the game for sale very cheap and bought it for me because I like Harvest Moon. The game is glitchy and silly, but I remember having a blast with it, which is all that matters.
Probably Balan Wonderland, I knew game was bad but I was still curious. Got a new copy for $28 on PS4. I though co-op would be fun, but it's basically broken. Game is just weird and nothing is explained. I think they gave up on it and a proper tutorial would have just made the localization more time consuming. But the game does look and sound good, and the carnival vibe is strangely alluring.
I also owned and loved that game. And I am not ashamed of it at all.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for me. I don't consider it a bad game IMHO, it did get reviewed poorly. Just always like the exploration aspect of the game, and being able to explore the game's world is one of the reasons why I like going back and playing it from time to time.
Will also say, I'm probably one of the few who enjoyed Balan Wonderworld despite popular opinion. Again, I don't consider it bad, only complaint being lack of a dedicated jump button. Like it as a puzzle platformer, figuring out how to reach certain areas with costumes.
@moodycat This I agree with as opinions change from person to person.
@Joshua228 Man, I played Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius on GameCube a lot in early 2003. Had fun despite the cutscenes the game has. Jimmy can talk, without moving his mouth.
I have Robocop 2 on the NES. I think Ocean were the developers. It’s a run n’ gun platformer. It was too difficult for me at the time. Not sure how I’d fare now. The physics made things difficult especially in those sewer sections. Very slippery terrain.
But I kept going back to it because I liked playing as Robocop and shooting the villains. I was too young for the films but I loved the character. If it appeared on the Switch online service I would definitely try and best it.
@River3636 I’ve always like that and still have it. Played it about a year ago until I finally beat it.
Today, my favorite “bad” game would prob be #killallzombies. I love twin stick shooters and it seems like no one played this. or maybe ziggurat. I keep going back to those between other games on my switch.
Phineas and Ferb across the second dimension on wii it should suck but it’s actually one of the best games I’ve ever played you guys should check it out
Me and my best mate at the time, used to stay up until 3am playing Jennifer capriatis tennis on the mega drive. Neither of us even liked tennis
@Double-L Have played Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension on both Wii and DS, in addition to the other two DS games.
Cartoon-based games usually get poor reception from gaming sites, but there's a lot of them I've liked.
Nowadays, they seem to appear on mobile. Though, will say I'm very happy with Smurfs: Mission Vileaf appearing on Switch and PC. I miss playing games based on cartoons I like.
A few have already been mentioned, but:
Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball (SNES - I got this as a kid because it was cheap, but it was terrible. But owning a game meant playing the game when you were bored, so I grew fond of it over time)
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES - this game got me into JRPGs)
Metroid: Other M (Wii - everyone hated it, but I instantly loved it)
Spindizzy Worlds (SNES - loved this game and rented it many times. Going back to it now, the controls are tough and the isometric view can make that even worse)
Codename Steam. Apparently no one wanted that game. I think it’s amazing.
The Lord of the rings game on SNES was actually a game I played loads of. It was a fairly rare example of a long involved game for 5 players (if I remember rightly- we only ever had 4), multiplayer makes up for a lot of sins if you have the players for it.
In terms of flawed games (not necessarily bad) that I still have fondness for - I think I’d put up things like Festers Quest on NES. The Blaster Master team made it and it’s fun to play - even though the lack of saves and continues was a clear mistake even then. An auto save every five minutes would make it much more palatable (seriously - that’s the type of compromise between old school and save state scumming that I’m surprised we don’t see).
I also enjoyed Doshin the Giant - it’s a strange game and very limited but you can see the seeds of something interesting there. A strategy or god game doesn’t need to have a million sub menus to click through to be satisfying.
My top 20 bad/garbage games that I still love:
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (PS1, N64)
Drakkhen (Super NES)
Fighting Force (PS1, N64)
Street Fighter: The Movie the Game (PS1, Sega Saturn, Arcade)
TMNT: Smash-Up (Wii, PS2)
Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu (GBA)
Battle Arena Toshinden (PS1, Sega Saturn)
Cybermorph (Atari Jaguar)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Sega Genesis, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP)
Bullet Witch (Xbox 360)
The Outfoxies (Arcade)
Cosmic Carnage (Sega 32X)
Red Alert (Virtual Boy)
Sword of Sodan (Sega Genesis)
Link: The Faces of Evil Remastered (PC)
Cyberpunk 2077 (Google Stadia)
Castlevania 64 (N64)
Action 52 (NES, Sega Genesis)
Daikatana (PS1)
Street Combat (Super NES)
Evel Knievel (Game Boy Color, Intellivision Amico)
Not necessarily a 'bad' game, but Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube got ripped to shreds on its release for the intrusive and repetitive Power Shots. I didn't mind these (and you can turn them off in some modes) and in fact really enjoyed the game, putting in many hours to try and complete all the modes (some of those mini-games still haven't been conquered).
@NinChocolate codename steam is just unpopular, it's a pretty well made and enjoyable game. It doesn't really have any major flaws.
Gex, deep cover gecko: I unironably love the horrible n64 version!
The 1978 film started my for Tolkien's works and Although I'm not that enthusiastic now I still have an A4 sized poster of the order 1978 film framed
Final Fantasy the crystal bearers. It's pretty bad all round, but there are glimmers of good ideas. Epic Mickey is the same.
For older games... I would say JAWS on the NES and most 32X games, but specifically DOOM and Motocross. Newer games would totally include DEVIL'S THIRD. I love that game; especially the multiplayer.
I suppose for me it’s the Super Scope 6. It’s one of those “I get 1 game every 6 months so I’m gonna rinse it” affairs, and it’s one of only 2 “endless” games I ever got into High-Score-Chasing (the other being Tetris on the OG GB).
I suppose the same is true of Tiny Toons: Buster Busts Loose, and TMNT Tournament Fighters, which I swear both reviewed well when I was a kid, contrary to what GameRankings says
I loved this game too for all the same reasons.
Clayfighter 63 1/3 definitely made the rounds in my house and became pretty quotable with my friends (particularly "Chicken-Licken" and "Cluck you!")
Gex 64 Enter the Gecko and Gex 3 Deep Cover Gecko for the N64 and also Devils Third on Wii U. Completed all 3 and enjoyed them all...
@Styrophoamicus I was just about to say this. This is one of my favorites. I love the characters and their voices. The break through arenas were also a nice touch. It has a high nostalgic value for me.
NES - Castlevania II
SNES - TMNT Tournament Fighter
SEGA - Maximum Carnage
PSX - Street Fighter EX+Alpha
N64 - Cruisin' USA
Dreamcast - Sonic Adventure
PS2 - Heavenly Guardian
GC - Kirby's Air Ride
Wii - Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
Silly Putty. It's ..... well it just is.
Hmm. It's kinda hard for me to see why you would love a bad game. A bad movie you can enjoy while making fun of it, but a bad game? If it isn't fun to play, it isn't fun to play. Of course there are flawed games that I like. The first one that comes to mind is the PC RPG Arcanum that had great worldbuilding with a very wonky and confusing battle system.
NES American Gladiators
Super Nintendo Revolution X and Strike Gunner STG
N64 Cruisn USA
Xbox Star Wars Episode III the game
Cursed Mountain on Wii was horrible and I enjoyed every minute of it. I also have a huge soft spot for Far Cry Vengeance on Wii.
The chunky graphics of both are just so charming to me, and the fast-paced nature of Far Cry makes it feel genuinely like an old school shooter set in a newer franchise.
Final Fantasy 13. Fight me!
Pokemon Sword/Sheild comes to mind. I loved it, but I can definitely see why a lot of people hated these entries for both the creative choices made and the technical shortcomings.
@IceClimbersMain I own Mario DDR and I approve of this message. It is the only game where Bowser challenges you to a dance off.
I have played a lot of trashy Nintendo games over the years. Ever played Forsaken on the n64? It was twisted metal but with flying vehicles in 3 axis arenas. Super hard to control but did I try playing it for a long time. Battle tanks also for n64 was so dumb but I bought it and its sequel and played the crap out of them.
I maintain Red Steel on the Wii is one of the greatest corridor shooters ever made. Oh sure it’s janky as heck being a rushed launch title but it makes great use of the Wii remote, doing shoot outs through warehouses never gets old and it has one of the best 2-player vs modes in the genre.
Just think for a minute about how many FPS games have a good 2-player vs. mode. Most multiplayer levels are built for a lot of players and thus suffer when there are less because there is too much space eg Halo CE. Red Steel has some pretty good small arenas perfect for local play. Medal of Honor on the PS1 and Red Faction on the PS2 are two other janky FPS games that are really good 2-player vs. titles.
Masters of Tera Kasi, Thrill Kill and Chubby Cherub.
I used to love Super Play Action Football on the SNES. One of the few football games that allowed me to play as my beloved LA Rams (with actual players from the team). It was only many years later, when I looked it up on the internet, that I discovered people really didn’t like the game 😂.
7th Saga. I beat it with a Game Genie, and I honestly want to play it again.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan for the OG Xbox, I really liked that game but it was utter trash to everyone else.
Contra Rogue Corps - 20 hours in and I love it. It is also one of the ugliest games I've ever played.
Name an awful game you still play and everyone on here is just naming classic after classic! Anyone know what a bad game is??
@Nobunigga omg, I almost forgot Quest 64! Never beat it, but for some reason I liked to start it again and again.
It's quite rough but I still enjoy the graphics and the overall atmosphere of the game. The battle system was also quite original. I sometimes wish someone made a new, more polished game in this style.
More recently I would say WINDBOUND. Got hammered in reviews, but I loved my time with it and spend way more hours on it than most AAA games i play.
I honestly like Contra: Rogue Corps. Don't throw rocks at me.
Pokemon Quest
Millon's Secret Castle (NES). That game was deplorable in absolutely every way. But somehow, and for unexplained reasons, I loved it.
@Sirloto ProTip:
There are several ROM hacks that restore everything that was changed from its original Japanese release "Elnard" (So many changes, it makes Working Designes blush) and actually makes the game quite playable and enjoyable ^^
Almost everything that makes The 7th Saga a bad game was done by the localization team.
@Topic
I genuinely likes and enjoyed "Two Worlds".
In our German localisation, the main character was voiced by one of my favs, Dietmar Wunder, which also helped a lot!
But there was a certain charme about its clumsiness, like the big bad waiting for you in a sheep cave right next to the starting village.
But it also had plenty of brilliant ideas. It's magic system (Basically you build your own spells by stacking magic cards) or that you could simply stack the same pieces of gear to make them better, completely avoiding clutter in your inventory.
I guess if I had to pick one it would be Oregon Trail on the 3DS, ugly graphics, iffy controls, and some ridiculousness that happens. But somehow it has a place in my collection.
I’m have a confession…I love silver surfer nes. I sick at it and die a lot but the opening theme is just so cool.
Pokemon SWSH - at least according to folks on this site, it's one of the worst games ever made.
My terrible game that no-one else likes is Star Trek The Next Generation on the original GameBoy, mostly because it felt very faithful to the show. While it did have pew pew shooty missions, there were also plenty of missions to escort ambassadors, evacuate colonies, destroy asteroids on a collision course, deliver medicines, etc.
It could randomise the missions to a certain extent too, with the the destinations changing and it would sometimes throw in intruder alerts or an unexpected time warp to the mix.
I really enjoyed it, but I’ve never even come across anyone who’s played it, let alone liked it!
I have so many but too keep it short Godzilla for the PS4 and Shadow the Hedgehog. Godzilla on PS4 is the best Godzilla simulator ever made. It's a bad fighting game which is what they advertise the game as. Shadow on the other hand I don't know why I love I just do.
When we were kids, my brother and I went all over the neighborhood for weeks doing whatever odd jobs people wanted us to do to earn the money to buy Skate or Die for the NES. Man, that game turned out to be awful, but we still loved it and played it all the time because of how much work went into earning it.
@Barbara001 I LOVED 'Young Merlin'. Did not know it was considered a bad game. I thought it was clever as heck. But i cannot really trust my 12 year old self.
Tricky Kick for TurboGrafx 16!!!!!!!
Maybe this game isn't bad, but when I talk about it, most people don't know what it is. When I show them pictures, they give me a weird look. I love this game!
@starman_jr it seems to be a more modern opinion to hate on that game, perhaps from that AVGN episode but I remember it being well received at the time. Also play other 3rd person action games from then, this is easily one of the best
Every single game on ps1 ps2 ps3 ps4 and ps5.
Crash Test Dummies and Beetlejuice on Gameboy! Both not great mini game collections but loved them both back in the day!
I played through all of Duke Nukem Forever and quite enjoyed it and I still own it, which is more than can be said for many higher rated fps games
@River3636 Agreed! Chrissy for Smash Ultimate!! 😂
Nes
Fester Quest
Bayou Billy
TMNT
Bart vs Space Mutants
Snes
Busy
Cool Spot
Waynes world
Mario is Missing
Action Fighter on the Master System. Back in the day it received generally poor reviews but I liked the different vehicles.
CTRL+F "Dante's Inferno"
...Just me, then. That game is unapologetic bum and I love it.
The original Fifa soccer on the Mega Drive. If I pop that in, I'll definitely play a few games.
Mario Party Advance was one of my favorite childhood games and I still think it holds up better than people give it credit for.
Arc Rise Fantasia is the perfect combination of "so bad it's good" story and voice acting with unironically good gameplay.
The recently released Retrograde Arena is a gem even if I'm the only one that can see it.
I've also had a lot of fun playing Ninja Shodown with friends and was shocked when I discovered it reviewed poorly.
Paper Mario sticker star and crash mind over mutant for the ds. Also phantom hourglass
@darkswabber
I feel like no one gave it a chance due to the battle system.
The San Francisco Rush port on Midway Arcade Treasures 3. Let's be honest: It's broken as heck. The physics are all screwed up- it's WAY too easy to crash or lose control of the car. But that's part of the fun: Launching a colossal jump, then nudging the side of a building and watching your car do an insane amount of rapid fire spins until it finally crashes into something and explodes.
Plus there are weird audio glitches like "Final LAPS TO GO", or the random voice bytes when you enter a hidden area: "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!"- again, part of the charm.
And hey, at least it's still better than the PS1 version.
Top Gear Rally on the N64.
I was heavily into skateboarding at the time and found a bit of level that I could use as a quarter pipe. I'd drive up at different angles and slide/grind along the top before dropping back in!
The game was complete pants but I sessioned that ramp for HOURS 😄
I did a similar thing down the handrail of Peaches Castle in Mario64. Flip to crooked tummy slide, flip out 😂
I can't think of one poorly made game that I could say I enjoyed, loved or would ever go back to. I'm sure with the crap load of stuff that was on the NES, I played a ton of clunkers and thought they were the bee's knees. But once I was older and able to read gaming magazines on a regular basis and know what games to check out or stay away from, I think I've been pretty good about buying games that are at least decently made, even if I maybe didn't connect with the game in the end. But I don't have time to waste on games that are poorly made.
I'd say the only time I spent more than one playthrough on a bad game was (I think I'm remembering the name correctly here) Mansion of Hidden Souls. I didnt have many games up that point for the Sega Saturn. So I was replaying the handful of games I did have. I also bought it cheaply used, on a whim, at Funcoland before I knew what it was all about.
i love Dark Seed 2, i don’t know, its just… the music and it’s awkward in so many war’s, but… i just love it!
I've put up with Pokemon games. I thought Pokemon Alpha Sapphire was okay, but it's my most played game of all time at 1370+ hours.
Paper Mario Sticker Star holds a special place in my heart cuz it got me into RPGs with its simple turn-based battle system.
Not one I've personally played (or, admittedly, have any foreseeable intention to), but probably Big Rigs. Not only a rare game legitimately qualifying as bad (instead of getting an age-old fanbrained label of being so), but defies belief therein. The way the reverse gear accelerates the truck to above six-digit values is one of the most epic sights to behold in the history of gaming.😂
Defenders of Dynatron City! It had the WORST hit detection, but you could choose from a bunch of widely different characters, which was always a draw for me, and it was based off of a Steve Purcell comic book and animated special, both of which I adored.
Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights, from Konami, for the 3DS
That game did not get much attention when it was launched. Very few websites cared about reviewing it - and the only positive review was from jeuxvideo.com. Most reviewers saw it as a copy of the Professor Layton games, but I´d say that Doctor Lautrec, although clearly inspired by Level-5 masterpieces, has its own identity and flair.
I enjoyed that game a lot, completing all puzzles, missions and collecting all ancient relics. The soundtrack is superb and the anime sequences are fun to watch. Too bad it sold poorly and Konami never cared about a sequel.
@Clyde_Radcliffe Sonic Forces is good, in my opinion. I also had lots of fun with that game and I do think it deserves more attention from Sonic fans and the Nintendo Switch gaming community in general.
@ChimpHunter hahaha, well I consider it a "weird" game. But that's also twelve year old me talking, so what do I know. How many times I had to call the nintendo hotline because I had NO CLUE WHAT TO DO! Good times. Love that game.
Lord of the rings SNES. I made maps for all the caves. It was horrible.
I really liked Sküljagger: Revolt of the Westicans for Super NES. It was a pretty basic side-scrolling action game, but it came with a lengthy comic book that provided a detailed backstory for the game, which really made it interesting for me.
For me it was Jumping Flash!, Good thing Nintendo brought Mario 64.
Tonic Trouble for Nintendo 64
Anyone play Body Harvest on the 64? Yeah, that
@moodycat The world isnt just black and white you know. Ever heard of guilty pleasure? For instance what I thought was a great game as a kid, but as I grew older and developed into a more complex human being, I come to realize was terrible. But I will still love it today, because it has a sentimental value to me. Its nothing uncommon, as it holds true in many other things you in life like movies, food, music etc, your perspective of things change as you grow older.
I have to go with Platoon on the NES. Great music, good level variety, passable graphics, short and sweet. Made it to Barnes a number of times, but always ran out of time...
I'm sure I have some, but my memory isn't so good. I do remember buying games as a kid from old cartoons and tv shows. Those are usually not so good.
Harry Potter Chamber Secrets GBC was great!
However, it was the last GBC game that came out and did not meet commercial success as everyone had moved on to GBA.
Sonic 06. The game is awful...but I've actually enjoyed playing it and even getting good at it (S ranked multiple stages and bosses). I also enjoy laughing at how incredibly buggy it is and how the Purple Gem that lets Sonic infinite jump breaks the game even more so you can wander to random parts of levels.
I've beaten it multiple times on both PS3 & 360 and I'm really looking forward to that fan-made PC port.
A bad game that I love is definitely Bram Stoker's Dracula for the Sega Mega Drive.
Pac Man VS. From the meme, supposedly bad.
Star Trek: Conquest. This game should be refined and made online multiplayer. So simple, yet so captivating... I've played this game more than 1 month in total.
Love it.
The reviewers didn't like it though.
I don't give a feldercarb
I too loved the SNES Lord of the Rings game. I mean, I hated that the very first quest was a lengthy, monotonous fetch quest in caves that had ZERO music. But I too was taken by the concept that you could theoretically have up to FIVE players play simultaneously! That beats Secret of Mana. Play well? No. The camera focused on player one, and the rest of the players could wander off screen and be killed.
as a kid I thought Mario in time(nes) was kind of neat. yugioh the falsebound kingdom(gcn) was fun despite using the duel monsters rpg-like and not as a card game.
It's tough for me to recall a "bad" game I like. Generally, if I like it, I stop thinking of it as bad, or it's only bad in a particular way, but not overall. There are definitely games that I think become much better with modern conveniences like save states. As for "bad" games, Pit Fighter is often considered bad and I remember liking that back in the day, arcade and Genesis. I played the Genesis version again several years back and still enjoyed it. And back in the day, I received Iridion 3D on the GBA as a gift and I was aware that it got terrible reviews, so I was a bit worried about that, but I ended up really liking it. It's well made as a tech demo at least, so it's not all bad even for those that don't like it. But I enjoyed it quite a bit. And Greendog on the Genesis/Mega Drive is another one considered by some, including those with an enjoyable Youtube show, to be on the bad side, but I was pleasantly surprised by that one. I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.
Well, for me, that would have been Ghostbusters for NES. As a fan, I constantly downplayed how bad it was but... I was a Ghostbusters fan so...
Mine is probably Lemmings 3D. Digital Foundry recently covered it as part of the three part launch of the PS1 series. They dragged it pretty hard, but I enjoyed it a lot back in the 1990s. It probably doesn't hold up, but I don't know as I haven't played it in decades.
One game that seems to be universally hated but I love is Donkey Kong 64. Each stage was truly unique, the music was memorable, and each playable character and boss fight brought something different to the game. My understanding is that most people have a problem with the game being repetitive having to go through the stage multiple times with each character to get their respective collectibles. I understand that sentiment but I feel that was intended to make you play with all 5 characters and not just use the same one for everything. This could have easily been a one character DK game and that would have fixed that problem in being able to collect everything with one person but I feel like the variety of characters and their unique abilities kept the game from getting stale. This wasn’t a bad game, it’s a collectathon just like Banjo Kazooie, but it also has more characters to play as.
@pariah164 Illusion of Gaia is a bad game??
@pariah164 Illusion Of Gaia was Awesome! I loved that game.
Elevator Action
@Darlinfan I'll probably be prohibited from watching the show going forward for that.
Eternity: The Last Unicorn
Homefront Revolution.
I've been seeing a lot of hate towards Metroid 1 in light of Dread's announcement, so I guess that counts? It's certainly better with hacks that add a map and saving, along with engine overclocking if the emulator you're using supports it
Ikari Warriors on NES. The game is flawed to hell and back but I have a lot of nostalgia for it and the many military-themed games on NES.
Also Rambo.
Rabbids Land. It's awful, but it's also weirdly charming, and still better than Mario Party 10.
@carlos82 Duke Nukem Forever was a perfectly decent FPS to it's contemporary opposition.
For a game with that title and such a history and it being the direct sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, a highly acclaimed shooter, it was kind of an anti climax.
But people forget, between Duke Nukem 3D and Forever there have been a few quite mediocre Duke Nukem games.
Except for the Balls of Steel Pinball table simply because, when you pick it, it starts up with: "Now I got time to play with myself!" as a reference to the Duke Nukem pinball machine with the same name that, on interacting, recieved the line: "I don't got time to play with myself!"
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters for NES. The music is SO GOOD, and I used to play it every Thanksgiving with a cousin when I was younger, when my family would go over to his house. Very nostalgic
Forsaken ‘64 - not sure if it was considered bad…but aside from my friend and I wasting countless hours on it…I’ve never known anyone else that’s even heard of it. So much fun and amazing soundtrack.
The author clearly did not enjoy the game from what I read, but simply loved the game because of his passion for TLotR during a particular time of his life.
I also have my copy of the same game when I was a kid and I will never get rid of it because despite being frustrated with that game, I have very fond memories playing it with my brother. I played it because during that time I was falling in love with RPGs and would play anything RPG, even when I hated it.
Draken for the SNES is another stupid game I would not mind getting a hold of again.
Two come to mind. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and Radical Rex. I got Mystic Quest for free through my local Bookmobile as a reward for reading X number of books or something when I was a kid. I loved that. Radical Rex is too hip to be extinct, or so I was told. I thought it was a fun platformer.
Final Fantasy XIII... Wasn't so much bad as it was "not what people expected" (and obviously I would argue that it's mostly just misunderstood 😅). Though to be completely fair, many of the character interactions were quite painful and the story makes very little sense without reading a lot of external mythology that can't be found in game...
I don't even have nostalgia to blame as I played it through for the first time last year
Mission: Impossible (N64) and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64)
Probably Sonic '06. I got everything, including all achievements, back when I was in high school close to when it initially released.
Some runners up would be Tonic Trouble on the N64, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts (I'm a huge fan of BK and BT but I don't give N&B as much hate as some other huge fans of the other two give it), and DK64 (it's bloated, that's for sure, but I don't understand some of the complaints... like backtracking. You only backtrack to the first and second levels and Fungi Forest once you get Lanky's OrangStand Sprint ability).
Quite honestly, I can think of quite a few other games I like that I've seen pretty negative opinions about but I found them just fine in a lot of cases or maybe just a weaker game overall.
Knife Edge: nose gunner for N64, proves that stick is the best analogue ever made. I also had a soft spot for P.N.03 on Gamecube. Both games had great concepts but "mediocre" execution.
fight of animals
Sonic 06' for me. Looking back, the animations and voice acting weren't as good as I remember, but I had fun with it!
Ark on Switch. I’ve lost a good chunk of my life to this game. I put about 1500 hours in it on PC when it first launched. Then I heard it was getting ported to switch, and I was curious. Despite the awful reviews, I wanted the game portably. The reviews weren’t wrong, but I still put another 400 hours in the Switch version. In fact, maybe I’ll revisit my survivor profile this weekend and do a bit of raiding.
Battleborn for me. Poor game was set up to fail with terrible marketing but by gum was it a fantastically flawed game. RIP Battleborn.
@BaronMunchausen
Incorrect!!! Tron was an awesome arcade game back in the day! I just can’t imagine it being thought of as a guilty pleasure.
If Tron was a bad game for you, you must have exceptionally high standards. 😉
Pokémon Channel. A nice, calm, relaxing game when I was younger. I had fun with it, anyway.
I mean...the first thing that comes to mind is the two Monster Hunter games on PSP.
I didn't think they were bad at all but they reviewed really poorly, which really irked me at the time..
Evil Dead Fistfull of Boomstick! Had a blast playing it with my son when he was about 12. We played through the whole game without a memory card. Great memory!
@pariah164 I can get behind Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday, and one of the most delightful things about that game is how genuinely unnerving the music is. It feels disconnected from the game itself at times, which always perplexed me!
Super Mario Sunshine.
@Pavil I really enjoyed Fighters Destiny back in the day. Some of the music in that game was pretty memorable to me. Still have Jokers Room saved in a playlist because of that.
Apparently mine is Donkey Kong 64
Here are some old school GB games I loved that were panned:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gameboy/585781-krustys-fun-house
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gameboy/585747-the-humans
Breath of the Wild is my bad game 😏
@Darlinfan No I have not played Ion Fury I have a bit of a love hate relation with Build Engine games.
@Teksetter
All I remember was that I loved it but no one I talk to seems to have played it (which made me think it wasn’t popular and possibly not good). I’m glad to hear it’s actually considered a good game. I just pulled that out of my arse trying to think of an example.
For me it was Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy on the SNES for the most part it got some pretty bad reviews at the time. It was slow and clunky and the missions were very bad at times. Being a fan of Star Trek though I loved it and played it through multiple times for months. Probably its most impressive feat was that it rendered ships and objects in space out of polygons using the base SNES hardware with no extra chips.
Some people don't seem to know what games are considered bad for their time as they seem to be naming many games that were very well received.
@BaronMunchausen
I get it - certainly no offense! In retrospect TRON and so, so many of the arcade and console games that were brilliant for their time look like dumpster fires nowadays.
“You had to be there,” right?
This is just a fun topic for many of us. 😁
I had a weak spot for platformers back in the day. Bonk’s Adventure, Plok, Adventure Island, and Decapattack to name a few. I was enamored with Captain Skyhawk on the NES when it came out, but going back to it now it’s barely playable.
Nowadays there’s too many quality titles on every machine too mess with bad ones. There are some games like Greedfall and Outward that I think are weak titles overall, but in the context of the garbage AAA developers are calling RPGs these days I find charm in the experience and can overlook flaws.
I do think a lot of games are great that are considered bad, like Metroid: Other M or New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and some odd ducks like Tales of Legendia which is consider a weak Tales game but was the only one I could get into, or Castlevania: Lament of Innocence over any other 3D entries in the series.
@cmbaum Krusty’s Fun House was awesome. Don’t let anyone tell you different!
@snookaus Forsaken 64 is a pretty good game. I think it gets a lot of guff for it’s awful, awful box art.
Barbie: The Island Princess Wii
Finished the game in approximate 2 hours.
Very short girlie game with bunch of mini games that have no correlation with the storyline.
Kirby's Air Ride got Medicore reviews when it came out but that game's city trial mode is the stuff of legends. Everyone I know who remembers that mode had nothing but positive and glowing opinions.
@LocalPenguin
Top Gear Rally was awesome, me and my brother sank countless hours into that game.
Transformers Battlegrounds. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the lame dialog and the game is a bit buggy, but I actually got addicted to the game and even bought the Shattered Spacebridge DLC and replayed to get all the achievements, so I got a lot more time out of it than the reviews led me to believe I would.
Crackdown 3 (XB1) this last generation was my jam. I've 100%'d that game at least a half dozen times. I love it.
Prior to that I'd say Project X Zone and 7th Dragon III Code: VFD on 3DS. Neither got good press but they're my two favorite 3DS games for some reason.
If you want to go back a bit, I was a huge fan of Sonic R on Saturn and way too many Master System games to count.
@Darlinfan I really liked Terminator Resistance too. Thought it was a blast and didn't get the hate at all.
I'm glad I'm not the only one here to love Metroid: Other M. The gameplay is great and the story isn't bad, though I can understand why people don't like it. Castlevania II is another game that comes to mind.
Whether you can call it a bad game or not is up to you, but I like Metroid: Other M. Having been a Metroid fan ever since the early 2000s, I always was curious about Samus' backstory.
Granted, a manga adaptation does exist, and I have read it via the Metroid Database, but since it is considered non-canon, I wanted Nintendo's official position on her story.
So to see that Other M would be a story-driven piece with a bit of a character study on Samus tickled my fancy, not just as a gamer and a fan of the Metroid series, but as a writer, as well.
Plus, having Samus actually talk with voiced dialogue (beyond what little text-based dialogue that we got in Fusion) was a welcome change for me.
I know the game is not everyone's cup of tea, particularly as to how Samus was portrayed, but it is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and one that I still enjoy, flaws and all.
Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness
Circus Maximus for the OG Xbox. Crap reviews but it's because no reviewer understood the brilliant controls. Loved this chariot racing game😍
Trespasser Jurassic Park.
Nothing like being a janky one armed woman on site B
@Yosher
i love you for this comment. Mystic Quest Legend was my first FF game. My mom bought it for me one day when i was sick. I still remember the day she gave it to me, I didnt know the game, but I was impressed by the cover of that character holding up the sword on the cliff. I played it together with my best friend and he said it wasnt as good as secret of mana, which was his favorite game. it opened me up to turn based combat and i was so proud of myself when i beat the game.
When i the memory of it came to my mind recently, I called my mom and told her how happy she had made me with that gift. thanks MOM!
I, too, love Other M, though I don't consider it a bad game. Same goes for Zelda II and FFXIII. People who caLL those games bad have never played an actually bad game.
Sonic Heroes is kind of mediocre, but I have a soft spot for it. I also enjoy Sonic and the Secret Rings, janky as it is.
Still, I can't think of a truly bad game that I love, for whatever reason.
@MagicEmperor I played that game when I was 6 or 7, and it scared the crap outta me. Of course, I can look at it now and kinda laugh, but... I shy away from actually playing it again, even now!
@Rurounifencer I think in my head, I thought of it as bad back then because NOBODY talked about it. Glad to see plenty of people are giving it love now!
I loved reading this article and comments and thought I'd chime in.
This is a fun topic because of the many possible reasons behind a person's "irrational" attraction to an otherwise unpopular game!
I think there are a lot (a majority even?) of licensed games brought up here, where fondness of the source material like LOTR or Star Trek makes you gloss over a game's mediocrity.
I loved NES games Jaws, Top Gun, and Friday the 13th maybe for this reason. I was appalled to hear many thousands of copies of E.T. for the Atari 2600 were just dumped in a landfill, because my cousin and I were genuinely into that game at one time. After many sad deaths, we eventually got E.T. home.
Emotional attachment certainly comes into play, like when a game was obtained through hard work, gifted from a loved one (Ice Climbers was like that for me), or you have fond memories of playing it with friends/family.
Maybe there is the lemon effect at work, too (especially true pre-internet) - where you were sucked into buying a game by cover art or concept only to realize it's quite awful but you're going to wring every last goddamn ounce of fun out of it and LIKE IT. NES Wizards and Warriors comes to mind.
I think with all the media and fanfare for game releases now, I read up and avoid iffy-looking games. But who knows how many of the games I played and liked as a kid on the Atari or Colecovision or NES were actually unpopular? If it's fun for you, that's all that really matters, right?
@pariah164 Nothing wrong with that! I understand how you feel. 😄
@SpringDivorce
Gotta love playing with the clunky controls of "Fighting Street"
Red Steel! Was the reason I bought a Wii.. played through it over 5 times I reckon. Always loved the Yakuza, Japanese culture etc so this game was a match made in heaven for me.
Played Call of Duty: Black Ops III on my PlayStation 3..... honestly, it's not as bad as people make it to be. It greatly pales in comparison to the PS4/XB1/PC version, especially with the unpatched glitches, stuttery frame rate, and very low-quality textures. However, it has its own charm to it that makes it worth playing for me.
If we're talking Nintendo, then take any Zelda game that essentially split the community or was criticized. Skyward Sword and Age of Calamity both split the community. I love those two games to death. Phantom Hourglass was slow, clunky, and too repetitive. I have nostalgia for that.
Oh wow, great topic. I have no idea if everyone considered it a bad game or not, BUT I loved Snake Rattle and Roll for NES, and none of my friends could play it haha
People always say Paper Mario Color Splash, Star Fox Zero, Little Town Hero and Zelda Phantom Hourglass are bad games. But I adore them as some of the best games I ever played. Really, these four games are maybe even in my Top 10 off all time.
In honor of Cruis'n blast: Cruis'n the world on 64 was awful..I had a blast playing with my sis and dad, unlocking all the cars.
I don't know about if it was outright bad but Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire wasn't the best game even at the time, yet it became one of my favourite N64 titles and was probably a large reason by my getting into Star Wars in general.
Gauntlet Legends was another one that was pretty fun to play, though that was probably more due to it being the only co-op game we played back then.
@yayakon85 That's such a heartfelt story! Made me happy to read.
I wish I had a similar story, but I just randomly got it from my parents one day, I don't remember why. But I do remember it being my first rpg, and that it was the first game, I think, that my sister beat before I beat it. I do remember watching her and being impressed when she got to the boss of the Lava Dome which I couldn't get through because my young mind had trouble going through the maze there. Good times!
With 99% of the Switch library being pure garbage we are spoiled for choice.
however I’m going for the Rocketeer on the SNES.......awful game but still spent too many hours playing it.
I don't consider it a bad game at all personally, but I would say Metroid Prime: Federation Force given both its critic and fan reception. With either of the current Samus amiibo, from Smash or Samus Returns, and the ability to scan to 3DS games, Federation Force in my opinion has arguably the best single player in the Metroid Series. I know how Nintendo advertised the game, but Federation Force has never been a primarily multiplayer experience for me. I look at that as something extra to the side that I can experience if I want, like Blast Ball. Fully featured, this single player is packed and I would argue it's the most rewarding in the Metroid Series. Federation Force to me is better than what the typical "Metroid" game is. I favor it slightly over Super Metroid right now as my 2nd favorite game in the Metroid Series.
@Yosher
i remember having trouble with the ice blocks maze. I also remember cheesing the final boss with the heal spell or throwing potions at him. really great times! cheers mate, great times!
Socket on the Genesis- Okay, maybe it's not as bad as something like Awesome Possum...but the late game level design is crap and it suffers from that "beeping when low on health" syndrome that plagued a lot of other mid tier games. That being said, the music slaps and I thought it was a clever choice to break off levels between speed/exploration.
Widget on NES- It's very obvious that it's a poor man's Mega Man, and anyone can see that within five minutes of gameplay. It's a ton of fun to just "break" this game...holding left and right on the D-pad allows you to zip around and clip through walls.
NES Nightmare on Elm Street- It's a shame that the original concept for the game was scrapped (originally, you were going to be Freddy himself and travel through the dream world and reality). That said, the concept behind what we got wasn't half bad. I guess it helps that the game wasn't actually developed by LJN, but rather Rare and it's also loosely based on Dream Warriors. Kinda makes me wish we'd get a modern NIghtmare game. I could see an action/RPG format with different "class" types based on the teens' dream world interpretations of themselves being decent.
@ModdedInkling
Ha, I've still got the PCE CD version actually, one of the few things I've never parted with. The arranged soundtrack is cool.
Hook for the SNES and Hercules on the gameboy. In more recent years, some would say Darksiders II is terrible but those people are dead.. because I killed them. Forget that last part.
A game everybody else seems to hate but I liked despite its flaws was FFXIII. I’d totally play it again if it came to Switch.
I never realized till years later that people considered Batman: Dark Tomorrow a bad game. I really enjoyed it.
Definitely Sub-Terrania on the megadrive. It's a shoot em up with difficult controls because it has gravity that pulls down your craft and you have a button for thrust and an other one for shooting. You have to also look after the fuel, because it drains out with the use of thrust. Very difficult game that was not accepted well back in the time, but i love it!
Now I remember, I always liked ambitious games on weaker hardware, so Kill.Switch, Max Payne, Payback, Star X, Asterix and Obelix XXL, V-Rally 3, Stuntman, 007 Nightfire and other FPS games... all on the GBA. Didn't have a TV, but I sure liked some 3D gaming. I guess where I saw the most amazing technology at work, others saw weak ugly versions of their "much cooler" versions of those games. When I later played their "bigger and better" versions, I didn't really like them (except for Max Payne), instead I returned to the GBA versions.
@Trikeboy if you enjoyed it, it wasn't bad for you. Don't let the internet spoil that for you.
@Shambo yeah, I mostly played it for the story. A good story can save a "bad" game for me. Though Dark Tomorrow pales in comparison to the Arkham series.
@Darlinfan I think Star Trek games have really suffered over the years because they weren't seen to be as good or flashy as Star Wars ones. I enjoy most for what they are I loved Legacy too despite it's average reception and I have probably sunk way too much time into STO because it has told some good continued stories from the shows and the movies, it did take a long time to be considered worth playing though.
@harouhiko Devil's Third ain't that bad. It has good atmosphere and the boss battles are great.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. I love that game, but everyone else seems to hate it hahaha.
@pariah164 love me some illusion of gaia
On the Nintendo side I really love the
Faxanadu, Willow, and all super scope games and Secret of evermore (which most don't think is bad but is is just very overshadowed by Secret of Mana which don't get me wrong is the better game)
Non-nintendo I would have to say: Brave Fencer Musashi doesn't get much love and I am absolutely bonkers for Megaman Legends, I think I beat it every year or so. Also really love The Dig (most think it the worst Lucas Arts point and click, I think it the best)
@Zeropulse Glad to hear it!
@darkswabber I sometimes forget how maligned both color splash and sticker star are. Yes I would rather have leveling up but I still greatly enjoyed the gameplay. Also Harry Potter 1 on the PS1 is a surprisingly fun game.
@Dezzy There is a good choice. I never played the full version of yoda stories but I think I played the demo version on the pc at for at least a dozen hours
@gaga64 Have you ever given Battle Clash or Metal Combat for the Super Scope 6 a try. They are a lot of fun and if you still have your snes and super scope I would highly recommend giving those a try. Thankfully they are still incredibly cheap games.
@Zeropulse I haven’t, I really ought to. Maybe once I’ve trimmed my backlog a bit...
Mine was probs either Seek & Destroy on PS2 or Fuzion Frenzy 2 on the 360. Loved them but appreciated they were pretty bad games lol
@mariomaster96 for me it's Pokemon Explorers of Time (I have no idea how different it is from Sky though).
Also, Sonic Riders (GC) is one of my favorite racing games ever.
A Bug's Life on the N64 anyone?
Its not really a bad game but people always forget about it and call it mediocre. Wario World on gamecube. I have a problem. I play that game to completion like 6 times a year atleast lol. I feel like once every couple of months I want to blast through it. Its my favorite soundtrack of any game or movie the music is just crazy! and its a fun beat em up to play through and I love the enemy design! I know its short but its always had a place in my heart. I actually love it so much I created the Wario World sub reddit last year because I saw there was not one created yet lol. I think it has like 38 members now and tbh its probably the whole population that ever played Wario World so. Yea Im happy with those numbers lmfao.
@Shambo Thats actually really interesting that you still preferred the gba versions lol I bet your mind just got so use to them that It was comfortable enough to prefer them. Thats actually kinda cool.
@Darlinfan Man I played NAM and it is the worst of the worst.
@Arcata Probably, and also just that for example Kill Switch on GBA is actually easy to argue a bad game. But it's so unique and ambitious... The PS2 and pc version may have been the games that popularised the third person cover shooter, but as a shooter, a game, a medium, and just technically, it wasn't as impressive. On GBA it was ever popular as a genre, there's literally only one game like it.
I had the same with Alone In The Dark (TNN) on GBC. When I later played it on ps2, I my initial feeling was one of disappointment (I seem to remember a shadow of Carnby that was also on a wall where it shouldn't be because there already was a wall between the light source and that wall, which broke my immersion). Of course, by that time I had played REmake, my first home console game ever, together with RE0, and Wind Waker. None of those have aged a bit and all still look and play amazing, so the bar was immediately set at an insane hight.
Fun fact: when I later played the ps1 version of Alone In The Dark on the other hand, which is obviously objectively worse, I was impressed (I believe it was mostly by the light of the torch "reflecting" on a mirror, but I can't say for sure). And that was not nostalgia, because I hadn't played it before. Just... high/low expectations undermining/boosting the experience I guess. But in this case, returning to what I knew and was initially very impressed by, the GBC version, is just painful. I still have it though, because I still respect the ambition of porting that game to the GBC, and how I used to be impressed by it.
Even I myself find it interesting to take a step back, and think about that stuff, as an observer. The mind works in mysterious ways.
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon... It is a bad game, a terrible game, complete trash.... But I bloody well love it for some reason 😂😂😂
Sonic 06, never played but still love.
For me:
Shadow the Hedgehog (2005): For the amount of memes it brings
Sonic 06: because that game's a goddamn spectacle and I love it
Super Seducer: Because of its cringe inducing dialogue choices
Upon thinking for a bit, my REAL favorite bad game might be Duke Nukem forever. Now, i was never close to the series when i first played it, but when i did play it i was just looking for a good old fashioned standard first person shooter. And well, the game was just that. Like the other options i listed, This game has things you just won't find anywhere else. But eventually as you play something comes along to ruin it all, Like a confusing vehicle section where i got lost, i think the opening trying to clone half life's style goes on for way too long and that Section in the alien hive? The less said the better. The game Does have wonderful things in it that make it worth playing, but eventually you can't fight off the feeling that, well, it should have been better. Like, a few cuts here and there would have made for a fine B-Grade shooter. Not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but that's what makes it my favorite bad game; As you actually start having fun something brings it down, but hey, when you want to play a first person shooter unlike anything else, Not a bad selection at the end of the day.
@Willax If you want to play a shooter unlike anything else I'd suggest the Shadow Warrior reboot games if oyu ahven't tried them already.
Pretty fun stuff.
I loved Goosebumps Horrorland on the Wii, and put so many hours into it. The game reviewed terribly, but for some reason it was so much fun for my siblings and I to play. The little minigames were hit or miss, but I genuinely enjoyed trying to get the medals on them, and some of the story was actually pretty good. It would be cool if it was remastered someday, but I highly doubt it would ever happen.
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