Which notoriously bad games have you played?

[Ashley]

Title says it all really. Which universally panned games have you gotten your hands on and what did you think of them?

Zelda CD-i, Mario is Missing, Superman 64 etc. You be the judge on what games are notoriously bad. 

[Dcubed]

Funnily enough, I just so happen to already have a Your Gaming Diary post ready to go for Wand of Gamelon and Superman 64!

In short? Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil are actually not totally awful.  They’re really both victims of the horrible console that they were made for, and the terrible circumstances that they were made under; but they’re honestly nowhere near as bad as their reputation makes them out to be.  They have some good ideas with some questionable execution, but they’re genuinely entertaining; both in spite of, and because of, their limitations.  And any game that can offer legit entertainment value can’t really be all bad.

Also, their soundtracks are banging…

I haven’t actually played the fan-made remaster yet, but I can honestly imagine these games becoming genuinely decent if it manages to address the big technical flaws with the original CDi release.

Superman 64 though? Nah, that actually does deserve its reputation.  It’s utter trash, with no real redeeming features.  It is at least fun to point and laugh at though… unlike Perfect Dark Zero (ugh…).

Honestly, Perfect Dark Zero might actually be a genuine contender for worst game I’ve ever played.  While it’s perfectly functional as a piece of software (unlike Superman 64), it’s just so utterly mind numbingly boring to play; with some of the absolute worst level design I’ve ever seen.  It’s just so shocking that this was the follow up to Perfect Dark of all games; you know, one of the very best games ever made.  And it’s also just so disrespectful to its predecessor as well! Fuck that game!

Edited September 16, 2023 by Dcubed

[S.C.G]

Well, let's start with the obvious ones, seeing as you mentioned Zelda CD-i... as I've played all three games, from when I used to own a Phillips CD-i and all the "Zelda" titles.

Link: The Faces of Evil

This is the one which probably has the most infamous cutscenes, and opens with... well, you know how it goes, if not... check the intro videos online. As for the gameplay? It's a side-scrolling adventure game, with platforming elements, often it will be unclear where you are supposed to be moving between, and the combat is... mostly functional. The inventory system isn't great, though this is similar for a lot of CD-i games, especially if you're using the infamous 'wand' controller with the console... I'd say it's best played on the conventional controller... or however else you can get to play it, with your controller of choice... or maybe not at all. But if you're curious, check this game out.

Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Much the same as the first game, instead here you are playing as Zelda instead of Link, and I seem to remember there being more spells, in addition to some light swordplay, though don't go expecting the refined combat of the mainline Zelda games, but for the novelty of playing as Zelda... you know, before she was sidely playable in anything, it's worth considering.

Zelda's Adventure

This is the main one, mostly because it's the rarest of the three titles, and it's definitely not worth the asking price now, I was just "fortunate?" enough to buy these titles when I got a good deal on them. This is the last title, and the one which shifted the gameplay perspective from side-scrolling to overhead, plus the animated cutscenes were replaced with live action sequences which are... yep. I seem the recall the inventory system being particualy cumbersome this time around, and the screen-scrolling... yeah... I probably stuck with all of these games longer than most would, but Zelda's Adventure certainly sticks out as being the least enjoyable, mostly down to the hardware and controls.

Overall

All three of the Zelda CD-i games have some interesting ideas in them, and they turned out better than anyone could have hoped for, given the hardware etc and the development circumstances, plus as aforementioned by Dean, some of the music in the games is really good. So maybe just listen to the OST's?

Alternatively, there is that new game announced Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore which is touted as a spiritual successor to the Zelda CD-i games, so maybe wait for that?

- - - - -

Perfect Dark Zero

I don't share the same thoughts on the prequel to the original Perfect Dark, as at the time, I definitely recall enjoying elements of the game, and I appreciate what was done in an attempt to flesh out some of the backstories to the characters. Some of the elements work, while others don't, and there are some legitimately decent weapons and items that you get to use in the game. Yes though, some of the objectives in the missions, and the level design as questionable, but it's really not surprising being that the game started out on the GameCube... then onto the Xbox and finally releasing when the Xbox 360 launched.

What I remember from the game, is blasting through the campaign, which had some really enjoyable moments, even if the overall graphical style is overdone, the soundtrack has some great music in it, maybe not as subtle as the original, but it has its high points (as well as its lows) but yeah... after spending a reasonable amount of time in the single player, I spent many hours playing the multiplayer mode, which is really fun to play, especially at its time of release, as it's an online FPS which doesn't take itself too seriously, something of a rarity today in a sea of Call of Duty clones etc.

Overall

Would I give Perfect Dark Zero another go in 2023? Yes, and being that it's available as part of Rare Replay, which you can pick up for next to nothing, I'd say that it'd worth at least giving a try, especially if you've never played it. Just don't go into it with any expectations, and you might just be surprised.

- - - - -

There are other games, I'm sure but those seem to be the obvious ones, as for Superman 64... I've not played it for any serious length of time... and I'm fine with that.

 

[Cube]

A few I've played of the very notorious bad games:

Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing

This is just a completely broken game, just extremely unfinished. The thing is, though, the unfinished nature is pretty much why it's bad.:If finished, it would just be a very boring and dull racing game. I played it during a charity session. 

Ride to Hell: Retribution

Now this is a finished game that is utterly terrible. I also played this during a charity session, until a glitch stopped me from playing more. The gameplay itself is atrocious, the level design is bad and the story is laughable. 

Sonic 06

With a couple of simple patches, it's a decent game. The fan remake of is extremely enjoyable - it shows that the core concept and level design are quite good. The game was just horribly rushed. Sonic Heroes is a much worse game. 

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric 

This is...just fine. It's mindless, extremely average but quite enjoyable. It's not a good game, but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out.

 

Games that I think deserve to be notable bad games:

Doctor Who: Return to Earth

My review of this was the first to be published. The game is strange: you have to collect orbs from pedestals (avoiding their "view cone") and shoot them at matching colours to activate actions. To shoot enemies, you fire a matching orb at the orb floating above their head. Aiming was immensely stiff and there's no actual challenge or interesting puzzles. 

Naughty Bear

A silly Hitman clone with violent but cuddly bears. This could have worked if it was funny, with diverse objectives and interesting ideas. This had none. It was also extremely short and each level just felt like a slight variation, with you just doing the exact same thing over and over. One thing I noticed was that the menu button was very similar to every XBLA game, so I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a cheap downloadable game that was thrown onto a disc at the last moment.

Underwurlde

One of the Sabreman games form Rare, this one is just horrible with massive falls everywhere, a confusing map with a ton of dead ends, difficult to hit flying enemies and a terrible jump.

Hello Neighbour

Apparently this is a horror game. To me, horror games completely fail when there's nothing to fear. I actually found it more efficient to get "caught" than to actually try to escape the neighbour, as you instantly respawn with all your items. The game relies entirely on moon logic and pressing buttons that activate things you can't see. I ended up using a guide and found two solutions for the first level. One involved using a fan to push something towards a button, but the fan would not push the item, so that was broken. The second was finding a hidden magnet gun, but then I accidentally hit the drop button and it fell through the ground.

12 Minutes

This is a point and click "time loop" game, but it lacks the ability to just do silly things or have fun. Even if you figure things stuff, the main difficulty is activating things so that the main character figures it out. It's mainly dialogue based but nothing you actually want to say is an option. The voice acting sounds like everyone is bored (and this is James McAvoy, Daisey Ridley and Willem Dafoe). What makes it truly terrible is the plot.

Spoiler

The main guy is informed by his wife that she's pregnant. Someone breaks into the house ties you up and asks about a watch your wife has, time loops after 12 minutes. Over time, you discover that the watch belonged to her dad, she killed him trying to run away form home and is worried about her past catching up to him.

As the plot progresses, you discover that her dad actually survived, but she had a secret brother that she never knew about that actually did murder her dad. One thing to note is that you have to watch your wife get beaten (from hiding in a closet), drug her and kill her multiple times to get this information.

Then comes the big twist: the main character IS this brother. He fell in love with his sister from afar and killed his dad (after she ran away and shot him but he survived) so he could meet her, get her to fall in love with him and marry her. Then he forgot all of this. 

But it doesn't end there: it turns out that their dad survived being shot by both of them, and the entire time loop is in the main character's head - although everything up to (and including) the pregnancy announcement actually happened. Their dad is doing this to convince his son to leave his wife/sister so she can raise their incest baby (never knowing that the father is her brother) on her own - a bit too late for that, really. 

It's just incredibly dumb. 

 

 

[Dcubed]

I quite enjoyed 12 Minutes myself.  Sure, the plot is full of holes and is overly reliant on the Unreliable Narrator trope (much like Heavy Rain… also lambasted for very similar reasons), but I quite enjoyed the gameplay and how you can experiment with changing the outcome of the story and unlocking new parts as you figure out the game’s structure.

But much like Heavy Rain, it’s a story that only really works within the context of an interactive game; and it genuinely takes advantage of the medium to present a unique form of storytelling.  And while everyone is overly focused on the actual story itself (and their use of the Unreliable Narrator trope; as well as the “eww gross!” factor of 12 Minutes), they do make good on their respective gameplay/narrative structure promises.  That’s worthy of recognition, and it’s not fair to dismiss their legitimate accomplishments.

Also 12 Minutes lets you stab yourself for no reason, and that always makes me howl with laughter every time I do it 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Dcubed

[RedShell]

Wii Music was a notoriously bad game according to many at the time of its release. I thought it was great though, just somewhat lacking in content. Had Nintendo attempted to expand the song list, by either DLC or enabling a way for users to create original melodies to then share with other players for jam sessions, it would've been pretty much perfect I reckon.

[Glen-i]

23 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Wii Music was a notoriously bad game according to many at the time of its release. I thought it was great though, just somewhat lacking in content. Had Nintendo attempted to expand the song list, by either DLC or enabling a way for users to create original melodies to then share with other players for jam sessions, it would've been pretty much perfect I reckon.

Wii Music let me make a depressing version of Happy Birthday, and for that, it was worth every penny!

[Josh64]

On 16/09/2023 at 8:07 PM, Cube said:

A few I've played of the very notorious bad games:

 

Sonic 06

With a couple of simple patches, it's a decent game. The fan remake of is extremely enjoyable - it shows that the core concept and level design are quite good. The game was just horribly rushed. Sonic Heroes is a much worse game. 

 

  12 Minutes Story (Reveal hidden contents)

The main guy is informed by his wife that she's pregnant. Someone breaks into the house ties you up and asks about a watch your wife has, time loops after 12 minutes. Over time, you discover that the watch belonged to her dad, she killed him trying to run away form home and is worried about her past catching up to him.

As the plot progresses, you discover that her dad actually survived, but she had a secret brother that she never knew about that actually did murder her dad. One thing to note is that you have to watch your wife get beaten (from hiding in a closet), drug her and kill her multiple times to get this information.

Then comes the big twist: the main character IS this brother. He fell in love with his sister from afar and killed his dad (after she ran away and shot him but he survived) so he could meet her, get her to fall in love with him and marry her. Then he forgot all of this. 

But it doesn't end there: it turns out that their dad survived being shot by both of them, and the entire time loop is in the main character's head - although everything up to (and including) the pregnancy announcement actually happened. Their dad is doing this to convince his son to leave his wife/sister so she can raise their incest baby (never knowing that the father is her brother) on her own - a bit too late for that, really. 

It's just incredibly dumb. 

 

 

Totally agree, I didn't even personally come across many glitches, but the loading times, especially in the town area, did piss me off greatly. That said, the online reaction is probably one of the biggest over reactions ever. I especially love this game for Silver, some incredible music, gorgeous cutscenes and some cool ideas. I would love it if they remade the title, but from what I've seen on YouTube, I'd be just as well playing the fan remake. 

 

 

 

I kinda agree with Glen-i and RedShell, Wii Music didn't deserve the level of hate it got, but it DID lack content and Nintendo completely dropped the ball. They spent so much time and effort making the gameplay fun, the Mii's were endearing, I loved the little extras like the ability to make album covers, the layering you could do on songs was also great. In fact, the game would have been PERFECT for me (and I still had hours and hours of fun when it came out) but the song list was just SO inadequate. They really could have spent more money getting more songs, especially as they'd have been licenses for the songs only, it's not like they were getting full recordings with the original artist vocals lol. 

 

It also had great Wii Connect 24 capabilities, you could send completed songs to your friends! and the SECRETS! being able to make your Mii's do the secret high 5 thing with the nunchuk. That's another game that, like Sonic 06, could be really incredible with a remake. 

 

There's an idea, why keep remaking good games?! Developers should go back and remake flawed games into what they always had the potential to be!

 

NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on the Nintendo Wii is one of my favourite games ever. I LOVE the world and settings, the levels are great fun to traverse, the music and story are SUBLIME. I still have the soundtrack playing regularly to this day, the game was honestly pure magic for me. I think it's a tragedy it was so overlooked and somewhat panned at the time.

I loved the My Worlds section of it too, a big liminal field which slowly populated itself with Chao things (the NiGHTS version of which I can't remember the name right now lol) and enemies you'd encountered in levels. It also connected to the Wii weather channel and was especially impressive on rainy days, when even little ponds could form from the rain. You could also visit one another's My Worlds online, and I fondly remember going over to F00had's place a few times. 

Oh and the My Worlds music was so nice and relaxing, and also changed with the weather. Damn, take me back:

 

 

You could also race people online in levels! A flying 2D NiGHTS race, damn, 2007 really was a time to be alive. 

I especially just can't wrap my head around classic SEGA fans who also don't like it. It's head and shoulders above the Saturn NiGHTS, which honestly I find passable at best. 

 

Balan Wonderworld is another one I have played recently which I think is okay. It's not great or anything (though I did play up my love for it for comic effect occasionally on Twitter lol) but it is an absolutely fine and enjoyable game and I can't quite understand the insane hate it gets either. Especially obvious in-game jokes like the Box Fox which people lost their minds over. 

 

They're the only real big, obvious bad games I have played. I have played plenty of other 'bad' games but they're not especially well known lol. I enjoy Cobra Kai on Switch which is just a dumb side-scrolling Streets of Rage-type game, I had a decent time with it and thought it was fun, despite it obviously having frame-rate issues and pretty ass visuals lol. Then again, I haven't played Cobra Kai since getting sober, so maybe it isn't as fine as I remember lol. 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Josh64

[Cube]

35 minutes ago, Josh64 said:

Totally agree, I didn't even personally come across many glitches, but the loading times, especially in the town area, did piss me off greatly.

I can definitely imagine the original loading being immensely frustrating. The emulator I used was much, much faster so it wasn't quite annoying for me.

With Wii Music, I think the biggest issue was Nintendo announcing it as though it was their next major game. It made everyone treat it like it was a massively important game for the Wii.

Quote

There's an idea, why keep remaking good games?! Developers should go back and remake flawed games into what they always had the potential to be!

I'd love for a remake of Geist. It had a really great idea and I'd love for a new attempt at it, reworking the mechanics into something better.

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Josh64 said:

There's an idea, why keep remaking good games?! Developers should go back and remake flawed games into what they always had the potential to be!

Oh, that one's easy! Depressingly easy to answer, but that answer is money.

Why risk putting resources into a game that didn't do well, when you can remaster a sure thing, like Metroid Prime?

But you're right. Remakes would be better utilised to improve upon games that really need it. An example of the top of my head? Hmmm...

I mean, look at how mediocre that score is! Clearly, the game needs a remake to fix all those glaring problems that apparently exist.

Shut up! There's no User Score, you're imagining things! Metacritic isn't a totally useless metric for quality!

Edited September 21, 2023 by Glen-i

[EEVILMURRAY]

Every time this question gets asked, I say "Only If" - Review – Only If [PC] | Derek-Wheatley.com (wordpress.com) - My old review will explain it more. It's free on Steam, so feel free to jump in and try to enjoy

Also Naninights, which is a Five Nights at Freddy's* knockoff, but even more boring

 

*also a shit game I think

[Dcubed]

On 21/09/2023 at 2:30 PM, Glen-i said:

Oh, that one's easy! Depressingly easy to answer, but that answer is money.

Why risk putting resources into a game that didn't do well, when you can remaster a sure thing, like Metroid Prime?

But you're right. Remakes would be better utilised to improve upon games that really need it. An example of the top of my head? Hmmm...

Tell that to Limited Run Games...

 

[Jimbob]

Superman 64.  I mean, i can't find a single thing that is good about this game.  Except one, which is the cartridge made a good stencil for something i was making at one point.

Perfect Dark Zero.  Bought it pre-loved, still have yet to get off the 1st area/mission.  The original Perfect Dark took the GoldenEye formula and made it better, this felt like it was pulled through dog mess.

[Jonnas]

Does the Mega Drive version of Virtua Fighter 2 count? That game physically hurt me, and is also infamously bad.

Beyond that, I never really go out of my way to play games that look painfully unfun. Every game I'd give a 1-star review is one where that opinion is unusual (like my general dislike for Gargoyle's Quest), or the game simply aged poorly (Street Fighter 1, Castlevania II, ...), or maybe everybody agrees it's a bad game, but it's not that infamous for it (like Dragon Ball GT Final Bout).

[Gadwin]

Turok Evolution on the original xbox.

Enjoyed turok 2 and rage wars on the n64.  This game had some very frustrating flying sections and I didn't get on with the game long enough to complete it.  

A bad impulsive purchase that day.

[Dcubed]

11 hours ago, Gadwin said:

Turok Evolution on the original xbox.

Enjoyed turok 2 and rage wars on the n64.  This game had some very frustrating flying sections and I didn't get on with the game long enough to complete it.  

A bad impulsive purchase that day.

The Turok series is a great example of where you can tell the exact moment where the original development team left the company to go elsewhere (right after Turok Rage Wars and on to found Retro Studios).  The difference between Turok 2 and everything else afterwards is stark.

[Hero-of-Time]

11 hours ago, Gadwin said:

Turok Evolution on the original xbox.

Enjoyed turok 2 and rage wars on the n64.  This game had some very frustrating flying sections and I didn't get on with the game long enough to complete it.  

A bad impulsive purchase that day.

Loved me some Rage Wars. This got played in multiplayer with my friends far more than Goldeneye or Perfect Dark.