THE GUARDIAN'S 30 worst video games

[chand]

I think the worst that can be said about most of these games is their mediocrity, and sometimes notoriety . You've just got to look at unfinished unplayable shit that gets published. All the shovelware on mobile. All leagues below anything on that list. It's done it's job, we've been talking about something published in The Guardian.

I guess there's an argument that a AAA title that contrives to be mediocre and fucks up with all that money and influence behind it is worse than some broken 50p PC mystery game you get from an incongruous display in a supermarket.

I'd argue nearly all 3D sonic games are bad though, it's just not something thats ever translated well.

I know Sonic Adventure 2 has it's fans, but that's despite it being totally rubbish, people just love Sega too much and will forgive lots.

Sega's total approach over the years has been that they know they are tasked with an impossible mission,  so just give it a kick ass soundtrack and hope the devs can crack moving a character that fast, in full 3D this time, which inevitably they can't,.

We've now got a situation where people just know a 3d sonic game won't really work, and they are happy with those broken mechanics so long as the fan service is strong.

Poor dead SEGA, at least they made Sonic Colours once, which wasn't bad at all, it had a lot of the same issues as the others, but it had it's own identity and it feels like a good game in itself.   

Yeah, I don't get why they kept attempting 3D Sonic games. Jumping in 3D is usually pretty annoying anyway, but the fundamental mechanic of the original Sonics was collecting rings at high speed, which doesn't work half as well from a 3D viewpoint. The later 3D Sonic games had loads of flashy whizzbang bits where you were going really fast, but I never felt in control, a lot of the time I was just watching Sonic bouncing around.

[Alberon]

I normally am too lazy but I'm gonna comment on all of these because my tea's cooking.

Daikatana (PC/N64/GameBoy Color, 2000) - I genuinely like Daikatana, there I said it.  It's the last of its kind of shooter, intricate and full of secrets.  Yeah, has its problems - BIG problems - but they basically patched them all out and it's now fun.  Also the Game Boy Colour game is awesome and shouldn't be on here.  Here's me playing the PC version and talking shite.
Duke Nukem Forever (Multiple formats, 2011) - Not anywhere close to being one of the worst games ever.  Bad, sure.

I think the former is there mostly due to the insane hype there was around it for awhile. The latter is there mostly due to the complete joke it became in the fifteen years of development.

Neither were truly awful, but they were big disappointments on release.

[Hollow]

I guess there's an argument that a AAA title that contrives to be mediocre and fucks up with all that money and influence behind it is worse than some broken 50p PC mystery game you get from an incongruous display in a supermarket.

Yeah, I don't get why they kept attempting 3D Sonic games. Jumping in 3D is usually pretty annoying anyway, but the fundamental mechanic of the original Sonics was collecting rings at high speed, which doesn't work half as well from a 3D viewpoint. The later 3D Sonic games had loads of flashy whizzbang bits where you were going really fast, but I never felt in control, a lot of the time I was just watching Sonic bouncing around.

It might seem like that but I assure you the flashy whizzbang bits were present and correct in the very first Sonic Adventure, it was and still is the only conceivable way it would work.

[Onken]

Knack (PlayStation 4, 2013)
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust (Multiple formats, 2009)
Limbo of the Lost (PC, 2007)
Perfect Dark Zero (Xbox 360, 2005)
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties (3DO, 1994)
Resident Evil 6 (PC/PS3/Xbox 360, 2012)
Resistance 2 (PlayStation 3, 2008)
Rise of the Robots (multiple formats, 1994)
Ride to Hell: Retribution (PC/PS3/Xbox 360, 2013)
Shaq Fu (Mega Drive/Snes 1994)
Sonic the Hedgehog (multiple formats, 2006)
SQIJ! (ZX Spectrum, 1987)
Star Trek (multiple formats, 2013)
Superman 64 (N64, 1999)
Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure (GameCube, 2001)

Knack is a cheeky inclusion but Resistance 2 I would have never guessed made it on here. I could've told you this at the time it was reviewed but its more obvious than ever that Resistance 2 will go down as the worst game IGN has ever gave 9.5/10. It's beyond belief anyone could come up with that rating. It had dreadful hyped bosses that were often defeated with two rockets and it managed to remove everything that made Resistance Fall of Man a charming cult favourite. The multiplayer was completely different and they went from a weapon wheel system of carrying a full inventory of guns to limiting you to two. It managed destroyed its fanbase overnight and no one bought the third instalment including myself as a result.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/16/30-worst-video-games-of-all-time-part-two

[Thursday]

So basically this is "30 games, some of which are a bit shit and some of which are actually alright but should have been better because of the franchise/studio"

[Hollow]

Fuck off Resi 6... just fuck right off with that shit.

Racoon frigging City Guardian? That online one.

You dunces.

[Hollow]

Perfect Dark Zero? this list is dolalley.

[biggytitbo]

There's an interesting documentary called Game Over about Atari, and how "E.T." killed it, which actually puts forth that the game wasn't really that bad and was basically used as a scapegoat for the company's other failings. There's also a hunt for the landfill site where all the remaining copies were buried.

Spoiler alert

They do find them.

[close]

It was just dumped with a bunch of other games because of oversupply or something though wasn't it? It wasn't particularly singled out for a mass dumping.

[Hollow]

The idiots made more copies than there were sold 2600's.

Then made a turkey 'killer app' to sell them.

The creator made some really good games in his time, but is sadly not going be remembered as Howard Scott Warshaw creator of Yars Revenge, he's the bum who made ET.

Beware what work you take on for the money and then try and create an ambitious proto survival horror game on beyond limited hardware in just under six weeks, is the lesson i suppose.

[Onken]

I never wanted to finish Resident Evil 5 so I've got no objection having an even worse sequel on the list. When you think they've destroyed their brand for good Capcom announce Umbrella Corps.

[Hollow]

Resi six was one quarter a good game.

Thats enough to pluck it from this list.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Daikatana (PC/N64/GameBoy Color, 2000)

The fact whoever made the article wasn't able to cop that this'd clearly be a completely different game kind of highlights that it was probably a bit half arsed.



Worst game I ever played, and it was only a demo so it could've been unfinished or something, was Twin Caliber on the PS2. Weird sluggish gameplay, didn't explain anything at all well (and, looking at some videos of it now, it really needed to!)... seemed like it was trying to do some innovative things but absolutely nothing was executed well.
Me and my brother spent hours playing the demo just trying to figure out if it was a total mess or we just weren't getting something.

[Petey Pate]

Why isn't Farmville on the list?  Or The Simpsons: Tapped Out?  Or any video game where the pleasure comes from not having to play it?  Also things that have wasted the time and brain power of millions of people worldwide.  They could have plotted a revolution by now if they hadn't been helping each other with their virtual farms.

[Consignia]

The second attempt to bring Larry Lovage, star of risque point-and-click series Leisure Suit Larry, into the modern world

They just don't care do they? Sure LSL games are shit, but if they'd done an iota of research for the piece they'd know that the Larry in the modern games is the nephew of the original Larry Laffer. I assume the rest of the list if full of shitty mistakes. I know it's a puff piece, but I bet they haven't even played half the games on list, it was mostly harvested from some whinging gaming net forums bolstered with a brief cut and paste from wikipedia.

[Petey Pate]

The plot summary of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is incorrect as well, for what it's worth.

[Alberon]

Limbo of the Lost is a bad game, but what really put it on the list was the blatant plagiarism it attempted. It used screenshots from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and many many more games as backgrounds for itself.

Comparison screens are here.
http://web.archive.org/web/20120604074251/http://gameplasma.com/news/index/view/id/621

From wiki

Other content appears to have been taken from live-action films, including a scene and dialogue from the 1997 film Spawn, an image from Beetlejuice, another from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and several more from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Certain places in Limbo of the Lost were also identical to portions of Thief: Deadly Shadows. The game depicts its lead character walking near the gates of "Famine", "Drought" and "Disease", which is identical to Thief‍ '​s "Keeper Library".

One thing that wasn't stolen from elsewhere was the ending.

Here it is. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/URcvdDtnM_0

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Daikatana was not one of the worst video games ever, it was only one of the most hyped and delayed then ended up being just thunderously average.

Most reviews of the time were primed to slate it because the delays had become a running joke. Most of the reasonable reviews gave it about 5/10. I played it again a few years later and it's actually not even that bad. A 6 would be fair.

[chand]

It managed destroyed its fanbase overnight and no one bought the third instalment including myself as a result.

3 is definitely worth a go, it lets you have unlimited weapons again which makes it so much more fun, and means you actually use all the weapons. I get why games do the limited weapons thing for realism's sake, but it inevitably means I spend whole games sticking to the assault rifle (apart from those Obvious Sniper Set Pieces Where You Get Led To A Rooftop With A Sniper Rifle Conveniently Propped Up By The Wall).

I thought Resistance 2 was fine to be honest, but bits of it were a slog and 3 is much better. 2 has absolutely no business being on a worst games of all time list though, come on.

My personal most hated game is Clive Barker's Jericho. I can forgive it the cliched characters and endless brown environments, but I can't forgive it for saddling you with a bunch of useless AI dickheads who just constantly get killed.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Rise of the Robots was no Body Blows.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Cannon Fodder 2 - worst sequel ever.

[Hollow]

Rise of the Robots was no Body Blows.

No, it was faaaaaaar worse.

Rise is simply unplayble rubbish.

Sorry is that what you're saying?

[Hollow]

Cannon Fodder 2 - worst sequel ever.

Harsh.

Seeing as we live in a world where Halo 2 exists, as that is the worst sequel.

Good game CF2.

[Still Not George]

No, it was faaaaaaar worse.

Rise is simply unplayble rubbish.

My aunt bought me that stack of shit. I may have forgiven, but I do not forget.

[Operty1]

Club Drive on the Jaguar should be on that list. Quite possibly the epitome of worst video games.

Watch out for that...cat?

[Famous Mortimer]

What was that super buggy truck driving game? I loved reading about that in an old thread on here.

[Rev]

Yeah, Resi 6 has absolutely no place on that list even by their own criteria.  5 was a bit disappointing, so it wasn't a sudden betrayal or anything, and it's a perfectly good bit of fun as a co-op game.

The list is completely invalid anyway as Halo isn't on it.

[madhair60]

Yeah, I don't get why they kept attempting 3D Sonic games. Jumping in 3D is usually pretty annoying anyway, but the fundamental mechanic of the original Sonics was collecting rings at high speed, which doesn't work half as well from a 3D viewpoint. The later 3D Sonic games had loads of flashy whizzbang bits where you were going really fast, but I never felt in control, a lot of the time I was just watching Sonic bouncing around.

Idiotic list.  Resident Evil 6?  One of the worst games ever?  Fuck off to shit.  Try one of the best.

[MojoJojo]

What was that super buggy truck driving game? I loved reading about that in an old thread on here.

Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing which is on the list (mentioned in first post). I sort of wonder whether unfinished games should feature in the list, although that's obviously a difficult line to draw.

[ElTopo]

I've played more shit games than I care to remember. As a kid, I would buy any football-related game I could get my hands on. Pretty much all of them were terrible. Obvious exceptions: Football Manager, Match Day 1 + 2, Emlyn Hughes'-whatever-it-was-called and, later, Kick Off 2 and Sensible Soccer.

One of the worst was Graeme Souness Vector Soccer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tqDfR0gVis&t=2m20s

Imagine spending £10 on this and rushing home to play it. Particularly like the commentary on the video, though. Very existential.

[mobias]

I thought Resistance 2 was fine to be honest, but bits of it were a slog and 3 is much better. 2 has absolutely no business being on a worst games of all time list though, come on.

I agree. I'm not a huge FPS fan but I enjoyed all 3 Resistance games. Resistance 2 was very much part of the second wave of PS3 releases where games suddenly looked and performed that much better . I thought Resistance 2 was perfectly enjoyable at the time, I've played much, much worse.