What do you think is the worst game of all time?

[Clong]

I want to throw Hard Drivin' for the Genesis, and Bubsy 3d for the PSX into the mix. Anyone like those games?

[Push Upstairs]

I don't even like the arcade version of "Hard Drivin"...I can't image how horribly choppy the Genesis version is.

[Leo_A]

Name That Tune for CDi. It plays some crappy oldies tune that you've most likely never remotely heard of if you're under 60, not even playing the actual song, just a crappy rendition of the tune itself. And then it tells you what the tune was, and you tell the game whether you got it right or not. What the fuck?

Sounds fun to me, is there a songlist anywhere online showing what songs are on it?

[schnuth]

I'm surprised no one mentioned any of the plethora of crappy FMV games on the Sega CD. So I'll throw out the worst...... Sewer Shark.

Aaron

[OatBob]

in defense of...

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 does deserve its credited role in The Video Game crash of 1983 for poor Atari's poor management skills. The game was written (not even tested) in less than five weeks by Howard Scott Warshaw who had already created two of the best games for the VCS (Yars Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark) Given the short development time, this game is truly is a work of art.

Most people discredit it because they don't immediately know how to play it. The manual includes detailed instructions on how to play (and win) the game, and with the age of this classic system, is something many collectors may never see. Once you know how to play, the game is straightforward. I have beaten the game (two completions actually, the game starts over and accumulates score when you "beat" it) and still think it is frustrating, but don't dislike it enough to label it the worst game ever. I'll give it a 4 out of 10 for an Atari game, poor, but I've known worse.

Shaq-Fu is so bad its funny, but it does have nice graphics. It fails everything else, but graphics do count for something. People's distaste for this game displays why graphics before gameplay is not necessarily a wise choice in game design.


and the real losers...

Now, Superman64 is deserving of its ill fame. Chunky graphics and the definitive haze of the generation. Poor controls do not compliment Superman's superhero image and add an unwanted level of difficulty. The storyline is also quite disgraceful.

Personally, my least favorite of all time is Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. It plays like no other Pac-Man game I'm familiar with. The mazes are wrong, and (for a game as simple as Pac-Man) the controls manage to feel chunky and broken.


a phoenix from the ashes, the games industry rises anew

Consumers had already lost faith in third parties as games of poor quality flooded the market, but still held out for what Atari had to offer. The combination of E.T. and Pac-Man broke the games industry for a few years but inspired some important innovations for the future. Nintendo joined the game a couple years later, backing all its licensed games with the Nintendo Seal of Quality, and limiting the quantity of yearly titles on third party developers. While not the most friendly offering to developers, it did ensure a consistent number of quality games being released.

[Daltone]

GT named Superman 64 the worst game of all time! That game isnt that bad!

I think my face just exploded. I love awful games, and I'd say Superman 64 was a real shocker.

The N64 has some really bad games on it. Superman 64, Carmageddon 64 (this game does not get the scorn it deserves - more people need to play it.), Nightmare Creatures, Clayfighter et al were all pretty damn horrible. At least with this latest generation's rubbish the graphics have advanced to a point where even a really terrible, broken, game (like the recently mentioned Beverly Hills Cop) doesn't look quite as bad as those first 3D attempts and so are slightly more playable.

The Game.com can compare to the N64 in terms of prime crap though. Horrible ports of Resident Evil 2, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat Trilogy all rendered in glorious "WTF-O-Vision" saw to that. On the subject of handhelds - the Game Gear is home to the hardest game in existence in the form of The Terminator. There is no fun in being repeatedly raped by large metal machines. Someone should have told the designers that.

Obviously when you have a really extensive library the chances of there being bad games is more likely. PSX owers were graced with classics like The Fantastic Four, The City of Lost Children and Virus (the one based on the film).

Unfortunately, nothing can compare to the amount of shit on the PC. Big Rigs may technically be awful, broken and damn near unplayable but it is not the worst game ever IMO. Me, I'm going for this game. As far as I can tell it has absolutely no redeeming features.

[mailman187666]

I remember getting soooo pissed off at Captain Planet for the NES when I was little, so I'm gonna go ahead and say that game.

[thetoxicone]

I want to throw Hard Drivin' for the Genesis, and Bubsy 3d for the PSX into the mix. Anyone like those games?

I have a soft spot for Hard Drivin', I think it all comes down to the fact that for a long time it was the only game at a cafe my family liked to dine at about once a week when I was a kid and it was the only thing I could do to pass the time while they sat around and drank coffee. That being said I occasionally pull that or Race Drivin' out for playing on my nomad.

[Graham Mitchell]

2600 Pac-Man is WAAAAY worse than E.T. In fact, there are a ton of Atari games where I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do, or even what I'm controlling on the screen, so those have definitely got to be worse than E.T.

My vote for the worst game of all time: Bokosuka Wars for the Famicom. It looks like shit, I can't figure out what to do, and the music is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Although, it does have the greatest game over screen ever.

[DarthKur]

My pick for crappiest game of all time:

"Bart vs. the Space Mutants" Acclaim took a dump in a NES cart and sold it to unsuspecting consumers.

Bad control, lousy animation, messy graphics and insane difficulty. Yep, that's a crappy game. It doesn't end there, though. Believe it or not, Bart vs. The World was much worse. At least Space Mutants looked and felt like a Simpsons game. Sad when the highlight of Simpsons gaming on the NES was Krusty's Funhouse and if I am remembering right that came out on so many systems it was pointless to settle for the NES version.

I've got to disagree with those two assessments, along with a couple others. Both Bart Vs. games are indeed very challenging but that's a good thing. Who wants a game that's super easy to beat? Frankly, I feel that the NES version of Bart vs. the Space Mutants is much more easy to control than the Sega Genesis one. Of coarse that's probably because the NES version is the one I learned the game on and dedicated many hours of playing. The two NES Bart games are among the very few games that I've actually bothered to play through to completion.
I do agree that the Krusty's Funhouse game does leave much to be desired.
I also must support both E.T and Starship for the 2600. E.T. is one of my favorite VCS titles. I really don't see what all of the fuss is about. It's not that hard to play. I complete it on a continuous basis. Starship, while obviously not being the most graphically stunning game, has to be credited with being the first FPS space game, as far as I can recollect. I remember having a hard time tracking that game down back in the early 80's. I ended up buying off some guy in the local bowling alley where I spent a lot of time burning through quarters on various arcade machines. I recall getting reprimanded for loudly cussing out the red ghost in Pac-Man all the time. To this day I still have it in for the red one.

[bangtango]

The thing about E.T. is that nobody really knew what to do. The other thing is that you should really start on level 3, and work your way toward level 1. It's a hard game for sure, but that, Adventure and Raiders of the Lost Ark got me started on the games where there as an attainable ending, not just going and going until you run out of lives.

However, out of the games I've ever given a chance to, I'd say Dragon's Lair for the NES was the worst. Your character is so slow and weak, you're hard-pressed to make it into the castle - the very first task you have to do. Thanks to mega-cheating with emulation, I've seen it through to the end, and it doesn't get any better.

Dishonourable mention to Back to the Future - vertical scroller, top-view, you walk from location to location dodging bullies, bees (wtf), hula-hoop girls, all within a certain time-frame. And then there's the special sections where you have to throw milkshakes at bullies, repel Lorraine's kisses, catch notes on a guitar, and if you can stomach that, then you can actually try to drive the DeLorian down the street, but if you fail, it's game over. It's even worse than it sounds.

Back to the Future 2 and 3 was worse, regardless of how much my kid sister likes it. At least the first game had something to do with the movie. 2 & 3 was just some bad platformer with scant references to the movies. You do these frustratingly cheap minigames to collect a few dozen items, WTF?

[leicamaster]

I don't even like the arcade version of "Hard Drivin"...I can't image how horribly choppy the Genesis version is.

Hard Drivin for the genesis sucks! The sound is horrible! The Graphics arent all bad! What is really anoying of this game is the turning! JESUS!

[Push Upstairs]

I've got to disagree with those two assessments, along with a couple others. Both Bart Vs. games are indeed very challenging but that's a good thing. Who wants a game that's super easy to beat?

Bart vs. The Space Mutants has a somewhat interested premise but is
left with some terrible control and really is a waste of a good TV license.

I don't mind a game being challenging, but not when it is because of poor control.

[8-bitNesMan]

Take that back!!! Thats my second favorite game!

So what is your favorite game?

[cyberfluxor]

Name That Tune for CDi. It plays some crappy oldies tune that you've most likely never remotely heard of if you're under 60, not even playing the actual song, just a crappy rendition of the tune itself. And then it tells you what the tune was, and you tell the game whether you got it right or not. What the fuck?

That is seriously funny. I'd expect a good number of the most horrible games landing on systems: 3DO, CDi, 32X, Jaguar, VCS, PC, NES and some other older systems. Then there are the bad games that have come out recently to attempt a break or win situation and just couldn't cut it. I guess you can contribute this to cheap DEV kits available to college drop-outs that believe they can make it like in the 60's-80's gaming and computer boom and the more recent 90's-00's internet boom.

[j_factor]

I'm surprised no one mentioned any of the plethora of crappy FMV games on the Sega CD. So I'll throw out the worst...... Sewer Shark.

Sewer Shark really isn't that bad... in fact I'd say it's easily one of the better FMV games. Have you played NFL's Greatest?

[sobjac]

never did like the n64 bring on sega game gear

[sobjac]

sewer shark for the sega cd was long boring prefer to watch paint dry

[k8track]

I thought this subject looked familiar. Check out these (albeit a bit old) threads in Classic Discussions:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11018

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19731


Might be interesting to compare today's answers with those of a year or two ago. Have the opinions changed?

[Gameriley]

Worst game that I own/played - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES)

I've heard many bad things about Superman 64, E.T., Action 52 and Sega CD FMV games as well.