Can the phrase "so bad it's good" really apply to a game?

[thenumberthirteen]

I'd say a lot of the old FMV games fall into this category. Though that's more due to bad acting, writing, and effects in the film part than the game.

Example: Christopher Walken in "The Ripper"

 

[GuitArchon]

I think, while a movie can be so bad it's good in regards to seeing just how terrible it gets later, that unless you have a high tolerance for playing crap (such as myself) that the same principle can't be applied with the same effect.

Because you're simply WATCHING a bad movie, you're as directly involved as you can be given the medium. However, a bad game is (for the most part) bad because it's not fun and/or frustrating to play. As such, while the story in a video game can be so bad, it's good (much like a movie's story can), I'd say it's not possible for a video game as a whole to be so bad it's good.

I say this because in participating in a bad video game, you're PLAYING a bad game. You're experiencing the bad aspects first hand as opposed to watching them (unless you're watching someone else play the game, in which case it's a whole different story).

The short version is that bad video games can only be so bad that they're good in one way:
They serve as good examples of how not to make a video game.

 

[Leoofmoon]

didnt deadly premanison PROVE this?

 

[ultimateownage]

First Resident Evil games.
Resident Evil 5.
Lost Planet 2.
Deadly Premonition.

Yes, it can apply.

 

[Leoofmoon]

No, I don't think a game can be so bad it's good.



...Okay, bad gameplay will very rarely make a game entertaining. It can be bad in other ways, though. See above.

where can i get that

 

[Bebus]

Personally, I am going to say FF XIII.

I struggle to think of a single 'good' thing about the game (save the graphics, they don't count). The gameplay is probably best, running at a level I will call functional, but the characters are annoying, the story is rubbish and I could go on.

And yet, I seem to be enjoying it...

 

[Xanadu84]

It depends. Games have a lot more moving pieces working together, so it's a lot harder to make something that is so overwhelmingly bad you have to appreciate how bad it is, without collapsing the whole business. But it can be done, particularly when it is purposefully bad (As opposed to movies, for example, where purposefully trying to make something so bad it is good usually goes very poorly). For example, I Wanna Be The Guy. It has a terrible, terrible difficulty curve. And yet it is the shockingly bad, arbitrary difficulty that continuously surprised people, and makes the game enjoyable (Kinda). That's one of the examples of so bad its good game mechanics, and I can't think of many. So bad its good stories on the other hand are a lot easier to find. And so bad its good dialoge? Hell, there is more then 1 meme out there based on this. So yes, so bad its good is possible in games. Its just harder.

 

[JasonKaotic]

If a game's filled to the brim with major bugs it can be so bad it's good. If they're funny ones, anyway. If you die every time you start the game that'd just be infuriating.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Actually, here's a weird choice: Smackdown: just bring it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_SmackDown!_Just_Bring_It].

The mechanics are utterly borked (counter counter counter counter), and it's completely unbalanced, with a laughably bad story mode, but it somehow ends up being fun to play.

 

[Anchupom]

Big rigs over the road racing.

That game looks suspiciously fun to muck about with, purely because it is so crap.

You ninja'd me.

Oh well, here's a video it - I suggest turning off the annotations first though.

 

[Gindil]

LOL. Copyright infringement!

 

[BlueSinbad]

Have you ever heard of a little gem of fecal matter called Earth Defence Force 2017? That fits just right.

 

[TheFPSisDead]

First I want to clarify what I mean by this. While a film or book can be so bad it's good because of terrible writing or acting, that's because a film or book depends on that to work. So a badly written game that is fine mechanically doesn't count.

What I'm talking about is a game that's either so glitchy or so badly designed in some way that the game becomes enjoyable. Personally I just don't think a game can truly fall into this category because a game that's glitchy or that has bad mechanics would be frustrating or awkward.

For comparisons sake I'll give an example of why it doesn't work by comparing the argument to films. A film like The Room, is so bad it's good because as a film it's badly written, acted and the production values or awful. This means it can be fun to watch even it is fundamentally a bad film. On the other hand a film like the recent GI Joe film is just boring. It's technically sound and nothing in it leaps out as being exceptionally bad or good in any way. This makes the film boring to watch either as an example of a good cinema or comically bad cinema. In my view a badly made game would only be like GI Joe, a game could never survive being as badly made a game as The Room is a film because it wouldn't be fun to play through that kind of a mess of a game.

But maybe I'm wrong. I kinda hope I am because I'd like to see The Room of video games. So if you know of one suggest one, or if you can think of a reason why I'm wrong and why a game can be enjoyed for flaws on a fundamental level as a game can still be fun I'm all ears.

Jim Sterling uses those very words to describe Deadly Premonition in his review for Destructoid.

He gave the game a 10...

 

[DrOswald]

LOL. Copyright infringement!

I can hear a very basic similarity, but not nearly enough to say that the one was ripped off the other. They are quite different, not even close to copyright infringement.

 

[GeorgW]

Considering the amount of glitch videos on Youtube, I'd say yes. I'd say it's applicable, but it's not nearly as fun as the other mediums.

 

[Pinkamena]

I don't think it can. Games need you to interact, and if the game is really bad, there's just no will to play it... You could enjoy it ironically though, but I don't think it'd be fun at all. Besides, bad games often have really sloppy controls, which just add to the pain of playing it.

 

[Cogwheel]

No, I don't think a game can be so bad it's good.



...Okay, bad gameplay will very rarely make a game entertaining. It can be bad in other ways, though. See above.

where can i get that

Ironically, it's made in and only available in Japan. Never exported to the US, on the basis that people there might get offended over it.

 

[Leoofmoon]

No, I don't think a game can be so bad it's good.



...Okay, bad gameplay will very rarely make a game entertaining. It can be bad in other ways, though. See above.

where can i get that

Ironically, it's made in and only available in Japan. Never exported to the US, on the basis that people there might get offended over it.

f*** that s*** wed love it! make the presdent black and it could be a real life simulater XD

 

[lacktheknack]

I think if they made My Immortal, the game, it would fall into this group. The only problem I can see with this is her saying something like "Preps, stop flammming ma game! If u flam, then Ima slit ma wrists"

fuckers* gmae* iof* den* ritss*

(Had to be done. )

OT: I once found a game with such reliable and specific glitches that it became fun again, due to easy exploitation.

BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER THE GAME.