What's the most awesomely bad game you've ever played? - CHAT WITH THE STAFF

[Draco Ardel]

I'm going to put up Dynasty Warriors.

Yes! my brother and I have been hooked to that game since the third one. They are all mostly the same, only slightly better graphics, and same gameplay, but to us we can't seem to kill enough Chinamen.

Superman 64 was just a bad, bad game. Kryptonite fog that covers the bottom of the city as that was N64's draw limit. You're superman, you have all this power, now fly through these rings or lose for no reason.

One game that I loved dispite it getting panned by critics and having clear flaws: Blood Omen 2. I loved killing people and ranged sucking their blood

Another one that was riddled with bugs was Evil Genius. I absolutely loved it. There were fatal game crashing, file corrupting bugs in it, an item did not work at all and traps were nigh useless, but it was just really fun to play as an evil overlord on an secret island base. Building up a base, training minions and disposing agents with your henchmen was fun and really campy. The missions where just text with timers, but they were hilarious. One mission you did was destroy Memphis, Tennessee. The flavor text describe it as your "one good deed to rid the world of the evil birthplace of country"

 

[tendo82]

My girlfriend accurately types between 75 and 80 words per minute. She doesn't play many videogames, but she owns Typing of the Dead.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I finally thought of a better example. Unfortunately it comes from, of all unexpected places, Atlus. The game? Grim Grimoire.

First, the gameplay. It was an RTS, but different because all the battles took place in corridors and towers. The problem was that most of the units that were useful treated floors and walls as non-existent, thus making every battle take place on a completely flat empty plane with a pretty background. The main strategy boiled down to 'find a way to make a plethora of your strongest flying units, and unleash hell.' It was very satisfying to storm across the screen with your army of minions, but made for awful gameplay.

And then there was the story. You play some young wizard-in-training lass starting out in a magic school. However, five days into it all, and Volde--er, some totally original bad wizard dude--is reincarnated from his remains. Yet just as he's about to destroy everything, you're mysteriously returned to the first day. You then take it upon yourself to use the five days to figure out who summoned the bad dude. After several failures and repeated time traveling, everyone lives happily ever after.

Unfortunately, or fortunately in terms of entertainment value, the story falls apart after the first few episodes. Suddenly my character is trying to seduce some bi-curious homunculus, and sounding rather interested in the prospect herself. The ending then tries to explain why you were time traveling in the first place. It starts going on about some other you or some nonsense. I don't know, at that point my head exploded.

 

[Kodlak]

I have the E.T game for Atari, that is awful. But a more recent game for me would be Sonic Heros. I started playing out of pure nostalgia, it soon got to the point where I hated it sooo much that I felt sorry for it and because I felt a commitment to Sonic for years of entertainment in my childhood. So I saw it through to the end and then sold it!...quickly!

 

[FinalGamer]

I'd also certainly say Shadow the Hedgehog for a horrible mixture of 3D Sonic platforming with clunky as hell shooting.

And a more recent game was Ninjabread Man.
Oh wait, sorry I mean Anubis II.

Oh wait wait wait, I meant Rock 'n' Roll Adventures.

Oh.......no I'm mistaken again because THEY ARE ALL THE SAME FUCKING GAME.

SAME CONTROLS, SAME MUSIC, EVEN THE GODDAMN SAME LEVEL LAYOUT, the only different was the skin of everything. It was fucking horribly unresponsive, mind-numbingly irritating with music and just the laziest piece of shit I had ever seen.

 

[Terrortree]

Psychonauts FTW. I mean come on, that game is so ridiculous but its one of the best games of all time (in my opinion).

 

[Aedwynn]

Rise of the Triad.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_the_Triad

Dude! I loved that game!!

The absolute most awesome powerups ever; 'Shrooms Mode (performs an 'interface screw' and makes the sound echo and visuals go all kaleidoscopic) and God Mode (turns you 8-foot tall, and lets you throw 'Godfire' which turns your enemies into sparkles!)

Also, 'Ludicrous Gibbs!' (every so often, an enemy 'gibbed' with almost literally fill the entire area with bloody offal.)

Also, the number and amount of bonuses you get at the end of the stage also tickled me. (The bonus bonus, bull in a china shop bonus, etc)

I beleive it's becoming available on Good Old Games soon. I gotta get it again.

 

[Rocksa]

Robot Alchemic Drive for the PS2. Why, because it was called R.A.D. and also because it was just a bad monster movie where you got to control the giant robot. The voice acting was as horrible as every giant monster flick ever dubbed, and the dialog itself was ridiculous.

The story was awful, you picked one of three people, generic anime girl, generic fiery anime male, generic 'mature' anime male, with no real discernable difference in ability or even story. You then picked one of three giant robots, which didn't really matter because you got all three anyway. Then you get to find out that you're the head of this once prestigious family, that sunk their entire fortune into making some giant robots, leaving your character more or less destitute. You also learn that space travel is impossible because space is filled with radiation that cannot be blocked by any means and will kill you. Yeah. Then all hell breaks loose and your given a PS2 controller that can remotely control your giant robot, you know, to stop the giant space monster that's attacking the city. Also you can fly for some reason. Now repeat giant monster battles for several levels and there you go.

Oddly it was addicting though. The bad dialogue and voice acting just endeared themselves to you like any good B-movie. The gameplay was odd but also fun. When controlling the robot he shoulder buttons were used to move the legs forward and backwards (R1 and R2 to move the right leg forward and back respectively, and likewise for L1 and L2 moving the left) and then the analog sticks each controlled a seperate arm. The robots can all also transform, one goes from plane to fast robot, one from tank to heavy robot, and the other goes from average robot to some kind of super saiyan robot that will blow up in three minutes unless you beat the stage. The whole game had you flying up on top of a building as your character, then switching to controlling the robot, where you see the battle unfold through your character's eyes. That is until the building you're standing on gets destroyed, then it's rinse and repeat until you beat the game.

I suppose it's just something you have to play yourself to really get. There's just something that never gets old about flying up and riding on the shoulder of your giant death machine.

Oh, and did I mention that one of the endings involves you spending the game actively trying to ruin your 'best friends' life, which means she kills herself at the end. Yeah.

 

[SimuLord]

I can't say I've ever played a game that qualified as "so bad it's awesome". There have been plenty of entrants in the "so bad it's horrible" category, but as a fairly hard and fast rule, when I don't like a game I shelve it and play something else. Life is too short to waste on crap.

Then again, I dearly loved Phantasy Star 3...

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Pretty much anything from Videlectrix. Dungeonman 3 is one of the greatest games of all time. They are meant to be jokes though so I'm not really sure if it's an eligable decision. I'd like to think it is.

I Shall Agree
in 3... 2... 1...

AGREEED!

 

[Aramax]

The Summoner series on the PS2. Those 2 games are so poorly designed that you can't help but laugh at them... yet, if you give it a chance and if you really love rpg video games, you can't help but become totally immersed into those games. It really does feel like you are the main character (Be honest here).

If you've never played Summoner then just watch this short clip made with animation from the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng5kRle4FA

 

[RyantheLion]

I am ashamed to say this but...on occasion I enjoy Samurai Warriors.

 

[Slift]

I find it really easy to put games into two simple categories 'Good' and 'bad'

Games that are so bad they're good however... Hmm. I found myself playing Dynasty warriors: Gundam purely because it was a gundam game released into the australian market... Kinda a 'grab what you can' deal, so that's out.

I guess Lego Batman would be a case and point. Copied almost directly from Lego Star wars (With the minikit things being reskinned to a gaudy purple and black with a batman symbol on it...) But. I find myself ironically enjoying it. It's nearly a carbon copy of a good game, which makes it bad... But it's also good.

I just hope to god there isn't a Lego Watchmen in the works.

 

[Simriel]

Serious Sam.

 

[Zaydin]

I've played Darkened Skye. It got me to chuckle while I played it. Never beat it, though. Got stuck, decided 'screw this' & went off to play another game. Worst game I've played is probably Prey on the 360. Didn't stop me from playing it, but the death recovery aspect took all challenge from the game for me.

 

[veloper]

Rise of the Triad.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rise_of_the_Triad

Dude! I loved that game!!

The absolute most awesome powerups ever; 'Shrooms Mode (performs an 'interface screw' and makes the sound echo and visuals go all kaleidoscopic) and God Mode (turns you 8-foot tall, and lets you throw 'Godfire' which turns your enemies into sparkles!)

Also, 'Ludicrous Gibbs!' (every so often, an enemy 'gibbed' with almost literally fill the entire area with bloody offal.)

Also, the number and amount of bonuses you get at the end of the stage also tickled me. (The bonus bonus, bull in a china shop bonus, etc)

I beleive it's becoming available on Good Old Games soon. I gotta get it again.

Agreed. That's because it's an awesome bad game.

First of all the game is alot of fun, but
second, the game has alot of flaws and fits the B criteria perfectly:

1. Not created by hobbyists, but not on a full AAA budget either, and it shows:
2. the digitised enemies in the game game stand out like an eyesore in the primitively rendered greys and browns of the gameworld.
3. those same digitised photos of real people can jump up to 16 stories high on trampolines and this is in fact the only way for you or anyone to move up a floor, as there are no stairs.
4. the floors above the ground floor actually consist of rows of 1-pixel wide walls that are spaced rougly 3 feet apart.
5. You're supposed to be infiltrating an installation with factories and bunkers, but the only things within the triad base are rotating blade traps and flamethrowers and weapons.
6. "I'm gonna bury you in a lunchbox!" and more retarded VOs like that, but funny.


The end result with all the ultra violence is a game that is great fun to play. All the bad cheap stuff somehow made it even more awesome.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Awesomely bad, eh?

Well, there's "Earth Defense Force 2017", its got so many technical issues, but blasting aliens with some crazy ass guns like a "ten-grenades-at-one-time grenade launcher" with infinite ammo just is pure bliss!

 

[Blind0bserver]

State of Emergency for the PS2. The graphics were outdated for the time, the story was ridiculous, the writing was terrible and the characters were so poorly written that puddles have more depth then them.

Still, you could inflict a very large amount of carnage and mayhem in the middle of a society that was rioting and in open revolt. It may have never made sense why everyone was rioting, but good lord blowing up riot police never stopped being fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Emergency_(video_game)

 

[onioftheash]

Barney hide and seek for the original sega genisis, this game was so stupid you spent your time finding kids through out the game with slightly differnt backgrounds and thats all you did, i was 5 and thought that this game was garbage