Your favorite bad game: be it story, gameplay, art design, graphics, etc.

[BrawlMan]

Let's do a fun topic. Enough with the doom and gloom bullshit. After seeing Derek's (of Stop Skeletons From Fighting & formerly the HVGN) More Bad Games That I Love.


Pick your favorite bad game and why. I'll start

Sengoku 1, Robo Army, and Mutation Nation from SNK. So exactly they are not that bad (except for Sengoku), but they are jank games with average or slightly above average combat. With clear style over substance. I just love weird creature or robot design for both games. Especially Robo Army. Sengoku is a weird entertaining, and has a broken faucet of bad ideas that don't work. Weird Japanese mythos and history, teleporting for no reason and at random, you're characters are slow, most of the characters you can transform are near useless or busted in certain exceptions, and health pick ups are non-existent. For whatever reason, I love this game for its badness. It was SNK experimenting, but not quite their yet, seeing what worked. It was one of their early Neo Geo games that was a tech demo on scaling. The second sequel is definitely better, but Sengoku 1 is entertaining as hell.

 

[Worgen]

When I think of bad games I like my mind always goes to Sonic Adventure 2.

Its probably the first and only Sonic game I really enjoyed although I think its a pretty bad game. But, gotta love that buttrock.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Dragon Age 2

For years, I actually have been defending this game, arguing against this being a bad sequel. Yes, the story is kinda bad, and the areas you get to explore are very limited. DA2 was trying to pull Commander Shepard of their own with Hawke, resulting in human being the player playable race.

But I feel everything else the game did it better. The UI felt clean and organized, the combat felt faster, and the graphics were definite improvement

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The unsanctioned-by-the-creator sequel to "Out of This World" (or "Another World" to the Brits): Heart of the Alien.


A conclusion to a story that didn't need one, loaded from beginning to end with bullshit deaths (including Lester's), brain-dead combat, that completely-unexplained bomb puzzle, and platforming that demanded near-pixel-perfect movements from controls that couldn't provide them. But the music was beautiful, and it recaptured that lonely, desolate feeling from the first game. And it did feel great to give that red-eyed son-of-a-***** the Purina Cat Chow treatment.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Silent Hill 4: The Room. I don't personally consider it bad, it's more that most people do and I totally agree about the why. Everything about it is so cumbersome: the limited and completely nonsensical inventory system, the constant backtracking as puzzle-solving, all the unkillable enemies, the fact that the second half of the game is 1) one big escort mission that 2) forces you to play through every level again, now with more unkillable enemies... and the sheer weirdness of it, which often outweighs the horror aspect. It's just such an oddball entry in a series with an already established style and tone, with the J-weirdness ramped up to the point of alienating fans and newcomers alike. Having said all that I've grown to appreciate it more than most of the other SH games, and it's more memorable than anything that has come out since.

 

[meiam]

Dragon Age 2

For years, I actually have been defending this game, arguing against this being a bad sequel. Yes, the story is kinda bad, and the areas you get to explore are very limited. DA2 was trying to pull Commander Shepard of their own with Hawke, resulting in human being the player playable race.

But I feel everything else the game did it better. The UI felt clean and organized, the combat felt faster, and the graphics were definite improvement

I genuinely don't think it's a bad game. The game was rush, absolutely, but it had tons of nice little features. I like that the conversation system wasn't Saint/Evil/boring I also really like that we weren't saving the world for the billionth time and that the game happened over a long period of time. Characters were also pretty good, I'd say it has the strongest cast of any DA game. I'd take it over inquisition any day.

Mine would be gundam crossfire, the PS3 launch game. Tons of problem, it's horribly optimize and you'll be lucky if you can hit 30 FPS even when there's literally nothing happening on screen. The game also assume you're familiar with the story and doesn't bother covering it at all.

But it's a nice mech "simulator", you have to manage ammo really carefully or you go dry very quickly. Unit have many parts, legs/arms/head/chest, and get taken out when they're chest is destroyed, so you can save a ton of ammo by just tagerting the important bits but you can also whittle down stronger foe but crippling their limb. You also have to be super careful of your positioning, you never want to expose your chest and weapon arm. There's a large number unit to pilot and they play very differently. I wish they'd re release it for PC to get around the horrible optimization.

 

[thebobmaster]

Alpha Protocol.

Once you get past the bugs, the overpowered stealth, the bugs, the boss battles, and the bugs, you have a game that has some very memorable characters, and does a better job than many games to actually follow through on making your choices matter. Add in a dash of spy intrigue, and you have a game that isn't good on a technical level at all...but still is enjoyable for me.

 

[Hawki]

loaded from beginning to end with bullshit deaths (including Lester's), brain-dead combat, that completely-unexplained bomb puzzle, and platforming that demanded near-pixel-perfect movements from controls that couldn't provide them. But the music was beautiful, and it recaptured that lonely, desolate feeling from the first game. And it did feel great to give that red-eyed son-of-a-***** the Purina Cat Chow treatment.

So...just like the original then?

Yeah, never been fond of Another World.

 

[Chimpzy]

Deadly Premonition

No thread like this can be bereft of Deadly Premonition. It's the king of games so bad they're good. If David Linch made games, this is what they'd play like. There's a sequel coming next month, and while this may sound weird, they might fuck it up by doing all the things that were bad about the original more competently.

 

[Kae]

Well I don't know if I'd say it's bad, but there's this game that I never hear anyone talk about called Second Sight, which I really like, it's a stealth/shooter/psychich powers game made by Free Radical, which I think has the same lead artist as TimeSplitters as it has a very similar art-style, the game isn't exactly bad but it has some very questionable mechanics such as the very weird auto-aim system or the fact that it just feels like it should have AI in more or less the same level of at least something like Metal Gear (Which it's clearly inspired by), and the level design varies from great to repetitive and confusing to absolutely terrible.

But the story and presentation in general are pretty good, like it's nothing groundbreaking but it's solid stuff and it's just enjoyable to play through, and I go through this game every other year, mostly because it's really nostalgic to me, but IDK, I just like even though I know it's nothing special and not particularly good, it's probably not bad though.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Its game world is beautiful but barren, with all the extra content in it being identical. The story is hella forgettable, I can't even remember what the main character's name is.

But Goddamn if I didn't enjoy the gameplay. The combat is passable, but the free running just really sucked me in. I have a soft spot for games with parkour in them, I love the idea of being to go almost anywhere in the game world. It was like the game was the bits in between missions where you were just running from one objective marker to another, rather than the content the devs made for you.

But at the end of the day its barely a full game. I would have been disappointed if I had paid 60 bucks, but thankfully I only paid 5 on ebay.

Honorable mention to AC Unity. Got a lot of fun out of that game for the same reasons, not to mention it was free.

 

[Hawki]

If I'm defining this as "games I know are bad/flawed, but like anyway," I guess I can nominate:

-Avatar (console): I was attached to this game way more than I should have when its gameplay is pretty basic, and as a prequel, it's got serious problems.

-Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (I can't really defend this game on any level as far as execution goes, but I have sympathy for it. Its gameplay could have worked in theory, and its story at least tried to do something different. Now, the former definitely didn't work, and the latter barely worked at all, and it's the worst CnC game I've played, but I don't hate it the way so many others do.)

-Killzone (KZ1 is in a weird place for me, and it's weird in regards to the series for a variety of reasons. I don't have a problem with the story, but the gameplay is really clunky. Yet there's something weirdly endearing with how 'heavy' everything is, and it's a feeling that the later games didn't carry over. From an objective standpoint, KZ2 plays much better than KZ1, but there's something endearing to me about the game's jank.)

-The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (this game is like Final Fantasy X, only far more linear, and with a story that I'm attached to far, FAR more than I should be. But I was young and naieve, and even now I have fondness for the game.)

-Resident Evil: Resistance (I've played this far more than the game actually deserves - the gameplay loop gets old, the connection issues are terrible, it's like a poor man's Outbreak, but for whatever reason, I kept coming back to this turd.)

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

I swear it has to be Sonic 06 at this point. Its hot garbage as literally everyone knows but there's a lot of unintentional charm to it. The story is a mess, mostly on Sonic's side yeah but its the rest of the game that has me in stitches.


The fact Sonic can casually walk on a loop and go into space on a box is just hilarious to me. Breaking this game into 2 isn't hard and just watching glitches happen makes my day. Not only that but there's everyone's reactions like the Grumps to its insanity. This is the game that keeps on giving in so many ways hahahah.

Everyone I've talked to about this game mentioned its potential. While I still do see it from the trailers I don't think its worth talking about its potential because we're stuck with what we got. Yeah it ruined Sonic's reputation but it was shaky enough as is. But I just like having fun.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Well I don't know if I'd say it's bad, but there's this game that I never hear anyone talk about called Second Sight, which I really like, it's a stealth/shooter/psychich powers game made by Free Radical, which I think has the same lead artist as TimeSplitters as it has a very similar art-style, the game isn't exactly bad but it has some very questionable mechanics such as the very weird auto-aim system or the fact that it just feels like it should have AI in more or less the same level of at least something like Metal Gear (Which it's clearly inspired by), and the level design varies from great to repetitive and confusing to absolutely terrible.

But the story and presentation in general are pretty good, like it's nothing groundbreaking but it's solid stuff and it's just enjoyable to play through, and I go through this game every other year, mostly because it's really nostalgic to me, but IDK, I just like even though I know it's nothing special and not particularly good, it's probably not bad though.

I still have a PS2 copy of the game. From what I recall, the game was at least pretty decent. I remember choosing Second Sight over Psi-Ops due to reading the story was better but Psi-Ops had the better gameplay.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Its game world is beautiful but barren, with all the extra content in it being identical. The story is hella forgettable, I can't even remember what the main character's name is.

But Goddamn if I didn't enjoy the gameplay. The combat is passable, but the free running just really sucked me in. I have a soft spot for games with parkour in them, I love the idea of being to go almost anywhere in the game world. It was like the game was the bits in between missions where you were just running from one objective marker to another, rather than the content the devs made for you.

But at the end of the day its barely a full game. I would have been disappointed if I had paid 60 bucks, but thankfully I only paid 5 on ebay.

The 1st game is a much tighter experience than Catalyst. Catalyst is basically "fine" because the core gameplay is solid but trying to make it like every other game, open world and all, wasn't the way to go. The combat was interesting but not that polished. The 1st game is now on Steam and only $2, I mainly picked it up so I don't have to hook up my PS3 to play it, plus I don't currently have a working PS3 controller either.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Resident Evil 5.
Its just more RE 4. And Sheva Alomar > Ashley Grahm.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I like idle clicker games like Cookie Clicker and Tap Titans. So.......

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I swear it has to be Sonic 06 at this point. Its hot garbage as literally everyone knows but there's a lot of unintentional charm to it. The story is a mess, mostly on Sonic's side yeah but its the rest of the game that has me in stitches.


The fact Sonic can casually walk on a loop and go into space on a box is just hilarious to me. Breaking this game into 2 isn't hard and just watching glitches happen makes my day. Not only that but there's everyone's reactions like the Grumps to its insanity. This is the game that keeps on giving in so many ways hahahah.

Everyone I've talked to about this game mentioned its potential. While I still do see it from the trailers I don't think its worth talking about its potential because we're stuck with what we got. Yeah it ruined Sonic's reputation but it was shaky enough as is. But I just like having fun.

What I also find extra funny about Sonic 06 is it's apparently a very consistent and stable game for speed runners. The glitches are apparently very predictable.

 

[Hawki]

Resident Evil 5.
Its just more RE 4. And Sheva Alomar > Ashley Grahm.

But...RE5 isn't bad.

 

[BrawlMan]

Resident Evil 5.
Its just more RE 4. And Sheva Alomar > Ashley Grahm.

5 is not even really a bad game, unless you're doing Professional mode solo. Then it gets real bullshit. 5 is game that is more fun with co-op. Solo is frustrating even on Normal cuz of bad AI companion. Otherwise, it's a fun action game. 5 was the best selling RE game before 6 came along. And RE6 barely made more than RE5 by .4 or .5 million. That is nothing to laugh at. But in return, sales immedately started dropping after word got out about the game's problems.

Agreed, Sheva is better than Ashley.

 

[Hawki]

Agreed, Sheva is better than Ashley.

I'll raise you and ask who's more annoying - Ashley or Steve?

(It's Steve.)