Enjoying bad games

[Silly Hats]

Everyone has their own favourite Bad films and everyone also seems to love watching abysmally bad films just for the laughs.

Though, I don't really get why there's less of an emphasis on enjoying really poorly made games and why games need to be at a certain level to be accepted or they'll be banished and cast out by the gaming community. Sure people may play bad 90s FMV games because they're a little cheesy and technically bad, just what is it that makes people avoid bad games? Humans are drawn to negativity and it's safe the assume that Internet reviewers that talk about bad games with lower scores are going to be be more likely to gain more views.

So why is there an almost double standard? And/or what are some really bad games that you find subjectively fun to play?

 

[shrekfan246]

Because of their inherent interactivity, there's typically a difference between why a game is considered bad when compared to, say, films. Bad games can often have terrible stories, writing, voice acting, animation, directing, etc., but they generally have to be monumentally terrible to bring down the entire game if the gameplay itself is still solid and relatively fun. And if the gameplay is the part that's horrible, it becomes "not fun" to play anymore, and when you're not having fun playing something, why should you continue to play it?

As for "enjoying bad games", I do have a recent contribution I can add to this thread. I won't comment on the gameplay, as I didn't actually play the game and merely watched the rather convenient "Theater Mode" of it in a Youtube video, but thinking about it, I actually enjoyed--in a way--Metroid: Other M.

Don't get me wrong, the story is abysmal. Sakamoto should be ashamed of what he wrote and directed, and I'll agree with every complaint anybody has to throw at it, because I myself think it might be one of the absolute worst stories I've ever seen in a video game. That being said... I have to admit that it was entertaining watching just how low they could scrape there. Of the two-hour-and-fifteen-minute-long video I watched, the first hour or so was really just incredibly boring; Endlessly restating exposition in a way that would make Solid Snake reel in surprise, absolutely fuck-all progression actually happening, "baby" this and "Bottle Ship" that and Samus' daddy complex with Adam, the fight with Ridley was the only thing actually resembling something exciting. But then something happened. A Metroid appeared! And what happened next just completely blew my mind and instantly made me just have to see how they kept going:

Spoiler: Like anybody cares

While preparing to finally freeze the Metroid, Samus gets shot in the back and knocked unconscious, and the person who shot her (Adam) freezes the Metroid instead. When Samus comes to, Adam says that she can't fight the Metroids because these ones can't be frozen (Yes, even though he just froze one, which Samus herself even questions, getting a "Well, who knows?" from Adam), and then Adam proceeds to do the player's job for them and takes out the "base" of operations these new Metroids are coming from.

I was reeling in shock when I saw that, and the way the game proceeded from there was just astonishing. And the best part (or worst, really) of it all was that the ending was somehow even worse, managing to not only completely ruin Samus' character and render her actual appearance in the game as nothing more than a coincidence that didn't matter, it also destroys the player's agency in controlling how the game continues forward and just blatantly fractures the disconnect between story and gameplay inherent in "cinematic" games.

And it was something truly amazing to behold.

 

[IpunchFaces]

Some people avoid bad games just because its publicly denounced as a 'bad game', and they generally don't want to waste their time on playing something they might not enjoy. Others (like me) like playing bad games just to see how much enjoyment they can squeeze out of it and to see just how much of a trainwreck it is. And if I can get a few hours of laughs and fun out of it? It's alright in my book. (It's best played with friends though, you can schadenfreude off each other's suffering)

A bad one I'm playing right now is Two Worlds, and so far I love how it feels like a collection of the worst cliches and tropes in High Fantasy. I love it.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

I will fully admit that the Dynasty Warriors series are not really great or even particularly good games. And yet I have played almost all of them to total completion and invested hundreds of hours in the series. Truthfully, they're a sort of comfort game; I know I won't have to face anything particularly testing, and I just have an enjoyable time mashing buttons. Conversely, there are some really good games that I just can't face playing these days. For instance, I mean to do Devil May Cry again, but there are certain timed sections and underwater elements that I cannot be bothered with.

 

[stroopwafel]

I enjoyed Sniper Elite V2 a whole lot! I don't know if its really considered a 'bad' game, but even by my own standards it is incredibly mediocre. The lame third person shooter parts are completely redundant. However carefully observing and stalking the enemy with your scope and then carefully lining up your shot followed by the detailed X-ray kill cam just makes everything right! You always wonder what part of the body you should shoot to pieces next. Skull, heart, or nut sack? Decisions, decisions. Stalking, observing and the slow-mo trajectory of the bullet followed by the gory X-ray kill cam really puts a certain excitement in the game I haven't really found in any other shooter.

I hope they will make a sequel that retains what made Sniper Elite special but is made by a better developer than Rebellion. They have the idea but not really the talent for exceptional game-design.

 

[Skops]

For some reason, I had such a great time with Rogue Warrior. There is no way anyone involved in the making of this game saw this as a 'serious' project. I literally paused the game laughing so hard because of the constant cheesy one liners like "Rock'n Roll motherfuckers! rock'n roll!". The game itself isn't even 3hrs long and the end credits song is just all of the many one liners throughout the entire game with some hip hop beats.

Hilarious game. Worth the $5 bucks I spent on it, and it deserves every point of that glorious 23 Metacritic score.