Games that were objectively terrible, but you loved anyway

[Ironshroom]

We have all had that one game that we all loved as a child, only to discover later that the game was panned by every single person apart from you.
For me, this was a little vehicular combat game on the PS2 called Motor Mayhem. It was for all intents and purposes Twisted Metal, but I had no idea what that was at the time, so I clinged onto Motor Mayhem and didn't stop playing for ages.
Who else had that game that was critically panned, but you loved all the same

 

[Bonk4licious]

My recent game that was terrible but I loved anyway was the Bionic Commando remake. While the game's environment was limited, I had so much fun with the Spider-Man with guns mechanic that I played it a couple times through and even pretended the multiplayer was alright for an hour. Sure, many things could've been better, but I had fun and that's all I cared about.

 

[Exhuminator]

For me it has to be King's Field : The Ancient City. It gets a 60 on Metacritic. Honestly, I can understand initially why someone would not like this game. The controls are unwieldy, movement and combat is slow, and you can die within 5 seconds of starting out. However, for those who persevere, The Ancient City becomes an amazing experience. You get used to the controls, movement and combat speed increases as weapons and levels improve, and eventually you learn how not to die. From then on, you're free to explore an amazing world full of incredible atmosphere, devious puzzles, and fearsome beasts galore. Basically, The Ancient City is kinda Demon's Souls, except in first person. Which makes sense, as the games were made by the same developer.

 

[BQE]

Fighting Fooooooorrrcceee.

Spoiler: Look at these cutting edge snapshots

I honestly don't remember much other than it was an arcadey 3-D brawler. I do remember throwing motorcycles at people.
It's....it's...actually painful for my eyes to behold now.

 

[Salus]

O.R.B. (Off-World Resource Base)

Wasn't panned per se, and admittedly I never played the Homeworld games, but I got the impression it went under the radar, perhaps undeservedly so. I thought it was an amazing game but I never found anyone else who played it. For me, it was a near-perfect RTS, because battles were not won by mouse speed but by decision-making (in StarCraft, execution often comes before strategy) but it wasn't so slow as to be in the same category as the Civilization series and other such games.

The music was out-of-this-world good, the sound design was top-notch, and back then, the game was beautiful.

 

[Strelok]

My favorite in the NES time was this one:

In fact, I bought an NES specifically for that game, and I love it still to this day.

More recently, this is one of my favorites (spoilered for size):

Spoiler

Still love this one too, even though it didn't run well, and looked years out of date.

 

[Ironshroom]

My favorite in the NES time was this one:

In fact, I bought an NES specifically for that game, and I love it still to this day.

More recently, this is one of my favorites (spoilered for size):

Spoiler

Still love this one too, even though it didn't run well, and looked years out of date.

Wow, it must have taken a lot of effort to like any LJN game. I had Back to the Future on NES and that game was just abysmal...

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Depending on who you ask, Halo Wars was either extremely disappointing or an outright abomination of the RTS genre, but its controls were pretty solid and overall it was fun to play. It also has a pretty vibrant and active, if slightly small, fanbase.

 

[Ironshroom]

Depending on who you ask, Halo Wars was either extremely disappointing or an outright abomination of the RTS genre, but its controls were pretty solid and overall it was fun to play. It also has a pretty vibrant and active, if slightly small, fanbase.

I actually enjoyed Halo Wars. It's a bit sad that it was the team behind Age of Empires last game

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

All the point and click adventures with deaths and dead ends (Sierra, Legend, etc). Apparently they suck (so I'm told) because you die and get into an unwinnable positions. They're still way better than all the post-2000 adventures so they must have done something right.

 

[thiosk]

All the point and click adventures with deaths and dead ends (Sierra, Legend, etc). Apparently they suck (so I'm told) because you die and get into an unwinnable positions. They're still way better than all the post-2000 adventures so they must have done something right.

Oh my god at age 12 (ish?) Kings Quest 6 ruined my life. First beach: Find the ring. Trade the ring back and forth for various puzzles for hours-- you need various items at different times to get through, but you can get all the way to the catacombs, oh god! the cieling is falling! Good thing theres a gearbox, toss in this skull... skull breaks! death.

Absolutely no way out of the situation.

Solution?
On that first beach, there was a twinking ring. There was also an utterly nondescript piece of wood amongst dozens. You had to move that, get the coin, and use the coin as an additional trading item. That way, you can get the brick AND get to the catacombs.

Oh the horrible horrible pain of that. Essentially pre-internet, had to call a 900 number to get the hint.
Aye caramba.

 

[piinyouri]

For me it has to be King's Field : The Ancient City. It gets a 60 on Metacritic. Honestly, I can understand initially why someone would not like this game. The controls are unwieldy, movement and combat is slow, and you can die within 5 seconds of starting out. However, for those who persevere, The Ancient City becomes an amazing experience. You get used to the controls, movement and combat speed increases as weapons and levels improve, and eventually you learn how not to die. From then on, you're free to explore an amazing world full of incredible atmosphere, devious puzzles, and fearsome beasts galore. Basically, The Ancient City is kinda Demon's Souls, except in first person. Which makes sense, as the games were made by the same developer.

THAT GAME WAS SO FREAKING HUGE AND YOU MOVE SO SLOW AND NO FAST TRAVEL AND...


Would that one be ranked as "terrible" though?
I mean..it's definitely a niche title, and is very difficult, and not always for the right reasons, but I found it to be functional.

But godddamn man loading that game up after a year of not playing...I've never ever felt so truly lost in my life.

 

[Kyrian007]

This is gonna sound odd, but ET for the 2600. It was by no means GOOD, but the people faulting the gameplay... be better gamers, that game was easy. It han an objective, told you what it was, and gave powerups and provided difficulty in achieving that objective... just like any game. I really think all the hate was butthurt ham-fisted gamers who had trouble grasping anything harder than Breakout, and non-gamers expecting some kind of epic experience (because of the epicness of E.T.) which very few games of the pre-8bit era could boast.

Otherwise, gotta go with my stock answer of the Tecmo's Deception series. Horrible camera, a story that managed to be all at once boring, cliche, and needlessly obtuse, and some seriously "zero wing" bad translation. Anyone could easily be forgiven for saying that they had just played the worst game they'd ever seen.

And at the same time, It's the most fun I had with a PS and PS2. It doesn't provide an experience like a good, long RPG or JRPG. But it's right up there in good, old fashioned, hurting your opponents. In every Deception game, the longer and more juggled through the air in terrible pain you can make someone's death... the better your score. Dropping a boulder and crushing someone to death... meh, low score. Dropping a giant snowball which caught the person, rolled him across the floor to a springfloor which launched the snowball into the path of a pendulum that flings the helpless victim crashing into an oilvase to be covered in lamp oil just in time to catch a fire arrow... much better.

 

[Tuxedoman]

You know what I loved? And I'll probably get some flak for this...

Syndicate: Dubstep Lensflare edition.

Hear me out, hear me out...

Gameplay wise, single player was bland and repetitive in terms of gameplay. Story held my interest but followed a predictable arc, and the game was full of set pieces. But you know what? It pulled me in. I loved Deus Ex, I love conspiracy theories and corporate espionage tales. The fact that it was Human Revolution with a lot less depth to it was absolutely fine by me as it was exactly what I was expecting going in. The lore in the game and attention to detail was also really good. That whole mission where you just walk around the Eurocorp office chillaxing was probably one of my favourites (funny, the mission with no gameplay was the best...)

There are a lot of problems, for sure. As I said, the gameplay is pretty average. The minigun is hilariously overpowered and is awfully animated. Leveling up is both awkward and boring, plus your powers are basically just a "press that button on the other side of the bridge" key.

But the co-op... OH the co-op.
It was so much fun.
Starbreeze made Payday, a game all about co-op fun. Seriously, if you can get three people plus you to buy the game JUST for the co-op, I would recommend it. If Payday was cyberpunk and shorter, its kind of like that.

Is it like the original? No. Not in the slightest. Is it a fairly average shooter? Yeah. It is. And you know what? I'm ok with that. I wasn't expecting it to be much else.

 

[Klumpfot]

Objectivity does not mean what you seem to think it means.

I do get what you mean, though. For me, I really rather enjoyed both Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (an appropriately cheesy title) and Doshin the Giant for the Gamecube, even though both games were quite obviously made on a budget and lacking in features. Both were absolutely functional though.

 

[Ironshroom]

Objectivity does not mean what you seem to think it means.

I do get what you mean, though. For me, I really rather enjoyed both Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (an appropriately cheesy title) and Doshin the Giant for the Gamecube, even though both games were quite obviously made on a budget and lacking in features. Both were absolutely functional though.

Try playing Bad Rats then come and talk to me. Thats objectively terrible

 

[Astoria]

Well it's pretty much universally accepted that Aliens v Predator was a pretty crappy game but I really liked it. It was fun to stalk humans as either the alien or the predator and the marine missions genuinely scared me at first. Yeah it's pretty short and has some meh parts but just for a chill out game it's pretty good IMO.