Justifying Your Love For Overrated/Flat Out Bad Games

camerinian

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Mar 16, 2012
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This is just a forum I wanted to put up so that people can, in a non-fanboyish manner, justify themselves for liking games that are pretty much universally reviled or liking a game that has been proclaimed as overrated so much that it has essentially become the general consensus (i.e. Final Fantasy VII, Skyrim, GTA IV, etc.)

I guess I should start by explaining why I love Sonic Adventure 2. I first played it only 2 years ago on my friends GameCube and we had a ton of fun just racing through as Sonic and Shadow in the multiplayer. I finally bought it myself when it was released on PSN, and I was surprised by how fun it still was to play.

Firstly, I think Sonic's controls in SA2 are the best of any 3D Sonic game (The more recent games still feel sort of clunky when at slower speeds). The levels have a nice mix of platforming and outright "gotta go fast" moments that it never feels boring. The Master Emerald shard hunting levels with Knuckles And Rouge are also quite enjoyable (although the radar is a bit gimped). I really enjoy the scale of the levels and just how satisfying finally nabbing one of those pieces is. And the Chao Garden. Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuh, so addictive...

Also, I'd really like to see someone on this thread explain how on earth they could like Sonic 06, considering the obscene amount of YouTube comments I see defending it as "not that bad"...
 

shrekfan246

Not actually a Japanese pop star
May 26, 2011
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The Knuckles and Rouge sections are not enjoyable. No, no, no, no. The camera is broken, the radar and hints are braindead and assume the player is as well, the levels are horribly laid out and half of them are uninspired floating platforms with no actual bottom to the level, and even the music isn't nearly as catchy or enjoyable as the other sections of the game. How they managed to screw it up from Sonic Adventure eludes me.

Anyway.

The general consensus doesn't even know how to agree on the definition of "overrated", let alone what games qualify. Depending on who you ask and where you ask it, Half-Life 2 ranges from the greatest game ever created to the most overrated piece of crap released since... I dunno, Halo, I guess? That's another one people call overrated, right?

I don't really know if there are any 'bad' games I like. 'Mediocre' games, certainly, since going by the "general consensus" that covers everything from Alice: Madness Returns to Sonic Generations.
 

JSoup

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Jun 14, 2012
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I'm not really sure why anyone would really need to justify the liking of a game that is perceived as bad. I like what I like and that's that.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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It's getting to the point where I kinda wish "overrated" would just vanish from the vocabulary of gaming.
 

Sniper Team 4

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Apr 28, 2010
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Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. It continued the storyline of Final Fantasy VII. Set AFTER Final Fantasy VII (that's key). Enough said. I don't care the the controls were bad, the camera could be annoying, the gameplay was lack-luster and the story was...yeah. It brought back Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Cid, Reves, Barret, and Vincent. I was rather surprised they didn't find a way to have Aerith have a cameo, but then she was really more of Cloud's ghost, not Vincent's. He had Luccretcia or whatever.
 

Elijin

Elite Muppet
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Feb 15, 2009
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Applicable to any game:

Because I personally enjoy it.
 

The Madman

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Dec 7, 2007
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Umm... I dunno. I don't play many bad games and the bad games I have played I tend to forget pretty quickly because, well, they were bad. I certainly don't love any of em.

Alpha Protocol I guess? But even that one's built up a bit of a cult following as most Obsidian games tend to eventually. While the combat was wonky and the gamplay in general pretty mediocre at best, I liked the story, characters, and how malleable everything was to the decisions of the player. Y'know, roleplaying stuff. It's an rpg that had great roleplaying in it and I like it for that, go figure!
 

scorptatious

The Resident Team ICO Fanboy
May 14, 2009
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Personally, I like to think Final Fantasy VII is sort of both overrated AND underrated at the same time. I don't see it as my favorite Final Fantasy game, (that spot belongs to IX) but I still feel that it's a very good game. The materia system is interesting, the music is nice, the story was enjoyable, and I liked the main characters.

Plus it has One Winged Angel. 'Nuff said.

I also liked the Knuckles and Rouge sections in SA2. I'll admit though, it is rather strange how they changed the radar from SA1 to SA2. *shrugs*
 

AVeryClassyCat

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Feb 24, 2013
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FF7 for me, and I still love to play it. I get why it's hyped so much, and I get why it's criticized, but I have nostalgia that enhances the experience and it still works for me now. I put at least two to three hundred hours into it just in the first 8 months after getting it, and the feelings of conquering my way through it (especially considering how horribly optimized my materia setups were compared to the very skilled people who play and speed run it to this day) are my own fun gaming memories.

I also really liked Galerians, but I'm guessing since not many people know of it or play it anymore it's not nearly as well received as other old titles.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
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Zhukov said:
It's getting to the point where I kinda wish "overrated" would just vanish from the vocabulary of gaming.
Thank you, my thoughts exactly. I find it even worse than the E word, since at least that one is not being misused close to half the time.
 

Yopaz

Sarcastic overlord
Jun 3, 2009
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Overrated doesn't mean a game isn't worth playing, not worth liking or is in any way bad.

I consider several games that I like overrated because they have some giant flaws that I see, but don't care about because I am having fun.

Anyway that iis the only thing I need. If someone says a game is bad then that is their opinion, if the whole world says a game is bad that's their opinion. If my opinion is that the game is fun, why should I care even briefly about what others think?
 

thespyisdead

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Jan 25, 2010
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how dare you call FlatOut a bad game... oh wait...

fandom is big part of that effect. you have fans of a series who will protect a series even if there were a bee hive that was packaged with the game... just the way the world works i guess
 

KarlMonster

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Mar 10, 2009
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Huh. It's much easier for me to list the popular games that I don't like (there are many) than to list the few stinkers that I enjoy.

My definition of a bad game may be different. I think a bad game has good parts that beckon you to play it again - at which point you remember all the crap that you have to go through to get to that juicy good part. I'm going to suffer through these other bits so I can get to the fun part - because I forgot what a game is. Terrible games are much more convenient. You can just scrap those and get on with your life.
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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I liked Too Human (I wouldn't say I 'loved' it) despite nearly Universal hatred of it. I accept that the camera was incredibly annoying and the unskippable death cutscene was horrible, but as a fan of norse mythology and general vikingery I enjoyed the game nevertheless. That is really the only justification I have for liking the game, it wasn't exactly groundbreaking in any way and it wasn't a spiritual successor to a brilliant earlier game. It just had vikings and for me that is usually enough to at least warrant playing a demo or renting it.
 

Abomination

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Dec 17, 2012
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I don't have to or feel the need to "justify" shit. I like what I like and popular opinion has nothing to do with it.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
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[sub]O mai gawd these passive-aggressive responses yo'[/sub]

Well I LOVE Alpha Protocol. Sure the gameplay is a bit weird, the pistol is BROKEN for example, Thorton is so godlike he gets perfect headshots by blind firing from cover. Apparently it's glitchy but i'm one of those fortunate people who never suffer the legendary Obsidian bugs, only the amusing ones like RadScorpians being half underground the whole time.

But the role-playing sells it completely. You can go around being a more aggressive James Bond being suave as hell then suddenly dunk some guy's face off the counter of a bar for pissing you off.
 

GundamSentinel

The leading man, who else?
Aug 23, 2009
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Sure, the story was shit, the characters were shit, it was too short etc, etc. But slicing, impaling, throwing, electrocuting, disintegrating and generally fucking up stormtroopers never got old in that game.
 

Sacman

Don't Bend! Ascend!
May 15, 2008
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Alice: Madness Returns... while it's not a bad game, it's certainly pretentious, and get's monotonous... but I was more than a little starved for a platformer at the time, and it's refreshing to see mainstream game that was visually inspired by more than the pile of dirt in the backyard...<.<
 

loudestmute

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Oct 21, 2008
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There's nothing wrong with enjoying a title that isn't quite properly constructed.

...except it's damn near impossible to find someone else playing Brink at the same time as me. -__-"