The whole "tech demo" argument really didn't start happening until after Brotherhood and III, when later fans jumped on the franchise. You'd get along with my brother really well. He loves the first two AC games especially.
Your favorite bad game: be it story, gameplay, art design, graphics, etc.
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Again, it makes no sense that anyone might shame the first game in a franchise if they think the subsequent installments better refined the established formula. I mean, the reason we have so many ACs is because AC1 performed well; it was new and different, and apparently merited the the existence of the 2,578 ACs since; it was successful, and a good enough GAME to be iterated a dozen or more times. If people want to talk about how much lesser the acorn is when compared to the oak tree it eventually sprouted... well, those are the kinds of opinions I can easily dismiss, and you should too.
My favorite thing about any open-world driving game is the open-world driving. So it shouldn't be any surprise that I love Fuel for giving me more open-world driving than any open-world driving game ever has, at the unfortunate cost of having little else going on. The minimal world-building (completely without a story beyond "win the races") is obnoxiously heavy-handed with the Climate Change doom-&-gloom, the racing music is the auditory equivalent of rice crackers, yet I just can't get enough of the infinite road-trip potential, with a separate device for music of course.
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Rick Dangerous was an absurdly unfair platformer, playable only with a cheat code, and even so very hard to complete. Still, I just adored its tone, music, design and the character's smug grin. Made all its colonial tropes feel deliciously self-aware.
I’ve only played some of the first AC, but from what people say about the second being arguably the “best”, it seems to mirror the way Uncharted started but as a cinematic action adventure game. The first, while good at those elements, is more like a pilot episode or proof of concept next to the sequel, where everything was firing on all cylinders with the accelerator floored.
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God Hand is definitely my favorite "bad game" of all time.
I'm pretty sure IGN should've payed damages to Clover studio for that nonsensical score of 3/10, but I guess they got immunity/impunity...
I'm pretty sure IGN should've payed damages to Clover studio for that nonsensical score of 3/10, but I guess they got immunity/impunity...
Once again, not an actual bad game, but only "bad" in the sense of environmental design and some stilted voice acting. And even then, the environments are more basic than anything. Most of the voice acting works and is intentionally over-the-top.
I wouldn't go that far. Both of their second opinions (one written a month after their original review) and the video version that came a little over a decade later was them trying to save face. No one bought it. Not even the casual gamers. The plagiarizing disaster with one of their reviewers didn't help either. Who managed to plagiarize two different reviews and steal from the same YouTube reviewer. IGN took heavy blow with that one.
I'd like to make a special mention for Disaster: Day of Crisis
It's honestly kind of a mess of a game. None of its individual elements are good, and together they're a schizophrenic mish-mash, so it's not a case of 'better than the sum of its parts' either. It should be total crap. And it kind of is. Yet it's also just so entertaining in a way that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't played it. It's similar to Deadly Premonition in this respect.
It's honestly kind of a mess of a game. None of its individual elements are good, and together they're a schizophrenic mish-mash, so it's not a case of 'better than the sum of its parts' either. It should be total crap. And it kind of is. Yet it's also just so entertaining in a way that's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't played it. It's similar to Deadly Premonition in this respect.
I know this game. Ruben Langdon actually plays the villain in this one. He uses his DMC3 Dante voice. It's one of the few and rare villain roles he has ever done.
Yeah, they actually tried to remedy the situation they created, but who's to say how many people didn't bought the game on release just because IGN said they shouldn't? Plus, it's not the only time they've fully mislead the audience - I think IGN is also to blame for Battlefront's untimely demise mere months after release since they couldn't shut up about comparing it to Overwatch and "declaring" the latter a clear winner in all categories...
They were never that similar, come on... Even if I don't like R. Pitchford, Battlefront deserved a lot, lot better
IGN has been misleading their audience since the early 2000s. It was just a case that back then, it wasn't too noticeable. I noticed something since the start of their Dynasty Warriors reviews at 4 and 5. Or how they would get picked at certain games and make their flaws sound worse than what they actually are. IGN wasn't the only one guilty of this, but they were the most vocal at the time when it came to this stuff. They still have this problem. See their Double Dragon and SOR4 reviews. 6 out of 10 my ass for the latter. Both video reviews got a ton of dislikes. They yet again use the excuse of "this is why brawlers are dead and no one plays them anymore!". The high sales of both games proved how full of crap they are, and sounds more like a skill issue. Whoever was doing the reviews couldn't beat the game, or just randomly button mashed and hoped for the best.
Yup, it seems like whichever game they can't beat just in time for the review - since they can't afford to be late with a review - automatically gets a lower score and the "review" is basically the person who didn't try hard (or smart) enough just ranting about the game's "flaws". But popular review sites are an important cog in the video game industry nowadays, and I can understand why they have to rush with reviews sometimes (and end up entirely missing the mark...). That's why I rarely, rarely buy a game on release now, even if it gets glowing scores - I know that the reviewers simply didn't have enough time to really test and understand the title. I tend to wait a few months (not just for the mandatory patches to roll in), but also to check how the less popular sites like gamingbolt or gamecritics (and Zero Punctuation, ofc
) have rated it
For larger review sites, most have a more than enough large staff. Either have some people dedicate to specific games, rotate, and don't sit on your ass, then you should be fine. I know certain AAA companies don't make it easy, but big publication sites have no excuses at this point. For a long ass time. So they ain't as an important cog they like to think they are, if that's how they do things. Easy Allies releases most of their reviews a week or two after the game has released, and they're fine. Not as big as their GT days, but it show how "make it first to the finish line" mentality needs to die when it comes to getting reviews out.
Even ZP I don't trust much anymore. While Yahtzee is more dependable compared to the likes of IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, Kotaku, or Giant Bomb, he's has plenty moments of either pointing out "flaws", making them worse than actually sound (I know it's for comedic effect, but how funny it actually becomes is very YMMV), or bitching and hating on a game or said fans of a game when those fans did nothing to him, and he more or less provoked them. I know he's calmed down around the late 2010s, but there are plenty of reviews I either never want to see again from his old days, or I just don't find most new reviews interesting anymore, aside from an exception or two.
Probably it would be Lagoon for SNES.
It's a top-down action-RPG with combat similar to Zelda (to be generous). Most of the game is between mediocre and average, but not really bad (specially the music); except for the attack range (that's awful). When you attack while facing north or south, your attack is off-centered towards your character's right. Also, no matter which blade you have equipped, you need to be within your arm's length to hit an enemy. And for the cherry on the top, because they tried to give depth to the perspective, to be able to hit an enemy coming from north, you need to pretty much overlap your sprite with the enemy's (which will frequently results in getting hit by the enemy first, which pushes you back and out of range to attack). Oh, and magic spells are the only ranged attacks you have, and can't be used against bosses.
It's a top-down action-RPG with combat similar to Zelda (to be generous). Most of the game is between mediocre and average, but not really bad (specially the music); except for the attack range (that's awful). When you attack while facing north or south, your attack is off-centered towards your character's right. Also, no matter which blade you have equipped, you need to be within your arm's length to hit an enemy. And for the cherry on the top, because they tried to give depth to the perspective, to be able to hit an enemy coming from north, you need to pretty much overlap your sprite with the enemy's (which will frequently results in getting hit by the enemy first, which pushes you back and out of range to attack). Oh, and magic spells are the only ranged attacks you have, and can't be used against bosses.
With the latest CoD I find myself kinda empathizing with Sledgehammer Games. They seem to have been put in a bad situation and a part of me wants to try MWIII to see how bad it really is, but there’s no way I’m paying for that to support a shitty publisher (Sekiro was my last exception because they actually respected FROM’s wishes…which reminds me it’s also what led to me taking a chance on Cold War the following year, which I still haven’t played). So, maybe I’ll start with that actually, since apparently it was pretty good for recent CoD. I haven’t played the series since Black Ops II on PS3 for MP.
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Oneechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers - It's not exactly bad, but it's clear Tamsoft was working on a low-buget. Ironically enough, the game is better than the earlier titles and the first HD outing, Bikini Samurai Squad. The only flaw with BZS is that the game has motion controls only. They do work fine enough, but it still sucks Tamsoft nor D3 thought of putting in or adding in the standard control scheme with the Classic Controller, nor GC controller.
That said, the later entries releasing on 360, and then later on PS4 are much better games in terms of looks and combat. Z: Kaguara (a sort of soft reboot) and Z2 are the DMC4 and DMC5 of the franchise, and Oneechanbara Origin is a remake of the first two games combined into one game, and has an anime look, instead of looking "realistic". Origin's only flaw is the price for DLC/deluxe edition when not on sale, and the lip-synching is bad in the English dub. The dubbing itself is good, but the localization team clearly rushed to get the game out over seas without proper lip synching.
Z2 is still the best in the franchise.
That said, the later entries releasing on 360, and then later on PS4 are much better games in terms of looks and combat. Z: Kaguara (a sort of soft reboot) and Z2 are the DMC4 and DMC5 of the franchise, and Oneechanbara Origin is a remake of the first two games combined into one game, and has an anime look, instead of looking "realistic". Origin's only flaw is the price for DLC/deluxe edition when not on sale, and the lip-synching is bad in the English dub. The dubbing itself is good, but the localization team clearly rushed to get the game out over seas without proper lip synching.
Z2 is still the best in the franchise.
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I like those ps2 era dbz games, budokai and sparking and so on. Sparking especially. They're apparently making a 4th game in that series which is nuts. I had a big thing for those games before I got into competitive fighters but once I did I just couldn't look at them the same any more due to their shallowness, but at the same time I cherish the times I played em. I remember being so hype at playing butokai 1 in like middle school or whenever it was.