Bad games to avoid...

[Viscra Maelstrom]

i wouldn't say anything could be potentially worse than Sonic 06. well, okay, Sonic Boom beat it to that. but they were total grand failures of the absolute max. i don't even remember hearing much of those games, so i'd just classify them more under "bland and forgettable." at least, if Secret Rings is similar to Black Knight (which isn't a godawful abomination from Hell, just a soulless, boring slog.)

[Clownman]

It's worse than Black Knight, Sonic is constantly moving and you have to tilt the Wii Remote left and right to move, To go backward you need to tilt the controller almost completely upside down, and the camera doesn't turn around so you'll more than likely end up backing into a stage hazard.

Oh, And it is full of mindnumbing busywork you have to do that's worse than Shadow the Hedgehog or The Chaotix's gameplay in Heroes. (Break a certain number of jars, Don't break any jars, collect this number of rings...) And the controls barely even respond, Prepare for a lot of cheap deaths from your homing attack failing... Oh, And don't grind rails unless you want to start from the last checkpoint.

[Ethril]

sonic '06 at least had an awesome soundtrack

[Viscra Maelstrom]

honestly, i can only really count the Zebrahead theme song as particularly sticking out from the soundtrack. the rest is okay, but as a whole i don't find it much more compelling and memorable compared to, say, Shadow the Hedgehog's soundtrack.

Black Knight's soundtrack is garbage and does not meld with the game's atmosphere at all though. even the theme song is really weird.

[Clownman]

Free Riders has been criticized for also having this obnoxiously loud opening theme.

[Oberron]

The 2000/2001 game Road Wars was also panned due to setting your computer volume high enough to make your ears bleed to death.

[leileilol]

Some Singletrac windows ports did that and altered your panning and bass/treble settings

[Oberron]

Remember: after you bootup Road Wars, put the sound volume down fast. Then, tell me what examples did those Singletrac Windows ports have that?

[Reactor]

I'd like to add the hidden object game The adventures of Robinson Crusoe here.

I love that book, Daniel Defoe was a genius. Robinson's adventure was great, exciting, enthralling, and it seriously makes most people to long after a deserted tropical isle to leave the noisy, crime-infested, overpolluted world behind. I was extremely happy when I saw that there is a PC game about this novel, so I downloaded it to see what is it made of...
It was a disappointment in every aspect. I thought (rightfully) that this is gonna be an adventure game, or at least a 2D platformer or something, but no - it's a hidden object game! You know, find various items of a picture. Occassionally, there are some puzzles and brain-games too, like match the pictures, connect the irrigation ditches in a Pipe dream-style, complete a sliding puzzle, memory game etc. That's all peaches and cream, but what does this have to do with Robinson Crusoe's adventure? Needless to say that the in-game storyline is also a damn mess - it blubbers about pirates, evil ghosts, sunken treasure and other kinds of bullshit which'd make Defoe spin in his grave like a damn ventilator.

I'd compare this game to the infamous Little Red Hood, though to be honest, this game is better in gameplay terms, but still, it has nothing to do with the novel itself. Do yourself a favor, and don't download it, let alone buy it - this crap doesn't worth a nickel. If you like hidden object games, there are TONS of, which are an octo-decillion times better.

[osjclatchford]

Borg quake... the maps were fun but the textures were piss poor and the similarity of all the sounds left it hard to tell what is was going on. Fire warrior was s real dissapointment. Environment was fun, the story was great but the weapons were terrible to use...

[shotfan]

My condemnation goes to Resistance 2. (PS3 2008 shooter)
It was a big dissapointment after Resistance: Fall of Man. Coming from Insomniac Games, the first Resistance had varied and useful weaponry that you could carry all at once (among others: immensely fun dual micro SMGs, air-fuel grenades, turret dispenser, electrolaser, radiation emitter that can fire through walls, rocket launcher with cluster bomb mode, or even an bizzare grenade launcher that could split its charges into multiple explosive tiles), equally varied and threatening enemies (Chimera - an alien race that came to Earth with Tunguska meteor), somewhat boring-but-still-good looking environments (the snowy London still seems beautiful to me, especially the snowfall), and decent gameplay - adequately difficult and not too slow paced. Also, vehicle sections that might be a short-lived gimmick, but at least they were competently delivered.

Then came Resistance 2. And suddenly, I got a huge blow from consolitis right into my face. Call of Duty-style regenerating health (the R:FoM only had partial regeneration, in quarter increments) - HORRIBLE by itself. But this was only a beginning of destestable design changes:
First off, the arsenal got more bland, weaker and limited to COD's two-guns carry only. Splendid! (and I swear that damn Marksman Rifle is a cheap knockoff of Halo's Battle Rifle, since both of them only fire in triple bursts) Instead of micro SMGs or electrolaser, I got a Magnum that fires absurdly explosive bullet-mines, boring grenade launcher with incendiary mode, so-very-original minigun with an energy barrier and an use-it-to-defeat-a-boss pulse cannon that appears only when... well, guess. (presumably, it is reverse-engineered from alien technology.... in 1953! Give me a break, alternate history or not!). The enemy variety got reduced in about half. The game is around half as long as the original. No vehicles. It pretty much looks worse (everything is too damn shiny, and there is no my-precious snow effects from the original, even though two levels take place on the Iceland). And the story makes no sense (not that first one's was in any way remarkable, but it was more coherent): you are transported around at a dazzling speed with next to no explanation (one moment you are in San Francisco, then level ends and you get the scene transitioned to the woods somewhere in mainland US, with not a single line of explanation about what happened in between). Also, it is a bad attempt at the "America invaded by commies" alternate history, only instead of Soviets here are ALIENS!!! Excellent! Boss fights are boring (the Leviathan fight is a scripted mess that you can get through only with the rocket launcher... how exciting) The telepathic nightmares from the big bad come out cheesy, especially considering how easy he is to take down at the end. The stupid protagonist never stops to take anti-infection inhibitor and prevent full Chimerazation for no good reason.
The sequel managed to get worse in every aspect. Congratulations, Insomniac.
And It came with my PS3. I never asked for this.
F*** you, Sony.

Apparently Resistance 3 turned out better (with no goddamn full-regen), but I do not care anymore.
No more consoles.
EDIT: Because I recalled the game is even worse than I previously wrote (seriously, what was the stuff the reviewers were smoking when they gave accolades to this stinking COD-esque fest?! MDew and Dorito cigarettes?!!!)

Fire warrior was s real dissapointment. Environment was fun, the story was great but the weapons were terrible to use...

You mean, that Warhammer 40K shooter? What a pity. I would think that playing around with Tau, Imperial Guard and Space Marines' arsenal would be fun. That is sad. So much potential wasted...

[DoomRater]

If only I could recommend the Narcolyxii series games for bringing an actual story to a tower defense game... unfortunately both games are bugged to hell.

Also, what's up with either Hajime No Ippo PS2 game that actually made it to US? Why didn't either of them have the create-a-boxer that the unreleased one had?

[osjclatchford]

...You mean, that Warhammer 40K shooter? What a pity. I would think that playing around with Tau, Imperial Guard and Space Marines' arsenal would be fun. That is sad. So much potential wasted...

it should have been awesome but just was rushed cheap and the weapons didn't fire like anyone imagined they would... collision detection was monstrous bad. the best thing I remember about it is all the amazng bugs and glitches. much sadness...

[leileilol]

Viokent Vengeance The Universe Hero. playerlin can attest to that




though the blatant "take stuff from a .mod/.voc shovelware disc" method of sound design with an attempt at Apogee-ish presentation and copy protection is a guilty pleasure

[Oberron]

Well, This year I think I found quiet possibly the worst game by far... And I mean worse than Big Rigs and Action 52... I'm not going to post any footage as the game over screen features a corpse that is believed to be a real dead body. ((Even having the date and time still on it... Yeah, That's very distasteful and disrespectful, almost like the BD real gore in a way)) but I guess It's safe to link it's Wikipedia page I guess.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_97_(video_game)


Physical copies of this game are very rare and you can pretty much only play it through an emulator as of now.

Reality check: according to some comments it was Polish boxer who was killed after an interogation by police.

EDIT: Wait, I'm wrong, it must've been some guy who killed himself in Paris.