We’ve all bought stinkers. Mostly I bought them as a kid because I had nothing to go on except the bloody picture on the box, especially on the Spectrum when I was super young. But what is the worst game you’ve ever actually spent money on?
I remember spending a whole heap of money, like 50 pounds ($80-$90AU) on an imported Sonic Blastman for the SNES. It was like a sidescrolling beat ’em up. Not the cool punching arcade game. That was a brutal decision.
I bought a whole heap of terrible licensed games for the Spectrum, like Back to the Future. That was brutal and I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
What are some of the worst games you’ve ever bought?
Comments
188 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: What Is The Worst Game You’ve Ever Bought?”
Beyblade for the Gamecube.
Every animation was pretty much the same, so monotonous.
“THAT WAS A POWERFUL LAUNCH!”
I am the drunken master of Beyblades on the GC, but don’t tell anyone. My friend bought it from Target for $3. Cheap enough to be a for the lulz purchase.
“WHAT A GREAT LAUNCH”
I went back and played it recently for a drunken gaming night, my friend wanted to stab me for ruining his night hahahaha
Dungeons and Dragons Tactics for PSP. I’d heard it wasn’t great, but I thought the mechanics would get me through. I was so, so wrong.
Wasn’t too bad tbh, was close to the Pen&Paper rules, really enjoyed it actually.
it was way, way, way too clunky, and had no proper RP choices.
True, but just to satisfy your need for some RPG while not being able to assemble a group of people for some proper D&D, it did the trick.
Oh it wasn’t that bad!
Okay, it pretty much was, wasn’t it?
Terminator 2 on PC back in the 90s. Wow. What a pile of excrement.
I had the Amiga version!
I wouldn’t go so far to say it was *terrible* as such…. but it was certainly a crazy mish-mash of different game-types. Side scrolling shooter, top down driving, some weird shooter/mortal combat style levels….
A don’t forget the arm puzzle!
The arm puzzle! Where you had to rewire the circuits in his arm!
Wow… I actually have fond memories of this game!
My brother bought that. Paid something stupid like $80 for it too. Urgh
For me it would have to be Far Cry 2.
BOOO HISSSSS FAR CRY 2 WAS AWESOME
I also had a great deal of trouble with FC2. I’ve since gone back and tried again, just because so many people are crazy for it – still nothing.
Some people believe it’s better than 3.
I believe they should have expanded what they did in Far Cry 2 instead of making an apology sequel.
Agreed, and I only bought it for $5 on a steam sale.
Hard to say. I used to pirate games a couple years back, so I had no problem with uninstalling ridiculously bugged and generally shitty games. These days, I kinda have a big Steam library so I don’t really have much of a thought when relegating a game to the ‘shit’ pile.
The one that resonates with me the most recently, is NFS Rivals. $79 is the most I’ve paid for a game ever, and I really didn’t like my first couple of hours with it. It may change, but for now it sticks out the most.
That’s kinda interesting to hear, actually. From what I’ve seen of my friend playing it, it looks like fun. Mind if I ask what you don’t like about it so far?
I never liked the way NFS implements police into the games, so I don’t even know why I bought it tbh. But, once again, the police implementation is dog shit. Ai doesn’t follow same logic or rules as a human player has to follow. Also the whole “you need to bank your points or you lose them” thing is okay, but it really sucks when coupled with bad game design like above.
Huh. You kinda have a point, actually. I’m still stuck playing 2012’s NFS Most Wanted and it seems I’m always being chased by cops. I’m never given the chance to actually reach a destination, and by the time I get there I already have the points needed to çontinue anyway due to how bloody long the pursuits go for.
Also, yes, the AI is dog shit.
I’m part-way through 2012’s Most Wanted too, and I think I like it more. Better music, no ‘if you don’t back it you lose it’ point system.
I think when I beat rank 7 most wanted car, the cops became less of a problem (since I had better car). Can outrun the first lot on straights, and easy to lose in the city.
Yeah, everything else about the game is awesome though. The soundtrak especially.
The time has come to
PUSH THE BUTTON
I took Two Worlds back the same day I bought it and demanded a refund, it was that terrible.
Also Kingdom Under Fire : Circle of Doom. Both were just awful.
My copies of Fallout NV (Collector’s Edition, too) and Skyrim, both for PS3 were traded in within a week or two of purchasing, because they were unplayable messes.
Anything else I’ve bought that’s terrible I’ve just kind of dealt with. Usually purchase regret for me comes from Steam, where there’s not a lot you can do about it.
If you were a fan of the original KUF games check this out.
Comes out in a few months on ps4 in english, not sure if the pc version will be though. Looks like a nice combination of both, gives me hope at least. Though it has a weird MMORTS aspect to it along with a full fledged single player. Hard to find information on it so could has miss read aspects.
I bought KUF:CoD on recommendation from a friend who was nuts for the previous titles. We fired up CoD and he was just as disappointed as me. Apparently the others were different/much better. I’ll look into it – thanks!
Yeah when i saw it at the shop i was all =O omg a kingdom game yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh then basically cried when i tried to play it.
The others were wihtout a doubt th hardest games i had played in my life but aslo insanely rewarding. The combat was extraordinarily deep with resource management in terms of funds to upgrade either you character or troops/both. You had to be smart with every single move. Though I played it as a small child i only ever got through a couple medium levels and 1 hard and half the easy on the first game. Never new there was a sequel on the original xbox too, which i just found out about and am looking for a copy xD.
That trailer looks brilliant, by the way. CoD, from memory was just running from screen to screen killing people, and that was about it. Was a bit puzzled when my friend told me how awesome the others were – but seems they’re pretty much completely different games.
Just bought the sequel on ebay for $6 after confirming my old xbox still worked, pretty excited.
But yes the Cod game was rubbish it was a hack n slash in the vein of 99nights and dynasty warriors except as a fan of dynasty warriors it was done really badly. It made no sense why it was even released as a kingdom game when it was so extraordinarily far removed from the genre.
007 Nightfire, for GameCube. After reading everywhere about how it was a “GoldenEye killer” I wanted in on that. But… no. No it isn’t. Not at all 😛
I think I’ve managed to avoid terrible games since then though. At least, ones that are genuinely awful, not like the bad games that are still enjoyable anyway.
Actually wait, I ended up with Bioshock. Thought it was going to be good, but it turned out to be completely unenjoyable 😛 At least in that case I only spent $15 on it.
Pretty sure I bought nightfire 3 times over the period of owning an original Xbox. Something about it kept me coming back.
Wow. This was my first thought! I learned to love the game for itself given time, but Nintendo Gamer hyped it up waaay too much.
Hahaha yes! Accursed Nintendo Gamer!
Loved that magazine, but that was the one time they steered me wrong 😛
If we’re taking purchase price into account, then my most costly lesson was the $150 Balls of Steel Edition of Duke Nukem Forever.
Now the Duke bust sits on my shelf, watching, reminding me to think twice about those Collector’s Edition preorders.
Oh man, I’d purged that from my memory, I did the same and got the Balls of Steal Edition. So much excitement……. so much dissapointment.
the best bit of the game was the air hockey table.
The bust is pretty awesome though.
Awesome and awesome at reminding me of my stupidity. It will always be proudly(?) displayed wherever I live.
(Still wish I’d grabbed a bunch of them the year EB cleared them out for $5, would have been fantastic troll gifts)
The bust is sitting on my desk at work, silently judging everybody who walks past. He’s staring at me right now….
Bob, get back to work!
I bought the standard copy of it… was sad. Then I gave it away to someone who didn’t know better. Karma came back to bite me when I won the Balls of Steel edition, that bust sits there silently judging me for my cruelty to my fellow man.
I just got the standard edition but I was returning it within 2 hours…. Horrible game
Games that come to mind a few years back at least was Agarest: Generations of War on ps3 and the kingdom under fire circle of doom. I still remembering the latter and within 30 minutes of renting from the video store i rang them up and asked if i could change it because it was so far beyond awful.
They thankfully agreed and I rented something else. Then there was Tales of Xillia, having loved tales F and read nothing but good things about Xil. Even got hyped and talked it up to others but my god it was trucking awful. After the first city the entire game fell apart, it had literal worse environments that those atelier games. The game was a downgrade in every conceivable aspect over F, combat, story, scenery, flow. It deserved to be eradicated from history.
I don’t make any mistakes like that anymore, at
Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of other folks burned on Circle of Doom, too. GODS that was terrible. I rented that one too, but it was through The MovieGuys and their game-by-mail subscription service, so all I really lost was a few days of postage time, thankfully.
I was super bummed because my friend always raved about Kingdom Under Fire. We played CoD, and poor guy was like ‘ The others are nothing like this! I swear!’ I believe him though. kingpotato posted a trailer slightly further up for the new one and it looks pretty damned good.
Depends on what you call “bad” for the purposes of spending money on. I bought a copy of Zero Wing, just for the laugh factor. And I bought 14 copies of Madden 1994 as part of an elaborate joke.
Can’t really recall buying any games expecting something good and getting something different. Probably put them out the back of my mind and forgotten about them I guess.
Hidden & Dangerous. The game wouldn’t even load for me so I didn’t get to witness the sweet buggy goodness inside
Don’t you be knocking Spectrum games though @markserrels . Actually do. I got Short Circuit & Short Circuit 2 in a car boot sale. It was terrible. The best games were usually the ones given away on the Spectrum magazine 😀 Crash Magazine I think it was called
It was a buggy mess but it was an awesome buggy mess,
Dude, I loved Crash. I was a subscriber!
Same here, well technically my dad was a subscriber, I just read them
I’m not sure because I find that when I spend money on something, if it sucks I try and talk myself into liking it so I don’t feel so much like I wasted my money. Probably regret buying Brutal Legend the most because it was not the game the demo made it out to be and I ended up just watching my husband play it instead of playing it myself.
*lip starts quivering*
This! A thousand times this!
The switch from action adventure hack & slash game to console RTS was the exact reason I didn’t back broken age when the pitch was “give me money and I’ll make a game” because I remembered what happened the last time.
Such a tragedy, I detest jack black with a burning passion and I was able to still really, really enjoy the game despite the fact his stupid voice was polluting it but then the gameplay went to crap…
Uh oh. 🙁 I have decently high hopes for this game and haven’t played it yet…
Do it, it’s still a great game. Especially if you love heavy metal.
I love heavy metal and that was the only thing that saved the game. If someone doesn’t have a fondness for that type of music then they’ll most likely struggle to think fondly of Brutal Legend.
I’m not that fond of music in general and yet I still loved the game.
The atmosphere is spectacular and everything about the game (apart from jack black) is fantastic right up until it became something I hated. I was going to put it on easy and plough through it but I just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm
edit: Shit, I accidently replied to myself so I look like a dickhead. Oi @stickman, read this.
I’m not a big fan of Black in general, but he has some perfect performances and this, in my opinion, is one of them (along with Kung Fu Panda… I love that movie…)
I agree about the gameplay, though. I was really digging this game in the beginning, but I never finished it because it became such a chore to get through.
I can already read the smartass comments about popular games, “Huuur I bought Call of Duty, hyuk!”
At first I was going to say Ninja Gaiden 3, as it’s the only game I can think of that made me cry over how bad it was. I then thought of Dirge of Cerberus, a game that was just overall lame.
But then I remembered back in my youth I played Dino Crisis 3, a game I couldn’t stand for more than 2 hours.
Buying fighters on the N64 was always a hazardous prospect, and I never played War Gods which was apparently the king of terrible, BUT I did buy a copy of a game called Dark Rift back in the day which was freaking horrible.
I distinctly remember the pain in my elbow after battling with the controls for a few hours and then trying to smash the cartridge using ‘The People’s Elbow’ (it was the 1998 don’t forget).
OMG I completely forgot about Dark Rift – it’s hard being a fan of Nintendo games AND fighting games! Eventually games like Dark Rift and War Gods drove me to just buy a PS1!
Fighter’s Destiny was alright though and Mace: the Dark Age was awesome!
PN03. Awful. Absolutely awful. It had a couple cool animations when you jumped around and that was it. It was the same damn levels and bosses over and over again.
I like PN03. I think it’s a cool little shooter, although it did seem to be a little different from what they were aiming to do in the first place.
I’d really like to see a new one, with more of a rhythm game element added to it. That could be fun, if implemented well.
24: The Game on PS2.
I bought it because it was $10 when Myer were clearing out all their gaming stock. Played it (shithouse), then traded it at EB for $15 😀
Oh, I also bought the C64 version of Afterburner.
What. A. Dog.
Oh come on, it was almost indistinguishable from the arcade game so long as you ignored those ways it was different and not as good.
Well… it did have a plane in it…
In fairness it wasn’t much worse than the C64 version of the other Sega classic of the time, Outrun. That sucked too.
A plane AND missiles! Sky too! See, almost identical.
Arcade conversions was never really what the C64 did best, it always shined with bespoke software that wasn’t trying to copy something more powerful or radically different but using the system to its fullest extent.
There were some pretty good arcade conversions, just not the flashiest, most cutting edge stuff later in its lifespan.
The C64 version of Bubble Bobble was freakin’ awesome. And Buggy Boy… Ikari Warriors… probably some others I can’t remember right now.
Oh, another one for the hall of shame – the C64 version of Double Dragon! Man, it’s all coming rushing back now…
Did you ever play the arcade of Ikari Warriors? It had those weird joysticks with the rotating top which controlled the direction of your gun, it kind of made them a twin stick shooter with only one stick.
Since it didn’t have the custom hardware the c64 version wasn’t really that faithful a conversion but it was still a great game. Obviously the same basic thing but different enough to feel new and they didn’t do something dumb like make it require 2 joysticks to use.
Double Dragon may have sucked but to counter it, we had Street Hassle
Yeah, there were a few games around at the time that used those twisty joysticks. I still enjoyed Ikari Warriors on the C64 a lot. Liked it much more than the Commando conversion because (a) simultaneous 2 player co-op and (b) grenades were mapped to the button (press for shoot, hold down for grenade).
I used to have to put my C64 on the floor when playing commando so I could tap the space bar with my toe, enabling me to throw a grenade without letting go of the stick 😛 And even then, Commando would only throw grenades forward (i.e. up the screen), while Ikari would throw them whatever direction you were facing.
Toe control was a vital part of C64 gaming, getting underutilised body parts pulling their weight so you can focus on using your hands on the important parts. It was the TrackIR of its day.
Hey, the C64 Outrun was actually pretty damn good. The SID music was utterly fantastic and the game played better than the Amiga version.
No arguments about Afterburner. It had a plane, there was shooting, but I don’t recall much else positive.
How did you possibly expect to play the punch-bag version of Sonic Blastman on a SNES?
Something called Zombieville by Prognosis. It wasn’t even remotely in any kind of working state, but they sold it anyway.
Golden Axe: Beast Rider. An defilement of a childhood favourite and the only game I’ve broken a controller over. Literally: I got so frustrated and disillusioned at one point that I hurled my Dualshock across the room, breaking the right trigger. I try to be calmer these days.
What I took away from the experience is that franchise reboots are like burying things in Stephen King’s Pet Semetery: sometimes dead is better.
MAG!
Island of Dr. Radiaki. So so bad. The fact I can’t even find a single illegal copy of it online speaks volumes.
Holycrap, I saw an ad in Hyper for this game and thought it looked amazing. It had a baseball bat, and a flamethrower whaaaaaaaaat. Never found a copy though, I looked online a few years ago and also turned up zilch lol
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned “Aliens: Colonial Marines”. It’s up on my shelf… though the statue is kind of nice(it’s a shame it’s not Ripley though).
i have had a few games with really bad gameplay.
but the worst game i have ever bought was GRID 2 by codemasters!
the game never worked… no matter what i do.
they “tried” helping me for about 3 months, but i gave up.
I remember mum buying me and my brother World League Basketball on the snes with so much pride because the guy at David Jones said it was ‘the best game around’, and feeling so terrible for her when we played it and realised it was rubbish. So we played the hell out of it.
note: this happened more than once
The nintendo 64 had some truly terrible games. Top of the list would either be Glover or Clayfighter 63 1/3. Magic Century based on how grindy and broken it was.
Nowhere near as bad as Duke Nukem, but I preordered Aliens: Colonials Marines. It came with a t-shirt for some reason.
I don’t know, I thought Glover had some nice ideas to it. For a 64 game I mean. It was difficult to get to grips with, but it wasn’t horrible. Clay Fighter was a piece of crap though. I bought the Small Soldiers game on PS1 for my little brother. That gets my vote.
I loved that small soldiers game. 2 player was fun too.
If I played it today I would probably realise it was bad though lol
Yeah fair enough. Glover was trying to do something different.
Talk of small soldiers reminded me of those Plastic Soldier games. What happened to that franchise?
Worst game I ever bought:
Aliens – Colonial Marines
I have a friend who bought that.
Bought it, and played it.
And still plays it. He LOVES it.
I worry for my friend.
I would worry too. The only good thing about it is the figurine that came with the collector’s edition.
I liked it
It wasn’t spectacular and it wasn’t anything like as good as it should have been but it was a competent shooter. I only paid $35 for it thanks to a preorder discount and GMG coupon and I’d have been annoyed if I paid more but I feel that it’s negative rep is rather inflated
brink.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to get boo’d and hissed for this, but my biggest disappointment was the original Dragon Age.
I just found it to be incredibly boring. The game play was stale, the characters were over-done and the story not at all engaging (At least for the first 3 to 4 hours I played before giving up).
Other notable mentions: Accidentally buying the original Donkey Kong for Gameboy instead of Donkey Kong Country. Like, it was still good, but not DKC to a kid!
Dragon Age takes too long to get going for my liking. So much setting up the background of your character which I do appreciate, but not really when it’s all you’re doing for 2-3 hours before anything else happens
I can understand that. Although I’m not a huge fantasy fan to begin with so Dragon Age was always going to struggle to draw me in.
Well it was by no means an awful game but it was rather iffy.
I played and finished and enjoyed it but would have rated it a solid 6.5/7 game. The combat was just terrible, sure they had “tactics” but the tactics were broken and often even on easy I found myself totally obliterated and the AI was beyond useless, it always felt like i was missing some serious info on how to fight.
Considering the games I’ve mastered in the tactical rpg department i doubt it was for a lack of skill, but you never know. I also found the story got worse after the opening, i can appreciate the slow beginnings but afterwards it kinda crawled from memory too.
Pretty much dead on with my feelings. Not awful, but definitely a disappointment after the hype it had!
Seriously I owned both Game Boy carts and Donkey Kong I played to the end (like 100 levels!). DKC I never finished though it had amazing graphics for the Game Boy!
Hey, it’s a good game! I ended up doing nearly that (Not finishing, but a fair chunk through). Made the best of a derp decision.
I am fully aware that Steam Early Access games are in Alpha or Beta state, and shouldn’t be judged based on their performance/lack of content/missing mechanics/textures/etc…
But some of them you play and you fully realize that either this game is never getting properly ‘finished’ or when it does, it is going to be the same ugly-ass dog you have in your hands right now. If you’ve been gaming for a few decades, you get to realize when a team simply doesn’t have the stuff to realize their vision.
I have a few of those, now.
Edit: But as far as typical retail goes, one of the worst games I ever bought was NBA Jam for the Game Boy (which cost $79 in 90s money). I returned it and got Road Rash (and had $30 left-over), which was AWESOME.
Some Steam Early Access games are good like Next Car Game or Kerbal Space Program. But it’s hard to see those games through all the muck that is on there
Diablo 3. Purely for the fact it let me down in so many ways.
Yakuza Fury. It was a shitty looking side-scrolling beat ’em up on the PS2. On top of being terrible with no story, it consisted of a total of three screens. It wasn’t fun to play and I beat it in about 20 minutes. The game just sort of ends in a way that makes you think you missed something, but you go back and play it again and realise nope, it’s just really, really shit.
$8 in the pre-owned bin at EB.
I bought the original Xbox version of Manhunt last year to try on my 360. I heard crazy things about it, so I wanted to find out what it was all about for myself.
I struggled (not for lack of competence) to complete the first level. It may have been fun when it was released, but I really couldn’t get in to it.
Saying that, I don’t regret buying it as I’m hoping one day I can make millions off it. $$$
Kane & Lynch 2. Fuck me.
It only cost $5, but that was $5 too much.
It may have cost $5 but so does a cheap takeaway lunch and that’d probably last longer and have a more satisfying resolution
The multiplayer was actually a lot of fun, I found. I offset my costs that way.
NO!
Actually I just remembered that I bought the original version of Petz (when it was Dogz and Catz). “Played” for about 10 minutes and promptly forgotten about.
Why?
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
I was 14? Does that count as an excuse?
I am not sure that it does. Not for this, anyway 😛
Dragon Age 2, Same dungeons every time, recycled maps over and over again.
Complete rush job. Complete bullshit. Hoping DA3 will be much better.
C&C Generals
Biggest pile of shite I’ve ever bought full price. It has a mission you can literally finish in 2 clicks. In a fucking C&C game!
Generals is proably my favorite c&c game. So good!
Brink.
It stands out in my own mind as such a wasted opportunity.
Hahaha, that damn game. The trailers were excellent, yet it was just so…. so bad.
Yeah look I only paid $4 so I can’t complain but it’s lacking something – I can’t put my finger on it
* Kingdom Under Fire : Circle of Doom
* Ready 2 Rumble
* Rogue Warrior
Ready 2 Rumble on the Dreamcast? I loved that game!
No, the newer one on the Xbox 360 🙂
If you are a fan of the original KUF game I have a post on the first page where a bunch of us are whinging about circle of doom, it has a link to the pc/ps4 version KUF 2 that is coming in may.
Probably one of the many games I’ve bought on Humble Bundle just because I wanted ONE of the games in that bundle. Yet to play them though, so I couldn’t actually tell you!
Grid 2 and defiance. I am still kicking myself.
Warhammer 40K: Fire warrior. Worst FPS ever played. I’d almost put the FPS Starship Troopers on par with this game. Both poor choice purchases.
Then again I had E.T for the Atari as a kid and nothing tops that.
RAGE on PC!! So much disappointment.
Probably my fault for ignoring the numerous warnings and having faith that it was going to be this buggy-but-forgiveably awesome id Software comeback…
After trying multiple times to like it and overlook the crapness of it all, I simply gave in and… RAGEd…. *slow clap*
The one that stands out in my memory most…
Alias for PC
It was the game based on the TV show from the early 00’s. I was a fan of the show, and the game itself actually looked decent. However, the PC version was a very VERY lazy PS2 port. They didn’t even bother changing the key-binding labels. I kept being told to press O or X, with no idea what it was on my keyboard. The controls were also HORRIBLE.
Luckily I’d bought it on sale, so was able to trade it in at EB for pretty much what I paid for it.
Though, I guess most people are talking about game you were “most dissapointed” in after purchasing.
As for worst game, I guess it goes to Shak-Fu on Mega Drive. Though, I bought it in 2007, for the purpose of me and my mates making a Shak Fu Destruction video, which were all the rage at the time :p
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The annoying thing is, a friend got me hyped for this game and twisted my arm to buy it. Then, when it was crap, he managed to get a refund on steam before they decided to stop offering refunds. I wasn’t so lucky.
edit: also FEZ. Bought into indie love hype. dull game.
Easily Flatout 3. It had no right to use that name at all! Next worst or maybe even equal worst is definitely Dragon Age 2…. first time I cancelled a pre-order, but that demo was terrible and the full game worse
Soldier of Fortune for the original xbox. It was my first dive into “military” shooters. I havent been back since -.-‘
I loved Soldier of Fortune back in the day. As a teenager I had some low standards for narrative etc. so I had a blast running around blowing the legs off dudes with the desert eagle and watching them try to crawl away before I finish them off.
I am a normal human.
Hmm. Lair – got it cheap knowing that it had a bad rep. I still maintain that there’s a fun game hidden inside there, but it’s hampered by the controls, the lives system (seriously, in 2007?) and a bad story with worse voice acting.
DNF, but that’s low lying fruit. I wouldn’t have minded it so much if it didn’t take 40 seconds to reload every time you died.
And Destroy All Humans! 3 – the first two were brilliant, but the third was completely uninspiring. Still haven’t finished it. Vale, Crypto.
I think the long load times were the real nail in the DNF coffin. It looked rough, the controls sucked, it was generally uninteresting and unfunny, but on top of all that when you died you had to look at a goddamn loading screen for at least 40 seconds, sometimes longer. My wife pushed through it, but I just didn’t have that patiences. I took it back to JB and returned it. They said they don’t take back opened games but I lied and told them I didn’t actually get to play it because it bricked my console and they took pity on me.
Heh, nice one. I could have handled the crap humour & 2 gun limit in exchange for the retro level design (the kitchen is a pretty nifty level) but I’d estimate I spent about an hour on loading screens during the campaign. Haven’t gone back to it.
Golf, for Virtual Boy.
People (including myself) like to joke about how Waterworld was a perfect storm of terrible – the worst game made for the worst system, based on the worst movie of all time. But no. It’s actually not that bad. The worst game for it is Golf. The manual is the blandest most long-winded snorefest of a manual that I’ve ever read, the guys behind it are so hung up on making the best golf simulator of all time or something, there’s hardly any game in it at all. I don’t want it and hate that I have it.
But the collection would be incomplete without it. So blah 😛
Holy wow! That’s a really interesting one!
Surely that collection must be worth something by now, even terrible as it is….
Virtual Boy. Damn…. talk about the things time forgot. How could it not have been a huge success, given that it was so close to the Oculus Rift, right? Right?
Eh, depends who’s buying I guess. A couple of the rarest Japanese-only games regularly get sold for $500+, whoever keeps doing that is crazy. No way any of those games are anywhere near that good.
Really though, VB is nowhere near the Rift. It’s more akin to an early peek at the 3DS. There’s no head-tracking, it’s got an ultra-low FOV, it doesn’t actually have any screens (rather a strip of LEDs that flash while oscillating mirrors rotate back and forth to give a POV illusion of a screen), and it has to just sit there on the table for you to use it. It’s just a Game Boy expanded into a stereoscopic viewer, not a VR machine.
Did you get the VB back in the 90s or more recently?
Heh, I wish I had one in the 90s. Would’ve been the coolest kid in the playground 😛
Only got it in more recent years, when the dollar was awesome and it made it much easier to compete against Americans in bidding wars.
Hey there VB buddy!
I scored my boxed Japanese one when a sale on OCAU fell through and the person who wanted to get rid of it lived near my parents in Brissy. Called in favours and somehow ended up with it as an early Chrissy present. Mine gets rolled out irregularly now when I want to give people migraines or if I’m feeling up for a bash of Nester’s Funky Bowling or Tennis.
You know what? I’d kill to get an Oculus Rift repainted to look like the Virtual Boy. Would be all kinds of cool
High five! Me, I’ve got a massive soft spot for vector graphics stuff so I love the hell out of Red Alarm 😛
And you know, that’s not a half bad idea. Maybe I should give mine a paint job…
Requesting trip report!
Lunar: Dragon Song on the DS. Absolutely terrible game.
Revolution X featuring Aerosmith on the SNES. Can’t remember what I paid for it but it was way too much. Terrible game.
Good easter eggs though 🙂
Chronicles of the Sword – PSX
Iron and Blood – PSX
X-Men – MegaDrive
It’s a tie between Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero, Ride To Hell: Retribution, Sonic R, or MichiganL Report From Hell. So many bad games *shudders*
In recent times it would be that Kinect game Child of Eden – I struggled to get through the first level using Kinect – then one picked up the Controller and blazed through about 3 levels in quick succession before realising ‘hey I don’t even like techno music’
Traded it the next day to JB HiFi who paid me $19 (I paid $14 to buy it!)
If we’re counting kids games then man alive I once watched my daughter pay $40 for a Littlest Pet Shop game on the DS – she insists it was great though!
Reaching back into the dark ages I’m pretty sure I bought Bio-Freaks on the N64 oh and Mission Impossible – fuck I’m ashamed of myself now I remembered that
Hello Kitty: Cube de Cute for PSX. If that doesn’t convince you that I’m an idiot, some years later I also bought Hello Kitty Roller Rescue for xbox.
My lady likes HK.
James Cameron’s Avatar: The game
I felt like I was ripping the shop off when I got $1.50 trade in for it
Black Ops
Star Wars Force Unleashed 2, defiantly buyers remorse from that purchase.
Based purely on the title and expected content, I bought Emmanuelle for Amiga.
I still have it if anyone’s interested. Includes case, manual and the all-important copy protection code sheet.
Oh, and the diskette.
But you won’t be needing that.
some rally game on my C64 (dont even remember the name of it now) by god it was aweful!
Live Wire for Playstation one. Basically a computerised version of that squares game we used to play in school when we were bored.
My biggest regret would have to be Homefront. So awful. That bit where you gotta sneak past the dudes at the farm to turn around and realise they are just scare-crows that can only see whats 3 feet in front of them, in whats supposed to be Game-Of-The-Year material – Only my second ever pre-order, was also my last (Think it was $100).
It also was the cause for not renewing my subscription to the magazine company that recommended it. I guess this just hilights how big an effect it has when they release things before they are ready, far better to be a Duke Nukem Forever than an Aliens Colonial Marines
I tend to forget bad games unless someone is talking about them. I know I’ve played a bunch of “meh” games I bought as part of bundles and Steam sales because they looked interesting and were cheap. If I had to pick a title, N3 (Ninety Nine Nights) was pretty unfun and terrible to play. I also found Red Ninja:End of Honour to be quite bad as well.
Endless Ocean on Wii. I thought “How could they make a game about patting whales? I’m curious, I’ll buy it to find out”. They couldn’t.
30 years of game playing and nothing has ever been worse than this. It’s the worst game ever – not even Navy Seals can compare to this absolute trash. Star Wars Jedi Arena -on the Atari 2600 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdUm8-XxjDA
The answer to the question my compatriots is “SPORE”.
Hahaha! Man everyone played the hell out of that demo though! (The created creator)
Angry Birds.
I bought Painkiller Overdose from EB Games a few years back…. returned it for a refund after 10 minutes of gameplay.
Battlefield 4 on the Xbox One, hands down. I know after all the ridiculous amount of patches the games a lot better, but it has left the sourest taste in my mouth.
I saved up all my allowances when I was in primary school and picked up Super Pinball for the SNES, such a load of garbage, in the end I traded it with a mate for Breath of Fire 2 so it all ended well.
Honourable Mentions:
Aliens: Colonial Marines, Duke Nukem Forever, Too Worlds or Azurik: Rise of Perathia
First place・ Takedown… and i helped kickstart it. Maybe worse than ET.
Second place・ Hitman Absolution. Was a hitman game without any hitman gameplay. After wanting a new hitman game for years i got a kick to the face.
Yep Hitman Absolution was pretty terrible when compared to the previous installments, I cbf’d finishing it
I thought I’d get flamed for posting Hitman Absolution! Bought the professional edition or what ever from ozgames for $45 last year and literally played it once, then bought FC3 and played the hell outta that.
Ultra man on SNES, utter crapola!!! I think I was about 12 when I shelled out $80 for it. Worst money ever spent
I’m wondering if anyone here has played a PS2 / Xbox game called Ford VS Chevy?
I was about to say “it rings a bell” when I remember that I was thinking about the PS2 “V8 Supercars Racedriver” game which was billeted as Ford vs Holden, from memory.
Edit: and which Google now tells me was released elsewhere as TOCA Race Driver / Pro Race Driver.
Now that I think about it, that was a pretty poor game that I paid money for.
Judge Dredd on SNES. My first and last movie tie in.
Let’s Tap for Wii. $6.
If they paid me I still wouldn’t play it.
oh, and Mario Party 8.
… seriously? No widescreen?
Need For Speed Undercover probably. What a stinker.
For me it was Dragon’s Lair on the SNES. I was no stranger to gaming when I got it but I couldn’t even complete the first jump in the game. For hours I tried, literally, even reading the entire instruction manual in case I missed something. Nope it was just that shit and is the only game I’ve ever returned.
Any one said Legendary yet. I mean those griffons. Either that or the deadliest catch games.
I was given Transformers: The Movie for Wii as a Christmas present the same year I got the console. Ended up trading it in to get Mario Kart WIi, but felt horrible for doing it because my In-laws had bought it for me. Phoned in Gameplay, tacky mechanics. But hey, movie tie-in so what’s to be expected?
Speaking of Mario Kart Wii, I’ll add that as one of the worst games I’ve bought that I absolutely could not stand to play. Loved MK SNES and the GBA version and even Double Dash, but for some reason I just never liked or was comfortable playing the Wii version. 3DS Kart is fantastic, so :shrug:
Dragon age 2, and that’s not just an attempt to bash it either. Since I started playing video games on the Sega master system I have never bought a truly awful game like some of the crackers folks here have posted. Staying the hell away from licenced titles probably helped, as well as a long history with Nintendo first party titles.
off the top of my head: Haze and NFS-pro street… ugh
The Commodore 64 version of The Running Man.
Busby 3D for the PS1. Pretty sure I payed full price…
Transbot – Sega Master System.
Only 2 Levels that go on and on and on, generic powerups, weirdo enemies, no obvious ending and REPETITIVE MUSIC THAT STILL HAUNTS MY NIGHTMARES. Endless, boring, derivative 80’s crap.
I’d also like to nominate Dishnoured though. What kind of dick-punch of a game gives you a whole host of cool powers to use, only to tell you that by using them you are corrupting yourself? I hated it for that reason alone. Not technically a bad game, but perhaps my most regret-filled purchase of recent times.
Garry’s incident: day one. I still have nightmares about this game.
The Force Unleashed 2, hands down. I mean the first one was pretty good and I played it and thought “Hey, this is pretty good, I’ll get the sequel, it can’t be that bad.”
It was that bad, good thing I only spent 5 bucks or something on it.
I remember buying Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse, terrible, just awful, not the worst game ever, just a disappointment to me, because (for some reason) I hoped it would be good.
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
just kidding, the worst game I’ve bought was “My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie’s Party” for Nintendo DSRise of the Robots for the Amiga – First one to move & uppercut wins. First overhyped failure i bought into, one of the few games I bought full price, and the experience justified my pirating for a decade