So Bad It's Horrible Cleanup

Critical Dissonance is probably why.

Sorry for the delay, but it seemed like I had approval for the Universal entry?

Yes it is approved in case you didn't know.

So here is a list of games; it's every game with a score below 2.0 on GameFAQs with at least 50 reviews. Not listed:

• Games that are already listed
• Games that are intentionally bad (Hong Kong '97)
• Games that have a following or were Vindicated by History (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Final Fantasy All the Bravest, Shaq Fu, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic Frontiers)
• Games that aren't bad enough to qualify (Aaru's Awakening, Bad Rats: the Rats' Revenge, Balan Wonderworld, Barbie Super Model, Captain Novolin, Contra: Legacy of War, The Golden Compass, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, Mermaids of Atlantis, My Name Is Mayo, the arcade version of Pit-Fighter, Warcraft III Reforged, War Gods)
• Games that were review bombed (Depression Quest, the Devil Children series, Diablo Immortal)

Since there are too many listed here; are there any I can safely remove before going down the list?

Edited by FernandoLemon on May 2nd 2024 at 9:57:59 AM

• Aaru's Awakening sounds like it has a big hatedom, but not due to the game itself being poorly made. I'm not sure why it's hated exactly, but it is listed on Critical Backlash, and this review claims that the game itself has good mechanics and graphics, with its shortness being its only big flaw.
• Bad Rats: the Rats' Revenge is usually considered So Bad, It's Good. It was mainly known for being one of the first noticeably bad games on Steam, but nowadays, there are even worse games, and it still had enough of a following to inspire a sequel.
• Final Fantasy All the Bravest was listed on Smartphone Games in the past, but removed for having too high of an app store score.

I realized before you posted about Final Fantasy All the Bravest, but it's good to know about the other two; I'll remove them. Also, the entry on YMMV.The Golden Compass makes me think it also doesn't qualify.

What's the rule for Porting Disasters?

Ports can qualify individually if the original game does not, but they have to be considered on their own merits, not just "it's horrible because it's worse than the original."

On Horrible.Music Songs, I don’t think AJR’s “Thirsty” counts as being SBIH. The official music video has way more likes than dislikes (19k likes to 1k dislikes), and if the comments on this reddit post are anything to go by, most AJR fans see the song as either decent or So Bad, It's Good. Also, aside from the yodeling in the chorus, the song sounds fairly standard for that era of AJR’s music. Thoughts on cutting the entry?

Edited by idonom on May 1st 2024 at 3:26:26 AM

For ports, I think they can count if they're released far enough after the original that they're clearly supposed to be a different release rather than just the same product on another platform, or if enough content is removed or changed that it can't be considered the same game.

For precedents, we currently have the NES port of Aladdin (Virgin Games), the GBC port of Mortal Kombat 4, and the GBA port of Sonic the Hedgehog listed since they released on systems that had way different capabilities than the originals, but the Xbox One and Playstation 4 ports of Cyberpunk 2077 were deemed to not count since their content is the same as the other versions (apart from downgrades to fit the weaker hardware and glitches caused by this) and they were developed and released at the same time as the current-gen versions.

Hm, then that might disqualify Sword of Sodan for Genesis, since it's roughly as powerful as an Amiga.

Edited by FernandoLemon on May 1st 2024 at 8:05:30 AM

The Amiga and Genesis use the same CPU but are otherwise disimilar in many ways. Genesis Sword of Sodan is decently different from the Amiga original and more than worthy of being on this page.

I agree with cutting Thirsty from songs. That song is too funny to be SBIH, and aside from the really out-of-place yodeling it is just standard AJR fair, which has its fans.

I think you can remove Contra: Legacy of War, the reviews it got at the time moreso imply So Okay, It's Average. My Name Is Mayo has very positive reviews on Steam and became a trilogy, it also should be removed. War Gods also seems to be So Okay, It's Average. I'm not sure if Taboo: The Sixth Sense even qualifies as a video game as there is no real gameplay.

More disqualifications from that list:

• The War Z and Mortal Kombat Advance are already listed on SBIH.
• If I remember correctly, WarCraft III: Reforged used to be listed on SBIH, but was removed after a discussion on this thread.
• Reviews for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition seem to be more in the 4-5/10 range.

Thank you, updated.

If Taboo doesn't count, we can also remove '89 Dennou Kyuusei Uranai (it's a horoscope reader). But should we remove them?

Edited by FernandoLemon on May 2nd 2024 at 9:59:55 AM

Warcraft III: Reforged definitely doesn't belong on Horrible. It did a lot wrong: it didn't deliver on half its promises, screwed up the campaign, deleted the non-remastered version from existence, and introduced Draconian rules that gave Blizzard the ownership of custom game modes. But at the end of the day, it's still Warcraft III. At its core, it's one of the best RTSs of all time.

I guess Taboo's page here is listed under the video game namescape, and it is on a game console from a game developer. However, it's genre on Wikipedia is "Non-game".

Being a remake of an inherently great or historic game wouldn’t automatically be a disqualification, such as with the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis. But it has to royally screw up the port to the point of being nigh unplayable, which Warcraft 3 Reforged doesn’t do. The criticisms of Activision Blizzard’s actions around the game are valid, but more accurately belong in Overshadowed by Controversy, where they’re listed under the company’s controversies.

Edited by DDRMASTERM on May 2nd 2024 at 12:41:16 PM

Taking a huge dump on a beloved game and flat-out deleting the original from existence makes it even more worthy of the distinction imo.

Edited by PhiSat on May 2nd 2024 at 12:47:33 PM

Again, we can’t really factor the actions around a work’s creation and release, no matter how awful, into if it’s a horrible work, as that is outside the scope of the inherent quality of the work.

Edited by DDRMASTERM on May 2nd 2024 at 12:51:29 PM

If the argument was for adding Diablo Immortal onto the list I'd agree with you that Overshadowed by Controversy is more appropriate. But imagine if when a Porting Disaster was released your home got broken into and your fine versions of a game were replaced with the trash option. That's what Reforged is like, which tips it into Horrible imo.

Yes but it's still technically a bad version of a good, competently made game. In a vacuum, the game would probably be seen more positively.

Everything that made Warcraft III great is still in Reforged. It's just the added Reforged parts that suck.

So is Sonic Genesis?

I wasn't aware it was still there. I thought to bring it up but assumed it had been cut because it's still, by some technical definitions, Sonic 1. Though the big difference is that Genesis is completely unplayable while Reforged is a standard issue botched remake attached to a highly prestigious name and extremely unpopular business decisions. No, I wouldn't call Sonic the Hedgehog prestgious.

Edited by TheLivingDrawing on May 2nd 2024 at 5:16:28 AM