History Horrible / VideoGameGenerationsFifthToSixth

* '''''Spectral Tower''''' - the very first game published by Creator/IdeaFactory - is a roguelike which seems to collect together every bad game design idea possible. The fact that so few have completed it is not so much down to its difficulty than to its monotony; the final tower has '''10,000''' floors respectively, which works out to '''450''' hours of gameplay, when you've seen everything the game has to offer by hour 2. Battling monsters on each floor is a complete LuckBasedMission in which you have effectively no control, as every attack depends on a literal dice roll where everything has about a 50% chance of missing. Your only chance is to run around for rare items, the effect of none of which is explained until after you use them. You have specific stats for taking down each type of monster, that only level when you defeat that type with a critical hit (so you're screwed six ways if you meet something you've not regularly seen, or just if the dice don't like you) as well as a food stat (healing items of a higher level than your food stat hurt you instead of healing). None of this vital information is explained either in the game, in the manual, or in the official strategy guide, making this a game that actively wants you to fail. Watch a more in-depth analysis by [=RndStranger=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-skIBPWOPE here]].

* '''''VideoGame/{{Superman|64}}'' for the Platform/Nintendo64''', a nominal tie-in game for ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', is considered a trainwreck in every conceivable way. It had such poor graphics that the game had to [[HandWave "excuse" the huge amount of fog as "Kryptonite Fog" in a simulation]], made half the missions [[PassThroughTheRings flying through rings]] with awkward controls and a brutally unforgiving time limit, has a crapton of glitches that make it very easy to get stuck, and it generally failed to be entertaining. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJXgJ1c4vY trashed the game by popular demand]], and it would be one of the small handful of games that the Nerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBFjpE1BaXk revisited]] [[note]](the only others he revisited like this were ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'', and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'')[[/note]]. WebVideo/DarkLordJadow1 was bold enough to play through the entire game, across a [[https://youtu.be/8fzgH0eAwPA?si=nUMfce9pgJRCy9jX three-]][[https://youtu.be/5N_Bn6wPtSw?si=dxHUgfXvOLMbGyQw part]] [[https://youtu.be/iimWgGWiRhU?si=Ao98As9NhXKIUM9l review]], enduring a whirlwind of GuideDangIt puzzles, unforgiving {{Escort Mission}}s, a very weak multiplayer mode, [[AntiClimaxBoss the final boss hardly doing anything]], and the infamous AWinnerIsYou ending. He even reviewed [[https://youtu.be/AvxdxIZeF3s?si=bWEiPUFpujSlptWO the tie-in comic book]] for good measure, which, while not nearly as bad as the game, comes with its own assortment of issues. WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U25wGukTE_8 covered it]] as part of his Retro Rewind series, and Creator/{{Seanbaby}} [[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm07.htm named it #7 of his Top 20 Least Favorite Games]], saying:

* '''''VideoGame/{{Superman|64}}'' for the Platform/Nintendo64''', a nominal tie-in game for ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', is considered a trainwreck in every conceivable way. It had such poor graphics that the game had to [[HandWave "excuse" the huge amount of fog as "Kryptonite Fog" in a simulation]], made half the missions [[PassThroughTheRings flying through rings]] with awkward controls and a brutally unforgiving time limit, has a crapton of glitches that make it very easy to get stuck, and it generally failed to be entertaining. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJXgJ1c4vY trashed the game by popular demand]], and it would be one of the small handful of games that the Nerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBFjpE1BaXk revisited]] [[note]](the only others he revisited like this were ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'', and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'')[[/note]]. WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U25wGukTE_8 covered it]] as part of his Retro Rewind series, and Creator/{{Seanbaby}} [[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm07.htm named it #7 of his Top 20 Least Favorite Games]], saying:

* '''''[[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm17.htm Bubsy 3D]]''''' for the Platform/PlayStation, an attempt at reinvigorating the ill-fated ''VideoGame/{{Bubsy}}'' franchise. Inexplicably, Eidetic prioritized the game's resolution, pushing for 480i at a time when console games often ran at 240p. As a result, they had little time or resources left to actually design the levels, and boy-oh-boy does it show. The extremely primitive yet eye-searingly garish graphics, ranging from jittery models to flat, single-shade patchwork, harken back to "[[Music/DireStraits Money For Nothing.]]" Just loading individual frames of the resulting mess would eat up most of the console's already limited video memory. The gameplay is abominable: it's difficult to move Bubsy in any direction other than straight forward, and jumping on platforms is a chore because of the bad camera angles. To add insult to injury, Bubsy has one of the most grating voices known to man and shrieks inane dialogue every five seconds. ''Bubsy''[='s=] 2D games may have their fans, but ''Bubsy 3D'' put the bobcat to sleep for 21 years. Lead designer Michael Berlyn didn't realize how bad it was until he went to CES 1996 to show it off; there, he encountered a booth demonstrating ''Super Mario 64''. By this point, it was too late to go back and fix. The game only got SoOkayItsAverage reviews at first for being one of the first [=3D=] platformers ever released--along with ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996.'' That opinion plummeted almost immediately as the genre grew. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd gives his take on it, along with several other notorious games, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGDVMptn8k here]]. WebVideo/SomecallmeJohnny also reviewed this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaPVMJ8Yck game]] along with the rest of the ''Bubsy'' franchise. WebVideo/JonTron [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAlr5raV2U also reviewed the franchise.]] WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} also tackled it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AWGXx8H79g&t=1125s here]]. For the morbidly curious to just ''how'' bad it really is, WebVideo/NitroRad takes a look at it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWrA8ItPFI here]], even though it almost costs him his sanity, while WebVideo/MattMcMuscles discusses the game's TroubledProduction [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVADOfs1cY here]]. WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90V_yIBjH2M allocates a large portion of its "from 2d to 3d" video to it]], then later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfmjmtUBBw chose it as the single worst game he ever played in 11 years of videos]].

* '''''[[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm02.htm Club Drive]]''''' for the Platform/AtariJaguar. For most of your missions in this game, you have to go in an RC car and pick up glowing balls of string - something which has nothing to do with clubs and little to do with driving. The graphics are shoddy and the physics are incomprehensible to the point where it borders on ArtificialStupidity. In some instances, your car can levitate into the air and fly briefly. There's even an instance of FakeDifficulty to be found. In his review, where he names it the second-worst game of all time (behind only the ''E.T.'' game), Creator/{{Seanbaby}} speculates that the programmers of ''Club Drive'' "might have stolen their programming code from ''Dolphin Adventures in Tuna Nets''".

* '''''VideoGame/TheMastersFighter''''' was a 1997 FightingGame developed for the Platform/PlayStation by [=UNICO=] (who had released the far superior ''VideoGame/DragonMaster'' 3 years prior) and published by Cinema Supply. It's easily considered one of the worst fighting games of all-time, even worse than ''VideoGame/ShaqFu'' or ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheRobots'', due mostly to HitBoxDissonance, heavy controls, very limited gameplay, poor graphics and near-nonexistent music... but the worst part is that unlike ''Dragon Master'', which had original sprites, they actually [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} plagiarized sprites]] from other games to make the characters, and some of them are even fusions of two characters. The horribly-defined sprites helps very few to conceal the plagiarism. [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Pat and Woolie]] take a look at the game as part of Saturday Night Scrublords [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5-h6maBuA here]] and are completely mystified by the shamelessness and failure of the game. Even more baffling, the game is a PortingDisaster of the somewhat better ''Master’s Fury'', (footage [[https://youtu.be/wy9qwYpm5dM here]], note that the graphics are far less grainy) which had faded into obscurity due to not being able to be emulated until 2020. WebVideo/MattMcMuscles tears it apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2EnPKezu4 here]] as part of "The Worst Fighting Game" series.

* '''''VideoGame/TheMastersFighter''''' was a 1997 FightingGame developed for the Platform/PlayStation by [=UNICO=] (who had released the far superior ''VideoGame/DragonMaster'' 3 years prior) and published by Cinema Supply. It's easily considered one of the worst fighting games of all-time, even worse than ''VideoGame/ShaqFu'' or ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheRobots'', due mostly to HitBoxDissonance, heavy controls, very limited gameplay, poor graphics and near-nonexistent music... but the main motive is that unlike ''Dragon Master'', which had original sprites, they actually [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} plagiarized sprites]] from other games to make the characters, and some of them are even fusions of two characters. The horribly-defined sprites helps very few to conceal the plagiarism. [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Pat and Woolie]] take a look at the game as part of Saturday Night Scrublords [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5-h6maBuA here]] and are completely mystified by the shamelessness and failure of the game. Even more baffling, the game is a PortingDisaster of the somewhat better ''Master’s Fury'', (footage [[https://youtu.be/wy9qwYpm5dM here]], note that the graphics are far less grainy) which had faded into obscurity due to not being able to be emulated until 2020. WebVideo/MattMcMuscles tears it apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2EnPKezu4 here]] as part of "The Worst Fighting Game" series.

* '''''Savage Warriors''''' fancied itself a PC-exclusive ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' killer, which should already raise the same kinds of red flags as any other new game that fancied itself as the one that would dethrone a popular mainstream title. The fact that it's an MK clone with ''no fatalities'' is only the start of its problems. While the presentation of the game, with nice handdrawn backgrounds and 3D characters, looks decent enough, the actual gameplay suffers from unwieldy physics, same-y special attacks that are bound to a slowly-regenerating stamina meter, health meters being replaced with tiny numerical health readouts, environmental objects that add little to the combat, and an overall dearth of content (there are a number of secret characters, but they are useless compared to the main roster). WebVideo/MattMcMuscles compared it ''unfavorably'' to ''VideoGame/{{Ballz}}'' while also putting the game's magazine advertisement -- a masterclass in [[NeverTrustATrailer bullshit]] -- on full blast.

* '''''Savage Warriors''''' fancied itself a PC-exclusive ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' killer, which should already raise the same kinds of red flags as any other new game that fancied itself as the one that would dethrone a popular mainstream title. The fact that it's an MK clone with ''no fatalities'' is only the start of its problems. While the presentation of the game, with nice handdrawn backgrounds and 3D characters, looks decent enough, the actual gameplay suffers from unwieldy physics, same-y special attacks that are bound to a slowly-regenerating stamina meter, health meters being replaced with tiny numerical health readouts, environmental objects that add little to the combat, and an overall dearth of content (there are a number of secret characters, but they are useless compared to the main roster). WebVideo/MattMcMuscles compared it ''unfavorably'' to ''VideoGame/{{Ballz}}'' while also putting the game's magazine advertisement -- a masterclass in [[VeryFalseAdvertising bullshit]] -- on full blast.

* '''''Spectral Tower''''' - the very first game published by Creator/IdeaFactory - is a roguelike which seems to collect together every bad game design idea possible. The fact that so few have completed it is not so much down to its difficulty than to its monotony; the final tower has '''10,000''' floors respectively, which works out to '''450''' hours of gameplay, when you've seen everything the game has to offer by hour 2. Battling monsters on each floor is a complete LuckBasedMission in which you have effectively no control, as every attack depends on a literal dice roll where everything has about a 50% chance of missing. Your only chance is to run around for rare items, the effect of none of which is explained until after you use them. You have specific stats for taking down each type of monster, that only level when you defeat that type with a critical hit (so you're screwed six ways if you meet something you've not regularly seen, or just if the dice don't like you) as well as a food stat (healing items of a higher level than your food stat hurt you instead of healing). None of this vital information is explained either in the game, in the manual, or in the official strategy guide, making this a game that actively wants you to fail.

* '''''Expect No Mercy''''' was released on Windows in 1996 (the developers opted not to go for a console release because even they knew it wouldn't pass muster for official release, for reasons that will soon become apparent) to limited fanfare or attention, and those who played it will likely curse the fact that they have knowledge of this wretched attempt to cash in on the popularity of ''Mortal Kombat''. The game is [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames based on a movie of the same name]], itself a straight-to-video shlockfest filled to the brim with budget visual effects, but development of the game began after filming concluded, so the developers couldn't even get the actors to reprise their roles for the game and had to go with vague look-a-likes. The graphics are mid at best, the character animations are stiff and unnatural, the characters themselves are laughably uninteresting, and the gameplay is as bare bones as can be: no special moves, no throws, just a bunch of normal attacks and some lame fatalities. A stamina meter forces you to ration attacks, which slows the game down unnecessarily. When combined with hit detection that barely works and no indication of whether your attacks actually land aside from a depleting health meter, the game becomes genuinely un-fun. Very few reviews of the game exist from the time of its release, so unknown as it was, but WebVideo/MattMcMuscles had the misfortune of playing the game when it came out and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZyesDxMWAk believes it may well be the worst fighting game of all time]], worse still than ''Criticom'', and held that throne for several months before ultimately being dethroned by ''Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft''.

* '''''Iznogoud''''' for the Platform/PlayStation is a PAL exclusive licensed platformer of ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}} which few played, but can confirm the title: it's no good. Messy graphics, obstacles indistinguishable from the background, poor CGI cutscenes that make no sense, jerky animation, and annoying stock sounds placed randomly. The game's design is lousy with FakeDifficulty: the JumpPhysics are both slippery and overly-heavy, frequently causing you to plummet; unreliable hitboxes cause ladders to sometimes not register when grabbed and enemies combine poor hit detection with the ability to [[CycleOfHurting stun-lock Iznogoud]]. Level design is subpar, with most amounting to poorly-laid out mazes; waiting at the end are bosses that barely do anything and are trivial to defeat. The worst sin is the combat: you fight enemies by throwing items like gold coins, which are your primary ammunition--but to clear levels, you need a certain amount of gold coins. This leads to the paradox of avoiding combat in order to preserve coins (as other items are in limited supply), but also ''having to'' fight certain enemies due to where they're placed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-e7vgHiERU&t=888s Sean Seanson]] reviewed the game for Obscure [=PlayStation=] series, proclaiming it the worst platformer on the system, a soulless and frustrating experience.

* '''''Tunguska: Legend of Faith''''', originally a PC adventure game, received a PAL-exclusive Platform/PlayStation [[PortingDisaster port]] that most who've played can agree is one of the worst games on the system. Outside of the intro and ending, the story is non-existent, with the most you're given being meaningless religious symbolism. The solutions to its shoddy [[MoonLogicPuzzle puzzles tend to be nonsensical]]; it often takes very precise clicking to get the required items to interact with them. The combat system barely functions—fights often come down to you and the enemy spamming attacks at each other. There's no music; only repetitive sound effects. Camera angles and the game's own subpar graphics frequently team up to obscure key items. Worst of all are the traps, which, unlike in the PC original, are either completely unavoidable or inert. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3evH-ftiys Sean Season]] called it a disaster, dreading having to play it for his series; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCfdDMm0jKQ PSX Gaming Memories]] was more disappointed than anything, enjoying the idea but hating the execution

* '''''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsSkateboarding''''' was clearly an attempt to ride on the coattails of the ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' series, and replicates everything except any of the fun factor that made the ''Pro Skater'' series great. What do you get instead? A nonsensical storyline where the characters are competing in a skateboard contest for the grand prize of a meager ''$99'', with terrible graphics, mediocre gameplay, skateboarding tricks that are basic at best and downright impossible to perform correctly at worst, voice acting that's rather terrible (and annoyingly repetitive) by ''Simpsons'' standards (most prominent in the "Skillz School" mode, where narrator Kent Brockman [[WhatTheHellPlayer constantly mocks the player whenever they bail or fail to land a trick correctly]]), and bad controls. Even worse, characters are prone to bailing their boards easily when attempting to land a jump, [[FakeDifficulty unnecessarily adding to the frustration factor]]. Homer is a LowTierLetdown as his poor jumping stats make him ''unable to perform a normal kickflip without a high risk of bailing'', and even if the player racks up stat points for him at "Skillz School" mode there would never be enough points to greatly improve his abilities. The game boasts having five unlockable characters aside from the Simpsons themselves, but none of them add any value to the game as the stat points do not carry over to other characters, meaning that whenever the player wants to change characters they would have to go back to square one in Skillz School mode. ''The Simpsons Skateboarding'' came out just '''one month''' after ''Pro Skater 4''--you might as well have saved your money for that game instead of spending it on this stinker. IGN [[https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/19/simpsons-skateboarding gave it]] 2.5 out of 10 in their review, with their verdict being "Not fun, and not funny" and describing it as "game design by way of the marketing department". ''Game Informer'' was even less merciful, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080112223749/http://gameinformer.com/Games/Review/200212/R03.0731.1138.03070.htm giving it]] a rock bottom 1.0 out of 10 and stating that the game gets "everything, even the simplest of things, completely wrong". tamango2474, who called it the worst game he had ever seen, reviews the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOjjvsFlMc here]], and both WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} and WebVideo/SuperMega respectively tackled the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ak2ssG56q0 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dhsanCDedA here]], both to predictable results. [[WebVideo/WhatcultureWrestling [=WhatCulture=] Gaming]] also tackles the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0puCOGBhqs here]] as part of their "Worst Games Ever" series. How it even got past Matt Groening's radar after his personal step-in after ''The Simpsons Wrestling'' is really anyone's guess.

* '''''Spirit of Speed 1937''''', or at least its Platform/SegaDreamcast version. Meant to simulate 1930s roadster races, the game was routinely trashed for its atrocious loading times, bad controls, lack of multiplayer mode (bad in a racing game), mediocre production values, and boring, drawn-out tracks. The original PC version was published by Hasbro Interactive, and they licensed the title over to Creator/{{Acclaim}} for its Dreamcast release. Likely because of how they knew of the game's quality, they briefly resurrected the much-reviled Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} label for this game only after they stopped using it for five years when it was previously last used for ''VideoGame/RevolutionX'' on the SNES. Even [[WebVideo/CygnusDestroyer the LJN Defender]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIbxPniT7ZQ hated the game]], going as far as to say it was a sad note for the rainbow to go out on, and given his mission is to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin defend LJN's games]], that really says something. Creator/JamesRolfe also covered it twice himself: once with Creator/MikeMatei on WebVideo/JamesAndMikeMondays [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZ4q9FZAy0 in 2016,]] with Mike saying he'd rather play ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'' over this game, and the other time as the AVGN during December 2021 in [[https://youtu.be/Sqif27k-_Hg?t=1176 the final part of his own LJN retrospection]], noting that it plays so slowly and looks more like it fits the Playstation or the early days of the Nintendo 64 than it would the Sega Dreamcast. Rerez also covered it [[https://youtu.be/x3dcU2JDFS0?t=753 as a part of a mega video for some of their Worst Racing Games of All Time.]]

* '''''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsSkateboarding''''' was clearly an attempt to ride on the coattails of the ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' series, and replicates everything except any of the fun factor that made the ''Pro Skater'' series great. What do you get instead? A convoluted storyline where the characters are competing in a skateboard contest for the grand prize of a meager ''$99'', with terrible graphics, mediocre gameplay, skateboarding tricks that are basic at best and downright impossible to perform correctly at worst, voice acting that's rather terrible (and annoyingly repetitive) by ''Simpsons'' standards (most prominent in the "Skillz School" mode, where narrator Kent Brockman [[WhatTheHellPlayer constantly mocks the player whenever they bail or fail to land a trick correctly]]), and bad controls. Even worse, characters are prone to bailing their boards easily when attempting to land a jump, [[FakeDifficulty unnecessarily adding to the frustration factor]]. Homer is a LowTierLetdown as his poor jumping stats make him ''unable to perform a normal kickflip without a high risk of bailing'', and even if the player racks up stat points for him at "Skillz School" mode there would never be enough points to greatly improve his abilities. The game boasts having five unlockable characters aside from the Simpsons themselves, but none of them add any value to the game as the stat points do not carry over to other characters, meaning that whenever the player wants to change characters they would have to go back to square one in Skillz School mode. ''The Simpsons Skateboarding'' came out just '''one month''' after ''Pro Skater 4''--you might as well have saved your money for that game instead of spending it on this stinker. IGN [[https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/19/simpsons-skateboarding gave it]] 2.5 out of 10 in their review, with their verdict being "Not fun, and not funny" and describing it as "game design by way of the marketing department". ''Game Informer'' was even less merciful, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20080112223749/http://gameinformer.com/Games/Review/200212/R03.0731.1138.03070.htm giving it]] a rock bottom 1.0 out of 10 and stating that the game gets "everything, even the simplest of things, completely wrong". tamango2474, who called it the worst game he had ever seen, reviews the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOjjvsFlMc here]], and both WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} and WebVideo/SuperMega respectively tackled the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ak2ssG56q0 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dhsanCDedA here]], both to predictable results. [[WebVideo/WhatcultureWrestling [=WhatCulture=] Gaming]] also tackles the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0puCOGBhqs here]] as part of their "Worst Games Ever" series. How it even got past Matt Groening's radar after his personal step-in after ''The Simpsons Wrestling'' is really anyone's guess.

* The console/PC versions of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' from Creator/VivendiUniversalGames based on the original novel (to keep Creator/ElectronicArts off their back) are nothing more to write home about, but the ''Platform/GameBoyAdvance adaptation''' was [[GameBreakingBug rife with glitches]] and broken beyond all salvageability. If a player wasn't careful, then by the midpoint of the game items essential to progress would simply vanish. There were [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable glitches that rendered the game impossible]] unless one knew how to get around them. There's even a spot where you need to save during a transition between scenes to keep the game from becoming {{Unwinnable}}.

* '''''Cosmi Software's 300 Arcade Classics''''' is a shareware disc of Windows games with barely any content worth playing. First of all, most of the games on the disc being in shareware mode means that even though you paid money for the compilation, '''you still have to pay''' to get the full versions of the games. Secondly, nearly all of the games are terrible, with some appearing to have been made by actual children using Clickteam's {{Game Maker}}s [[note]](more specifically the personal editions of ''Klik & Play'' and ''The Games Factory'', both of which display a notice specifying that ''selling games made with them is illegal'' when you close the game)[[/note]]. The controls in almost every game are unresponsive and terrible, and the gameplay is boring, repetitive, filled with {{Game Breaking Bug}}s, and ripped off better games, if they aren't outright unplayable. Thirdly, almost every game is rife with stolen copyrighted assets - as just for a few examples, ''Buggie: Above the Law'' steals music from Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/DaftPunk, and ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget''; ''Fire Guy'' steals music from ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and ''Series/TheXFiles''; and ''Death Assault'' ([[RougeAnglesOfSatin sic]]) steals enemy sprites from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2''. [[note]](Back in the early days of {{Game Maker}}s, using copyrighted assets was often overlooked, sometimes expected, but that was because the games were typically distributed for free.)[[/note]] In fact, it seems like all the games were randomly grabbed from the Internet and put onto the disk with no regard for their creators or copyright. The game installers can get ''stuck'' when attempting to install the games, which is unfortunate because you sometimes need to run the installer twice. This game was ''packaged'' and sold in stores--it would be a disappointment if you got it from the dollar store. Vinny from WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} takes a look at the game in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os4nfexNPgo two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zblbGfsUK2o parts.]]

* '''''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing''''', a third-person PC "racing" "game" published by Game Mill Publishing and "developed" by Stellar Stone released in 2003, is very commonly referred to as ''the'' worst video game of all time. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB1zWEhgrLs It's easy to see why]], considering its lack of collision detection, frequent bugs, poor visuals, no obstacles to negotiate, and severe lack of functionality, combined with the fact the opponent doesn't move due to lack of AI (which was patched in later, but even then the AI will always stop just short of the finish line, making the game ''unloseable''). When ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' finally took a look at this game, he divided the review into two loose sections: first he was driving around with a big goofy smile on his face, enjoying the SoBadItsGood nature of a game that can barely run without crashing... followed by a good five minutes chewing out the "developers" for having the utter ''gall'' to actually charge money for a product so disgustingly unfinished he can't even call it a "game". He even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6DtVHqyYts called it]] a less painful yet objectively worse product than his arch-nemesis, ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES''. Likewise, WebVideo/SomecallmeJohnny despises the game so much, that in his [[https://youtu.be/45uRGKZlY1I original review]], he went to the liberty of [[KillItWithFire burning the game on a grill]], whereas in his [[https://youtu.be/uTeNnP_JUJU rereview]], he claims that ''VideoGame/Superman64'', a similarly terrible game, is not only cheaper than ''Big Rigs''[='=] $50 asking price, but an outright better game than ''Big Rigs''. One year after Big Rigs was released, in 2004, Game Mill released one final Stellar Stone game, '''''Midnight Race Club: Supercharged''''', which has the same courses as ''Big Rigs'' but has cars and motorcycles in addition to trucks. Though the game now has collision detection, this makes the game worse than the original ''Big Rigs'' at points, as bumping into even the smallest obstacle stops you dead in your tracks. Oh, and there is still no loss condition. Rerez covered both ''Big Rigs'' and ''Midnight Race Club'' [[https://youtu.be/x3dcU2JDFS0?t=1986 at the end of their multi-pack video of some of the Worst Racing Games of All Time,]] with them not only mentioning other games that Stellar Stone did before ''Big Rigs'', but also later mentioning that ''Midnight Race Club'' was worse than ''Big Rigs'' was (at least with the copy they had).

* '''''Virus: The Game''''' is a strong example of a great concept falling victim to incompetent execution. The idea, on paper, sounds interesting: a ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}''-style labyrinth shooter game [[GenreBusting with real-time strategy elements never seen before]] where you have to fight a virus within your computer, with the game even using some of your own files for the locations in the game (without doing any real damage to your computer). Unfortunately, the [[{{Pun}} .exe]]cution leaves a lot to be desired. Even ignoring the fact that [[Horrible/{{Advertising}} one way they advertised the game revolved around scareware]][[note]](Its ad, "[[https://youtu.be/BGm8idw45as Russ.exe]]", fakes your entire system being deleted before shilling the game with its tagline "Thank god this is only a game...")[[/note]], the game is rather subpar; the visuals are fine and the music is okay (though repetitive), but the gameplay itself is extremely confusing as you defend your system against a virus [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard that seems to cheat]][[note]](conceptually, [[FridgeBrilliance it is only fitting]] considering how actual computer viruses act, trying to take over the system files and modify them in such a way to cause major frustration to users, but from a gameplay perspective, it just creates massive FakeDifficulty)[[/note]], and the control scheme is absolutely atrocious. As a combination of both a RealTimeStrategy with a FirstPersonShooter, it's frequently unclear on exactly what you're supposed to do in order to win the missions provided in the game, as not only will you have to control ships around the maze of your computer, with the folders and sub-folders being represented as "floors" inside that your files are put in, you'll have to make sure you have enough Kilobytes ([=KBs=]) to build objects which do various tasks, like create new vehicles (all of which have specific jobs, like [=KBs=] collectors collect [=KBs=] from non-corrupted files, converters restore files to a non-corrupted state, attack crafts can attack the viruses, etc), ''and'' also have to make sure your files don't get corrupted by the virus... which, in later missions, performs various [[InterfaceScrew Interface Screws]] to make things even worse. Thankfully, the game provides a "map" of sorts which acts like the [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] Navigation Pane (showcasing all the folders in your system and what's in them), and you can automate your ships to go into specific locations, but due to the awkward AI, they frequently just loosely guide themselves to the directed location, and there's a chance that they may just spaz out on a surface before returning on their path. And the control scheme... oh dear, where to begin. You have to pilot your ships throughout your computer, and this is easier said than done. The controls are often unresponsive and floaty, which makes it incredibly difficult to navigate around your computer[[note]](and this isn't getting onto how [[DarthWiki/IdiotProgramming it fixes itself to the CPU clock speed without any upper limit]], [[GameBreakingBug making it unplayable by running stupidly fast on any modern computer or virtual machine]] unless it's severely underclocked)[[/note]], and even harder to aim at the viruses (which frequently [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound repeat the same one-liners over and over]]). Not helping matters is [[DemonicSpiders they have a crapton of health]], and your attack ships have limited ammo. They can't even ''defend themselves'' should you be doing something else, like controlling another ship, meaning you'll have to attack the enemies yourself (which is a real problem in a ''Real-Time Strategy game'') for any offense and/or defense on your side... ''if'' you can even damage them, since not only is aiming at them a chore to do (as said before but we can't stress it enough), some enemies, mainly the eyeball creatures, are so poorly-programmed that ''they actually can't be defeated'', instead causing you to sacrifice your precious attack ships in the missions where you have to navigate around them. [[RuleOfThree (Did we mention that they can barely be aimed?)]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Finally, the game has a few instances of typos within the mission descriptions.]] As of 2016, [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi_KYBWS_E70Bd7HDhLz0a16FFrlCtOn4 there is only one walkthrough of the game on YouTube by]] [[https://www.youtube.com/@danooct1 computer virus guru danooct1]], and he gave up trying to finish it on mission 9.[[note]](Out of all 15 missions of the game, 5 of them are training, meaning he only got to the 4th real mission of the game before he called it quits.)[[/note]]

* '''''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown: Warrior's Rage''''' for the Playstation is a distant sequel of the original Neo Geo fighting games, and as such, features a largely new cast of characters, with only Haohmaru and Hanzo Hattori returning to the playable roster. Unfortunately, a cast of overall forgettable new faces is the least of this game's problem. The graphics do no justice, the controls are loose and unwieldy, the new life bar system used in this game is confusing, and the in-game animations are janky and stuttery, all of which is especially unfortunate since two [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive]] ''Samurai Shodown'' titles previously released on the Hyper Neo Geo 64 (as well as the 2019 title) prove that the series could work in 3D, while this game is a case of a VideoGame3DLeap gone wrong. Gamespot called it [[https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/samurai-shodown-warriors-rage/1900-2582359/ one of the worst fighting games of its time]] that even hardcore fans would have a hard time enjoying.

* '''''VideoGame/KangFu''''' is an Amiga platformer that would've remained lost in the deep and forsaken depths of video game history [[ColbertBump had it not been covered by]] ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd''. To even start the game is a convoluted task that is nearly impossible to solve [[AllThereInTheManual without consulting the enclosed instruction manual]]: because of a programming bug with the Amiga [=CD32=]'s boot sequence, the game [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading would endlessly load]] or display an "Out of Memory" message if started on an [=CD32=], unless the player starts the game after the [=CD32=] logo's music stops playing. The graphics could be best described as a mish-mash of random assets taken from random sources, with cartoony animals juxtaposed to realistic assets (i.e. skulls and Roman statues) on a photographic backdrop. There is no story to speak of, and the game [[NeverTrustATitle doesn't even live up to the title]], as the playable kangaroo character uses a gun instead of kung-fu to defeat enemies. Even then, it fails even as a RunAndGun, as the controls are erratic and stiff, while the level design is haphazard and nondescript. Upon getting a GameOver, the player is greeted by [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} a picture cropped straight from the cover of]] Michael Asher's ''A Desert Dies''. The developers, [=GREat=] Effects Development (or GREED), boast that their game [[MetaphoricallyTrue "shows the full possibilities of the [=CD32=]"]]. Far from being the Amiga computer or [=CD32=]'s KillerApp, the game's release date of 1996, two years after the discontinuation of the console, along with the quality of the game itself, indicate that this game was more likely either an act of desperation or a pet project GoneHorriblyWrong.

* '''''Iznogoud''''' for the Platform/PlayStation is a PAL exclusive licensed platformer of ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}} which few played, but can confirm the title: it's no good. Messy graphics, obstacles indistinguishable from the background, poor CGI cutscenes that make no sense, jerky animation, and annoying stock sounds place randomly. The game's design is lousy with FakeDifficulty: the JumpPhysics are both slippery and overly-heavy, frequently causing you to plummet; unreliable hitboxes cause ladders to sometimes not register when grabbed and enemies combine poor hit detection with the ability to [[CycleOfHurting stun-lock Iznogoud]]. Level design is subpar, with most amounting to poorly-laid out mazes; waiting at the end are bosses that barely do anything and are trivial to defeat. The worst sin is the combat: you fight enemies by throwing items like gold coins, which are your primary ammunition--but to clear levels, you need a certain amount of gold coins. This leads to the paradox of avoiding combat in order to preserve coins (as other items are in limited supply), but also ''having to'' fight certain enemies due to where they're placed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-e7vgHiERU&t=888s Sean Seanson]] reviewed the game for Obscure [=PlayStation=] series, proclaiming it the worst platformer on the system, a soulless and frustrating experience.

* '''''VideoGame/Gundam0079TheWarForEarth''''' was a [[FMVGame full motion video game]] attempting to bring the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise out of [[NoExportForYou its export-only status]] throughout most of the 1990's and bring new success for Gundam in North America. Unfortunately, while its full motion technology might have looked great during that time (primarily with the mobile suits), everything else involved with it was a confusing, sloppy mess that ruined any good times with it. If you ignore some of the weird translation errors included with the game (like the Principality of Zeon being the Duchie of Zeon (pronounced as John), Char's name being Shar, and Zakus being Zacks) and the CanonDiscontinuity story being put in small [[WallOfText Walls of Text]], the game takes place with an arrogant driver (that the game subtlely mocked itself early on in a brief moment of SelfDeprecation) entering a military base via impatience before suddenly being forced into acting as a new Gundam pilot and a confusing set-up that the game expects you to get immediately with its controls. While the game can be beaten in a half-hour if you know what you're doing, even experienced gamers like Rerez [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNrmsx3S6w4 can struggle for a half-hour (or longer)]] just trying to figure out how to get out of the intro cutscene alone! Reasons why most people usually struggle with it include strange symbols representing the actions you're supposed to do[[note]]like four small diamonds representing movement, a lightning bolt meaning attack, a coffin being a shield, and an actual shield being an interact button[[/note]], hitting the right button not always working properly, unskippable cutscenes, and the fact that they don't tell you what each button does until you already know how to enter the Gundam itself via TrialAndErrorGameplay, including a FailureIsTheOnlyOption moment that needs to be lost in a proper manner. And boy, does this game ''love'' using trial-and-error gameplay to ludicrous degrees[[note]]one part has you lose if you don't pick up a badge in a brief second and a half[[/note]], with the method to save your gameplay also being awkward to do in a proper manner. Combine all that with inconsistent results for certain actions[[note]]shielding can survive a nuclear reaction, but fails to handle enemy fire properly[[/note]], a maze section that's awkward to figure out without dying, awkward cuts in cutscenes ("[[AccidentalInnuendo Try taking out the cock-!]]"), an anticlimactic final boss fight ending on a SequelHook cliffhanger, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the fact that it was one of those rare games released on the]] [[Horrible/VideoGamesOther Apple Pippen]], and it's no wonder why this was the only Gundam game ever made by a North American developer and that they never truly bothered with the live-action angle for the series moving forward. Seriously, you're much better off watching the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' anime instead if you want a better understanding of the Gundam story it's trying to tell you.

* '''''Anime/DragonBallZ: Ultimate Battle 22''''' was a [=PlayStation=] title released in Japan in 1995 but [[LateExportForYou not released in the States]] until ''2003'', right at the end of the original [=PlayStation's=] life cycle-and in all honesty, it should've stayed in Japan. This "game" featured [[SpritePolygonMix an atrocious blend of sprites that look just like the anime with ugly, rudimentary 3D backgrounds]], no storyline, and [[ArtificialStupidity shoddy AI]]. Honestly, that wasn't a good way to exploit the ''DBZ'' hype that hit the American shores 15 years too late. To add some sour icing to this dragon-turd, the U.S. version got gimped, [[BadExportForYou badly]]: The loading screens felt longer, the music no longer looped naturally, and all of the cutscenes between characters, including special cutscenes, were removed (except for the announcer during tournament mode... without being re-dubbed--or even subtitled--and with longer pauses in between his sentences, for some reason). Like ''Rise 2: Resurrection'', single-player makes you fight '''every single character in the roster, including all the unlockable characters if you're really unlucky!''' Oh, and [[NoEnding there's no reward to beating single-player either.]] The manual flat out tells you the cheat code to unlock all the characters, giving you no reason to play this beyond pure curiosity. It must be said that although ''Ultimate Battle 22'' was simply a bad game and shamefully resurrected to maintain Western interest in the franchise with minimal effort, it ''did'' have a great (if somewhat repetitive) soundtrack, and served as a dry run of sorts for the much-improved ''Shin Butoden'' on the Saturn. When the now-defunct ''Gamenow'' magazine did a review of the game, the only positive quality they were able to list was [[DamnedByFaintPraise "It's 20 bucks."]] Not even [[WebVideo/ClassicGameRoom Mark Bussler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3iftI1xTss can defend this game.]] WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries also took a shot at the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEId2-vFb5M here.]] It failed at even really capitalizing on the need for a ''DBZ'' game, as the first ''VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai'' game ([[SoOkayItsAverage itself not exactly amazing, but still far better]]) was already out. To add insult to injury, an ad for ''Budokai'' is printed on the back of the game's manual, as if the manual was telling you, as Bussler puts it, "Ha ha ha, sucker! You should've bought ''this'' game instead!"

* '''''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}''''' is a cautionary tale on the dangers of uncontrolled hype. How much hype did this game have? Enough that ads published in magazines promised that "[[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--hbk9941z--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18j3h1di06j1yjpg.jpg John Romero's about to make you his bitch.]]" Unfortunately, a horrendously TroubledProduction ensued that resulted in delays and changes to the game's engine. The result, released in 2000 (two years after the originally-slated release date), was a mess of ugly graphics on an outdated engine, craptastic weapons that are just as likely to kill YOU as they will the enemies, [[ArtificialStupidity AI companions with no survival instinct whatsoever]] whose deaths constituted an automatic GameOver, a restrictive save system that makes ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' look downright generous in comparison, and for whatever reason, it front-loads the very worst of every single one of these elements into its first episode. [[PortingDisaster And the less said about the Nintendo 64 port]], [[FromBadToWorse the better]]. This game wound up [[CreatorKiller sinking Ion Storm]], effectively making John Romero ''its'' bitch ([[http://kotaku.com/5541406/john-romero-is-so-sorry-about-trying-to-make-you-his-bitch Romero would later regret that infamous ad slogan]] and [[CreatorBacklash apologize to gamers for it]]). Matt [=McMuscles=] of the [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Super Best Friends Zaibatsu]] takes an in-depth look at the game's history [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qy9ihyQ75M here]], and WebVideo/Civvie11 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW65wZOtPyA offers a very comprehensive breakdown of it]]. The game also received [[http://internetisinamerica.blogspot.com/2013/01/daikatana-one-of-best-game-boy-color.html a Game Boy Color iteration]] developed by Creator/{{Kemco}}. Surprisingly, it's [[PolishedPort superior to the other versions in almost every conceivable way]]! Unfortunately, [[NoExportForYou it never left Europe.]] Rerez briefly noted how it was the best version of Daikatana and how it resembled the RPG/Zelda Game Boy Color games in terms of quality more than either the PC or Nintendo 64 versions (both of which the duo also covered [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wPQAm_JJfs here]], with the PC version being the greater focus, though having a hard time deciding if the Nintendo 64 version was worse or not[[note]]Both Shane and Adam agree that while the Nintendo 64 version was no better than the PC version, the storytelling and character development are more fleshed out, and every level is presented as a single segment.[[/note]]).

* '''''VideoGame/TwentyFiveToLife''''' was a third-person shooter released towards the tail end of the Sixth Generation about a gangbanger saving his family from trouble, among other convoluted plot points. The camera and controls are woefully inadequate even for this game's simplistic run-and-gun, shooting gallery gameplay, the "story" is a slew of [[GangBangers gangsta]] and cop movie cliches strung together with little rhyme or reason, the dialogue sounds like it was [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy written by a white guy who'd never set foot in the ghetto]], the graphics and animations are barely passable at best and just plain ugly at worst, and the enemy AI is stupid. All told, it was a transparent attempt to cash in on the [[MurderSimulators controversy]] surrounding games like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' (mainly with the fact that the story and online mode have you murdering police officers), one that fell apart quickly once the critics and MoralGuardians they hoped would be outraged by it actually got around to playing it. The only saving grace is the hip-hop soundtrack... and even that occasionally glitches out in the PC version. Watch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZI2mhSyh88 The Game Block]] tear it apart.

* ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' for the Saturn was a delightful compilation of the Genesis ''Sonic'' platformers with extra bells and whistles. '''''Sonic Jam'' for the UsefulNotes/GameCom'''... [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope isn't]]. Only three of the four games the Saturn version ported are represented, in the loosest fashion possible: each game only used stage graphics from the first Zone of their respective games. Knuckles' gliding and climbing abilities are absent, making him play exactly like Sonic. The sound design is awful: music is barely present, consisting of muffled beeps and boops, and the sound effects are horribly compressed versions of what you'd hear in Sonic games. The controls are stiff, which makes playing the game a chore, on top of the game itself being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp460zM_PGA as slow as molasses]], which Sonic games never should be. As crappy as it is, it's no wonder it (and the other games Tiger licensed from other publishers) couldn't help the [[Horrible/VideoGamesOther already infamous]] [=Game.com=] survive in the gaming market. Watch the folks at Website/FindTheComputerRoom suffer through it [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeYtzI6he0lIQJmy8py-doRqOzxTbxVNc here]]. Not even Mark Bussler of WebVideo/ClassicGameRoom could find a single good thing to say [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwTzG6vC-i0 in his review of the game]].

%% Please namespace wicks to game systems to UsefulNotes!

* While ''Franchise/{{Arthur}}'' is a popular franchise that spawned [[Literature/{{Arthur}} books]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} a long-running TV series]], and some [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames interactive storybook games]] from the ''VideoGame/LivingBooks'' series, the same ''cannot'' be said for [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed "games"]] '''''Arthur's Absolutely Fun Day!''''' and '''''Arthur: Ready to Race!'''''[[note]]both developed by ''Creator/TheLearningCompany'' who are also responsible for much better [[EdutainmentGame Edutainment Games]] like ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', ''Franchise/CarmenSandiego'', ''VideoGame/ReaderRabbit'', and the aforementioned ''VideoGame/LivingBooks''[[/note]] for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor and UsefulNotes/PlayStation respectively:

* '''''[[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm17.htm Bubsy 3D]]''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, an attempt at reinvigorating the ill-fated ''VideoGame/{{Bubsy}}'' franchise. Inexplicably, Eidetic prioritized the game's resolution, pushing for 480i at a time when console games often ran at 240p. As a result, they had little time or resources left to actually design the levels, and boy-oh-boy does it show. The extremely primitive yet eye-searingly garish graphics, ranging from jittery models to flat, single-shade patchwork, harken back to "[[Music/DireStraits Money For Nothing.]]" Just loading individual frames of the resulting mess would eat up most of the console's already limited video memory. The gameplay is abominable: it's difficult to move Bubsy in any direction other than straight forward, and jumping on platforms is a chore because of the bad camera angles. To add insult to injury, Bubsy has one of the most grating voices known to man and shrieks inane dialogue every five seconds. ''Bubsy''[='s=] 2D games may have their fans, but ''Bubsy 3D'' put the bobcat to sleep for 21 years. Lead designer Michael Berlyn didn't realize how bad it was until he went to CES 1996 to show it off; there, he encountered a booth demonstrating ''Super Mario 64''. By this point, it was too late to go back and fix. The game only got SoOkayItsAverage reviews at first for being one of the first [=3D=] platformers ever released--along with ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' and ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996.'' That opinion plummeted almost immediately as the genre grew. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd gives his take on it, along with several other notorious games, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwGDVMptn8k here]]. WebVideo/SomecallmeJohnny also reviewed this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaPVMJ8Yck game]] along with the rest of the ''Bubsy'' franchise. WebVideo/JonTron [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAlr5raV2U also reviewed the franchise.]] WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} also tackled it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AWGXx8H79g&t=1125s here]]. For the morbidly curious to just ''how'' bad it really is, WebVideo/NitroRad takes a look at it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWrA8ItPFI here]], even though it almost costs him his sanity, while WebVideo/MattMcMuscles discusses the game's TroubledProduction [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVADOfs1cY here]]. WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90V_yIBjH2M allocates a large portion of its "from 2d to 3d" video to it]], then later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfmjmtUBBw chose it as the single worst game he ever played in 11 years of videos]].
* '''''Cheesy''''' was released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation in 1996 and published by Ocean Software, and its title couldn't be more accurate to the game's quality. The graphics are incredibly ugly with bland colors and hideous character models, the story is poorly explained and the controls are incredibly awkward. When you release the directional button while running, it takes Cheesy a while to stop running, which can result in a number of cheap hits. During the 2D sections of the game, Cheesy feels incredibly heavy when he's jumping and his weight can result in him falling back down to the first section, forcing the player to jump back up to begin the 2D section again. To make this even worse, both the 2D and 3D sections are separated by a loading screen which lasts for quite a while. On top of that, the game also has a tendency to suddenly change gameplay styles without warning, whether it be a top-down shooter or a vehicle section with slippery controls. Caddicarus reviewed this game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amvPVI4yVNw here]] and would later place it on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=697clTyeJ6E Badvent Calendar]].
* '''''Chronicles of the Sword''''' was a two-disc UsefulNotes/PlayStation game that isn't worth the $5 you probably paid for it. It has a horrible to [[ExcusePlot nonexistent plot]], delivered through dubious voice acting and confusing cutscenes, about the [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Arthurian]] knight Gawain as he tries to earn his armor and defeat the evil Morgana (or something like that). It's a standard {{Pixel Hunt}}ing AdventureGame that's mostly "[[HiddenObjectGame find a large number of useless items]] and [[FetchQuest trade them]] [[ChainOfDeals repeatedly]]", but it's impossible to know their purpose since your inventory only shows a large 3D-rendered video of the object with no description. (A particularly bad example: Gawain at one point obtains a broken clay pot which has to be given to a perfume-making monk. Why? Because the pot has ambergris in it. But there's [[GuideDangIt no way to know that]] without randomly attempting to give the thing to the monk.) Then there's the battle system, which consists of ''pre-rendered cutscenes.'' Unfortunately, whoever programmed it made the timing of the battle independent of the load time on the disc. By the time you can tell you're being attacked, you're dead. (Thankfully, there is an "Easy" option which removes the "interactive" element of the battles so you always win, making it the game's single redeeming feature.) Oh, and inspecting certain items in your inventory ''[[GameBreakingBug crashes the PlayStation]]''. The PC version isn't much better, "earning" one star (out of five) from ''Computer Games Strategy Plus''.
* '''''[[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm02.htm Club Drive]]''''' for the UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar. For most of your missions in this game, you have to go in an RC car and pick up glowing balls of string - something which has nothing to do with clubs and little to do with driving. The graphics are shoddy and the physics are incomprehensible to the point where it borders on ArtificialStupidity. In some instances, your car can levitate into the air and fly briefly. There's even an instance of FakeDifficulty to be found. In his review, where he names it the second-worst game of all time (behind only the ''E.T.'' game), Creator/{{Seanbaby}} speculates that the programmers of ''Club Drive'' "might have stolen their programming code from ''Dolphin Adventures in Tuna Nets''".
* To celebrate the release of the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, Creator/{{Taito}}--with the help of Nekogumi--decided to create the (aptly named) ''Taito Memorial'' series[[note]]a line of remakes of Taito's older games, two of which were [[DolledUpInstallment dolled up]] for the western release into [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]][[/note]]. While they were mostly SoOkayItsAverage, '''''[[BlatantLies Classic]] VideoGame/BubbleBobble''''' is horrible beyond belief. The JumpPhysics were absolutely terrible and are comparable to the infamous ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSpecial3'' bootleg port, the camera [[EventObscuringCamera refuses to scroll down]] whenever Bubblun falls making every jump a LeapOfFaith as you hope and pray that he doesn't land on a (once offscreen) enemy[[note]]this makes Round 38 into a ThatOneLevel as there's '''no ground''' whatsoever[[/note]], the boss fights are insultingly bad and the bubble physics are broken. Worse yet, the game steals its plot and graphics from two UsefulNotes/GameBoy ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' games that are '''''much better''''' than this one--which makes one wonder why they didn't just pull a [[VideoGame/MicroMachines Twin Turbo]] and rerelease the two in a colorized form on one cart. The game [[FranchiseKiller virtually killed]] the concept of ''Bubble Bobble'' sequels--despite their relatively good track record up to that point--as other than a few low-key releases in 2005-2007 and some ports/remakes, the series wouldn't really bounce back until '''2019''' with the release of ''4 Friends'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch. ''Website/GamingHell'' goes more in-depth into this disaster [[http://gaminghell.co.uk/ClassicBubbleBobble.html here]].
* '''''Cosmic Race''''', an early UsefulNotes/PlayStation title from a Japanese company called Neorex [[OneBookAuthor that has been heard of neither before nor since]] (it allegedly got its start with business software and wisely returned to that sector permanently after this disastrous attempt to branch out into video games), is an awful "racing" "[[ObviousBeta game]]" with ugly graphics (some ripped straight from ''devkits'', technically making it an asset flip), stupid characters (a caveman who pilots a flying bus/pineapple hybrid?!), forgettable music, random collision detection, [[SomeDexterityRequired an unnecessarily convoluted control scheme]] (R1 accelerates, which would be fine except you have to push the D-Pad ''and the corresponding face button'' to turn), and long, boring levels (the longest levels can last as long as ''seven minutes''). It's no wonder ''Magazine/GamePlayersMagazine'' gave it a '''0%''' and named that rating after this game; to put this into perspective, 1-9% was known as "Shoot Me". If you really want to see just how sloppy, clunky, and poorly made this title is, enjoy [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrDxi3WEOcc this video]], where the commentator has to go as far as to pretend that a [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Ludicolo]] is driving the flying pineapple bus just to drum up the motivation to ''pick a character'', let alone play a course. A simple diagram of the game's absurd controls is provided at the six-minute mark, and the sheer insanity of the layout is very likely to cause headaches from just looking at it.
* '''''Creative Isle''''' for UsefulNotes/PlayStation is anything but creative: All you do in this game is place four characters and eight items on one of the five backgrounds. It doesn't help that this game is a port of ''My Make-Believe Treasure Isle'' for the PC, just heavily downgraded and with the SerialNumbersFiledOff. The original is quite a bit more fleshed-out with minigames, more interactive elements, and a cast of characters more fleshed-out and fitting with the setting, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfU9fBotScE& as seen here]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5I3g4_7qoA Watch Mr. Enter play this "game" here.]]

* Creator/{{Atari}} tried to [[FollowTheLeader ride the 3D fighting wave]] by hiring Francois Yves Bertranda, a programmer who worked with Creator/{{Sega}} [=AM2=] on ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter'' to produce '''''Fight For Life''''' for the [[UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar Jaguar]]. He programmed the game ''alone'' (which says a lot about the company's available budget), which took him 19 months, and the result was inferior to its inspirations in every possible way. It was the final nail in the Jaguar's coffin - it's the last game released for the system, and a [[{{Irony}} fitting title]] to go out on. There's a persistent rumor that, after a string of broken promises and missed payments, Bertranda deliberately gave Atari an [[ObviousBeta incomplete version,]] and then tried to hold the final build ransom for his pay. [[WebVideo/GuruLarryAndWez Guru Larry]] goes into further detail on the situation [[https://youtu.be/46d6TuEkLc0?t=628 here,]] and you can find Hardcore Gaming 101's rather humorous review [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/fight-for-life/ here]].

* '''''Iznogoud''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation is a PAL exclusive licensed platformer of ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}} which few played, but can confirm the title: it's no good. Messy graphics, obstacles indistinguishable from the background, poor CGI cutscenes that make no sense, jerky animation, and annoying stock sounds place randomly. The game's design is lousy with FakeDifficulty: the JumpPhysics are both slippery and overly-heavy, frequently causing you to plummet; unreliable hitboxes cause ladders to sometimes not register when grabbed and enemies combine poor hit detection with the ability to [[CycleOfHurting stun-lock Iznogoud]]. Level design is subpar, with most amounting to poorly-laid out mazes; waiting at the end are bosses that barely do anything and are trivial to defeat. The worst sin is the combat: you fight enemies by throwing items like gold coins, which are your primary ammunition--but to clear levels, you need a certain amount of gold coins. This leads to the paradox of avoiding combat in order to preserve coins (as other items are in limited supply), but also ''having to'' fight certain enemies due to where they're placed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-e7vgHiERU&t=888s Sean Seanson]] reviewed the game for Obscure [=PlayStation=] series, proclaiming it the worst platformer on the system, a soulless and frustrating experience.

* '''''Killing Zone''''' takes nearly all the flaws that a 3D FightingGame for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation could have and, unlike its predecessor ''VideoGame/BattleMonsters'', adds no redeeming features. The "zones" are variously textured platforms from which you fling your opponents into the equally featureless surroundings. The character designs are comic book clichés, and there are no real special attacks. As for the story, you'd be hard-pressed to find evidence of even an ExcusePlot.

* '''''VideoGame/LEGORacers''''' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor. The PC and console versions are very well-liked, but the GBC version suffers from extremely monotonous and repetitive gameplay. You play in an over-the-shoulder view, with you on a rather straight track being unable to see anything except for things two feet in front of you. Because you build up so much speed, this makes it impossible to tell if a powerup is coming up, and it's a coin flip if you're going to get one or not. The problems don't end there: the turbo boost is incredibly overpowered and will send you leaps and bounds ahead of everyone, and the cannonball is overpowered too. You never know if one is on your tail, and if it hits you you stop dead in your tracks and have to build up speed again, which takes ''forever''. As if that weren't enough, the music is ''ear-bleeding'': It seems that whoever did the music conversions had no clue how the GBC's sound chip worked, which can make the already sometimes annoying soundtrack downright unbearable. The monotony will probably prevent you from being interested enough in playing anything beyond the first circuit.
* '''''LEGO Stunt Rally''''' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor. The original game wasn't that well regarded to begin with, but the GBC version took the already easy difficulty and toned it down even more - ''entire courses'' can be won by doing nothing but holding down the A button. The only time this ever changes is when there are obstacles that require a lane switch, like a road block. The sound is also extremely lacking, as are the graphics. WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} takes a look at it [[https://youtu.be/ywkwq1KF1Ps?si=G5nq83Q_zqf-IeuO&t=1849 here]], who has no kind words for it.
* '''''VideoGame/TheMastersFighter''''' was a 1997 FightingGame developed for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation by [=UNICO=] (who had released the far superior ''VideoGame/DragonMaster'' 3 years prior) and published by Cinema Supply. It's easily considered one of the worst fighting games of all-time, even worse than ''VideoGame/ShaqFu'' or ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheRobots'', due mostly to HitBoxDissonance, heavy controls, very limited gameplay, poor graphics and near-nonexistent music... but the main motive is that unlike ''Dragon Master'', which had original sprites, they actually [[UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} plagiarized sprites]] from other games to make the characters, and some of them are even fusions of two characters. The horribly-defined sprites helps very few to conceal the plagiarism. [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay Pat and Woolie]] take a look at the game as part of Saturday Night Scrublords [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5-h6maBuA here]] and are completely mystified by the shamelessness and failure of the game. Even more baffling, the game is a PortingDisaster of the somewhat better ''Master’s Fury'', (footage [[https://youtu.be/wy9qwYpm5dM here]], note that the graphics are far less grainy) which had faded into obscurity due to not being able to be emulated until 2020. WebVideo/MattMcMuscles tears it apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2EnPKezu4 here]] as part of "The Worst Fighting Game" series.

* '''''Mike Piazza's Strike Zone''''' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, despite having [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames an admittedly cool endorsement]], is widely considered to be one of the worst sports games ever made. The game has incredibly poor graphics, the players move like robots, repetitive sound, unbearable framerates, a very archaic pitcher/batter interface, and some downright bizarre physics (it's possible to blast a 950-foot home run). It's very likely that this was meant to be the start of a new baseball franchise, but the incredibly poor critical and commercial performance of the game [[StillbornFranchise killed any chance of that happening]].
* '''''Miracle Space Race''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, developed by Miracle Designs and published by the infamous Midas Interactive is a classic example of how not to make a kart racer. It features some of the blockiest and least-animated character models for the platform, along with some of the worst controls in the genre - turning corners is too slow, leading to a lot of bumping into walls. In addition, the soundtrack makes use of precisely four songs, all low-effort [=MIDIs=], none of which are in the least bit memorable. On top of that. the game has precisely ''nine'' courses, all of which are not only really short and make use of the bare minimum of tools other games in the genre use, but ''all use the exact same textures''. Weapons are unoriginal, have no impact to them, and are rendered useless by the fact that you lose your weapon every time you get hit. For ''2002'', this is inexcusable. And to top it all off, the game can be finished in ''less than half an hour'' and doesn't even have the common courtesy to implement a multiplayer mode...though that's implying you'd actually be able to rope someone into playing this with you. WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} suffered through it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWaDjmGrZwE&ab_channel=Caddicarus here]]. [[FromBadToWorse And it gets worse]]: two years later, Miracle Designs followed it up with '''''Rascal Racers''''', which is uncannily similar to ''Miracle Space Race'' - same blocky characters, same janky controls, same tripe MIDI soundtrack, same lack of content - the only major difference being the change from a space setting to a more traditional theme of karting in a city, forest, and mountain. But the plus of having more environments is undermined by the fact that there is a bug on some copies that prevents the game from saving to a Memory Card.
* '''''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor''' was a disastrous attempt at a stripped-down port of ''[=MK4=]''. Even with the transition to color, the graphics still manage to be worse than the UsefulNotes/GameBoy version of ''[=MK3=]'' in some ways, with some characters looking downright unrecognizable. The audio was risible, with music just barely outshined by bootleg cartridges, and scratchy samples of Shao Kahn from the [[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 previous game]]. Worse were the Fatalities, which were a laughably bad attempt to emulate the arcade game(!) and all amounted to either "loser explodes into a pile of blood" or "all the loser's blood goes out of a wound at once." The Fatalities are actually extremely choppy, blurry, low-resolution, ''monochrome'' video clips of the original game's Fatalities, lasting barely two seconds apiece. They also just play the same video clip for the winner each time: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au5HxUHsptc check out how bad it can get]]. For instance, in the clip Sub-Zero is clearly decapitating another ninja, not the distinctively cone-hatted Raiden. Amusingly, several of those Fatality video clips feature Johnny Cage as the victim (his light skin and bare chest show up brightest in the clips), even though he isn't even in the port!

* '''''Perfect Weapon''''', a BeatEmUp title released early in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation's life. It has a terrible, unfitting control scheme - imagine ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''-style TankControls for a BeatEmUp, camera angles that [[CameraScrew change completely if you move as much as two steps]], a main character who [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound constantly shouts "no way"]] every time you graze a wall, an [[FakeDifficulty unnecessarily unfair gimmick]] where you slowly lose health in the ''first level'', and constant slowdown despite unimpressive graphics. It somehow managed to sneak onto the U.S. [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationNetwork PlayStation Store]], where it is among the worst-rated "PS One Classics" games.
* '''''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZPC6eBQUc Planet Joker]]''''', a ShootEmUp for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn, features an into-the-screen perspective like ''Silpheed'' except with polygonal graphics, which in this case are ''spectacularly'' ugly even after taking the Saturn's handicap with 3D graphics into account. The aforementioned perspective makes dodging bullets harder than it should be. The collision detection is bad. The controls are unresponsive. The game is ridiculously easy at even the harder difficulties, and is interrupted by several unskippable cutscenes involving babbling heads.

* '''''VisualNovel/PlumbersDontWearTies''''' on the PC and [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]] is a rare early Western example of a VisualNovel, but outside of the LiveActionCutscene intro explaining the plot[[note]]which only shows up in the 3DO version[[/note]] it had nothing but still images run through [[SensoryAbuse bad Photoshop filters]] with annoying narration. The game was no more interactive than a standard DVD menu, as the only way the player could affect the game's outcome was by selecting an option in a menu screen, but with the 3DO version's annoying addition of having to wait for the narrators to explain the options before selecting another one. The game [[{{Railroading}} railroads]] the player through a single specific sequence of choices, with all others leading to NonStandardGameOver clips. Most of those choices in the sequence cause the narrator to [[BlamedForBeingRailroaded scold the player, even though they're required to continue the story]]. One choice that you have to choose to win the game even includes [[HilariousOuttakes a random outtake they apparently thought was so hilarious, they had to leave it in for some reason]]. The founder of Website/GameFAQs [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080215000026/http://www.gamefaqsinfo.net/gamefaqs/media/cjaycinterview.txt called it the worst game he's ever played]], and ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyaF_gCKWsI had a similar opinion, though doubting if it even counts as a game at all.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7RBDJiH2o He even thought that it was one of his weakest episodes at first because he didn't know what to say about it due to how bizarre it all felt.]] All of the game's "interaction" can be, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjMAG5IDnek has been]], easily replicated with video annotations on Website/YouTube back when they had annotations, and was also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqO6X9FRIlc riffed]] by WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}}! The worst part? It could've been SoBadItsGood if it hadn't completely wasted the technical capabilities of the 3DO, or even if it were presented in a non-interactive medium altogether. There are genuinely funny BreakingTheFourthWall moments, as it gleefully calls you a pervert and/or an idiot depending on your decisions.
* '''''Power Serve 3D Tennis''''' was to the American UsefulNotes/PlayStation launch lineup what ''Cosmic Race'' was to its Japanese launch lineup--the black sheep of the lot, and with good reason. The players are already difficult enough to control in single-player mode, but two-player mode is essentially unplayable unless you know how to activate split screen mode, [[GuideDangIt which was highly unlikely unless your copy of the game came with the original instruction manual]]. The players also have no collision, which makes doubles rounds... ''interesting'' at best, and blatant SpecialEffectsFailure at worst. The game was developed by Ocean Software, which was known for [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames bad licensed Nintendo games]] and [[PolishedPort terrific computer versions of arcade titles]]; this game is more like the former category, without the excuse of being a licensed game. What's more, it doesn't even clear the low bar set by ''Tennis'', which, to put it in perspective, was not only released just over a decade before but ''played as well as you'd expect from an early Nintendo sports title'', and those games, while not the best the NES had to offer, were at least playable. Watch Retro Pals review it and discuss its flaws [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DJW9VvDxM4 here]], and even he thought ''Cosmic Race'' was worse.
* '''''VideoGame/{{Rascal}}''''' was released in 1998 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, and went down as one of the worst games for the console. The game's engine was built for directional controls, à la ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''... but then the publisher saw ''VideoGame/TombRaiderI''. The ensuing change to TankControls doomed the game almost single-handedly. For one: the stiff controls are not at all suited for the platforming style, and the camera constantly gets stuck on walls, making it very difficult to see what's going on around the player. But even discounting that, the game's far from perfect: The map system doesn't provide you with any idea of where to go, and only gives you a vague idea of where you even are. There are no instructions telling you what to do, nor is there any sort of tutorial. You have no real way to orient yourself when trying to shoot, and you run out of health and ammo very quickly. Thanks to a glitch, it's likely your character will run clean off the platform even if you let go of the d-pad. All this means you'll go through your three lives (no continues) very quickly, especially since there's next to no extra lives. The game also has very limited voicework, just grunts and screams which are mostly recycled and often unfitting. The saving system is prone to failure, due to another glitch--one that causes it to think the controller is unplugged when you try to save. There is an optional mini-boss in the first level that gives you absolutely nothing for defeating it making it completely pointless. The game received a 2 out of 10 rating from IGN. You can see {{WebVideo/Caddicarus}}'s review for it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-20oDzK-FVQ here]], and Stanburdman's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=-lkGuLyujP0&feature=emb_title here]]. WebVideo/NitroRad takes a look at the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Cvuj2qjaA here]], discussing the game's shortcomings as well as what he thinks the game managed to do right (well, as right as you can get with a game here).
* The sequel to ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheRobots'', '''''Rise 2: Resurrection''''' (or ''Resurrection: Rise 2'', depending on how you view the title screen), released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC, made some subtle improvements over the gameplay, such as allowing you to control any character you want (instead of just the Cyborg vs. another robot) and having a more robust fighting system that makes it more comparable to ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. Unfortunately, it still manages to create some problems worthy of throwing it into the junkyard: The graphics look worse than the SNES version of its predecessor (unless you're playing the PC version, which had improved the graphics in that case), special moves are very difficult to pull off, the [[FinishHim execution moves]] are very lame, most of the robots have [[FlatCharacter no distinctive personality]] (and [[PaletteSwap half the cast are just upgraded or better-looking versions of the other half]]), and some aspects of the game are left unfinished. For example: one character has a running animation that doesn't match up to the actual speed he's running, and the AI can be either [[ArtificialStupidity really stupid to the point of breaking itself]] or [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard really cheap to the point of resorting to projectile spamming the moment you leave melee range.]] On top of that, if you are playing single player, you have to defeat ''[[FakeLongevity every single character in the roster on three continues!]]'' Did we mention there are a total of '''18''' playable characters? Your reward for beating it? A bunch of line drops of generic "[[AWinnerIsYou you win]]" and "[[TotallyRadical you kicked butt]]" messages. Once again, ''WebVideo/PlayItBogart'' [[http://youtu.be/xxLnq8BR5k8 gives the game the beating it deserves.]] [[Music/{{Queen}} Brian May]] was advertised once again to have composed for this game, but the game only has part of the chorus from ''Cyborg''. The full track is on the disc. as in "you have to ''play it in a music player''".

* '''''VideoGame/ShadowWarOfSuccession''''' (aka ''Shadow Warriors'', not to be confused with the FPS ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'') on the [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]] at first glance looks like just one of the many {{Fighting Game}}s that tried to [[FollowTheLeader piggyback on the success]] of ''Franchise/MortalKombat''. [[CoversAlwaysLie But once you look beyond the cover]] and actually get to play the "game", everything changes. ''Shadow: War of Succession'' might be one of the most poorly programmed games ever released commercially, up to the point of making it virtually unplayable. Just to give something to compare with, the infamous ''[[PortingDisaster Mortal Kombat Advance]]'' actually plays better. Horribly drab backgrounds, horrendous DigitizedSprites with animation frames in the single digits, character designs ranging from bland to ludicrous, the screen shaking every time a fighter lands after jumping, awful pre-rendered opening cutscene complete with UsefulNotes/{{MIDI}} straight off an SC-55, laughable voice clips, controls based on just two buttons, a Fatality prompt despite the developers ''not having programmed Fatalities into the game'', and nonexistent collision detection are just a sampling of the long list of ''Shadow Warriors''[='=] flaws. And for some absolutely baffling reason, the final boss and ''most'' of its stage background are hand-drawn, clashing so horribly with the aesthetics of everything else that you'd think they were taken from an entirely different game. Watch it in all its glory [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjUOeGz7vOo here]], as well as Retsupurae's riff on the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZAWAqyjedo here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuCT7CuEIz0 here]]. River City Gamers decided to have an [[http://youtu.be/FWlEyLHVVLQ inclusive tournament in the game, as well as exploiting the game for all its worth.]] WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldC4hw8AJ2c took a shot at it]], along with other ''Mortal Kombat'' rip-offs.

* '''''ComicBook/{{Spawn}}''''' has had a number of video games released over the years. Some, such as the SNES and Game Boy Color releases, are [[SoOkayItsAverage perfectly adequate]]. Others, such as the action arcade[=/=]Dreamcast title ''Spawn: In the Demon's Hand'' and the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' clone ''Spawn: Armageddon'', are [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames actually really good]]. And then there's '''''Spawn: The Eternal''''' on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, which is complete and utter crap. The graphics are ugly, the ''Franchise/TombRaider''-esque puzzle-solving is obtuse, the platforming segments are an exercise in torture that the Violator would delight in inflicting, and the combat plays like a very poor man's ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' (which is now HilariousInHindsight, given that Spawn is a GuestFighter in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''). As one last insult to injury, the player doesn't even get to fight the BigBad Malebogia as the final boss ([[CutsceneBoss even though the ending cutscene still shows Spawn slaying him]]). Neither [[https://www.ign.com/articles/1997/12/10/spawn-the-eternal IGN]], nor [[https://www.gamespot.com/spawn-the-eternal/reviews/spawn-the-eternal-review-2546067/ Gamespot]], nor the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY_r6u8YNEU had anything positive to say about it]].

* '''''VideoGame/{{Superman|64}}'' for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64''', a nominal tie-in game for ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', is considered a trainwreck in every conceivable way. It had such poor graphics that the game had to [[HandWave "excuse" the huge amount of fog as "Kryptonite Fog" in a simulation]], made half the missions [[PassThroughTheRings flying through rings]] with awkward controls and a brutally unforgiving time limit, has a crapton of glitches that make it very easy to get stuck, and it generally failed to be entertaining. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJXgJ1c4vY trashed the game by popular demand]], and it would be one of the small handful of games that the Nerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBFjpE1BaXk revisited]] [[note]](the only others he revisited like this were ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'', ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'', and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'')[[/note]]. WebVideo/ChrisStuckmann [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U25wGukTE_8 covered it]] as part of his Retro Rewind series, and Creator/{{Seanbaby}} [[http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/nes/egm07.htm named it #7 of his Top 20 Least Favorite Games]], saying:

* '''''Tunguska: Legend of Faith''''', originally a PC adventure game, received a PAL-exclusive UsefulNotes/PlayStation [[PortingDisaster port]] that most who've played can agree is one of the worst games on the system. Outside of the intro and ending, the story is non-existent, with the most you're given being meaningless religious symbolism. The solutions to its shoddy [[MoonLogicPuzzle puzzles tend to be nonsensical]]; it often takes very precise clicking to get the required items to interact with them. The combat system barely functions—fights often come down to you and the enemy spamming attacks at each other. There's no music; only repetitive sound effects. Camera angles and the game's own subpar graphics frequently team up to obscure key items. Worst of all are the traps, which, unlike in the PC original, are either completely unavoidable or inert. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3evH-ftiys Sean Season]] called it a disaster, dreading having to play it for his series; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCfdDMm0jKQ PSX Gaming Memories]] was more disappointed than anything, enjoying the idea but hating the execution
* '''''VideoGame/VirtualHydlide''''' could've been a good game, using [[UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn then-modern technology]] to update the original ''VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'' (a game that was well-liked in Japan but suffered from the AmericansHateTingle trope thanks to a [[PortingDisaster crappy NES port]] listed under the "[[Horrible/VideoGameGenerationsFirstToFourth Third Generation]]" folder), but its attempt to shoehorn 3D graphics and digitized sprites only serve to be its undoing. Unlike the original ''Hydlide'', the game world is [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated]] - in theory allowing infinite replay value, but in practice making the game that much more difficult. The controls are unwieldy, judging distance to land your attacks requires the patience of a saint, the framerate is pitifully poor, the only shop in the game is superfluous since everything you can buy can be found in the world for free, the dungeons get very long and tedious as you progress, and the final bosses require a specific weapon [[GuideDangIt that is never mentioned in-game]]. The one upside is that, if you know what you're doing, the game can be beaten in only a few hours, after which you receive a [[AWinnerIsYou lame ending]] and you never have to play it again. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd called the game "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOccLSB9EU8 Virtually unplayable]]" and spared no expense in his criticisms. WebVideo/ProJared's face goes numb with disbelief [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLHt1ajC5w here,]] and you can also see it speedran at WebVideo/GamesDoneQuick [[https://youtu.be/X2n57wkyt6I here]]. This was the first game in the ''Hydlide'' series to [[VideoGame3DLeap hop into the third dimension]], and to date is also the last ''Hydlide'' game ''[[FranchiseKiller period]]''.
* The UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy may have its defenders, but even they don't have anything nice to say about '''''Virtual Lab'''''. Rumor goes that, upon hearing of the system's soon-to-be discontinuation, the developers decided to rush the game and release it in an ObviousBeta state. This explains some of the game's most obvious flaws, including placeholder graphics, laggy controls, poorly programmed menus, and a lack of a password screen despite the game giving them after every level. Other issues include ear-splitting music, the possibility of creating block setups that are impossible to remove, and overall being seen as ill-fitted for the system. The game even misspells Nintendo's name in the box! Nintendo Life pans it [[https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/2009/08/virtual_lab_retro here]], while Retronauts [[https://retronauts.com/article/1235/behold-the-low-point-of-virtual-boys-history calls it]] the low point of the system.

* '''''Virus: The Game''''' is a strong example of a great concept falling victim to incompetent execution. The idea, on paper, sounds interesting: a ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}''-style labyrinth shooter game [[GenreBusting with real-time strategy elements never seen before]] where you have to fight a virus within your computer, with the game even using some of your own files for the locations in the game (without doing any real damage to your computer). Unfortunately, the [[{{Pun}} .exe]]cution leaves a lot to be desired. Even ignoring the fact that [[Horrible/{{Advertising}} one way they advertised the game revolved around scareware]][[note]](Its ad, "[[https://youtu.be/BGm8idw45as Russ.exe]]", fakes your entire system being deleted before shilling the game with its tagline "Thank god this is only a game...")[[/note]], the game is rather subpar; the visuals are fine and the music is okay (though repetitive), but the gameplay itself is extremely confusing as you defend your system against a virus [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard that seems to cheat]][[note]](conceptually, [[FridgeBrilliance it is only fitting]] considering how actual computer viruses act, trying to take over the system files and modify them in such a way to cause major frustration to users, but from a gameplay perspective, it just creates massive FakeDifficulty)[[/note]], and the control scheme is absolutely atrocious. As a combination of both a RealTimeStrategy with a FirstPersonShooter, it's frequently unclear on exactly what you're supposed to do in order to win the missions provided in the game, as not only will you have to control ships around the maze of your computer, with the folders and sub-folders being represented as "floors" inside that your files are put in, you'll have to make sure you have enough Kilobytes ([=KBs=]) to build objects which do various tasks, like create new vehicles (all of which have specific jobs, like [=KBs=] collectors collect [=KBs=] from non-corrupted files, converters restore files to a non-corrupted state, attack crafts can attack the viruses, etc), ''and'' also have to make sure your files don't get corrupted by the virus... which, in later missions, performs various [[InterfaceScrew Interface Screws]] to make things even worse. Thankfully, the game provides a "map" of sorts which acts like the [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] Navigation Pane (showcasing all the folders in your system and what's in them), and you can automate your ships to go into specific locations, but due to the awkward AI, they frequently just loosely guide themselves to the directed location, and there's a chance that they may just spaz out on a surface before returning on their path. And the control scheme... oh dear, where to begin. You have to pilot your ships throughout your computer, and this is easier said than done. The controls are often unresponsive and floaty, which makes it incredibly difficult to navigate around your computer[[note]](and this isn't getting onto how [[DarthWiki/IdiotProgramming it fixes itself to the CPU clock speed without any upper limit]], [[GameBreakingBug making it unplayable by running stupidly fast on any modern computer or virtual machine]] unless it's severely underclocked)[[/note]], and even harder to aim at the viruses (which frequently [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound repeat the same one-liners over and over]]). Not helping matters is [[DemonicSpiders they have a crapton of health]], and your attack ships have limited ammo. They can't even ''defend themselves'' should you be doing something else, like controlling another ship, meaning you'll have to attack the enemies yourself (which is a real problem in a ''Real-Time Strategy game'') for any offense and/or defense on your side... ''if'' you can even damage them, since not only is aiming at them a chore to do (as said before but we can't stress it enough), some enemies, mainly the eyeball creatures, are so poorly-programmed that ''they actually can't be defeated'', instead causing you to sacrifice your precious attack ships in the missions where you have to navigate around them. [[RuleOfThree (Did we mention that they can barely be aimed?)]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Finally, the game has a few instances of typos within the mission descriptions.]] As of 2016, [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi_KYBWS_E70Bd7HDhLz0a16FFrlCtOn4 there is only one walkthrough of the game on YouTube by]] [[https://www.youtube.com/@danooct1 computer virus guru danooct1]], and he gave up trying to finish it on mission 9.[[note]](Out of all 15 missions of the game, 5 of them are training, meaning he only got to the 4th real mission of the game before he called it quits.)[[/note]]

* '''''VideoGame/AquamanBattleForAtlantis''''', for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, is generally considered to be one of the worst games of all time, inspiring the "Golden Mullet Awards", ''Series/XPlay''[='s=] ranking of the worst games of each year. (See their original review [[https://archive.org/details/g4tv.com-video7777 here.]]) The graphics are very reminiscent of the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 as the city of Atlantis has mostly bland grey buildings and everyone looks somewhat lifeless. Only Aquaman's hair has any graphical effort, and even that has a tendency to clip through his head. The missions have little variation, as you either beat up enemies (easily done by ButtonMashing) or pilot an underwater ship to blow up other ships. As WebVideo/JonTron [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nohsA4R_1HU puts it]], the game is a spiritual successor to ''VideoGame/Superman64'', and a boring experience from beginning to end. Rerez also looks into the game themselves [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=-NqEgYVjkrY here,]] noting that not only did their game get less stable the further they went[[note]]Aquaman's spear for a hand suddenly vanishing for a whole level, graphical glitches and the game outright crashing on more than one occasion[[/note]], but it also shared the same people that created the poor story adaptations of Batman and Superman for this gaming generation in ''Batman: Dark Tomorrow'' and ''Superman: The Man of Steel'' respectively.
* '''''Bad Boys: Miami Takedown''''' (released in Europe as ''Bad Boys II''), a UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, and PC game released to coincide with ''Film/BadBoysII'', has two untalented [[{{Expy}} expies]] of Martin Lawrence and Creator/WillSmith that constantly spout horrible dialogue. The controls are broken, the enemy AI is simplistic and predictable but also incredibly cheap when it wants to be, and the game's built in lock-on mechanic is awful. If using it, expect half your shots to miss, ''especially'' when using automatic weapons, and it will completely fail to properly lock on to certain enemies, meaning you're almost wholly better off aiming manually. The dodgy bullet mechanics also make most of the weapons in the game difficult to justify using, to the point that you need an ''unlockable cheat'' just to be able to reliably kill things with a shotgun. Finally, the lack of randomization and variety in levels gives the game minimal replay value. [=GameTrailers=] named this #4 in its "Worst Movie Games of All Time". Watch WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay make fun of it on ''Cryme Tyme'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITynSLwn-ek here.]]
* '''''VideoGame/BatmanDarkTomorrow''''', released in 2003 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, is a great example of how putting the emphasis on story and visual style over gameplay can end in disaster. Originally envisioned as an open world game, a troubled development cycle resulted in the game being hastily reworked into a linear adventure with as many blatantly sealed off and unfinished areas as a construction site. So much priority was placed on the story and cutscenes that basic gameplay functions like the camera and control scheme are troublesome to use. Extra features like stealth gameplay are near useless since enemies will probably notice Batman anyway and his attacks likely won't work if he can sneak up to them, and segments like Batman's hand glider and traversing rooftops are so broken that it becomes clear why they are so infrequent. Despite Batman's large arsenal of tools and many familiar faces from his RoguesGallery, most fights can be easily won with basic attacks, and those that can't don't feel any less repetitive. Even if one tries to enjoy the game for the cutscenes that capture the style of the comics pretty well, their enjoyment will be destroyed as failing to perform a task [[GuideDangIt unhinted at anywhere in the game]] will lock them out of the best ending, and [[UnwinnableByDesign saving before the final boss will require starting the game over again to be able to unlock it]]. The end result is a Metacritic score of 29/100 for the Gamecube version and a 25/100 for the Xbox version. WebVideo/{{Rerez}} breaks this game down [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Mhv5CBVJ4 here.]] WebVideo/PeanutButterGamer put the game at #2 on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-DgiD9ZWVw his list of his top ten worst licensed games]], calling the game "a complete joke" and harshly criticizing its unfair difficulty and sheer level of GuideDangIt[[note]]notably, he ranked it worse than ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' and fellow Horrible entry ''VideoGame/Superman64'' (ranked at #3 and #5 respectively)[[/note]].

* '''''VideoGame/ElfBowlingOneAndTwo''''' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance and UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. To begin with, both versions expected you to pay $30 for a game that was already available for '''FREE''' on the Internet, and even then they're slightly ''downgraded'' from the PC originals by removing some animations and sounds and the coin toss from the beginning of ''Elf Bowling 2'', which is unacceptable since the games were so minimalist in the first place. But even then, everything else about it is bad beyond belief - the graphics are pathetic and don't remotely take advantage of the GBA's or DS' capabilities, the music is nonexistent, the occasional quips from the elves are embarrassingly juvenile ("Those all the balls you got, Santa?"), and the gameplay is as barebones as can be with a bowling game.
* '''''Falling Stars''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 is a completely pathetic excuse for a RolePlayingGame geared towards little girls. It features a ClicheStorm of a plot with an insipid dialogue that is more likely to have the player question the FridgeLogic of the entire game. The battle system is insultingly simple and monotonous and is rendered even more idiotic by the highly predictable moves of the opponents and a complete GameBreaker that allows your character to have virtually infinite health. [[note]](Rotating the left analog stick during battle increases a meter that, when filled, allows your character to heal a certain amount of health. Rotating faster fills the meter faster.)[[/note]] With LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading, amateurish and cheap-looking graphics, repetitive music, terrible minigames with even worse controls, and frustrating enemy encounters, this is a game that doesn't deserve to be marketed towards anyone. Watch [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Vinny]] suffer through it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ8gLtheYMw here]].

* '''''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones: Big Trouble in Bedrock''''' is an excellent example of TheProblemWithLicensedGames, and one that makes Grandslam's Sega Master System game from the late 1980's – another potential Horrible contender – look like Taito's ''Flintstones'' platformers of the early 1990's in comparison. Developed by Conspiracy Entertainment for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, the game's plot wouldn't even pass for an episode of the cartoon, where Dr. Sinister – himself the antagonist of the eponymous season 5 episode – has kidnapped Barney, but ''why'' he does this is never explained. The game consists of four worlds, each with three confusing and absurd levels, and there is no option to save the game, so the only way to even complete the game is to beat it in one shot. If Fred needs any help, he is forced to turn to Gazoo, as Wilma and Dino are mere spectators in the first two levels and most other characters – apart from Arnold, who appears as a recurring enemy that throws newspapers at Fred – are not mentioned at all. Even the graphics are awful – especially the cut scenes, which look like they had been taken directly from the cartoon itself – and the classic theme song is missing. Watch a full playthrough of this abomination [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHpNTKIUgkg here]]; its description says that the game [[AWinnerIsYou "gives you nothing as a reward."]]

* '''''Godai Elemental Force''''', a 3D BeatEmUp made by 3DO for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, is a [[DarthWiki/IdiotProgramming complete technical disaster]]. Despite featuring muddy textures, small environments, and few models displayed at any given time, the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=810Gj8t9JII chugs at a pathetically low framerate]] that can't even stay consistent. The game design isn't much better - while the main character has a handful of projectile attacks and moves, his main form of offense is a short ButtonMashing combo that can't be changed or mixed up in any way, and while weapons can be collected throughout the levels most of them simply [[BiggerStick hit harder]] and don't change his fighting style. The fixed camera angles are [[CameraScrew screwed up]], enemy variety is low, and the main character's gliding ability allows one to [[SequenceBreaking skip large chunks of the game]] with impunity. The game was [[http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/godai-elemental-force eviscerated]] by players and critics alike, and 3DO went bankrupt within one year of releasing it. With games like this, it's not hard to see why.

* '''''Hidden Invasion''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 was rushed out of the gate by (the now-defunct) Toka corporation (notorious for a number of awful console stinkers in the late 90s), and ''it shows'' in the final product. Actually, it's easily the ''worst'' of their lot; the game itself is marred by janky, awkward controls, fixed camera angles that repeatedly send your characters running aimlessly in and out of a new area, an awful aiming system that ensures your firearms will miss half their shots, and randomly-placed {{Invisible Wall}}s you'll inevitably spend 60% of the game bumping into. The premise of a hidden alien entity manipulating mankind - hence the titular Hidden Invasion - ''could'' have been interesting, but the game squandered that premise by having the characters [[ShowDontTell verbally narrate every major plot point and twists during cutscenes rather than actually showing them]]. The fact that the voice acting is stiff and seemingly recorded in separate sessions and awkwardly stitched together doesn't help either, and the game has a tendency to [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard allow enemies to shoot at you from behind walls, before you can even see them]], and most of the game's objectives are just pointless fetch quests that get boring after less than 15 minutes of gameplay (something that is ''not'' encouraged in a BeatEmUp game). IGN sarcastically jokes that the best thing ''Hidden Invasion'' has to offer is the price (20 bucks cheaper than other titles at the time, [[https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/08/06/hidden-invasion and that's when said game is still new]]), while [=GameFAQs=] have a bunch of old articles that pokes fun at the game, like [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/454199-hidden-invasion/reviews/38640 this one which said the game feels like an unfinished product]] (the reviewer isn't wrong) and [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/454199-hidden-invasion/reviews/39667 another]] comparing the graphics to the then 9-year-old ''Virtua Fighter''. Toka have not made another game ever since, to the utter surprise of ''nobody''.
* '''''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget: MAD Robots Invasion''''' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 , a European-exclusive side-scrolling platforming game, sounds simple on paper, but the execution is terrible. The graphics make the game look like an early UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 port; the cutscenes are horrible with extremely limited animation[[note]]Though it does lead to one of the game's few redeeming features; namely, the various derpy faces Gadget makes, and the [[AccidentalNightmareFuel bizarrely disturbing death sequences]][[/note]], and are capped off with a voice actor for Dr. Claw who sounds nothing like him. The music is just the same grating loop repeating over and over again, and the sound effects are weird; Gadget makes an extremely annoying "whee" sound whenever he jumps, they sometimes use the wrong sounds for the scenes, and Gadget says "By my gadgets!" whenever he picks up a health powerup. What really kills it, however, is the gameplay. The game is simultaneously very easy and very hard; easy because extra lives and health powerups respawn when you die, the enemies are very easy to kill (despite occasionally spawning out of nowhere), and there are almost no tricky jumps. However, [[FakeDifficulty it's still difficult because of the very awkward jumping and slippery controls]]. On top of all this, the plot makes no sense; Dr. Claw makes a bomb that neutralizes all of Gadget's gadgets, which is admittedly a good setup, but Gadget somehow still has two gadgets[[note]]An extending hammer arm for attacking, and a tennis racket to reflect projectiles[[/note]] and can get more for a limited time through "gadget batteries" conveniently found throughout the levels. This game was obviously intended for small children, but there's no excuse for giving them a shoddy product like this. ''[=TripleJump=]'' took a look at the game [[https://youtu.be/i2Cb7TT-6tQ here,]] and besides the aforementioned [[{{Narm}} unintentional humor]] they got from the aforementioned issues (and Gadget's context-less exclamation of [[MemeticMutation "And now, let's go to Paris!"]]), had no kind words for it.

* The console/PC versions of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' from Creator/VivendiUniversalGames based on the original novel (to keep Creator/ElectronicArts off their back) are nothing more to write home about, but the '''UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance adaptation''' was [[GameBreakingBug rife with glitches]] and broken beyond all salvageability. If a player wasn't careful, then by the midpoint of the game items essential to progress would simply vanish. There were [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable glitches that rendered the game impossible]] unless one knew how to get around them. There's even a spot where you need to save during a transition between scenes to keep the game from becoming {{Unwinnable}}.

* '''''Maze Action''''', a Japanese budget title released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 by Creator/D3Publisher in 2003 (and released in Europe the following year by Agetec), is yet another lesson in why you shouldn't buy a game simply for its low price. [[ExcusePlot The set-up amounts to]] [[DeadlyGame four people competing against each other to pass the "Hero Academy final exam"]]. Lazy title, the basic premise, and uninteresting visuals aside, [[FakeDifficulty the game's poor design makes a single mission nigh-impossible to accomplish]]: the controls are slow to respond which especially proves detrimental when attempting combat. Not only does firing a weapon require manual targeting and proximity to the opponent, but there's also virtually no chance you'll successfully land a shot since they ''will'' duck as long as they're in your line of fire (even if you try to shoot from ''behind'') such that the ''most effective option'' is physically attacking the enemy and even then [[ArtificialStupidity whether or not they block varies]]. On top of that, the game is presented in split-screen showing where both characters are walking through the maze despite a ''visible map'' in the top-middle of the screen to identify their locations. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW6Kp3GiLDQ Tennings declared]] this game to be one of ''the worst'' he's ever played (and considering his experience with shovelware, that's saying something).

* '''''Mortal Kombat Advance''''' is one of the worst adaptations of a ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' game on a handheld system known to man - it's a cheap bastardization of ''Ultimate VideoGame/MortalKombat3''. As the two ports of ''Deadly Alliance'' proved, ''Mortal Kombat'' can work on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. But ''Mortal Kombat Advance'' fails - tinny music, primitive-looking sprites, AI that's either [[SchizophrenicDifficulty too easy or too diabolical depending on the opponent]] (which sometimes results in getting an SNKBoss as your '''first opponent'''), collision detection that can't tell if you're next to the opponent or on the other side of the arena... you get the drill. Infamously, it was the first game that ''[[Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly EGM]]'' gave the dishonor of earning a 0 out of 10. Watch [=AllieRX87=]'s hilarious review of it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xddb9zoRMfQ here.]] Here's just one example of how poor this game's programming is: if you play as Shang Tsung and do a Fatality while shapeshifted, the game not only announces "(Your altered form) wins" instead of "Shang Tsung wins", but ''your shapeshifted form's portrait is shown on the ladder''. They couldn't even get something '''that''' simple right! Midway outsourced the port to a third-party with no input or communication with Ed Boon's team, and gave the team three months to turn something out; Midway was only looking to turn a quick profit off the ''Mortal Kombat'' name while spending very little on development. With practices like that, it's no surprise that Midway eventually wound up bankrupt and defunct. Matt [=McMuscles=] meanwhile takes a look at the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGE-ie4YBec here]].

%%* '''''Pulse Racer''''', a kart racing game by Jaleco for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} which takes place in a generic futuristic setting with an overabundance of nondescript tunnels, especially in the early game. The main distinctive feature that sets it apart from other racing games is making drivers {{flatline}} if they go too fast, which serves mostly to frustrate players.
* '''''Robin Hood's Quest''''' is a miserable failure of a game that was released by Oxygen Games in the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 era. Aesthetically, it looks dreadful, with blurry graphics and poor-quality models better suited to an early [=PS1=] game, all topped off by cutscenes consisting of slowly scrolling monologues of text on static backgrounds (and an [[AWinnerIsYou extremely anticlimatic ending]] to wrap it up). Gameplay-wise, it's even worse, since not only does Robin ''not'' use his bow at almost any point in the game, but he also can't attack enemies at all, meaning the "brave" Robin Hood immediately falls to his knees and surrenders the second a guard gets close. Which admittedly likely won't happen, since the guard AI is about as intelligent as a rock and has trouble spotting anyone that's more than three feet away from their noses. And if you thought the gameplay could make up for it, nope - it's just finding keys to unlock chests and get items to give to other characters. It's slow, tedious, easy as all hell, and for the most part, could be beaten in roughly half an hour. Either way, critics tore it to pieces with Ace Games giving it a 1/10, Strategy Informer questioning whether how it could even be so incompetent, and Website/YouTube reviews being hugely negative. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEUIxT85gis&t=199s Watch Ohhh Marmalade's review if you wish to see the horror for yourself.]]

* '''''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Genesis''''', a.k.a. ''the'' [[UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance GBA]] PortingDisaster. Like the notorious ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 '06]]'', it was given a near-impossible short development cycle so they could slap a [[MilestoneCelebration 15th Anniversary]] logo on it. But while ''[='=]06'' has its moments and some defenders, no one is willing to defend this botching of a classic platformer. For starters, the devs had no access to the source code. Instead, they ''very'' hastily ported the UsefulNotes/{{Java}} [[MobilePhoneGame mobile port]] (itself already a PortingDisaster in its own right, making this version a porting disaster of a porting disaster) to the GBA. No effort was made to optimize this glut of data for the already-overtaxed engine. As a result, the game slows down constantly (even ''the BGM'' contributes, despite being MIDI) and is loaded with bugs, to the point of FakeDifficulty. The inconsistent physics engine alone wreaks havoc on the difficulty curve and messes up the ending demo, in a [[{{irony}} truly emblematic display]]. Furthermore, [[ScreenCrunch the screen is cropped]] to the point of TrialAndErrorGameplay even in boss rounds, and yet there's still pop-in. The bonus features -- a level select[[note]]Which is in and of itself almost useless because you can only see the ending if you start from the beginning.[[/note]], an "Anniversary Mode"[[note]]The exact same as the regular game, albeit with the Spin Dash from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' added; which [[DamnYouMuscleMemory cannot be charged]] and only serves to further scramble the already-broken physics.[[/note]], and a Sound Test[[note]][[AWinnerIsYou Unlocked on beating the game]], but redundant since it's not only a standard feature on most ''Sonic'' games already, but only serves to put the incredibly cheap and badly-redone MIDI music and sound effects on full display.[[/note]] -- are all worthless, meager contributions tacked on with no thought given to how they'd fit in, especially when ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' on Sega Saturn does virtually everything this trainwreck of a port could do but better. [[WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries BrainScratchComms]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2iaUbxtqUM&list=PLFB30749D9E999638&index=2 took several shots at it]] and much rage ensued. WebVideo/ExoParadigmGamer gave it his most damning ''Remake or Rebreak'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0N2Le30a8 review]] thus far. Even the normally optimistic WebVideo/CygnusDestroyer hated it. Simon "Stealth" Thomley of ''Knuckles in Sonic 1'' and ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogMegamix Sonic Megamix]]'' fame [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFwxF-7vSrQ managed to outdo the entire team]]; Creator/{{SEGA}}, to their credit, eventually hired him to work on the Star Engine ports of ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' and its sequel with Christian "The Taxman" Whitehead [[PolishedPort to great acclaim]], as well as ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' and ''Sonic Origins''.
* '''''Spirit of Speed 1937''''', or at least its UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast version. Meant to simulate 1930s roadster races, the game was routinely trashed for its atrocious loading times, bad controls, lack of multiplayer mode (bad in a racing game), mediocre production values, and boring, drawn-out tracks. The original PC version was published by Hasbro Interactive, and they licensed the title over to Creator/{{Acclaim}} for its Dreamcast release. Likely because of how they knew of the game's quality, they briefly resurrected the much-reviled Creator/{{LJN|Toys}} label for this game only after they stopped using it for five years when it was previously last used for ''VideoGame/RevolutionX'' on the SNES. Even [[WebVideo/CygnusDestroyer the LJN Defender]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIbxPniT7ZQ hated the game]], going as far as to say it was a sad note for the rainbow to go out on, and given his mission is to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin defend LJN's games]], that really says something. Creator/JamesRolfe also covered it twice himself: once with Creator/MikeMatei on WebVideo/JamesAndMikeMondays [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZ4q9FZAy0 in 2016,]] with Mike saying he'd rather play ''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHydeNES'' over this game, and the other time as the AVGN during December 2021 in [[https://youtu.be/Sqif27k-_Hg?t=1176 the final part of his own LJN retrospection]], noting that it plays so slowly and looks more like it fits the Playstation or the early days of the Nintendo 64 than it would the Sega Dreamcast. Rerez also covered it [[https://youtu.be/x3dcU2JDFS0?t=753 as a part of a mega video for some of their Worst Racing Games of All Time.]]

* '''''WesternAnimation/WinxClub: Quest for the Codex''''' for UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance is mostly a ShootEmUp which follows the Season 2 plot ''very'' loosely, with some minigames thrown in. The ShootEmUp sections are boring, repetitive (there are only a small sample of enemies and no boss battles), and hard to control. Of the five minigames, only ''one'' is worth playing at all; the other four are either too easy or too annoying. The icing on the cake? You're '''[[ButThouMust forced]]''' to play all the minigames multiple times during the story, regardless of relevance to the plot. Yes, helping Stella to choose a skirt that matches her shirt is going to be helpful in a fight against Darkar... and we don't even know why. Fortunately, the creators did learn from this trainwreck, because its sequel ''Mission Enchantix'' for UsefulNotes/NintendoDS is [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel pretty good]].

The start of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, and UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn generation in the early- to mid-1990s gave way to higher-fidelity graphics and more advanced gameplay than could be expected from games for most of the early consoles. But even with more processing power, [[Horrible/VideoGames it didn't always add up to good – or even enjoyable – games.]]

* '''''Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor''''', released around 2001 during the then-ongoing fever around ''Dungeons & Dragons''-based [=CRPGs=] of TheNineties Gold Box series (this is an InNameOnly sequel to the CultClassic ''Pool of Radiance'', in fact) and early 2000s such as ''Icewind Dale'' and ''Baldur's Gate'', but not only does ''Ruins of Myth Drannor'' have a poor, cliched story and atrocious gameplay as if the DM is really sadistic (and not in a good way), there are {{Game Breaking Bug}}s such as corrupted save files seemingly at random and a ''system-breaking bug'' where the uninstaller can and will '''wipe important Windows files seemingly at random during uninstallation''' if it's not patched. Yes, the game isn't just horrible and smears the name of one of the most memorable CultClassic adaptations of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', it doubles as a paid-for Trojan horse virus. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20011126120955/http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/pool_of_radiance/pool-1.html Here's an archived review.]]