History Horrible / VideoGameGenerationsFifthToSixth

* 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 [[SoOkayItsAverage nothing more to write home about]], but the '''Platform/GameBoyAdvance adaptation''' is nothing short of a PortingDisaster thanks to being [[ObviousBeta rife with glitches]] and [[GameBreakingBug 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}}.

* 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 [[ObviousBeta rife with glitches]] and [[GameBreakingBug 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}}.

* '''''Cardinal Syn''''' was made by Kronos Digital Entertainment, of ''VideoGame/FearEffect'' fame -- and ''Criticom'' infamy. That should set your expectations right away. Released after their similarly-crappy (though not quite to the same extent as ''Criticom'') ''Dark Rife'' in what Gamecritics has referred to as the "Trilogy of Terror", it was developed simply so the company could keep its head above water long enough to develop the action survival-horror game they would be best known for. They attempted to use motion capture to create smoother character animations (done mostly in-house), but it still appears stiff and jittery -- a shame as the game's graphics are otherwise somewhat nice. The game tries to draw inspiration from ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Edge]]'', but where ''Soul Edge'' had depth hidden in its simplicity, ''Cardinal Syn'' is as shallow as a puddle in comparison to its contemporaries, and the magical special attacks are all very same-y (and limited by magic potions per fight). None of this is helped by controls that are sluggish, if not unresponsive, making combos needlessly difficult, and made potentially harder by weapons bouncing off of nearby walls. WebVideo/MattMcMuscles [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fFNaoUXlhw concluded]] that for all of its exceptional presentation (which he considers a step up from ''Iron & Blood''), it's just not a particularly fun game.

* '''''Cardinal Syn''''' was made by Kronos Digital Entertainment, of ''VideoGame/FearEffect'' fame -- and ''Criticom'' infamy. That should set your expectations right away. Released after their similarly-crappy (though not quite to the same extent as ''Criticom'') ''Dark Rife'' in what Gamecritics has referred to as the "Trilogy of Terror", it was developed simply so the company could keep its head above water long enough to develop the action survival-horror game they would be best known for. They attempted to use motion capture to create smoother character animations (done mostly in-house), but it still appears stiff and jittery -- a shame as the game's graphics are otherwise somewhat nice. The game tries to draw inspiration from ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Edge]]'', but where ''Soul Edge'' had depth hidden in its simplicity, ''Cardinal Syn'' is as shallow as a puddle in comparison to its contemporaries, and the magical special attacks are all very same-y (and limited by magic potions per fight). None of this is helped by controls that are sluggish, if not unresponsive, making combos needlessly difficult, and made potentially harder by weapons bouncing off of nearby walls. WebVideo/MattMcMuscles concluded that for all of its exceptional presentation (which he considers a step up from ''Iron & Blood''), it's just not a particularly fun game.

* '''''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 Platform/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]].

* '''''[[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.'' As the genre grew, that factor was lost and any goodwill the game had evaporated. 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]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' for the Saturn was a delightful compilation of the Genesis ''Sonic'' platformers with extra bells and whistles. '''''Sonic Jam'' for the Platform/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]].

* '''''LEGO Stunt Rally''''' for the Platform/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/ShadowWarOfSuccession''''' (aka ''Shadow Warriors'', not to be confused with the FPS ''VideoGame/{{Shadow Warrior|1997}}'') on the [[Platform/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.

* '''''VideoGame/KangFu''''' is an Amiga platformer that would've remained lost in the dark 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 a [=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 with 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), boasted 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.

* '''''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 do very little 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/SonicTheHedgehog1 Genesis''''', a.k.a. ''the'' [[Platform/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''.