The internet likes to reduce all video games to either amazing or terrible. However, there is a relatively small percentage of games that are truly and objectively bad. There are some people out there who might like the worst games of all time, but they are undeniably for a niche audience at best.
Individually, a game may not work for a variety of reasons, some of which are difficult to define. When a game achieves the status of being among the worst of all time, there is little ambiguity. Often, these titles feel unfinished, lack the basic elements of an enjoyable gaming experience, and appear to have been put together in a way that ultimately proves entirely unsatisfying.
25
Called for Heroes: Pompoli Wars (2007)
Criticized by many for mind-numbing and boring gameplay
Call for Heroes sends players through hordes of generic enemies against generic castle and dungeon settings. Unfortunately, there is nothing that makes the game stand out, and the elements it does have are not implemented well, according to many reviewers and the low score of 25 on Metacritic. The title was heavily criticized by many critics, with GameSpot exploding by”mind-numbing combat and ridiculously confusing level design.“
Other critics were kinder, noting that this was the first game from the small studio behind it, Quotix Software, and that while it lacked execution, there were some good ideas in the mix. Unfortunately, the studio never had a chance to improve. The game was originally released for PC with plans to port it to the Wii, but the project was canceled and Quotix Software never released another game.
24
Stalin vs. Martians (2019)
This was never meant to be a good game
Stalin vs Martians It was never meant to be a good game. Developed in collaboration with three studios, the game was intended to be a parody of real-time strategy games and its own developers called it “useless” and noticed that it is “the perfect game for those who hate the strategy genre,“according to Cabin News.
The WWII strategy game featured campy, slapstick humor and satirized the concept of RTS games in general through ridiculous narratives and missions. Stalin vs Martians was released in April 2019 and withdrawn a few months later in July of the same year. It was available long enough to leave its mark on the world as one of the worst games of all time, with a Metacritic score of 25, perhaps deservedly so this time.
23
Unrivaled NBA (2009)
A mess of a game that doesn’t live up to its name
Tecmo pioneered fast-paced sports games that were close enough to their original sport to satisfy purists, but were fun and light enough for anyone to play. With that kind of history, Tecmo seemed like a good company to try a modern approach NBA Jamwho tried in 2010 with Unrivaled NBA.
It also failed miserably. Unparalleled It’s just a joyless, unenthusiastic mess that would be bad enough on its own, but it was also released the same year as EA’s NBA Jam restart – which wasn’t perfect, but it did what Unparalleled I was trying to do just much, much better. All these factors combined gave the title a low rating of 25 in the Metacritic
22
Cruzeiro (2007)
A disappointment for a classic series
Cruise it was actually the fifth game in a series, with the first three only appearing in arcades. The first game was originally developed by Midway and Eugene Jarvis, who later founded Raw Thrills and released Fast and Furious arcade title. When the time comes Cruise was released for the Wii, the world had outgrown the arcades, but it was clear that the game had not.
The title, which has Metacritic rating of 25, was criticized for having outdated graphics, long loading screens, and a generally poor presentation It just hasn’t aged well. Fortunately, 10 years later, Raw Thrills revisited the title with a triumphant return titled Cruis’n Blastwhich did much better, rescuing the name and bringing it to a more modern audience. The 2007 Cruise the title, however, remains a blip in the franchise’s name and one of the worst games of all time.
21
Terrawars: Invasion of New York (2006)
Blocky graphics not enhanced by gameplay
For some of these games, the images speak for themselves. In this case, the image above of the 2006 FPS Land Wars: Invasion of New York It looks kind of like what early ’90s movies thought virtual reality would look like. To mean, it’s ugly, blocky, and almost completely devoid of any finer details.
Graphics aren’t everything, but gameplay is, and Land Wars falls face down there too. Which was built on the engine that powered the excellent No one lives forever 2 but manages to play even worse than it looks is an insult to NOLA and FPS games in general. At the end, Land Wars I only managed to get a rating of 24 in Metacritic.
20
Gravity Games Bike: Street Vert Dirt (2002)
An example of how difficult riding games are to do right
The title of this game is complicated, it seems like it’s missing some crucial punctuation. This is appropriate, as the game lacks some much-needed elements for a good game, such as polish, playability, and fun. The title is currently ranked 24th Metacritic.
The developers seem to have forgotten there was a reason Tony Hawk’s professional skateboarder It was a big revelation. Games like this are not easy to get right, and they are bad much more often than good. Unfortunately, even in a post-THPS world where there was a clear model to follow, most still haven’t come close to getting it right. Eventually, even the Tony Falcao series struggled to get it right, although the Professional Skater 1+2 the remake finally nailed it again.
19
Postcard III (2011)
H3
It’s always tricky for people to genuinely criticize a game series like Postcardwhat it was created specifically to protest political correctness and conventional good taste. Striking one Postcard Game must mean that a person just doesn’t “get it” or is too sensitive and easily offended to enjoy something subversive.
Of course, there are many games that enter these waters, but they still manage to be good games. Grand car theft, Dead or alive, Crazy Worldand Bayonet they are all proof of this. People hit Postcard, and especially the third installment, long delayed and ultimately still unfinished, because they fail to be genuinely good or functionally interesting games beneath all the crassness. The third game of the series is one of the worst, with 24 points in Metacritic and no redeeming qualities.
18
Game Party Champions (2012)
Shovelware party game for casual gamers
One of the unfortunate side effects of the Wii being such a big seller and becoming popular among the “casual” crowd is that many cheap Nintendo party game collections have been dumped on it. hoping to be snatched by unsuspecting family members who didn’t know any better. Many of them sold well, which ensured that more of them were manufactured.
Some of this was transferred to the Wii U, the result of which is one of the worst in this already pretty bad genre: Game Party Champions. Even with a small collection of games available for the system, no Wii U owner should touch this title, who is sitting in an insignificant Metacritic rating of 24.
17
Pulse Racer (2003)
Bland, boring and uninspiring
Even just within the critics’ synopses of the Metacritic page (rated 24) for the original 2003 Xbox game Pulse Racerthree different outlets proclaim the game as one of the worst games of all time for the system. While there are plenty of great original Xbox games, that’s saying something since the Xbox was also home to Kabuki Warriors.
The players knew just by Pulse Racerthe cover art to stay away from, with a generic looking man and car that a person passes even if it is a 100% free iOS game. Things only get worse when a player puts in the disc and is presented with one of the most bland and boring games in a genre made for fun.
16
Fighter Within (2013)
A weak attempt to force Kinect on gamers
Inner Fighter was a launch game for the Xbox One that had the brilliant idea of being a Kinect-controlled fighting game, back when Microsoft was still trying to force Kinect on players. As your score of 23 in Metacritic may suggest, the game was not well received.
There is one – and only one – positive thing to say about what would otherwise be irredeemable Inner Fighter. This helped reinforce that Kinect simply wasn’t as responsive as originally promised, even the Xbox One version, and that people were tired of waiting for it to deliver on a promise it never would. It took a few years, but the Kinect line finally got out of its misery in 2017.
15
FlatOut 3: Chaos and Destruction (2011)
A game about crashing cars with a broken mechanic
The sooner FlatOut The games weren’t spectacular, but they were still fun and sparked a certain itch for demolition derby-style racing games, which few other games did at the time. They’ve gained enough fans that there have been four main installments (plus spinoffs) so far, though it’s a miracle Flat Out 4 happened after the head-on collision that occurred Flat Out 3.
The only digital only FlatOut game, Chaos and Destruction it also wasn’t developed by the team that handled most of the other installments, and it shows. The worst thing about Flat Out 3 that was it collision detection has been completely broken, which is kind of a hindrance for a game about crashing cars into each other. This resulted in his terrible Metacritic score of 23.
14
Homie Rollerz (2008)
A tone-deaf representation in an otherwise terrible game
As surprising as it may be, this game doesn’t treat the representation of the culture it represents in a remotely tasteful or respectful way. However, as sad as this is, it doesn’t always necessarily mean a one-sidedly bad game. The history of gaming has its share of titles that include offensive elements but are successful in other areas, generating mixed and frustrating results.
Fortunately, the racing and car customization game for DS Homie Rollerz It’s not a game that anyone needs to worry about putting their conscience aside to play, because It somehow manages to be even worse than they would expect from its bad title. The game has a Metacritic score of 23, placing it firmly in the hall of infamy of the worst games of all time.
13
Charlie’s Angels (2003)
The 2000s Charlie’s Angels The films ended up being much more fun than anyone expected. A movie about three women kicking a bunch of people in the face should have been a video game slam dunk.
Except it wasn’t. The 2003 Charlie’s Angels video game, which was based on both films, I couldn’t make a relatively unmissable concept work in the slightest. Sure, the Angels look like the actress they were based on, but the graphics are so bad that you can’t enjoy it at that level. As a result, the Metacritic The score of this game is very low, 23.
12
Fast and Furious: Showdown (2013)
Failed Fast and Furious tie-in game attempt
Fair or not, when games officially based on the Fast and Furious movie franchise, Need for speed had already nailed the whole tuner/street racing culture vibe in a way that would be hard to follow. For sure, nothing real F&F the games came close.
Although none of them are great, Confrontation It’s an absolute shame at just 22 Metacritic. Even though it canonically takes place between two films, fans are better off not knowing what happened in between Five quick and Fast and Furious 6 instead of finding out through this painful racing game.
11
Drake of 99 Dragons (2003)
Promising design but flawed execution
Remember the Drake of 99 Dragons comic books and animated television series? No? That’s because they never happened. All plans to turn the property into a major multimedia franchise were abandoned after the main product, the 2003 Xbox game, was a complete creative and commercial failure, earning just 22 points in Metacritic.
Some critics reluctantly praised Drakecartoon art style, but this was typically only mentioned briefly between a list of complaints that exceeded the number of dragons promised by the game. That being said, it was mostly just the idea of DrakeThe graphics generated praise, as in practice the game was still an unpleasant, stuttering mess.
10
Afro Samurai 2: Kuma’s Revenge (2015)
Called a “failure” by disappointed developer
It’s not often that a game is so bad that its developer not only publicly apologizes for it, stops selling it, and immediately cancels sequel plans already in place, but also offers refunds to everyone who already purchased it. All of this is exactly what happened (via GameSpot) with the disappointing title Afro Samurai 2: Kuma’s Revenge, which is currently at 10 p.m. Metacritic.
Developer Versus Evil’s general manager didn’t mince words, saying bluntly: “The game was a failure.“ He also admitted that it was not a game full of bugs and glitches, but admitted that “people just didn’t like it”. Unfortunately, doing all of this still doesn’t erase the reviews, making it one of Metacritic’s worst games of all time.
9
Infestation: Survivor Stories (aka The War Z) (2012)
Questionable microtransactions and poor design
Going by the strange sound War Z even inevitable trademark issues due to their similarity to World War Zthe title not much better Infestation: Survivor Stories was an online multiplayer zombie-based survival horror game that was plagued by several issues throughout its development and open alpha phase.
When the game was finally released, it was criticized for poor design, ugly graphics, and some particularly questionable microtransaction practices. When the servers of this game, rated at 20 MetacriticFinally shut down in December 2016, four years after release, no one except the few people still playing it noticed or cared.
8
Deal or no deal (2007)
Slow pace and full of filler
Although game shows are often perfect for adaptation into video games. Agreement or no agreement it is not. It’s slow and involves a lot of filler of Howie Mandel talking to the contestant, the contestant talking to his family, and Howie talking to the banker. The real “action” in a typical episode of Agreement or no agreement It only lasts about 90 seconds.
This translates into an incredibly boring video game. Not that video games based on game shows typically involve winning actual prizes, but the stakes are 99% of what makes the show interesting to watch. In the absence of this, players are left with only a random game of chance with no reward, resulting in a game rated 20 on Metacritic.
7
Alone in the Dark: Enlightenment (2015)
The original Alone in the dark was groundbreaking when it was launched in 1992, establishing much of the model that Resident Evil would eventually follow (and receive much more credit). Subsequent sequels occurred in 1993 and 1994, and were mostly more of the same – but in a good way.
After that, the series took a long break until its resurrection in 2001, and it’s never been this newsworthy since. In truth, the three “modern” AotD the games got progressively worse, with 2015 PC exclusive Lighting being the worst thing to happen to the franchise since the Tara Reid/Christian Slater film adaptation. The game has a score of 19 in Metacriticmaking it one of the worst rated games of all time.
6
Ride to Hell: Retribution (2013)
The game is not related to Sons Of Anarchy
Ride to Hell: Retribution, a game titled as a sequel, even though it isn’t, was apparently trying to capitalize on the TV show Sons of Anarchy which was hot at the time. The problem is that GTAIV expansion pack The Lost and the Damned I’ve done that and done much better.
No one would have even spoken or given Ride to Hell the time of day, since it was It was evident how horrible it was, if it weren’t for the hilariously bad “love scenes”. These acts are imitated, but the developers didn’t go out of their way to remove any clothing – so everything is done between fully clothed, empty-eyed characters, which seems completely absurd. The end result is a Metacritic score of 19.