"So Bad, They're Good" Games?

Post Reply New Topic

Movies and music can both have "so bad, they're good" qualities. I mean, who hasn't laughed while watching an Ed Wood movie or listening to one of Shaq's rap albums? But bad video games are rarely amusing. Video games are supposed to be fun and engrossing, and a bad video game is typically neither of these. However, there have been some games that are so campy and so absurd that you can't help but find them enjoyable in their own weird little way. Here are some examples:

Night Trap (1992) - This is a somewhat legendary title that many gamers have heard of, but few have actually played. It caused a ridiculous controversy over violence in video games in the early '90s, leading up to the creation of the ESRB. However, most of the people crying foul over this game had clearly never played it, because there are broadcast television shows from the '60s that have more graphic violence than this. One notable moron claimed the game was encouraging players to "trap and kill women" when the goal of the game was to do just the opposite. But enough about that. This is a ridiculous FMV camp-fest that pretty much plays out like the video game equivalent of a low-budget B-movie you'd see on some UHF station at 3 in the morning.

Target: Terror (2004) - A light gun arcade game most well-known for being released on the Wii in 2008, this is a true oddity that looks like it was made around the same time as Lethal Enforcers, yet this game from 2004 is even cheesier. You really have to admire it, though. The people who made this game made it with so much confidence and sincerity that it's practically impossible to hate it.

Riana Rouge (1997) - An amazingly sexist "adult" (HAR!) adventure game where you play as Playboy Playmate Gillian Bonner, whose character is working for an abusive scumbag boss who tries to rape one of her co-workers, so she runs in and tries to stop him, only to have him throw her out the window. And then, for some reason, she is transported into some fantasy world where she must defeat her evil boss and rescue her co-worker by sleeping with everyone who crosses her path - especially horribly CGI-animated alien creatures. Honestly, I can't even make this crap up. The dialogue and acting is 10 notches below "Debbie Does Dallas 47". In the game, you can respond to every situation by clicking different "moods", like fear (yellow), deception (green), surrender (blue), an attack (purple), seduction (red), or to seek more information (orange). However, given this game's target audience of horny pubescent boys, it's a safe bet that "red" will be the most likely reaction to everything in the game. If you do something wrong, there are a million grotesque and gruesome ways for your Playmate character to die, including decapitation, disembowelment, literally melting, being shot in the head, and so forth. If it weren't for the game being one of the only AO-rated titles ever given any kind of major release, nobody would have even heard of this trash.

Tattoo Assassins (1994) - A terrible Mortal Kombat wannabe (right down to the use of the word "Fatality" and the nearly-identical music) that was never released in arcades, but managed to surface as an unfinished ROM for future generations to treasure. You see, the game has 2,196 fatalities. I kid you not. However, most of them are absolutely absurd and don't make the slightest bit of sense (like turning your opponent into a cactus, for example). If this isn't "so bad, it's good", then I don't know what is.

Time Killers (1992) - An arcade (and later Genesis) fighting game that aimed to replicate the success of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat by having cartoon characters chopping each other up with little rhyme or reason to the gameplay. Every attack has the potential to chop a limb off your opponent (and you can continue fighting with no arms, for example). It's like the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the guy continues trying to fight with no limbs. One attack can literally kill your opponent in this game, which means there is absolutely no strategy involved here. You can simply walk up to your opponent and decapitate them in one swift movement. It's cheesy and ridiculous beyond words.

Action 52 (1991) - Here it is, folks. One of the most infamous bad games ever released. Released in 1991 for the NES and 1993 for the Genesis, this is a collection of 52 "games" (if you can even call them that) that retailed for 200 dollars. That's like paying someone 200 dollars to kick you in the junk 52 times. Most of these games are either completely unplayable, don't even work at all, crash constantly, or are filled with fatal bugs and glitches. And the few ones that actually work are absolutely, laughably abysmal. The Genesis version might be "better" than the NES one, but that's kind of like arguing that smallpox is better than leprosy.

Obviously, there are many more. What are your favorite games that qualify as "so bad, they're good"?

The 'Lego' series. I know that's probably the angle they were aiming for, though, they don't take themselves seriously at all. But regardless, I still love them for that reason.

I was gonna say something else but lego series just takes the cake.

That Riana Rouge game sounds great. I want to play it just so I can say I played it. Seriously, you have to stop your boss from raping your coworker, and then have sex with aliens? I couldn't even conceive of a game like that, and I'm a sick f**k!

I couldn't think of anything until you said this, and then I remembered House of the Dead 2. Speaking of bad voice acting, how can we forget Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?

Or Mega Man 8. This guy's videos are pretty great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOY2vCv3f3c

Bad voice acting aside, there's this game for the NES that I really like called Spiritual Warfare. It's one of those Christian games from Color Dreams/Wisdom Tree...kind of a Legend of Zelda ripoff, except you go around throwing fruit (of the spirit) at sinners, whereupon they pray for forgiveness and their souls float up to heaven =D Every once in a while you'll find a red-haired, buck-toothed, thick-rimmed glasses wearing guy with a bow tie who throws Sunday school Bible trivia at you. It's pretty awesome.

Chiller (arcade/NES) is pretty messed up. I don't know what else to say about it.

Just like movies, bad videogames are usually only good when you enjoy them with others, and my friends and I love throwing on something terrible like Nightmare on Elm Street or Snoopy Sports Spectacular (both NES), or even some really bad user-made maps in Halo.

Agreed on the Lego series. They are well done, pretty to look at and still rather fun... which is impressive considering how repetitive and tedious they can be.

With that said, I think I've collected most of them on PS3! It's fun to play with 2 players.

I actually thought the Lego games were genuinely good, not bad-good

I played that game as a little kid. At the time it was the coolest thing ever.

Oh, trust me, it's a real gem. Try searching for it on YouTube. They have some videos from the game that provide great examples of the brilliant dialogue, acting, storytelling, CGI, and special effects.

Oh, man, I completely forgot about those Christian games. Wisdom Tree still sells them on their website. Super Noah's Ark 3D for the SNES is the most infamous one. They took Wolfenstein 3D, replaced all the graphics with Noah, the ark, and animals, and had the gun replaced with a "food gun" of sorts, so you feed the animals by shooting food at them instead of spraying bullets at Nazis.

Chiller is an incredibly disturbing little game. It truly boggles my mind how Exidy could release something like that in the arcades without causing hardly any controversy. I mean, even today, few games can rival Chiller in terms of sheer depravity. The graphics are obviously dated, but it's still pretty damn shocking.

What!? No mention of Big Rigs over the road racing!! !

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDewUMGHXJY[/youtube]

Oh, that's a good one too. It's amazing how something like that could even be released, let alone in this day and age. I mean, I'm guessing it was some kind of unfinished prototype that accidentally made it to the market long before it was completed? Either way, it provides endless comedic fodder.

And has anyone here ever heard of the "Atari porn" games like Custer's Revenge and Beat 'em and Eat 'em? Classic stuff.

Fighting Soccer

Me and my mate found it on his classic Xbox, its just Japanese Steroid Footballers

What about Donkey Kong 3 where you shove bananas up a monkey's anus?

The halo series. :)

Anything made by ValuSoft.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QlohABeVh0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuyN8Njt5c4[/youtube]