Asklemmy

Lula 3D. Though, I never played with it eventually as it froze up the computer so bad we had to pull the plug, the experience as a kid was probably my worst gaming moment.

'Home improvement' on the Super Nintendo

Turok Evolution on GameCube.

It doesn’t look that bad on reviews, but it’s pretty awful.

Ooh, I'm torn. They're both NES "games" - Rocky & Bullwinkle had sluggish controls, awful hitboxes, and I can only describe its graphics AND sound design as offensive. That said, at least it technically played like a game. Where's Waldo didn't even have that. I think Where's Waldo is the worst, but it's close.

Hydlide, probably. A deeply mediocre action RPG that came out on NES waaay after everyone else had one-upped it, or ten-upped it.

And I played it circa 1997.

No, hang on - I at least progressed in Hydlide. To this day I have no goddamn idea how to get out of the first room in Batman Forever. I had the Game Boy version. I did not buy this game. Some kid just gave it to me, which should have been a warning. As I understand it, all versions of the game are quite similar, which would be admirable if they were not, to a one, total dogshit. I think it's the Mortal Kombat engine used as a platformer... made by aliens.

Ni No Kuni 2. Looking for a new RPG, missing that anime aesthetic so I searched up "best JRPGs" (yes, yes I know now that it's supposed to be perjorative); kept seeing this recommended, including by randos on Reddit (so not just paid review sites).

After 45 minutes of the most cliche-filled cutscenes and a prolonged tutorial for basic gameplay, I finally can just try it out and... It's the most boring, generic gameplay ever. Dull story, bland characters, bland gameplay, too long of intro. 2/10

The only other game that comes close is Assassin's Creed 3. Finished the tutorial mission, made it to Boston, started chasing collectibles and trying to 100% the first map. Sunk in about 5 hours and can't find the rest of the collectibles, so I decide to move on and come back later.

That's when it hits you with "PSYCH! That was just the Prologue, and all that time and effort invested in this character is MEANINGLESS. Here's a brand new character to build up."

I hate that. I don't mind when the game begins with an OP character to show you the ropes only to take all of it away, but please make it short. I loved Metroid Prime, for example. Investing 5 hours to have all of it mean nothing to your character, and next to nothing for the story fucking sucks. 4/10, would probably still finish just because I loved 1+2.

Sea of Thieves.

That game is too buggy over the years it exists to be as popular as it is, and not in a "haha smol glitch" buggy, but "lets disconnect at the WORSE possible moments" (like you having a ton of loot).

Not worth it. A waste of 30 bucks.

Evergrace. Half-baked and outdated in every way. Life is too short to play bad games just because they're cheap.

C&C4, hands down. Single handedly murdered the whole franchise.

Edit: to be specific, I took this to mean “worst game by a major publisher”

I got recommended Suikoden 4 by a guy at GameStop when I was younger saying that Suikoden 2 & 3 were pretty good so this would be worth a try. I played & beat it since I didn’t have many games & already paid for it, but it sure wasn’t very good.

I bought Haze for PS3 the day it came out even after reading a lot of mid to negative reviews, both because I really love all three TimeSplitters games and wanted to support the devs, and also out of a feeling of 'how bad could it really be?'. It was incredibly boring, graphically underwhelming, and I ended up beating it the same day I bought it. Tried to trade it in and even on release week EB offered me an incredibly insulting amount, like $7 or something, and I still took it.

Superman 64.

Weeks and months of hype (the era of print gaming journalism), Blockbuster stocking 100 copies on launch day for "guaranteed availability" etc.

Then I finally popped the cart in, and this thing was so bad it just defied all logic. Horrific controls, shitty graphics, unclear user interface and objectives, terrible draw distance. Timed level segments and insane difficulty.

There might be "worse" games but I have never been more disappointed in a release than Superman 64.

Over the years I've played a bunch of awful games. But the one that always sticks with me is ET. I spent hours stuck in pits in that game.

While people who know me would think that it is Bioshock 2 for a ton of issues, but that is mostly because it is automatically compared to Bioshock, ARK: Survival Evolved for its issues but I have 9k hours in it and growing so I can't say that, or the horribly disappointing Baldur's Gate after I finally got to play it years after and it kept giving me migraines. No. The worst game I ever played was also one of the most beautiful and beautifully animated arcade games, Dragons Quest. You had to match your movements to certain flashes on the TV and between input lag, multiple inputs reading as rejections, and frequently flaky controls the game was impossible for all but the most rich to get past the first 2 or three prompts. I on occasion saw a player who had pumped a couple of hundred of dollars into the machine to figure out its quirks and know when it was broken and they actually got somewhere. I never did. The same happened for the less successful Space Quest which was the same machine with a new cabinet, broadly speaking.

Master of Orion III. A 4X game for PC that had had all the fun carefully eliminated during development. It was like playing a spreadsheet.

My greatest shame is that I actually bought it twice because years later I couldn't believe it had been that bad and risked a bargain bin copy. It was exactly that bad.

My first thought is The Fortress of Doctor Radiaki for DOS.

A game I never played but is still memorable is early 2000s there was a game in Babbages in my local mall called "Prison Tycoon" that had a cop beating a black man on the box.

Root Letter. They said it was like Ace Attorney. It was not like Ace Attorney at all! 🤬