Worst game in your opinion?

[Niku Driver HC]

I believe I have you trumped with...

If that game has more than 15 tracks and has a save feature, then it can't be worst than "5 Star Racing", man.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Sure, I bet both of those racing games are bad, but so is this one:

I remember renting this when I was 6 years old to play on my playstation. While I did like the graphics, the physics were just plain terrible. I went back and tried this game over a year ago and it was still terrible. It doesn't matter what car you drive, they all have a great chance at rolling over or spinning out even at the slightest movement on the analog stick.

 

[tankuroded]

You think that the modern era games are terrible? Surely you've all forgotten the amazing garbage people put in the past. And I am amazed and astonished that no one has mentioned these fine folk and their terrible games.

Such as this:

Yep, Phoenix Games. You want bad? Look no further than these f:censored:s (actually, they only published this heap, since it was Kung Fu Games who created this), because we are scraping the bottom of the barrel Now, let me show you why this game is terrible, with one picture:

• Look at them amazing graphics, huh? Thank god I know that PS1 can render better graphics than these, because this is absolute garbage. And this is probably a game that is being played on a emulator...

• Hum, why do I think that rev counter looks familiar?

Oh, it's almost a direct rip-off of Ridge Racer Type 4's rev counter! And speaking of games that look prettier...

Ahem, moving on. See those 5 classes of cars on the cover? No difference between all of them. Custom Car Derby, Muscle Machine, it's all the same. All copies of real-life cars, that handle nothing like them. One blob of ugly, poorly rendered cars that don't understeer nor oversteer, talk about unilateral handling... And do you think that Rally Rider class means you'll race in dirt tracks?

Haha, you're funny, of course not. Because that would require effort, you see. And speaking of effort, there was almost none used for this game. Each car class has about 3 or 4 cars to drive, with each class having a whopping TWO tracks to drive in. And since there are no story modes or anything as such, you're stuck with one-off races against an A.I. that's about as good as Gran Turismo's (see what I did there?). And the best part?

After you win, you get one result screen with two simple words at the bottom. "Game Over". And you can't change your player name, so you'll be forever known in game as "Player 1".

For the final nail on the coffin, the best of all parts: after going through a horrendous race with a dull car against equally dull opponents, you can't even save your own "progress" (using the term loosely). Let me say this again:

THERE. IS. NO. SAVE. FEATURE. Yep. One of PS1's last releases and it doesn't even have a save feature. Progress? Hah! Screw progress!

Of course, this isn't even Pheonix worst work. You want to know what that is?

I have All-Star Racing and All-Star Racing 2 and both games's handling are too grippy (and the motorcycle handling in 2 are terrible), but you can put your name in those games (but it is always all-caps). There's also Stock Car Racer which is literally the "Stockcar Frenzy" portion of All-Star Racing.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

I have All-Star Racing and All-Star Racing 2 and both games's handling are too grippy (and the motorcycle handling in 2 are terrible), but you can put your name in those games (but it is always all-caps). There's also Stock Car Racer which is literally the "Stockcar Frenzy" portion of All-Star Racing.

I've seen pictures from those games, while I was searching for pictures of 5 Star Racing. They were made by Midas Interactive, were they not? Even those seem to be better games than this junk.

And speaking of junk (and non-racing games), I do still own another Pheonix Games "gem": Flying Squadron. Instead of looking like this:

It actually looked like this:

(Sorry for the small picture, but it's the best I could find of this garbage. What was I thinking?)
​

Also, look at this amazing starting screen:

 

[Sonygamer455]

NFSMW12 was the game that made me outright refuse to buy any other EA product, so I guess that?

Same here, Criterions ridiculous physics (collision detection especially) and controls put me off from playing once again. If it wasn't for that, I may have somewhat liked the game a little more. I finally gave up on NFS after that because I haven't liked Shift and every title they did afterwards. My dad got Rivals a while back, but I honestly do not plan on playing it at all.

I am surprised no one has suggested NFS Prostreet yet. I don't dislike the game, but I know many people do.

Also, look at this amazing starting screen:

Is "Start Mission" and "Hi Scores" really all they have on that menu?

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Is "Start Mission" and "Hi Scores" really all they have on that menu?

You can bet your green wheelie-executing Bugatti that it is all you get on that menu. I've seen more depth of options on a Sonic Wings arcade game. And more variety, too. Talk about effort, eh? There is about five minutes of replay value (I am probably being very generous) before you either break the game into pieces, or give it to some unsuspecting idiot who knows nothing about games.

Also, look at this misleading-as-everything game cover:

I guess you may ask "But HC, can we play as helicopters in this amazing(ly rubbish) game?" And the answer can easily come from WWE wrestler Dean Ambrose;

Spoiler: The answer is...

 

[Sonygamer455]

You can bet your green wheelie-executing Bugatti that it is all you get on that menu. I've seen more depth of options on a Sonic Wings arcade game. And more variety, too. Talk about effort, eh?

Yep that's some effort. By the photo's, it sort of looks like a low res version of Rebal Raider's Operation Nighthawk. That makes the second retail game I have seen that only has two options on the main menu. That game I mentioned earlier in this thread called Quad Desert Fury is the first. It is even worse than that. If you look at that video I posted earlier, you will see what I mean.

Well I have been itching to post this for days, but here is truly one of the absolute worst games I have ever played:

Quad Desert Fury for the Gameboy Advance.

This is truly a terrible game. It don't get much worse than this for me. I grew up in the generation when Gameboy Advances was popular, I loved my Gameboy Advance (And still do) and I actually got more enjoyment out of it than my PSP and PS Vita combined! (Yes I am serious) I enjoyed nearly every game I got back in the days, except this one. I remember buying it at Wal Mart in 2004 for around $18, I thought it would be good, but when I got home I only played it for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and then got bored. I felt like I had been ripped off.

Now if you want to know why this game is terrible, well first off it only has two game modes in the entire game, Quick Race and Challenge Mode. In quick race, when you choose your track, all they have are these stupid numbers to represent it, no picture, no map, or even a name, just numbers. When you go out to race, all the courses are the same, the only difference is they changed the checkpoints around and added some hazards. As for championship Mode, all you do is win each race to continue until you have beat them all and then in the end, you don't win anything.

Secondly the music in the game is repetitive and can get annoying after a while, thankfully you can turn it off. That is about the only good thing about this game. The ATV's engines sound like chainsaw's and the physics and controls are ridiculous even for a Gameboy Advance game. They have several different riders and atv's in the game, but you don't even get to choose, you are pretty much stuck with a blue rider and and a green atv.

My closing thoughts are this, this game is just a pile of cheap garbage that Majesco thrown together and while all this may seem like a lot just for a Gameboy Advance game, believe me, it's that bad.

TheGamerFromMars on Youtube pretty much describes most of what I said and has a good video of it to show how bad it truly is:

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Yep that's some effort. By the photo's, it sort of looks like a low res version of Rebal Raider's Operation Nighthawk. That makes the second retail game I have seen that only has two options on the main menu. That game I mentioned earlier in this thread called Quad Desert Fury is the first. It is even worse than that. If you look at that video I posted earlier, you will see what I mean.

Yep, you should expect that sort of "effort" from Phoenix Games. May I remind you about their children's "games", such as Dalmatians 3. Just take one good look at this video, if you can stomach some wild anger. To be fair, I understand Caddicarus's point of view, this company shouldn't even exist, this whole game is one pile of steaming turds, and a massive copyright infringment, not to mention the stage of the worst animation film in history:

(Skip to about 3:30 for "gameplay", if you can call it that...)​

 

[Wolfe]

Same here, Criterions ridiculous physics (collision detection especially) and controls put me off from playing once again.

I was never interested in trying MW2012 (or Rivals) after getting fed up with this, in the higher tiers of HP2010. It's the only non-fantasy racing game for Wii U so far and I still don't have it.

In spite of EA's shenanigans, I might still be playing NFS games if they had continued in the direction The Run tried to go with the physics/handling. I don't care what anyone says, it's a great game beneath that outer layer of Hollywood cheesiness and needlessly restrictive gameplay design.

 

[Brend]

Underneath all the fluff there was a solid racer in The Run with one of the best racing game soundtracks of all-time. Take note developers, ALWAYS go the route of a well-made OST, not licensed drivel.

I was never interested in trying MW2012 (or Rivals) after getting fed up with this, in the higher tiers of HP2010. It's the only non-fantasy racing game for Wii U so far and I still don't have it.

In spite of EA's shenanigans, I might still be playing NFS games if they had continued in the direction The Run tried to go with the physics/handling. I don't care what anyone says, it's a great game beneath that outer layer of Hollywood cheesiness and needlessly restrictive gameplay design.

 

[PepeMickey]

Well The Run was a one way, on rails fluff that had no replay value. I agree that the handling was better but that doesn't compensate for the rest of the game. In fact, there is no game, it's just drive from point A to point B with some cutscenes in between.

 

[Wolfe]

One way, point A to point B? Never done that in any other racing game before.

The gameplay (AI, checkpoints) takes after literal coin-op arcade classics like Out Run. You don't play for a race, you play to pass to the next stage. Between the great driving roads (braking zones in an NFS game?!), the handling, the scenery, and the Stage Select function to easily skip all of the on-foot QTE sequences, I've revisited The Run several times through.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Two games I remember from my early PS1 days:

Both games have aged poorly thanks to the early adoption of 3D graphics, and absolutely butchered framerates. Because we mostly rented games prior to that generation, I don't remember a lot of Genesis/NES games that were utterly terrible, except:

I remember loving the challenge of it (and the 90's EXTREME movement appealed to child-Slip ), but the surfing portion of the game was awful.

Oh yeah, and lastly:

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Two games I remember from my early PS1 days:

Both games have aged poorly thanks to the early adoption of 3D graphics, and absolutely butchered framerates. Because we mostly rented games prior to that generation, I don't remember a lot of Genesis/NES games that were utterly terrible, except:

I remember loving the challenge of it (and the 90's EXTREME movement appealed to child-Slip ), but the surfing portion of the game was awful.

Oh yeah, and lastly:

You didn't even needed to add all those games, really (I'm kidding, by the way). All you need is that last picture. You want to talk about bad plataformers, Busby 3D is the greatest failure of all. I particularly like the EGM quote on the cover; "(...) Busby 3D climbs back to the top"? If by "top" you mean the deepest pits of hell, then yes, it does climb to the top. Of the worst games in the world list...

Never heard of those PS1 games, may need to read a bit more about them, they seem to be average games at best.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

I remembered hating the original Armored Core and its Nintendo Hard difficulty.

Then I git gud and loved it to hell. I was 10, and that final boss can suck my barnacles.

Bad games? *clears throat*

I remembered when there were Kart clones EVERYWHERE! Some I like, like CTR and Modnation Racers, but some kiddy companies just take advantage, and naturally, they suck.

Then I saw South Park Rally. I played this when I was 7. 7! Broke the ESRB, but also my swear filter.

 

[BKGlover]

@Wolfe what version of 'The Run' were you playing? Because the one I played, while a very intriguing idea, was yet another horrid abomination with wheels. Half the cars were reskins of what was already there, not counting the DLC ones, and while the courses were OK, it was hard to tell with a handling model akin to DT Racer. A GT-R shouldn't slide off a cliff without even attempting to turn on a perfectly good clear road IN FIRST GEAR. The story, if you can call it that and not offend eons of known literature, is so clichéd and so heavily based on popular TV it detracts from the game at every point. And then, there are two "chapters" where QTE's are used. Out of that whole game, two sections with QTE's. What was the 🤬 point in the first place. In addition to this, a Porsche 918 can be caught AT WILL by the most basic police cruiser? AND a 40 year old El Camino? I don't care if he stuffed every possible upgrade ever into it, I call BS.

AND THEN.....There is the ENTIRETY of the final "chapter". I have never gone hoarse from rage as fast as I did in that....thing, and I was in public.

 

[Wolfe]

@BKGlover -- I'm not sure what to tell you on the handling. It's no golden example I'd wish for other games to copy, but it handily outclasses everything else EA has put out for more than ten years. My biggest complaints are how the steering auto-aligns with the road (yet drags to one side if you put a wheel off, even on a paved shoulder), and how you lose so much speed from drifting. Otherwise, it feels fairly intuitive -- more like the 1990s original than anything else after Underground -- and is easier for me to play than the Criterion-made NFS titles.

Aside from the unrealistic performance balancing between cars (a staple of any less-than-serious racing game), the rest falls under the many awful gameplay/design decisions I mentioned. It's a spiteful game, mired by greed, and I totally understand the hatred for it. Which is what makes it a shame that it's actually a pretty good racing game underneath it all.

You mentioned how the QTEs and major theatrics are pretty much isolated to specific story chapters -- I tend to start out on Chapter 2 and skip the Las Vegas, Chicago, and Ohio chapters.

 

[BKGlover]

@BKGlover -- I'm not sure what to tell you on the handling. It's no golden example I'd wish for other games to copy, but it handily outclasses everything else EA has put out for more than ten years. My biggest complaints are how the steering auto-aligns with the road (yet drags to one side if you put a wheel off, even on a paved shoulder), and how you lose so much speed from drifting. Otherwise, it feels fairly intuitive -- more like the 1990s original than anything else after Underground -- and is easier for me to play than the Criterion-made NFS titles.

And now, I understand. I don't HATE the Criterion games, but they felt like Burnout games instead of NFS games, and the handling is finicky at best. On those, I've not played, and probably won't ever play, Rivals, but I played some of MW and beat HP, once each. My dilemmas with MW have been documented on site, but HP3 was one I played once, then never again had the urge.

Enough of my rambling, though....

Aside from the unrealistic performance balancing between cars (a staple of any less-than-serious racing game), the rest falls under the many awful gameplay/design decisions I mentioned. It's a spiteful game, mired by greed, and I totally understand the hatred for it. Which is what makes it a shame that it's actually a pretty good racing game underneath it all.

You mentioned how the QTEs and major theatrics are pretty much isolated to specific story chapters -- I tend to start out on Chapter 2 and skip the Las Vegas, Chicago, and Ohio chapters.

It could have been oh so much more. Just in potential alone, there is so much that it could have become. I'd still love to see a TRUE cross country racing game, and the great thing is that you can go any direction with it. Looking for a gritty game, take what "The Run" did well, improve on what it did less than well, and there you go. Want a more colorful and possibly entertaining game? Actually I do. Can we convince Tell Tale to make a Cannonball Run or The Gumball Rally?

 

[Prenny]

Oh yeah, and lastly:

''Gold X Award''

 

[PepeMickey]

Oh my god, what was I thinking? Test Drive is not the worst game I've ever played. Just saw at the bottom of my pile of games, an ancient PS3 case with "Final Fantasy XIII" labeled on it. I almost fainted as I remembered the pain.

 

[HuskyGT]

Don't know if it counts. Game wasn't really finished. Yet they sold it as if it was. I do have it in my old computer just for the sake of having what's possibly the worst modern game ever.

As for commercially successful games, I would say the Need For Speed series. Especially Shift, which is one of the worst car games I've personally played. Old NFS games and at least Undercover are probably the only good ones.

 

[Kitten]

Oh how I hated that game

Oh man. I always gave up playing this game. Just JUST awful.

 

[Mumbles]

As the name implies, all you do in this game is catch fish. That's it. Good way to kill countless hours you will never get back. It's a shame they had to come out with a sequel.

I actually own the sequel and DAMN is it bad

 

[tankuroded]

Straight from my infrequent lurking at IGCD, I present a new contender in racing kusoge: World Wide Rally Championship.



You know your game is terrible when the car models are off-model to the actual cars (do they even have license?), misspelling galore in menus, AND the game logo's obviously ripping off Sega Rally's? The cars' handling is even worse.



EDIT: It seems that the video I posted is from the bug-fix version - I can tell this because in the video, the word "brakes" was correctly spelled (the one I saw in IGCD had it spelt "breaks"), for instance.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Wow, even the name sounds bad. World Wide? Couldn't they just join those two words together? The "3D" footage used in the intro sequence is terrible, and the ingame graphics look even worse. The car models are cringe-inducing, that Celica made me go as soon as I saw it. And I don't know how it plays, but I swear it must be equally bad.

And it seems that this game was made by Spanish people... Good god, it's right next to my own country!

 

[Tornado]

Sure, I bet both of those racing games are bad, but so is this one:

I remember renting this when I was 6 years old to play on my playstation. While I did like the graphics, the physics were just plain terrible. I went back and tried this game over a year ago and it was still terrible. It doesn't matter what car you drive, they all have a great chance at rolling over or spinning out even at the slightest movement on the analog stick.

I always thought that was a huge shame because I really wanted to like it. It was a pretty game with a lot of hype and media attention and they put a lot of imagination into making it (both the structure and car selection), but it just played so bad.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

I always thought that was a huge shame because I really wanted to like it. It was a pretty game with a lot of hype and media attention and they put a lot of imagination into making it (both the structure and car selection), but it just played so bad.

I wanted to like it too, but the slippery and unstable driving physics drove me away. Which sucks, because the game had potential in becoming a good arcade racer.

 

[Aesthetics]

Theres a lot of bad games I've seen, but the worst I've ever played would be my first playthrough of NFS The Run. You only really have access to like, 20 cars out of all of them in story mode because of the dumb tiers. There's some lower tiered cars I would have loved to drive.
Also, in my first playthrough, a glitch happened where the Nitrous button was mapped to the accelerator button, so I can only use the nitrous by... letting go of the gas.
Also, NFS Shift 2. I really want to like the game, but the physics are just horrible.

 

[iName]

I would have to say The Crew.

For the same reason you would hate TDU2, also. The cutscenes look AWESOME, but the actual game itself was decent looking (I'm not fully jaded). Even with car interior, same problem as TDU2. Not faithfully rendered. Only gauges that work are the tach & speedo. If those are digital, it isn't even modeled. That being said, the Agera R tachometer doesn't even show up.

But that's not the real reason I hate it. Ubisoft took the brilliant idea Ivory Tower had and shoved it. They made a season pass, taking out a good 12-15 cars out of the game, even when there wasn't enough cars to begin with anyways. The physics are just like TDU2, only difference being that you can actually recover from a spin.

Then the prices. I'm sure it was Ubisoft's doing.

There was crew credits, and then there was the normal in game cash. You can see where this is going. Koenigsegg Agera R. 900,000 or so with in game cash. 210,000 with crew credits (looking at $25 bucks). They went the Mobile game freemium tactic with a $60 game on a next gen console. The highest paying race for me so far is a 45minute race that gives 81,000 in game cash.
Oh, and a mini is 125,000 in game cash, more expensive than a M5, 2015 Mustang, and a Skyline R34. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever, even With the 'discount' perk with when maxed out take 15% off the cost of the car's in game cash price. A SLS AMG is also more expensive than a Ford GT and Corvette ZR1 combined.

Just makes me cringe on how much wasted potential is in this game, Ubisoft made them go super cheap beyond reason. Though the map is great, it is the only thing that keeps me coming back

 

[Tyger]

Love this thread, I really have a morbid fascination with bad games. Can't agree on Vanishing Point though, I liked that a lot. Sure the physics were odd but it was a very precise game, really took practice to avoid hitting the other cars and get further each time. The stunt mode was an oddity but fun too. It really had more in common with older arcade driving games like Outrun and Wec Le Mans, which made it a bit anachronistic, it didn't really sit anywhere. Dreamcast version was best as the graphics were inevitably slicker.