"It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

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eneuman96
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"It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby eneuman96 » May 12th, 2015, 8:37 pm

What are some games that everyone else hates, and you can understand are ridiculously flawed, yet you still like for some godforsaken reason? A couple examples for me:

E.T. for Atari 2600. Yep, the apparent worst game ever! Even though it's confusing and hard to make sense of, I still think it's a worthy challenge to try to get through at least once. It really is quite ambitious for the 2600, and it may not be a masterpiece, but I enjoy it in a weird schadenfreude kind of way.

Another one for me would be Shadow the Hedgehog. Everyone and their mother loves to rag on this game for being overly dark and swear-y for a Sonic-related game, and even though those aspects of it are definitely unnecessary and gratuitous, I still somehow like to revisit it every now and then. At the very least, I don't think it's completely unplayable like Sonic '06.

Hardcore Sadism
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby Hardcore Sadism » May 12th, 2015, 8:48 pm

Iron Man and XO-Manowar in Heavy Metal

This is pretty much dated in the worst way ever. You could probably get this game to work on the SNES since its Game Boy port was passable. But the music, boss fights, and atmosphere fit the generation to a 'T'.

Vexer6
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby Vexer6 » May 13th, 2015, 1:46 am

Oh there's quite a few:

Steel Battalion Heavy Armor, I think the VGC and all the other critics bashing this game were dead wrong, I thought the story was really engaging and I rarely ever had any issues with the Kinect, the commands were very responsive and while there were some confusing and frustrating bits, I still got plenty of enjoyment from this game.

Speaking of hated Sonic games, there is of course Sonic 06, the very first 360 game I ever owned(and the main reason I bought the system in the first place), it does have it's flaws(I.E. some things are not explained in the game, controls for most side characters are awkward and take some getting used to) but overall I found it to be just as fun and engaging as the Sonic Adventure games and I never encountered any glitches like several people apparently did.

Escape Dead Island: Man do people love hating on this, it's a real trip of a game, with a lot of David Lynch-esque mind-screwing going on with trying to figure what is real and what isn't, and the combat is more limited then the other Dead Island games. I can understand people being put off by the game's overall theme and presentation(though I personally dug the cel-shaded graphics), but for me it was an interesting change of pace for the series.

Mindjack: Underrated Cyberpunk shooter with a cool main feature of being able to jack anything from people to robots, just some good ol dumb fun, did not deserve the hate it got from critics.

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Oltobaz
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby Oltobaz » May 13th, 2015, 6:02 am

Hardcore Sadism wrote:Iron Man and XO-Manowar in Heavy Metal

This is pretty much dated in the worst way ever. You could probably get this game to work on the SNES since its Game Boy port was passable. But the music, boss fights, and atmosphere fit the generation to a 'T'.


Couldn't agree more. I'll also throw in Sword of Sodan (the Megadrive/Genesis version), brutal and satisfying. It's flawed, it's choppy, it's very basic... it's fun.

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Atariboy
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby Atariboy » May 13th, 2015, 6:50 am

I've spent more hours than I care to admit trying to top my own score in Miniature Golf for the 2600. I've seen a handful over the years that share my appreciation for this classic, but most think like the Critic does and view it as an overly simple and basic game that doesn't have much to offer (He scored it at a D-). It's a deceptively simple game though, that has a lot going for it for someone that wants to try to top their own performance or compete against someone else.

Tempted to mention Pole Position II for the 7800, but despite often being criticized at classic gaming forums, I strongly suspect this one was received pretty well back in 1986 by the few that experienced it at the time. Plus, there's really nothing wrong with it as far as I can tell, so I'd hardly consider it terrible. I still fire it up every once in a while and run a few races.

Super Off-Road: The Baja (SuperNes) is another one that I enjoy a lot, but is pretty much always maligned whenever I've seen it mentioned online.

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ptdebate
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby ptdebate » May 13th, 2015, 9:00 am

My example is The Evil Within. The story and settings are just a hodgepodge of random survival horror tropes and many of the setpieces are ripped straight from Tomb Raider. The challenging gameplay and beautiful lighting engine keep me hooked though.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby DaHeckIzDat » May 13th, 2015, 1:01 pm

Tak and the Power of Juju. First game I got on my PS2 as a kid. It wasn't terrible, per se, but looking back it did do a lot of things wrong. Collecting 200 tiny objects scattered randomly across half a dozen large worlds? Noooo, thank you! Still, as a kid, I enjoyed it.

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LoganRuckman
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby LoganRuckman » May 13th, 2015, 5:11 pm

Ooh, I love the Tak games. I don't think they're terrible at all, some great 3D platformers from that generation. I was so excited for the show, but it was a huge disappointment.

ESauce
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby ESauce » May 13th, 2015, 9:42 pm

I don't think I would anymore but I loved Kao the Kangaroo (Dreamcast) when I was a kid. I tried playing it for a moment recently and it is clearly something that was thrown together for a quick buck; most of the levels are just series of platforms floating in empty space, with no backgrounds even. But man, I played the heck out of that when I was younger.

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velcrozombie
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Re: "It's terrible but I like it anyway" games

Postby velcrozombie » May 14th, 2015, 12:39 am

I still really like both Friday the 13th and Jaws for the NES. Both of them (especially Friday the 13th) feel like proto survival horror, since both games give you a monster that disappears and reappears and targets you or the people you are trying to protect. Both games also have a nice arc to them - you collect resources and increase your strength while trying to keep yourself alive long enough to allow yourself a triumphant final showdown.

I think I like Jaws more for nostalgia's sake than anything else, as it has some pretty glaring issues: once you figure out what to do, the game's mechanics quickly become shallow and repetitious; Jaws never really poses much of a threat and looks more goofy than menacing; you spend the majority of the time killing random sea creatures; and the game can be beaten in 15 minutes, if not less. Having said that, I still remember getting excited as a kid when the radar would start beeping faster and faster when Jaws would close in on my boat, and I still find the simplicity of the game kind of charming.

Friday the 13th holds up quite a bit better: unlike the shark in Jaws, Jason is a force to be reckoned with and you fear the time he's off-screen almost as much as when he's chasing you; there is a day-night mechanic that is far more natural and unobtrusive than the one in Castlevania II; there's a nice balance of exploring, combat and resource management that's surprisingly advanced for an NES game; the music that plays while you're inside a cabin is one of my favorite pieces of NES music ever; the game can be beaten in multiple ways (either kill Jason or survive the three days of the game with at least one counselor and child alive); and it has one of the most memorable Game Over screens in video game history. There are obvious issues - only about half the camp counselors are useful, and it's easy to wonder around lost if you don't know what to do - but this game deserves to be looked at, at the very least, as a noble failure instead of the disaster it's often characterized as.


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