racketboy.com

Bad games. Let's face it, they're out there and there is an abundance of them. Every system has had it's fair share of shovelware and other assorted monstrosities. We all know some things that make a bad game bad -- sometimes the gameplay is way off, the story sucks, the graphics are horrendous, or the game code is simply broken. Normally, most of us just take note of a bad game, shelf it and move on. After all, life is too short to be spent playing crap anyway, right?

But every once in a great while, when the planets are aligned just right and the universe seems ready, you'll come across a game that is so hideous and utterly terrible in all the right ways that you can't help but be fascinated. One might use the expression "It's so bad it's funny!" If you've ever come across one you know the feeling. You want to call your friends, relatives, or really anybody that will listen and tell them just how bad it is. When your gaming buddies come over to play a few rounds of {Insert Favorite Party Game Here}, you first insist that they experience your great, awful find; the proverbial turd in the rough, if you will. This a thread about those games.

I submit for your approval what may be the most unique and awful football game of all time, Quarterback Attack (Saturn, also on 3D0):

Example of gameplay
Promo Video

Where to begin? First off, Quarterback Attack's graphics are completely FMV, which is an immediate red-flag. The only exception to this is your character, the "Red Team's" QB. You read that correctly by the way, you can only play as the QB. If you call a running play, you simply sit there and watch a movie of that play. Same goes for a punt or field goal attempt. What you can do is choose a receiver to throw to or scramble out of the pocket (resulting in one of the funniest an oddest moments I have ever seen in gaming). And if your team (Go Fightin' Red Team!) is on defense it means that you're on the bench and the play calling has been taken out of your hands entirely. So, who is calling the plays? Why it's Mike Ditka in an ugly yellow sweater, of course. That's right, throughout your experience you will be yelled at, taunted by, and recieve important life lessons from none other than former da Bears coach himself. Other important characters of note include a stadium filled with mostly cardboard cutouts, Red Team's mascot (who I swear is Big Bird from Sesame Street), and the oldest referee in the world.

Beyond all that, the game is fundamentally flawed. Often you will throw a pass and be treated to a movie of your receiver making the catch and sprinting over 50 yards down the field. Great play, right? Think again. Many times the game will register that big gain as only few yards or, worse, negative yards. Also, on a number of occasions I have called a 70+ yard field goal attempt which manages to sail through the upright. To put that in perspective, the longest offical field goal in NFL history is 63 yards and is one of only seven to travel at least 60 yards. I could go on, but just watch the video links and see for yourself (not my vids, btw).


So, there you have it. Share the games that suck so bad they make you laugh. What makes it different than most bad games? How did it go that extra mile backwards from a bad and forgettable video game, to one that is quite simply tragic yet inescapable?

Daikatana.

Do I really need to say more?

I don't think the whole "so bad it's good" phenomenon really happens in videogames that much. I think it's harder for a game to be accidentally campy funny, since it's much harder for an amateur to make a videogame than a movie.

Still, I do intentionally play games that aren't good. I like to see how games have evolved over time. Sometimes you can see some brilliant ideas hidden within an otherwise terrible game.

On a related note, there are a lot of games that are entertaining for their weirdness:
Gitaroo Man, Katamari Damacy, Chibi-Robo, Mr. Mosquito, Space Channel 5, Chupon, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Minotaur China Shop, etc.

J T wrote:I don't think the whole "so bad it's good" phenomenon really happens in videogames that much. I think it's harder for a game to be accidentally campy funny, since it's much harder for an amateur to make a videogame than a movie.

Still, I do intentionally play games that aren't good. I like to see how games have evolved over time. Sometimes you can see some brilliant ideas hidden within an otherwise terrible game.

Yeah, it is easier for a movie to unintentionally achieve "campy funny" for the reason you mentioned. Still, it happens in games too. In fact, when it comes to console video games, it's funnier in a way because you gotta think to yourself that the game was probably made by people who had to at least kind of know what they were doing. Plus, any amature can just post a movie on the web no problem; these games had to be backed by a publisher, tested, and be green-lighted by god knows how many people before they were even released. Still, these so bad it's funny games are out there.

By the way, I too enjoy playing older games to see just how far gaming has come. When you look at older generations of games as building blocks instead of buildings you begin to see interesting trends and innovations develop. Also you never know what you may come across when you pop in that cheap-o NES/SNES/SMS/Genesis/etc. game that you picked up despite never hearing about it.

When I usually play a "bad" game, I usually don't consider it so; thus I had to vote "no." If an otherwise bad game has some innovative, unique, redeeming qualities, I'll play it even if it's otherwise not the greatest game in the world. I won't flat out play a bad game because what is a "bad game" other than a game that you don't/can't enjoy playing? So yes and no. I'll play 'em if you think they're bad, but only if I think they're good.

Fallout 3, without mods

*shudders*

lol the promo video for that game.
"Blue 42!"

J T wrote:Still, I do intentionally play games that aren't good. I like to see how games have evolved over time. Sometimes you can see some brilliant ideas hidden within an otherwise terrible game.

On a related note, there are a lot of games that are entertaining for their weirdness:
Gitaroo Man, Katamari Damacy, Chibi-Robo, Mr. Mosquito, Space Channel 5, Chupon, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Minotaur China Shop, etc.

I'm the same way. I play a lot of mediocre games because I found some sort of cool gimmicky feature or something that I thought was brilliant. Off the top of my head, Red Ninja. That game was absolutely horrid, but the wire and tension system was such an awesome idea, I had to play the whole game through. Then I dream about somebody taking that idea and making a GOOD game out of it...

Rugrats Scavenger Hunt on the Nintendo 64. It's an absolutely horrible game, but for some reason I really like to play it. If you can imagine taking Mario Party and removing the mini-games you'd begin to have the right idea.



There are only 3 levels in the entire game. Two have you tediously searching around for items (as the name implies) and collecting cookies. The final one is an abomination. The entire board is made up of one-way circles. All you do in that level is choose when to stop the spinner and hope you get lucky. Seriously.

For some reason I really like the game though. I played it a ton as a kid and still bust it out every once and a while for shits and giggles. I forced a friend of mine to play this game a couple years ago. He literally started crying, left, and wouldn't talk to me for days because he was so upset that I made him play it. He told me later that he felt betrayed because "a friend wouldn't make a friend play a game like that." He was 19 at the time. It's that bad.

Gameplay - link
"A baby can never have too many cookies!"
"I'll use this to go through the secret sausage ways!"
Bwuah ha ha! Best lines of the game.

Random dude talking about how crappy the game is - link.

Random top 10 worst N64 games video (this game gets 4th) - link


PS: I have Quarterback Attack. It really is terrible. I just bought it for the case.

Equalsign I just want to say that I've had that game since I was a kid, and I'm fairly certain that I've never actually played it yet. I'll have to get it out next time I have some friends over, see if we can get through a round without destroying the game in anger.