For the longest time I’ve loved bad reviews of games and movies, and the sub culture of people who enjoy suffering through a steaming pile of shat.
I watched Manos: The Hands of Fate…it was so bad it was good.
A long time ago, in a Grouvee far far away (wherever the servers are held), I mentioned to @peter having a bottom 250 of video games on the main site. I recall our fearless leader liked the idea but the man is so busy it must have fell off his expansive (and technologically advanced) radar.
What are your thoughts? I’m thinking along the same lines as imdb bottom 100: IMDb Bottom 100 - IMDb
Thank you kindly for everything.
Grouvee is a pure work of art and social acceptance.
I realized after I read this post this morning that I already have all the data. I’ll put a link to this somewhere for real later, but because you asked for it: I present to you the worst 100 games (minimum of 200 ratings) on Grouvee: Top 250 games on Grouvee (I realize it still says top 250 on the page. I just reused the top template to see what it came up with). The hell with all you people who don’t like Fruit Ninja.
Flappy Bird was definitely a phenomenon, for good or ill. Maybe it’s a terrible game, maybe it’s a work of genius. Regardless, it’s the type of game for which the discourse ceases to be about the game itself, becoming about the cultural moment and it’s impact. There are other games on that list, like Fortnite, or Pokémon Go, where the discussion about the game transcends the game experience and is about the game’s position in the public consciousness. Thus there’s sometimes a stake in declaring such a game bad for reasons other than gameplay. I’m not arguing whether some of these games in question are bad or good, just that our perception of them of such is often clouded by the general public discourse in ways that might be more intense than with the average game.
I tend to review games as stand alone entries into this form of media. But you seem correct that people are reviewing based on how the game impacted the culture, industry, history, perception, public consciousness, etc.
I’d argue we are all affected by the discourse surrounding a game, whether to a minor or major degree. It’s impossible to engage with media in a vacuum.
There may be a lot of Sonic in there, but it’s a list that somehow ranks Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 over Fortnite, Pokémon GO, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Plus, all of my favorite Sonic games have been spared. I’m calling this a win!
I recently got myself a copy of Just Cause for the PS2. I’ve never played any game of the franchise (I know,… sorry) so I thought I might as well start from the beginning. I checked some reviews on YouTube but none of them seemed so pessimistic. But fear not, I’ll eventually come back with my findings about the subject
To be fair, most of the Sonic games on the list are the poorer ones. I’m a little surprised to see Heroes, as I really don’t think it’s all that bad. Apart from that I’d call most of it fair. Unleashed is probably on there because of the Werehog stuff, people tend to go overboard with negativity on that part of the game and forget the normal Sonic level are actually really good. I also think it’s a little unfair for 3D Blast to be on there, but oh well. Strangely no Boom, though.
However, there are other titles on there I’m rather surprised by. No Man’s Sky (although I’d say all those ratings were from launch, I’m playing it now and rather enjoying it), Ecco, Dragon’s Lair, Cool Spot, Fallout, Brink; i thought those were all popular games.
I’d say the NMS rating is based partially on the collective reaction to the game and not on the game itself, combined with legitimate reviews by people who tried the game and simply found it not to be for them, even in its more recent iterations.
Agreed about the rest of the games you mention (except maybe Cool Spot!) I think that there is always the variable that people play games long after their moment, when the mechanics or game play has been evolved or surpassed. Dragon’s Lair did something no other arcade game had done to date, it gave us crisp hand drawn animated frames. Yes it was brutal, but it was stunning. Today there are enough stunning games that this aspect of the game is rendered less impressive, leaving only the pain in the ass difficulty. So context and era in which a game is played can really affect its reception.
Ecco, Dragon’s Lair, Cool Spot, Fallout, Brink ; i thought those were all popular games.
Yeah thats a good sample of some of the one’s i noticed as well that made me want to look through and play. (I personally found brink boring AF tho, and refused to play that with my friend after 30 mins or so. But not sure why it’s on the Horrible Hundred. )
one thing many of these games have in common this polarizing or controversial effect. Or a lot of people give them buzz cause they cause some kind of stir. But there are so many other games not on this list that could be. By this logic where is Diablo 3, Fallout 4, Super Mario Bros 2, Omikron The Nomad Soul, Deus Ex II, etc etc… so many could be on this list which pissed some people off, and they have voiced it considerably so lol.
I just can’t get over how Duke Nukem Forever is at the top of the list. Hail to the King Baby!
Decided to have a look at this list again and there are some games on there that I really don’t think deserve to be; Sonic Forces, Angry Birds, Altered Beast, Avengers, Ecco (what!?!), Sonic Lost World and Cool Spot I would argue don’t deserve to be on such a list, there are certainly waaaay worse games than any of those.
I’ve noticed that the amount of ratings varies a huge amount among the titles, so maybe it’d be an idea to have only the most recent 100 or so count toward a game’s “bad” rating (as well as it’s “good” rating on the opposite side) as currently I think the list is really skewed.
I understand this might just be for a bit of fun, but I think a more accurate representation would be good.
Altered Beast absolutely deserves a low spot, it is atrocious and even worse with age.
I agree about Ecco, but I understand, it’s pretty difficult and can get confusing if you don’t have patience with it. I had the Sega CD version and it took me forever to even get started at first.
