list of video games notable for negative reception part of a series onvideo games platforms arcade game console game game console home console electronic game audio game electronic handheld handheld game handheld console mobile game online game social network game pc game linux mac genres action beat em up fighting platform shooter survival actionadventure stealth survival horror adventure interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel roleplaying action roleplaying tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management life simulation sports vehicle strategy multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics massively multiplayer online lists arcade video games bestselling video games bestselling video game franchises highestgrossing video game franchises mostplayed video games by player count mostplayed mobile games by player count highestgrossing arcade games video games considered among the best game of the year awards video games notable for negative reception development game ai game design interaction design game programming level design video game art video game design video game graphics video game music vte the following video games are noted for their negative reception they include games that won ironic and humorous awards such as golden mullet awards games that have been listed as the worst by major video gaming publications or websites games that have received low review scores from such publications often determined by low aggregate scores on sites such as metacritic and games that have been recognized to be poorly received by players some of the older or rarer games have gained attention more recently through videos produced by popular youtube personalities such as angry video game nerd games can be considered bad for a number of reasons including but not limited to low quality or outdated graphics large numbers of glitches or having poor controls the list below is not comprehensive but represents the most visible examples of games with negative reception with some exceptions the list below omits licensed tiein games for movies or television shows which are generally accepted as shovelware by the industry and not expected to have high production values for similar reasons the list also omits indie games which are developed by smaller teams that typically lack the ability for full quality control of their product this list excludes games that are subject of shortterm review bombing that are unrelated to gameplay aspects 1980s beat em eat em 1982 beat em and eat em is a pornographic video game developed by mystique for the atari 2600 in 1982 players control two nude women with the goal of catching sperm falling from a masturbating man on a rooftop without missing custers revenge 1982 custers revenge was made in 1982 by mystique for the atari 2600 the game was widely considered offensive due to its plot involving the apparent rape of a native american woman in 2008 the university of calgary professor tom keenan cited the hideous custers revenge game 26 years after its release in an oped piece about current video game violence issues for the calgary herald pacman 1982 pacman a port of the arcade game for the atari 2600 was altered from the original in order to meet the ataris limitations some of these changes included simplified graphics a modified maze layout and flickering ghostsa result of the game rendering one ghost on screen per frame in 1998 next generation magazine called it the worst coinop conversion of all time and attributed the mass dissatisfaction to its poor quality in retrospect critics often cite ataris pacman as a major factor in the drop of consumer confidence in the company which led to the north american video game crash of 1983 bill loguidice and matt barton of gamasutra stated that the games poor quality damaged the companys reputation poor critical reception made pacman one of many decisions that led to ataris report of a 536 million loss in 1983 and the division and sale of the companys consumer division in 1984 et the extraterrestrial 1982 see also atari video game burial et the extraterrestrial received significant criticism for its lowquality graphics and redundant and confusing gameplay et the extraterrestrial for the atari 2600 was based on steven spielbergs 1982 film of the same name and reputedly coded in just five weeks in order to be released in time for the 1982 holiday season et was listed as the worst game of all time by pc world in 2006 friday the 13th 1989 friday the 13th an adaptation of the horror movie franchise developed by atlus and published by ljn for the nintendo entertainment system as part of its aggressive expansion into licensed video games in its september 2009 issue game informer listed friday the 13th as being among the worst horror games of all time noting that unavoidable hits stupid weapons and baffling enemies ensure that your crew of teenagers dies quickly and without ceremony if they make it through that jason will probably appear as he randomly does and kill you 1990s action 52 1991 action 52 is an unlicensed multicart developed by active enterprises for the nintendo entertainment system nes in 1991 it contains 52 original games covering various genres from shoot em ups to platformers night trap 1992 night trap is an interactive movie video game originally published by sega for the sega cd in 1992 it was the first interactive movie released for the system and was initially released to a mixed reception critics praised its smooth video animations and humor although it was criticized for its shallow gameplay after the controversy subsided night trap was ported to multiple platforms such as the 32x and 3do however these ports were reviewed more harshly critics felt the game had not aged well and considered its gameplay dull next generation gave the 32x version a onestar rating philips cdi legend of zelda releases 19931994 prior to the cancelled plans to release a cdrom addon for the super nintendo entertainment system nintendo had granted philips licenses to use some of their major characters in games for their philips cdi system in addition to hotel mario philips released three games in the legend of zelda franchise link the faces of evil zelda the wand of gamelon both 1993 and zeldas adventure 1994 all produced with limited involvement by nintendo the first two games faces of evil and wand of gamelon were developed in tandem by animation magic using the same game engine and were released on the same day further criticism was brought to zeldas adventure a third game developed instead by viridis which used a topdown approach and shifted to a liveaction visual style with digitized sprites instead of a cartoon look according to castle what beyond the animations reviewers at gametrailers have also ascribed modern negative criticism to barely functional controls lackluster gameplay and numerous bugs hotel mario 1994 philipss deal with nintendo for the three the legend of zelda games also gave them the rights to use characters from the mario series the company commissioned several games featuring mario to be made for the cdi however only one hotel mario was released a puzzle game hotel mario features animated cutscenes produced by the russian studio that made the cutscenes for link the faces of evil and zelda the wand of gamelon the game received primarily mixed reviews upon release gamepro called the game fun to play but believed it would bore players and would only appeal to core mario fans retrospective reviews of the game however have been negative with the game facing criticism for unresponsive controls and the animation of closing doors ign while claiming that hotel mario was better than the zelda cdi games slammed the game for being dull stating that there was no reason for anyone to play it plumbers dont wear ties 1994 plumbers dont wear ties was released in 1994 for the 3do console along with a limited number of copies for pc shaq fu 1994 shaq fu a fighting game starring basketball player shaquille oneal received mixed reviews by critics upon its release who praised the games graphical style smooth animations and robust gameplay but criticized the relevance of shaqs presence in the game along with its low difficulty and small character sprites levi buchanan of ign argued that shaq fu had received ridicule from contemporary critics because of its connections to the phenomena surrounding oneal explaining that kasumi ninja 1994 kasumi ninja a fighting game for the atari jaguar was criticized for being a lowquality clone of mortal kombat gamepro commented that while the graphics were technically impressive they were often unpleasant to look at due to aesthetic choices such as the paletteswapped characters the massive blood drops and anguss kiltlifting move they also criticized the controls the music and the announcers voice and concluded that kasumis a 64bit warrior destined to remain in the shadows of deeper 16bit fighting games in a retrospective review allgame praised the games visuals but criticized the controls and concluded the game to be no more than a horrible cashin mortal kombat clone that should be ignored by all but the most devoted 64bit atari jaguar fans catfight 1996 catfight which touted itself as the ultimate female fighting game was criticized primarily for its lowquality graphics poor quality music and sound effects and unresponsive controls bubsy 3d 1996 bubsy 3d a platform game in the bubsy series for the playstation was negatively received due to its disorienting camera poor graphics sluggish controls and the titular characters voice clips upon release sushix of electronic gaming monthly declared it my first coaster award and remarked pretend your controller is filled with mud this is how bubsy plays mortal kombat mythologies subzero 1997 mortal kombat mythologies subzero a platform game spinoff of the mortal kombat franchise focusing on main character subzero was panned for its poor control outdated graphical appearance and unforgiving gameplay mikel reparaz of gamesradar opined that while the concept of giving subzero a spinoff game was interesting based on his popularity the game ended up a terrible mess of ugly sprites cheap deaths and a button you had to hit just to change the direction you were facing and the less thats said about it the better midway games had planned further mythologies games featuring different characters but the overwhelmingly negative reception resulted in their cancellation although mortal kombat special forces stemmed from a similar concept extreme paintbrawl 1998 extreme paintbrawl a firstperson shooter loosely based upon the game of paintball was criticized for having lowquality maps that did not resemble actual paintball fields not having any game modes beyond a variation of capture the flag poorly functioning ai players who frequently got stuck navigating around walls and doors and a practice mode that only allows players to roam through a map without any enemies or targets the game was also criticized for its use of the build engine as made famous by duke nukem 3d which was technologically obsolete by the time of the games release in 1998 gamespot gave extreme paintbrawl a 1710 stating that the game took the firstperson shooter genre too far by trying to wed a tired game engine with the paintball phenomenon and that the game was so buggy that it should have not made it out of the beta phase in conclusion the game was considered to be perhaps one of the worst games ive seen in years as much out of touch with reality as it is out of step with the gaming world at large trespasser 1998 trespasser was developed by dreamworks interactive as a digital sequel to the film the lost world jurassic park a game played in the firstperson perspective trespasser had the player work to escape from one of jurassic parks sites using tools and weapons they can find in retrospective the game was considered to be ahead of its time attempting to add in ragdoll physics animations created through artificial intelligence separate controls for each of the playercharacters arms and no hud instead using other graphical cues to indicate to the player their health and other attributions all these elements have found their way into later games halflife 2 uses physics inspired by trespasser and the use of separate limb controls has been used in a number of games such as surgeon simulator however the game was made before the advent of dedicated 3d graphic hardware requiring them to develop their own softwarebased 3d engine which created a number of bugs and glitches in the engine and artificial intelligence systems furthermore the games development was longer than expected and the final product was considered rushed and unfinished to market the game received a gamerankings aggregate score of 57 with several publications giving the game subaverage scores including gamespot ign cvg and edge south park 1999 based on the animated comedy central series of the same name the pc and playstation versions of south park received poor reviews for its bad graphics repetitive voice acting and lack of playing abilities in multiplayer mode superman 1999 based on the show superman the animated series titus softwares superman for the nintendo 64 often referred to as superman 64 has the player control superman as he is challenged by his nemesis lex luthor to help save the people of metropolis upon release the game was critically panned for its unnecessary repetitiveness difficult and confusing objectives poor controls numerous glitches that interfere with gameplay and poor graphics superman was listed as the worst game of all time by gametrailers 2000s carmageddon 64 2000 based on the pc franchise carmageddon 64 was developed by aqua pacific for the nintendo 64 and was met with poor reviews from critics for its graphics controls and its overall poor conversion of the series to the console matt casamassina of ign claimed that the game was impressively worse than superman 64 which was also published by titus the games american publisher stating that the game sucks on gamerankings carmageddon 64 holds a 2850 rating based on 6 reviews daikatana 2000 daikatana was delayed multiple times from its conception in early 1997 to its eventual release in 2000 by this time numerous games based on more advanced graphics technology such as quake iii arena and unreal tournament had been released causing daikatana to lag technologically in the market with its dated game engine the gameplay had many aspects that were widely disliked by players such as an artificially limited number of saves per level and the presence of computercontrolled sidekicks who were more of an impediment to the player as a result daikatana garnered mixed reception from reviewers and players the earliest review of the nintendo 64 version came from nintendo power which gave it a score of 56 out of 10 even though the game itself was not released until five months later romero would later apologize for the infamous john romeros about to make you his bitch advertisement romero stated in an interview that up until that ad i felt i had a great relationship with the gamer and the game development community and that ad changed everything that stupid ad i regret it and i apologize for it the critical and commercial failure of the game was a major contributing factor in the closure of ion storms dallas office screwattack named this game the 7 bust on their 2009 top 10 biggest busts which listed the biggest failures in gaming due to its controversial advertising and the hype that romero built on this game which in the end turned out to be a failure mortal kombat special forces 2000 mortal kombat special forces is the second action game in the mortal kombat franchise released on the playstation in 2000 following after mortal kombat mythologies subzero however like mythologies it has received negative reviews from critics and fans its sales were so low that midway placed the series on hold in preparation for mortal kombat deadly alliance 2002 spirit of speed 1937 2000 spirit of speed 1937 is a racing game that intends to emulate 1930s racing the game has been met with negative reviews receiving a 3933 from gamerankings kabuki warriors 2001 kabuki warriors was a launch game for the xbox and is a fighting game gamespot gave it a 14 out of 10 and named it the worst game of 2001 the simpsons wrestling 2001 the simpsons wrestling is a fighting game based on the animated television series the simpsons the game was made for the playstation console was developed by big ape productions published by electronic arts in europe and activision in north america and distributed by fox interactive the simpsons wrestling received widespread negative reviews from critics primary criticisms for the game were directed at its simplistic unbalanced gameplay and bad graphics it holds an aggregated score of 4121 on gamerankings the simpsons skateboarding 2002 the simpsons skateboarding a skateboarding game based on the animated television series the simpsons received negative reviews for its lowquality graphics sound and music poor controls and for lacking any innovation in comparison to similar games gamespy described the game as being a case study in bad game design criticizing its awkward control scheme poor visuals and bad character animations and for being reminiscent of the tony hawk pro skater franchise but at a lower quality the review concluded that theres nothing new or innovative about this game it doesnt even hit the average mark in terms of fun if it didnt have the simpsons license this game would have nothing going for it at all as it stands now even the simpsons license cant save this game from itself batman dark tomorrow 2003 based on the dc comics character batman batman dark tomorrow received very negative reviews from critics for its confusing gameplay engine repetitive mission modes and awkward camera angles the end of the game was also criticized because there is no direction to the fulfilling ending of the story besides using an outside game guide gamespot gave the game a score of 28 out of 10 charlies angels 2003 released as a tiein to the 2003 film charlies angels full throttle and featuring the voices of its stars cameron diaz drew barrymore and lucy liu charlies angels received criticism for its poor and glitchy gameplay poor character models unique fighting styles that ultimately had little differentiation and storyline alex navarro of gamespot believed the games voice acting despite involving the actual actors from the films charlies angels has a metacritic score of 23100 aquaman battle for atlantis 2003 aquaman battle for atlantis was criticized for its poor controls graphics and repetitive gameplay gamespot gave the game a 23 out of 10 stating that drake of the 99 dragons 2003 drake of the 99 dragons holds an aggregate score of 22 on metacritic ranking it as the secondworst game for the original xbox igns aaron boulding gave the game a 29 out of 10 while praising the games unique visual appearance and presentation along with the bullet time audio effects while slowing down time he concluded that drake of the 99 dragons was a good idea that went horribly astray and ended up disastrous and that theres no need to rent purchase or entertain the thought of playing this one big rigs over the road racing 2003 big rigs over the road racing is a racing game developed and released by stellar stone where the player competes in road races with trailer trucks big rigs became infamous for being released in a prealpha state it lacks any type of collision detection allowing players to drive through other vehicles and obstacles and has abnormal physics including allowing players to drive up a vertical incline or accelerate indefinitely while driving in reverse then coming to an immediate halt once the accelerator is released there is no computer artificial intelligence as computercontrolled vehicles do not move at all during the race thus making the game impossible to lose it also has a number of grammatical and typographic errors most notably the message to the player on finishing a race youre winner big rigs was listed as one of the worst games ever made by gamespot bubble bobble revolution 2005 bubble bobble revolution is a platform video game in the bubble bobble series for the nintendo ds reception to the game was poor reviewers generally criticized its level design dated visual style described by frank provo of gamespot as being way behind the curve as well as the amount of strange glitches including a particularly infamous one that renders each level beyond 30 unplayable the game has a score of 38100 on metacritic based on 19 reviews lula 3d 2005 the adult adventure game lula 3d was criticized for its tedious gameplay poor puzzle designs lowquality graphics including animations inconsistent frame rate and reuse of character models its voice acting the quality of its english translation and humor that was too childish for its target audience eurogamer gave lula 3d a 2 out of 10 jokingly declaring that its low quality and immature humor such as the bouncin boobs technology advertised on its packaging made the game feel like it was developed by and intended for 12yearold boys pc zone gave the game a 31 out of 10 believing that it was oddly compelling but so inexorably mindbogglingly ignorant of how either real games or real sex works that it spreadeagles itself a fair way into the sobadits good category in 2013 polygon cited lula 3d and other lowbrow pornographic games as a factor in the mainstream video game industrys general nonacceptance of adult video games bomberman act zero 2006 a reimagining of the bomberman series bomberman act zero received negative reception from critics for its long loading times bad collision detection forgettable soundtrack use of the same textures and graphics for every stage tedious and repetitive gameplay lack of a save feature unbalanced ai and the series unwelcome shift to a darker and more futuristic setting the firstperson bomberman mode was criticized for its bad camera angles and the fact that it is played in a thirdperson perspective it holds an average score of 34 from metacritic sonic the hedgehog 2006 intended to celebrate the franchises 15th anniversary and relaunch the brand for the next generation sonic the hedgehog faced a number of issues during development leading it to be rushed for christmas 2006 and was generally panned by critics and gamers alike for its sensitive controls bad camera angles numerous glitches poor storyline loading times and level design ign stated that it offers a few good ideas and a handful of exciting moments but none of this helps the game recover from a catastrophic loss in control the game has a metacritic average of 46 for the xbox 360 version vampire rain 2007 the reviews criticized vampire rains enemy ai controls health meters for both the protagonist and enemies and multiplayer modes the game was also criticized for having elements derived from metal gear solid and splinter cell but with much less appeal ninjabread man 2007 ninjabread man a budget game released by data design interactive and published by conspiracy entertainment was criticized for its poor camera controls graphics and its short length critics noted that the game could be completed in half an hour ign gave ninjabread man a 15 out of 10 deriding the game for being a broken mess and having just enough character design and gameplay to cover the bullet points on the back of the box but felt that ninjabread man still had a hilarious concept and jokingly praised the game for having the best box art of any wii game data design interactive was further criticized by both eurogamer and ign for releasing several other games including anubis ii myth makers trixie in toyland and rock n roll adventures that utilized the same overall engine gameplay and soundtrack as ninjabread man but with different settings and characters and in turn the same issues as ninjabread man ign felt that the games were shovelware at a science and representative of a bulk quantityoverquality approach to video game development however ign still felt that ninjabread man had more appealing thematics out of the three on metacritic ninjabread man has an aggregate score of 20 out of 100 from six critic reviews leisure suit larry box office bust 2009 leisure suit larry box office bust the eighth installment in the leisure suit larry adultoriented adventure game franchise was developed by team17 and published by codemasterswho acquired the franchises intellectual property from activision blizzard ign declared box office bust to be frustratingly unpolished devoid of any kind of wit or charm and packed with tiring at times infuriating challenges also featuring uncomfortably unfunny dialogue spewed from the lips of entirely unlikable characters in conclusion it was explained that the lowest rating numbers here at ign are reserved for games with nearly no redeeming qualities or interesting ideas with next to nothing enjoyable to offer players and which under no circumstances should be purchased by anyone leisure suit larry box office bust is without a doubt one of those games screwattack stalin vs martians 2009 stalin vs martians is a parody realtime strategy video game developed by black wing foundation dreamlore and ngame released on april 29 2009 described as trashy and overthetop stalin vs martians received scathing reviews from critics it has an average score of 2341 on gamerankings as well as 25 on metacritic gamespot named it 2009s flatout worst game awarding it a rating of 1510 and calling it perhaps the worst rts game ever created juon the grudge 2009 juon the grudge is a survival horror video game developed for the wii it was produced for the juon series 10th anniversary the game was directed by takashi shimizu who also helmed the films the game was developed by feelplus and published in japan by aq interactive on july 30 2009 and in north america and europe in october of the same year by xseed games and rising star games respectively juon the grudge has received mostly negative reception from critics based on 32 reviews juon the grudge holds a metacritic score of 39100 rogue warrior 2009 rogue warrior was initially developed by zombie studios under the title rogue warrior black razor it would have been an unreal engine 3based game with dropin fourplayer cooperative play and 24player competitive multiplayer using randomly generated maps based on a unique tiling system upon its release rogue warrior was panned by critics for its poor controls frequent use of profanity short length very limited multiplayer and broken combat techniques tunnel rats 1968 2009 the firstperson shooter tunnel rats 1968 was based on the vietnam war film 1968 tunnel rats directed by uwe boll and developed by replay studios the game received criticism for its poor writing and voice acting the characterization of its protagonist monotonous tunnel environments and excessive use of booby traps as a mechanic particularly the extreme precision required in order to disarm traps inaccurate gun sights dated graphics and its extremely short length reviewers also noted several major bugs such as grenades ceasing to function if the player dies and the ability for the player to clip into inescapable areas of a map not usually accessible rock paper shotgun opened its review by acknowledging uwe bolls reputation for directing poorly received film adaptations of video game franchises and that tunnel rats was excruciatingly bewilderingly bad due to bugs the reviewer was unable to make it past the second level 2010s final fantasy xiv 2010 final fantasy xiv was a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game in square enixs final fantasy series developed as a spiritual successor to final fantasy xi the game was released for microsoft windows on september 30 2010 with plans for a playstation 3 port however the initial release of the game was met with poor reviews with critics describing grindheavy gameplay poor controls and a confusing user interface shortly after release thenceo of square enix yoichi wada issued an official apology for the quality of the game at the 2011 tokyo game show in december 2011 saying that the final fantasy brand power gig rise of the sixstring 2010 released in a market that had already been saturated by rock musicoriented music video games simulating guitar and drums power gig rise of the sixstringdeveloped by seven45 studios a subsidiary of entrylevel instrument manufacturer first actattempted to differentiate itself from competitors such as the rock band and guitar hero franchises by shipping with an actual electric guitar that could be used ingame rather than a simplified plastic analog upon its release power gig received negative reviews from critics the games guitar was considered low qualitynot performing well as either a controller or standalone instrument while the airstrike drum controller was criticized for being inferior to a physical drum kitsuffering from poor hit detection and a reliance on proprietary sensorequipped drum sticks the guitar gameplay of power gig was criticized for being nearly identical to its competitorseven with its dedicated guitar which only added the ability to toggle basic twonote power chords griffin mcelroy of joystiq pointed out that ironically despite the game was also criticized for its storylinewhich ign declared to be laughably bad the exclusion of bass guitar modes and poorquality graphics and character animations doctor who return to earth 2010 based on the popular sciencefiction television show of the same name doctor who return to earth on the wii has been panned by critics official nintendo magazine gave the game a 19 rating and branded it an insult to doctor who fans however it ranked at 11 on the uk wii sales charts for the week australian video game talk show good games two presenters gave the game a 1 and 15 out of 10 saying its one of the worst games ive ever played they also stated that the graphics looked like a playstation or nintendo 64 game and that the player spends as much time trying to see the enemies as trying to avoid them the reviewers went on to state that the game had only two good points the sonic screwdriver wii remote cover and that it makes doctor who evacuation earth look like a masterpiece duke nukem forever 2011 duke nukem 3d the third game in the duke nukem series was released by 3d realms in 1996 and met with commercial and critical success its sequel duke nukem forever was announced the next year but ended up spending fourteen years in development hell with very little information on its progress leading it to be frequently cited as vaporware in the intermediate years the prolonged development included a number of issues related to change of the game engine the downsizing of 3d realms conflicts with taketwo interactive who had gained publishing rights through its acquisitions and eventual transfer of development duties to gearbox software once duke nukem forever was released it was criticized for elements of gameplay that tried to adhere to standards from the 1996 game while failing to be as sophisticated as other firstperson shooters released at the same time demonstrating the impact of the games excessive development period on its reception mindjack 2011 mindjack was heavily criticized for its broken enemy ai visuals thin story repetitive and boring gameplay poor voice acting unbalanced multiplayer and technical issues such as freezing it has a metacritic score of 44 for the playstation 3 sword of the stars ii lords of winter 2011 sword of the stars ii lords of winter a sequel to sword of the stars developed by kerberos and published by paradox interactive received negative reviews upon its release while critics praised it for its graphics sword of the stars ii lords of winter was panned for its confusing gameplay poor tutorials and large number of bugs causing the game to be unplayable the game has a gamerankings score of 4312 and a metacritic score of 44100 postal iii 2011 development of postal iii was subcontracted by running with scissors to the russian video game publisher akella who hired the developer trashmasters studios however they did not have the resources to develop the game to the design that the series creators intended and thought they were able to deliver pc gamer gave postal iii a 21100 joking that suck and blow were two things that postal iii will continue to do for some hours criticizing its lack of an open world design like postal 2 poor ai and poor attempts at being offensive drawing comparisons to the quality of uwe bolls film adaptation ridge racer 2011 ridge racer a reboot of the ridge racer franchise released on the playstation vita was critically panned by various publications for its barebones nature a lack of proper progression unlike other installments in the series primarily consisting of content ported from ridge racer 7 along with unbalanced online races that use a leveling system to determine a players top speed giving an unfair disadvantage to newer players gamespot gave the game a 3010 criticizing the lack of modes and content as a ploy to force users to buy its downloadable content further noting that its first dlc pack which was available for free as a limited time offer only consisted of more content ported from ridge racer 7 ridge racer was considered to be a complete and utter ripoff that the game holds an aggregate score of 44 out of 100 on metacritic from 39 reviews the war z 2012 the war z an open world multiplayer survival horror game was publicly released as a foundation release in december 2012 the game received negative reception from various publications for its poor gameplay experience and for its use of microtransactions for purchasing items and reviving characters without waiting four hours despite the game not being a freemium freetoplay game gamespy gave the war z a halfstar out of five and considered it a bad game that deserves all the controversy its drawn criticizing the broken state of the game and its use of microtransactions but complimenting its overall atmosphere and far draw distance its developer hammerpoint interactive was also accused of false advertising by players since the games promotional material on steam at the time highlighted certain features that were not yet present in the game such as multiple large game worlds varying in size only one was available a skill point based leveling system which was not yet implemented servers supporting up to 100 players that were actually capped at 50 and private servers despite this information being corrected to consider them upcoming features the flood of criticism prompted valve to pull the game from sale on steam and offer refunds stating that the game was accidentally made available for purchase prematurely in an interview with pc gamer executive producer sergey titov who was also listed as a producer for big rigs over the road racing claimed that its servers were temporarily capped at 50 due to player feedback and that its marketing team had misinterpreted information about the current state of the game due to its similar themes gameplay and title some also felt that the war z was a clone of the popular arma 2 operation arrowhead mod dayz of which a standalone version was in development on june 20 2013 hammerpoint announced that the game would be renamed infestation survivor stories primarily as a result of some confusion and trademark issues with a similarly titled property a statement which also factored in a conflict with the film world war z call of duty black ops declassified 2012 call of duty black ops declassified was released for the playstation vita in november 2012 and was panned by critics for its short campaign poor enemy ai and unreliable network mode and holds a score of 3321 at gamerankings final fantasy all the bravest 2013 final fantasy all the bravest a final fantasy spinoff was released on january 17 2013 for ios devices as of june 2013 it holds a score of 25100 on metacritic simcity 2013 simcity developed by maxis and electronic arts ea was aimed to augment the normally singleplayer citybuilding game with online features that would allow players cities to interact with one other building a software platform rather than a single game the game received lukewarm reviews from critics with an aggregate score of 64100 from metacritic as a result of the poor reception to the game electronic arts shuttered maxis main emeryville california studio by 2015 transferring maxis other franchises like the sims to other ea studios the walking dead survival instinct 2013 the walking dead survival instinct a firstperson shooter developed by terminal reality was released in 2013 to act as a prequel to the events of the television series and featured the voice talent of actors from the series including that of protagonist daryl dixon the game was met with criticism for its broken gameplay mechanics poor graphics a lack of meaningful storyline and for not meeting the high expectations associated with its source material or telltale games episodic adventure game also based upon the franchise ign noted that the game was plagued by largely broken stealth mechanics and enemy ai finding it easier to simply sprint past groups of enemies rather than using the tactics encouraged ingame bland environments and a lack of any true narrative beyond just moving from place to place in hope of the eventual rescue we all know wont come in conclusion the walking dead survival instinct was described as a halfbaked attempt at a game that can be fun in the occasional spooky part but ends up underdelivering in every way alex navarro of giant bomb was even more harsh believing that in comparison to telltales the walking dead game nothing about survival instinct feels properly executed let alone coherent or thoughtful of particular criticism was its gameplay mechanics the requirement to perform resource gathering and side missions at the same handful of recycled environments between story missions and for providing no meaningful information or commentary on the characters it revolves around giving the game one out of five stars he concluded that survival instinct was an abysmally rushed game of barely connected ideas that brings the player little more than frustration and disappointment franchise creator robert kirkman distanced himself from survival instinct due to its negative reception citing his more direct involvement in the telltale game and remarking that im pretty sure theres an amc logo before the title of that game and not a picture of my face aliens colonial marines 2013 aliens colonial marines a firstperson shooter developed by gearbox software and set in the universe of the alien franchise was criticized at launch for containing bugs poorly implemented ai unbalanced gameplay low quality graphics and a poorly implemented coop mode a couple of said issues have since been adjusted or fixed to a certain degree the games story also drew criticism for its lack of a consistent continuity with the alien films despite claims from the developers that the events of the game were supposed to be canon to the film series particular criticism was directed towards discrepancies in the games quality between prerelease builds demonstrated at events and in promotional materialsthe former purporting to feature actual gameplay and the final product including lower graphics quality missing levels and other regressions shortly after the games release and the discovery of these regressions gearbox ceo randy pitchford acknowledged the issues and stated that the studio would look into them in april 2013 a class action lawsuit was filed against gearbox software and the games publisher sega the suit argued that these differences along with a press embargo on publishing reviews of the final product until its release date deceived those who preordered the game based on the prerelease promotional materials amounting to false advertising in september 2014 sega agreed to pay a tentative settlement of 125 million in july 2018 a modder was reviewing the games code discovered that there was a typographic error in the games ini file that resulted in the poor artificial intelligence shown by the games enemies observed at original release manually correcting the error led to the enemies having more consistent behavior with press material as well as the aliens from the film franchise star trek 2013 released on april 23 2013 star trek was developed as a thirdperson shooter to bridge events between the 2009 star trek film and the 2013 star trek into darkness film which was released a month later the game was criticized for its unoriginal design poor quality as well as its large number of bugs and glitches metacritic gave the playstation 3 version a score of 46 with the pc version having a score of 44 and the xbox 360 version a score of 42 gamespot also gave star trek a 3510 rating while ign gave it a 4210 rating director j j abrams stated in september 2013 that he was emotionally hurt by the games poor reception and also stated that it arguably hurt the reception for star trek into darkness ride to hell retribution 2013 announced in 2008 as a grand theft autostyled game set during the late 1960s the eventual release of ride to hell retribution in june 2013 was met with largely negative reception in particular ride to hell was criticized for its largely broken gameplay poorly implemented controls poor voice acting and writing its negative portrayal of women and for dropping the originally announced open world format in favor of a linear structure daniel starkey of gamespot considered ride to hell retribution to be painfully insubstantial and broken allaround criticizing its plot for showing a pathetic outoftouch approach to sex violence and masculinity and believing that its developers were showing a lack of respect towards players due to the games abysmal quality describing it as the newest candidate for worst game of all time starkey gave ride to hell a 10 out of 10 making it only the second game behind big rigs to receive gamespots lowest possible rating the game has a metacritic score of 19 out of 100 based on 14 reviews of the xbox 360 version it received a 13 out of 100 score from metacritic for the ps3 version making it the lowest scoring ps3 game ashes cricket 2013 2013 ashes cricket 2013 a cricket video game developed by trickstar games and published by 505 games on steam was delayed from a release scheduled for june 2013 due to quality concerns the original release date was to coincide with the english leg of the 2013 ashes series it was pulled four days after its release on november 22 2013 which coincided with the 201314 ashes series in australia following negative user reviews 505 apologized for the games qualities offered refunds to all who purchased ashes cricket 2013 and cancelled plans to release console versions of the game fighter within 2013 fighter within a kinectbased fighting game for xbox one and a sequel to the xbox 360 kinect title fighters uncaged was criticized for having poor motion detectionespecially on more complex moves and techniques and in menus slow shallow gameplay with automated combos portrayed as cutscenes and a storyline which was described as being laughable and cheesy by reviewers gamespot who gave fighter within a 2 out of 10 described its gameplay as requiring players to stand like a lemon in front of the tv for what seems like an eternity as you feel your life ebb away during the excruciatingly long loading times punch at thin air as fast as humanly possible until you trigger a combo watch the lifeless combo animation repeat these steps until your opponent is defeated ign who gave the game a 27 out of 10 felt that fighter within was only able to adequately detect basic punches describing the game as a disjointed haphazard mess due to its unpredictable motion detection and considered its storyline to be laughably bad and a flimsy excuse to fight on metacritic fighter within holds an aggregate score of 23 out of 100 from 39 critic reviews and is ranked as the second lowestscoring xbox one game as of april 2015 sonic boom rise of lyric and sonic boom shattered crystal 2014 sonic boom rise of lyric a 2014 spinoff of the sonic the hedgehog franchise developed by big red button entertainmenta studio cofounded by naughty dog alumni e daniel arey and bob rafeiand published by sega for the wii u don saas of gamespot noted that through a combination of unwieldy controls a broken camera system and a total lack of responsiveness the platforming and exploration elements of rise of lyric are totally unworkable sega also published a tiein game for the nintendo 3ds sonic boom shattered crystal which was developed by sanzaru games the tiein was also poorly received holding a metacritic score of 47100 ravens cry 2015 ravens cry a 2015 actionadventure roleplaying game developed by reality pump studios was widely panned by critics for a variety of reasons it received the lowestpossible scores of 110 from gamespot for its rampant racism sexism and homophobia broken gameplay and buttonmashing tedium the game was rereleased as vendetta curse of ravens cry on november 20 2015 rugby 15 and rugby world cup 2015 2015 developed by hb studios rugby 15 was criticized for its poor graphical quality bad ai as well as its poor implementations of the rules and mechanics of rugby union in its review gamesradar felt that the games implementation of breakdowns and ruckswhere the player rotates the analog stick to find a point that designates a legal steal was monstrously wrong explaining that even on the hardest setting i stole the ball almost every time as if id replaced my thumbs with the distilled living essence of tackles mccaw conversely even manu tuilagi has the ballretention skills of a buttered pensioner it makes for a game of chasemepeewee hogwash that barely resembles the direct attritional sport its based on ign was similarly critical of this feature noting that it was hard to receive penalties on rucks and that given the specific way youre forced to ruck its best not to be in possession of the ball until youre within ten metres of the try line so you dont have to deal with the incredible frustration of losing possession because the game bugs out the lack of a proper tutorial was criticized by ign gamesradar gave rugby 15 one star out of five concluding that it feels like it was constructed from the fatty offcuts of juicier rugby games which preceded it dont let fervour for the upcoming world cup sway your judgement hb studios also developed rugby world cup 2015 as a tiein to the 2015 rugby world cup the game was widely criticized as being a followup to rugby 15 that did not adequately address the issues seen in the prior game whilst introducing new issues ign gave the game a 15 out of 10 noting major bugs that the games ai was still poorly implemented that it still used predetermined outcomes for tackles and that while less buggy than the version in rugby 15 the rucking system was still insufficiently designed it was argued that the game was essentially a rebranded version of rugby 15 rushed out in time for the actual world cup gamesradar criticized it for only featuring minor improvements over rugby 15 commenting that theres nothing here that suggests an understanding of scrumswhich is forgivable since most international referees dont eitherbut theres certainly no attempt to twist the complex battle of binding shoving and probablybiting into something that belongs in a game instead its reduced to hook and push it was also pointed out that the game did not feature any of the reallife venues from the actual tournament and that 10 of the 20 teams were not licensed and composed entirely of fictional players a group that even included tournament host england giving rugby world cup 2015 two out of five stars what improvements were present in the game were considered nothing more than a fig leaf which barely covers the games otherwise gruesome nudity alone in the dark illumination 2015 the sixth installment in the alone in the dark franchise was published by atari in 2015 centering around a team of four cooperative characters solving a mysterious figure in a haunted house alone in the dark illumination received universally negative reviews it received an aggregated score of 1875 on gamerankings based on 4 reviews tony hawks pro skater 5 2015 a revival of the tony hawks franchise developed by robomodo tony hawks pro skater 5 was panned for its poor quality especially in comparison to its predecessors with reviews citing various performance issues environmental clipping and physics issues the games environments were criticized for their poor aesthetics unmemorable level themes small size dull challenge tasks and for not containing as many hidden secrets as those in previous tony hawk games the nature of the games online modes were criticized for providing little incentive to players and exacerbating the games performance issues ign gave the game a 35 out of 10 concluding that tony hawks pro skater 5s rare moments of nostalgic joy are drowned out by its abundance of poorly thought out levels control problems bugs and its glaring lack of attitude it boggles the mind that a 60 game in 2015 can be riddled with so many technical issues umbrella corps 2016 umbrella corps is a tactical shooter spinoff of the resident evil franchise released for the playstation 4 and pc and has been panned for its poor gameplay mechanics igns brian albert rated the game 38 out of 10 ghostbusters 2016 ghostbusters a twinstick shooter was released as a companion to the 2016 reboot film it received largely negative reviews holding aggregate review scores of 30 playstation 4 and 32 xbox one on metacritic the site acknowledged ghostbusters as being the worstreviewed game of 2016 noting that unlike the film which somewhat delivered what it promised the game asks that you fork over even more cash for what reviewers described as a humorless slog polygons justin mcelroy gave ghostbusters a score of 2 out of 10 arguing that it was the most gruelingly insipid dualstick shooter he had ever reviewed lacking variety and criticizing the games poor characterization and humor he concluded that the game was a deplorable cynical bit of licensed drivel that wouldnt be worth the 50 asking price if the instruction manual were printed on a 50 bill ign noted that the game had few characters from or references to the actual films beyond a cameo by slimer and allusions to the characters of the 2016 film which was considered bizarre for a licensed game giving ghostbusters a 44 out of 10 ign felt that ghostbusters was not actively painful to play if you happen to be at your eightyearold cousins house and need a coop game for six to eight hours thats not going to require much skill but you could do so much better no mans sky 2016 no mans sky was announced in 2013 as a space exploration game that features over 18 quintillion planets in its virtual universe each with their own set of flora and fauna all formed ingame through procedural generation the game developed by a small team from hello games quickly gained significant attention and media hype across the gaming media due to its expansive goals which was boosted further when sony announced it would help to publish the game for the playstation 4 alongside a microsoft windows version sean murray a cofounder of hello games and the lead developer for no mans sky gave numerous interviews over the following years during development explaining features they had planned for the game including multiplayer just prior to no mans skys august 2016 release earlyreleased copies revealed that some of the expected gameplay features did not appear present in the game and were still missing following a dayzero patch specifically there appeared to be no multiplayer and other features demonstrated in promotional videos and murrays interviews were absent star wars battlefront ii 2017 star wars battlefront ii primarily an online multiplayer shooter was developed by ea dice as a sequel to the 2015 game one element that ea had sought to change was how microtransactions would be handled the first game offered additional characters and settings through downloadable content but ea found this segmented the player community between those that had purchased the additional content and those that had not ea made a number of revisions to the star crate approach prior to launch such as by reducing the cost of the special characters by 75 but a large portion of the players still were critical of the overall pay to win nature just prior to the games planned launch in november 2017 disney who owned the rights to star wars contacted ea over the situation leading ea to disable any of the microtransaction processes indefinitely until they could work out a solution list of commercial failures in video gaming list of bestselling video games list of video games considered the best all time worst video games at mobygames seanbabys egms crapstravaganza the 20 worst video games of all time by seanbaby vtelists of works considered the worst automobiles books films music television shows sitcoms video games 