History Horrible / VideoGameGenerationsFirstToFourth

* '''''WesternAnimation/BebesKids''''' is notorious in the SNES fandom for terrible music, bland gameplay, and a confusing haunted house that acts like a maze that's bound to stop most runs dead in their tracks with its tight time limit coupled with unintuitive means to actually progress. It also has a baffling control scheme in which either you learn how to perform your more powerful moves IMMEDIATELY, or die constantly due to Time Overs because doing anything BUT spamming your most powerful moves means you'll be lucky to defeat non-boss enemies in upwards of thirty-plus hits instead of roughly ''three or four''. It's hard to believe this was made by [[Creator/RadicalEntertainment the same studio]] that went on to create ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. Watch WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic[[note]]Who was dared to review it by the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd, who was in-turn dared to review ''Ricky 1'', see Horrible.LiveActionFilmsNToZ[[/note]] tear it apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kbe9uzK2Aw here]], as well as Creator/LordKaT's [[http://www.lordkat.com/until-we-win-bebes-kids.html guide to beating it]].

* '''''WesternAnimation/BebesKids''''' is notorious in the SNES fandom for terrible music, bland gameplay, and a confusing haunted house that acts like a maze that's bound to stop most runs dead in their tracks with its tight time limit coupled with unintuitive means to actually progress. It also has a baffling control scheme in which either you learn how to perform your more powerful moves IMMEDIATELY, or die constantly due to Time Overs because doing anything BUT spamming your most powerful moves means you'll be lucky to defeat non-boss enemies in upwards of thirty-plus hits instead of roughly ''three or four''. It's hard to believe this was made by [[Creator/RadicalEntertainment the same studio]] that went on to create ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. Watch WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic tear it apart [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kbe9uzK2Aw here]], as well as Creator/LordKaT's [[http://www.lordkat.com/until-we-win-bebes-kids.html guide to beating it]].

* '''''Birdiy''''' [sic] by Mama Top was the only arcade machine that they ever produced. A quick play of the game can show you why it flopped in the Japanese arcade market. And by quick play, we mean you’ll have seen everything in the game in less than 5 minutes. It’s a very simple game where you play as a mama bird tasked with fetching worms on the single screen and feeding them to her babies while pecking monster rats off the tree so they don’t eat the babies. This alone is extremely difficult, even early into the game, as the rats are very persistent predators while you are not nimble enough to keep both of them away from the baby for long without risking starving it to death, and it's very easy to miss being able to scare them off while you go for the worms (you need all of them to win a single level), leading to an easy death. The only major differences after a couple of acts are the enemy speed and a skunk that guards the earthworms on the bottom. Predictably enough for a game that’s been converted from ''VideoGame/PacMan'', the monster rats look less like rodents and more like the familiar ghosts with mouths and tails instead of ghost legs, and most of the sound effects are extremely ear-piercing. Again, this was a ''commercially released'' arcade game in 1983, yet it has no more than ''5 minutes'' worth of playable content. ''VideoGame/CrystalCastles'' was released in the same year, had a real ending, and was far more playable than this. Even ''Bird Week'' for the Famicom could be considered an improvement over ''Birdiy'' for the more slower-paced and easier-to-grasp gameplay. [=LordBBH=] tried to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqdv_Z7G63E&t=15110s play this game]] for Episode 83 of his ''MAME Roulette'' series; his frustration at the game's FakeDifficulty is evident, and he could only stomach clearing one level before giving up.

* '''''Castle Assault''''', a budget game for the UsefulNotes/BBCMicro and UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC, is a pathetically simple-minded PlatformGame even by the low standards of its time. The game suffered from bad jumping controls and minimal animation, the obstacles are limited to monsters that jump up and down from pits and platforms that move forward and backward, in a sequence that starts repeating midway through the first single-screen level, which repeats endlessly for anyone who cares to beat it.
* '''''Deathkick''''', a very amateurish BeatEmUp programmed in BASIC and commercially released for the UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC in that system's first year, is infamous among Amstrad users for its total lack of quality. The character graphics and sound effects are on par with a cheap LCD game, the player character doesn't even get a walking animation, the color usage is garish, the backgrounds are a mess of garbage-looking tiles and "@" characters, and the off-key title screen music (there is no in-game music) actually desyncs after a while. Most enemies have to be defeated by pressing one particular attack button at the right moment, using controls that have nothing in common with any other game for the system. On top of this, there is also FakeDifficulty in the form of dragons that respawn in front of you with no delay unless you kill them with your limited-use SpecialAttack, and an automatic GameOver at the end of the first level unless you collect a minimum number of points (a requirement which isn't spelled out anywhere in the game itself or its packaging). Xyphoe plays through it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88cWNwp1YT8 in this video]] with the aid of a self-made {{walkthrough}}, and even he is frequently bedeviled by glitches in the game.

* '''''Heavy Nova''''', a futuristic mecha action game for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis. The single-player campaign is [[BossGame mostly based around boss fights]]; the levels preceding them use the same game engine and controls as the fighting sections, and their brevity is perhaps for the better because they have some of the worst platforming ever committed to a 2D console. All of the onscreen enemies are a fraction the size of your character and are nearly impossible to hit because your moves are designed to strike enemies your own height. This means that you have ''one'' move that can strike anything in the single-player campaign - an awkward kick that requires you to be within pixels of whatever you're trying to strike as they rain BeamSpam down on you from all sides. The game's one-on-one fighting sections are no better - when you jump, all attacks pass through you, meaning you can [[GameBreaker make yourself completely invincible at will]]. This has implications for the multiplayer mode and some of the boss battles, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbUTj6CR15g matches consisting of players spending most of their time jumping]]. Even without this [[DarkWiki/IdiotProgramming stupid oversight]], the different characters you can choose to fight with are ''completely'' imbalanced. Some have so few moves that they have ''unmapped buttons'' (on a '''Genesis controller'''), while others can [[BeamSpam spam distance attacks]] and have full suites of super moves. To top it all off, the game is hideous, with graphics that would've been a disappointment on the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem. The one good thing that can be said about the game is that it has a nice soundtrack (which sounds even better on the [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive]] Sega CD version), but that hardly justifies playing this game. If you want to see more, watch the Continueshow version of the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14d13cIZaq0 here]].

* '''''Heavy Nova''''', a futuristic mecha action game for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis. The single-player campaign is [[BossGame mostly based around boss fights]]; the levels preceding them use the same game engine and controls as the fighting sections, and their brevity is perhaps for the better because they have some of the worst platforming ever committed to a 2D console. All of the onscreen enemies are a fraction the size of your character and are nearly impossible to hit because your moves are designed to strike enemies your own height. This means that you have ''one'' move that can strike anything in the single-player campaign - an awkward kick that requires you to be within pixels of whatever you're trying to strike as they rain BeamSpam down on you from all sides. The game's one-on-one fighting sections are no better - when you jump, all attacks pass through you, meaning you can [[GameBreaker make yourself completely invincible at will]]. This has implications for the multiplayer mode and some of the boss battles, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbUTj6CR15g matches consisting of players spending most of their time jumping]]. Even without this [[ScrappyMechanic stupid oversight]], the different characters you can choose to fight with are ''completely'' imbalanced. Some have so few moves that they have ''unmapped buttons'' (on a '''Genesis controller'''), while others can [[BeamSpam spam distance attacks]] and have full suites of super moves. To top it all off, the game is hideous, with graphics that would've been a disappointment on the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem. The one good thing that can be said about the game is that it has a nice soundtrack (which sounds even better on the [[NoExportForYou Japan-exclusive]] Sega CD version), but that hardly justifies playing this game. If you want to see more, watch the Continueshow version of the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14d13cIZaq0 here]].

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' has spawned many video games, some notable for their [[SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames good]] or [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames poor quality]]. '''''Spider-Man: The Sinister Six''''', an AdventureGame for the PC from small-time software publisher Byron Preiss Multimedia, slipped the notice of fans everywhere for over 20 years, for good reason. Right out of the gate, the game sports terrible graphics in the form of constantly OffModel [[TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects 2D animation against pre-rendered backdrops]] (inexcusable for a licensed PC game published in ''1996'', especially considering what came out the same year and before that). The gameplay does nothing to make up for it: in addition to a branching storyline, the game includes puzzle and action segments which (depending on the difficulty chosen at the start) can be ridiculously easy at best or excessively hard at worst[[labelnote:*]]Early on in the game, choosing the path to follow the police to the city bank leads to a ''VideoGame/{{Picross}}''-esque puzzle (on hard mode) and simply clicking on a wrecking ball to destroy a dumpster containing a device (on easy mode). In a particularly ridiculous example, clicking on the hints to decode a message ("Find ''Smerdyakov'' or your wife dies.") later on gives a name which the player may not easily know how to spell at first, not helped by both the hint voiceover and Peter Parker pronouncing it ''differently''.[[/labelnote]], not helped by fiddly mouse controls. To top it all off, the branching choices don’t actually affect the plot until the game’s climax, and even then the player can easily pick the wrong paths during said climax, resulting in a bad ending--and the ''good'' ending is still insultingly anticlimactic. With nary a single redeeming quality in sight, it's not hard to see why it has spent so long in obscurity before WebVideo/{{Rerez}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB7HfsyoVnY took a look at it, showing no small amount of exasperation the whole time]]. And they weren't the only ones who disliked it, either; WebVideo/MattMcMuscles is completely dumbfounded throughout a LetsPlay of the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPkXa6z2SCs here]], and the Latin American Post calls it [[https://latinamericanpost.com/35936-the-worst-spider-man-video-games "Perhaps the worst Spider-Man game ever created"]] entirely because of its slow, ill-fitting gameplay.

* '''''Race Drivin''''', the sequel to ''VideoGame/HardDrivin'', got a [[PortingDisaster disastrous port of its own]] on the SNES. Take everything written about ''Hard Drivin'' above and imagine trying to do that on a processer that has less than half the clock speed (the SNES had almost no realtime-rendered 3D games compared to the Genesis for a reason, in fact ''Race Drivin'' is a great example of why the Super FX chip needed to be created), what you get is a game that goes from "nearly unplayable" to completely unplayable. It says something that it was completely outclassed by the ''Game Boy'' version of the game (Which was actually ported by Argonaut Software who helped developed the Super FX chip the SNES port so desperately needed. [[https://youtu.be/CKfkZCvdqqY?t=125 See for yourself.]]

* The adventure game ''VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}'' was a huge hit in Japan. It debuted on a microcomputer in 1984, was released on multiple systems there, and eventually landed on the Famicom/NES in 1989. Unfortunately, regardless of whether the game was any good on the earlier systems, it was borderline unplayable '''on the NES''', complete with hints of PortingDisaster. The graphics were bland, and the music was an annoying loop that [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong sounded like]] a dumbed-down ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' theme. The battle mechanics were practically non-existent - they amounted to just running into monsters while holding the "Attack" button. There were no clues anywhere of what to do or where to go. Choosing the Save option only saves the player's most recent password; since the cartridge had no battery, the password is wiped from its memory when the game is turned off. Two separate negative video reviews were posted by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOf70RyERU The Angry Video Game Nerd]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxskwhpbLts ProJared]], while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcc4OeBlCL4 LordKat's video]] offers a more balanced discussion of the game's history, along with a little defense.

* '''''Butt Slam!!!''''' is an MS-DOS adult game from 1989 that has gameplay, audio and graphics so simplistic and barebones that it would be bad even for Atari 2600 standards. The "gameplay" is about two players playing as a gay couple consisting of Greg, a man with a GagPenis; and Fred, a man with a wide anus, taking turns between the two men, all while trying to have sex. The instruction text is filled with [[ValuesDissonance extremely homophobic language]] but the game itself is so barebones that one just has to play two rounds (that rarely ever last more than a minute) to see all that the game has to offer. It's quite telling that this is the [[OneHitWonder only game made by one-man dev Joe Martniez (credited as JoeWare)]]. Ex-[[YouTubePoop YouTube Pooper]] Stuart K. Reilly reviews the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTpHm2OnNs here]] alongside other MS-DOS porn games, who speculates that the game may have been made by a little kid and "makes ''Custer's Revenge'' look like a modern art masterpiece".

* '''''Race Drivin''''', the sequel to ''VideoGame/HardDrivin'', got a [[PortingDisaster disastrous port of its own]] on the SNES. Take everything written about ''Hard Drivin'' above and imagine trying to do that on a processer that has less than half the clock speed (the SNES had almost no realtime-rendered 3D games compared to the Genesis for a reason, in fact ''Race Drivin'' is a great example of why the Super FX chip needed to be created), what you get is a game that goes from "nearly unplayable" to completely unplayable. It says something that it was completely outclassed by the ''Game Boy'' version of the game (Which was actually ported by Argonaut Software who helped developed the Super FX chip the SNES port so desperately needed.]] [[https://youtu.be/CKfkZCvdqqY?t=125 See for yourself.]]

* '''''VideoGame/TattooAssassins''''' is what happened when some people at Creator/DataEast got the mistaken idea that they could compete with ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' with half the budget and one-third of the development time of a typical arcade FightingGame. The result was nearly unplayable, with poor moves, ArtificialStupidity, and an [[DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound annoying parrot]]. The pointlessly hyped story (what with its loose connection to [[Film/BackToTheFuture Bob Gale]]) fell flat. The game was also hyped to feature more {{Finishing Move}}s than any other fighting game, but that was because management threw in every idea they could think of regardless of how bad they were. It never went past the beta phase ''because they couldn't find testers who could bear to play it''. [[http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/tattoo-assassins/ If you really want to, you can find more information about this game on I-Mockery]] or watch WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} riff the arcade mode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_AiLdU5O1c here]] and the Fatalities [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUEXioTdscc here]]. For the record, Data East executive Creator/JoeKaminkow defends the game, noting that [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity people are still talking about it all these years later.]] An insider account of the game's development [[http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=tattoo-assassins&page=detail&id=2841 can be found here.]]

* '''''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''''' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} has slow, plodding gameplay and controls; EverythingTryingToKillYou to a ludicrous extent; a completely ineffective weapon as Jekyll and useful-if-you-could-hit-anything weapons as Hyde; and a gimmick whereby you can lose within seconds of turning into Hyde without a chance to save yourself[[note]]Hyde dies instantly if he appears in the same tile/area/spot that Jekyll appears in before becoming Hyde -- NeverTheSelvesShallMeet. More or less, Hyde gets killed by a TemporalParadox.[[/note]] -- these all make for a game that no person can play without feeling like less of a person thereafter. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd considers it probably the worst game he's ever played that can still be considered a game, and the seriousness of his videos on the matter confirms it. WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries played this game for their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa91vl2sWdM&spfreload=10 Bad NES Extravaganza]]. Creator/{{Egoraptor}} mentioned this game in his ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}'' series on ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', saying that anyone who wants to get into game design should play it as an example of what ''not'' to do.

* '''''Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball''''' is an early UsefulNotes/{{SNES}} title with an interesting concept, but is undermined by subpar AI, slow characters, and god-awful controls. You're more likely to spend time trying to figure out how to shoot rather than actually trying to win. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaWl-VdOtc Dshban manages to do pretty good at it]], though. SCXCR [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq2TgvPtOok did a Five Dollar Gaming]] review of this game, citing inconsistent game speed, an Atari 2600 control scheme on a system using a controller with multiple buttons, using the rules of association football rather than basketball, and other major flaws. It also happens to be WebVideo/SNESDrunk's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj0kRKYRsMc least favorite game on the Super Nintendo]]. It doesn't help that this game [[DolledUpInstallment is just the Amiga game]] ''Future Basketball'' with Bill Laimbeer's name and association on it; while this would explain some things, it's baffling that no attempt was made to reconfigure the controls for the SNES (Amiga joysticks typically had only one "fire" button). [[https://youtu.be/rR0rltF5xWM Here's]] the AVGN's take on it.

* '''''Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball''''' is an early UsefulNotes/{{SNES}} title with an interesting concept, but is undermined by subpar AI, slow characters, and god-awful controls. You're more likely to spend time trying to figure out how to shoot rather than actually trying to win. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjaWl-VdOtc Dshban manages to do pretty good at it]], though. SCXCR [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq2TgvPtOok did a Five Dollar Gaming]] review of this game, citing inconsistent game speed, an Atari 2600 control scheme on a system using a controller with multiple buttons, using the rules of association football rather than basketball, and other major flaws. It also happens to be [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj0kRKYRsMc SNESdrunk's least favorite game on the Super Nintendo]]. It doesn't help that this game [[DolledUpInstallment is just the Amiga game]] ''Future Basketball'' with Bill Laimbeer's name and association on it; while this would explain some things, it's baffling that no attempt was made to reconfigure the controls for the SNES (Amiga joysticks typically had only one "fire" button). [[https://youtu.be/rR0rltF5xWM Here's]] the AVGN's take on it.

* In ''Doom''[='s=] heyday, many UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}} discs were created by low-budget companies to cash in on its popularity. They were invariably huge collections of [=WADs=] downloaded online and put on a disc without considerations of quality or permission from their designers. Their only redeeming quality was that they were helpful to some players who didn't have the resources to check out [=WADs=] online. A few examples:

* '''''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfNinjaNannyAndSherrlochSheltie''''' can be easily described as [[MindScrew an edutainment game]] on drugs that hilariously fails at being educational. The graphics are very crude and look like they're drawn by a bored kid in MS Paint and Powerpoint, the sound design is badly compressed and [[SensoryAbuse loud beyond belief]], the "scenes" happen via annoyingly small pop-up windows with blurry AVI files, the interactivity is similar to early interactive encyclopedias, which poorly fits the type of game, and features voiceover that sounds like it's recorded in one take with a cheap mic. The story makes no sense whatsoever, changing the setting every second, and whatever explanations ''are'' given are through [[WallOfText walls of text]]. Apparently, this is one of two games developed by Silicon Alley, which vanished from existence after making this broken mess. The "game" was presumably made by people who know very little about programming: In fact, there is a separate launcher for ''every single part of the game'', with the first one titled "BEGIN HERE". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxaUHT3yoI LGR]] reviews this, and even he is baffled by its sheer nonsense. Vinny of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} also streamed it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bFYaxEdug here]], and he considered it to be a huge mistake on his end.

* '''''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfNinjaNannyAndSherrlochSheltie''''' can be easily described as [[MindScrew an edutainment game]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs on drugs]] that hilariously fails at being educational. The graphics are very crude and look like they're drawn by a bored kid in MS Paint and Powerpoint, the sound design is badly compressed and [[SensoryAbuse loud beyond belief]], the "scenes" happen via annoyingly small pop-up windows with blurry AVI files, the interactivity is similar to early interactive encyclopedias, which poorly fits the type of game, and features voiceover that sounds like it's recorded in one take with a cheap mic. The story makes no sense whatsoever, changing the setting every second, and whatever explanations ''are'' given are through [[WallOfText walls of text]]. Apparently, this is one of two games developed by Silicon Alley, which vanished from existence after making this broken mess. The "game" was presumably made by people who know very little about programming: In fact, there is a separate launcher for ''every single part of the game'', with the first one titled "BEGIN HERE". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSxaUHT3yoI LGR]] reviews this, and even he is baffled by its sheer nonsense. Vinny of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} also streamed it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bFYaxEdug here]], and he considered it to be a huge mistake on his end.

* '''''Read-A-Rama''''' is an obscure edutainment PC game from no-name developer Selena Studios and distributed by Creator/{{Maxis}} in 1995. One glance could tell you why it fell into obscurity for over 20 years afterward. The game revolves around a genie enlisting your aid to find his lamp that was stolen by a giant, and the ensuing adventure plays out in a board game-like fashion with a few word-based activities each hosted by assorted characters. The problems are as follows: the gameplay is too linear and has the same activities more than once on the board, and even then the full extent of its educational content amounts to basic identifying and unscrambling words and such. Also, the overall setup is unappealing, with many a FlatCharacter present and accounted for given unimaginative names (e.g. "Thunder Drummer" and "Lightning Dude"), not to mention [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs uncomfortably weird]] (a vibe especially apparent in the game's [[UnintentionalUncannyValley atrocious and downright-creepy artwork]]). Worst of all, once you do reach the end of the game board, [[LuckBasedMission there is a random chance]] of being told the door to the giant's castle is locked, [[FakeLongevity which will send you back to the start of the game board and force you to go through everything a second time]]. And if you do manage to enter, but fail the TimedMission within (which consists of clicking on random objects until you find the lamp, and then putting a buggy jigsaw puzzle together), you ''also'' have to start the whole game over. But before you can even experience it for yourself, you'll first have to sit through Selena Studio's ''excessively''-long intro ([[Horrible/{{Other}} see the folder on "Vanity Plates" for further info]]). WebVideo/LazyGameReviews [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4pKbrWITgk covered it here]] and had nothing nice to say about. In fact, he openly suspected a possibility that Maxis might not have actually published it, and Selena could've simply tacked the name onto the box to fool customers...until he was horrified to discover a while after uploading it that [[https://twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/858115746701955074 they did indeed advertise it at least once,]] leading him to jokingly say he was no longer a Maxis fan.

* '''''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''''' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} has slow, plodding gameplay and controls; EverythingTryingToKillYou to a ludicrous extent; a completely ineffective weapon as Jekyll and useful-if-you-could-hit-anything weapons as Hyde; and a gimmick whereby you can lose within seconds of turning into Hyde without a chance to save yourself[[note]]Hyde dies instantly if he appears in the same tile/area/spot that Jekyll appears in before becoming Hyde -- NeverTheSelvesShallMeet. More or less, Hyde gets killed by a TemporalParadox.[[/note]] -- these all make for a game that no person can play without feeling like less of a person thereafter. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd considers it probably the worst game he's ever played that can still be considered a game, and the seriousness of his videos on the matter confirms it. WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries played this game for there [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa91vl2sWdM&spfreload=10 Bad NES Extravaganza]]. Creator/{{Egoraptor}} mentioned this game in his ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}'' series on ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', saying that anyone who wants to get into game design should play it as an example of what ''not'' to do.

* '''''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie''''' received excellent adaptations on the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis]], UsefulNotes/{{SNES}}, and UsefulNotes/GameGear. The '''UsefulNotes/GameBoy version''', on the other hand, is marred by sloppy hit detection, dodgy jumping mechanics, and a few stages that are so punishingly hard as to border on being practically unbeatable. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht5NmRtWb88 reviewed the game]] and was absolutely livid with how godawful it was.

* '''''VideoGame/DarkCastle''''' was a groundbreaking game for UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh computers (being one of the first games to use fully recorded sound effect samples), but it got a pair of [[PortingDisaster terrible ports]] on the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi by Creator/ElectronicArts and Three-Sixty Games - with the CD-i port being the worse of the two despite being on a more powerful console. The lack of mouse or keypad control in these ports make it difficult for your hero to properly aim his projectiles, and the bad controls are worsened by the hero's habit of [[TheKlutz stumbling and falling all over the place]]. It's possible to defeat the final boss [[SequenceBreaking without even exploring some of the rooms in the castle]] [[note]]Really confident players can simply opt to go through the middle doors to tackle the boss' sanctuary.[[/note]], making almost half of the game superfluous. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZmXbtvGG4E You can see how much of a failure the game is in this review by]] WebVideo/UrinatingTree, as well as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4-7mWeY_Cs the Angry Video Game Nerd's review for the Genesis and CD-i versions.]] WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} later commented that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvEuPGFTDnY the Genesis version was the second-worst game he ever played]] (behind only the most movie-based video games released by Phoenix Games), beating out other serious contenders found not just here (including ''Action 52''), but on some other generations' pages as well.

* '''''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''''' (1984) had three game adaptations, which were terrible and part of the reason why Creator/HayaoMiyazaki hates video games so much and never agreed to any other adaptation of his studio's films. They are described in detail in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130912104625/http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nausicaa/nausicaa.htm this 2012 article.]] The two shmups, for PC-6001 and UsefulNotes/{{MSX}}, are actually somewhat competent in that, despite being really repetitive and clunky, they at least tried to include themes and scenes from the movie with the limited technology of the time. '''The adventure game for the PC-88''', however, is completely horrible. The graphics are terrible and copy-pasted, Nausicaa has no animation (the sprite doesn't even flip!), and the bare-bones gameplay consists of picking up some stuff and hoping that deadly skulls don't pop up. All in all, this game could be one of the worst [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames licensed games]] ever. For years, it was believed that this was all there was, with the screenshots on the back of a glider sequence being fake at worst; however, [[https://twitter.com/destroyed4com4t/status/1483847395527987201 this Twitter thread]] shows that the hang-glider sequences actually exist and that the game continues with a good illustration of Nausicaa and a stage set in the Sea of Corruption... but the sheer effort put into hacking the decades-old source code shows how unplayably buggy the game is.

* '''''VideoGame/MetalGear1''''' for the UsefulNotes/{{MSX}} is a classic that started [[VideoGame/MetalGear one of gaming's most treasured series]], and the [[ReformulatedGame NES version]] ([[BTeamSequel which had zero involvement from]] Creator/HideoKojima), [[PortingDisaster less so]], to say the least. But '''the 1990 computer ports''' (made for the MS-DOS and UsefulNotes/Commodore64 and based on the NES version) take the "art" of PortingDisaster to new heights. The graphics are heavily inferior to the already downgraded NES version, the Commodore 64 version has LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading for the codec conversations. The audio is often nigh-nonexistent for the MS-DOS version (save for some noise in the codec speeches), and if you do have audio, it would be some of the worst audio you will ever hear that you wish it was just muted. The Alert phases are gone, enemies no longer react to getting hit, and enemies can now see you even if you are not in their line-of-sight, making the game outright unplayable. [[https://youtu.be/UHyfyVh0Yic?t=2330 Here]] is ex-[[YouTubePoop YouTube Pooper]] Stuart K. Reilly reviewing the Commodore 64 version, while he would later review the even worse MS-DOS version in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fvtS3P8QJ4 this]] video. Interestingly, a similar UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} version was also [[WhatCouldHaveBeen planned to be released the same year]] but it was [[{{Vaporware}} never released]]. An [[FanRemake unofficial Amiga port]] would be made in [[https://h0ffman.itch.io/metalgear-amiga 2021]] that would be [[TruerToTheText based on the original MSX version]] and would be a PolishedPort with upgraded visuals and sound, as well as better performance and controls.

* The adventure game '''''VideoGame/{{Hydlide}}''''' was a huge hit in Japan. It debuted on a microcomputer in 1984, was released on multiple systems there, and eventually landed on the Famicom/NES in 1989. Unfortunately, regardless of whether the game was any good on the earlier systems, it was borderline unplayable '''on the NES''', complete with hints of PortingDisaster. The graphics were bland, and the music was an annoying loop that [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong sounded like]] a dumbed-down ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' theme. The battle mechanics were practically non-existent - they amounted to just running into monsters while holding the "Attack" button. There were no clues anywhere of what to do or where to go. Choosing the Save option only saves the player's most recent password; since the cartridge had no battery, the password is wiped from its memory when the game is turned off. Two separate negative video reviews were posted by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOf70RyERU The Angry Video Game Nerd]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxskwhpbLts ProJared]], while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcc4OeBlCL4 LordKat's video]] offers a more balanced discussion of the game's history, along with a little defense.

* Though '''''VideoGame/DragonsLair''''' received a decent entry (not so much a straight port of the Laserdisc classic as [[ReformulatedGame a completely different game]]) for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, the same cannot be said of the '''NES iteration'''. The movement is unresponsive, with a delay between the button press and Dirk's action (on top of the fact that [[DamnYouMuscleMemory B jumps in this game]]). Dirk is rather large, which makes simple jumps difficult. Though Dirk does have a health bar, almost everything kills him in one hit. There is also an elevator shaft that is intended to make winding through the castle seem like one, but it merely makes the game even harder than it needs to be. Adding to the [[FakeDifficulty already insane artificial difficulty]] are {{Death Trap}}s everywhere, so extra precautions are necessary for the whole game. Add to that an insane final boss fight and [[AWinnerIsYou a meager "Congratulations" ending]], and you have the NES equivalent of a [[RageQuit game rage-fueled nightmare]]. The only positive quality is the fluidity of the graphics. The European version was at least given some additional polish, like increasing the framerate, adding splash screens between levels and introducing a new boss, though this came with the cost of making the game ''even more'' [[DifficultyByRegion unplayably difficult than it was, to begin with]]. It was [[https://retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com/2011/01/dragons-lair-nes-version.html?m=1 reviewed]] by Blog/VGJunk, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00xIvTOLrYA AVGN]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AsWF21VOzQ Aqualung]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYdiMe4eiIM Game Reviews]], the latter of whom also called it the worst NES game of all time.

* '''''Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo''''' is one of the first ''Franchise/DragonBall'' games to be released, and let's just say we have come a long way from there to ''VideoGame/{{Dragon Ball FighterZ}}''. Brought to America under the title of ''Dragon Power'', the game suffers from an unfair dose of NintendoHard, as the player's health bar also doubles as their time limit (meaning the more damage a player takes, the quicker their time goes down). This wouldn't be a problem if enemies didn't shave off chunks of the player's health with each hit. To make matters worse, there are no lives nor saves, so the player would automatically go back to the title screen after they die. Each level begins with a cutscene that is slower than molasses. You can skip them by pressing Select, but [[GuideDangIt good luck finding that out]]. The music is very repetitive and will restart every time the player comes into another room. It's even possible to encounter a GameBreakingBug during the Boss Rabbit level: if the player walks into a room with a carrot, accidentally walks out, and comes back in, the carrot is [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] and the player has to reset. That's not even going into the infamous localization - because ''Dragon Ball'' was virtually unknown at the time in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, rather than just simply not bring it over, they changed the names of the characters, and in some cases like Goku and Master Roshi, altered their sprites. Goku (who oddly enough kept his original name) was changed to look like a generic martial artist, and Roshi (simply called "[[EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep Hermit]]") was changed to look like a wizard. The final half of the game was removed for no explained reason (the original version adapted both the Pilaf and 21st Tenkaichi Budokai Arcs). There were some really awkward edits, like with Master Roshi's perverted behavior. His advances towards Bulma were changed to him wanting her sandwich, but it's very clear that Roshi was talking about something perverted. You can watch Creator/TeamFourStar play it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVsvl6aetg here]], where they actually resort to using cheat codes because the game's difficulty was so crushing, and yet still had to RageQuit due to the aforementioned GameBreakingBug. In addition, NES Works [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4a91F7ouLo covered it alongside the mediocre Ikari Warriors II]], Joueur Du Grenier [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxbJTW74HbY considered it a disgrace to the Dragon Ball franchise]], and WebVideo/SomecallmeJohnny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j-OYpl7PxI was just dumbfounded.]]

* '''''Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo''''' is one of the first ''Franchise/DragonBall'' games to be released, and let's just say we have come a long way from there to ''VideoGame/{{Dragon Ball FighterZ}}''. Brought to America under the title of ''Dragon Power'', the game suffers from an unfair dose of NintendoHard, as the player's health bar also doubles as their time limit (meaning the more damage a player takes, the quicker their time goes down). This wouldn't be a problem if enemies didn't shave off chunks of the player's health with each hit. To make matters worse, there are no lives nor saves, so the player would automatically go back to the title screen after they die. Each level begins with a cutscene that is slower than molasses. You can skip them by pressing Select, but [[GuideDangIt good luck finding that out]]. The music is very repetitive and will restart every time the player comes into another room. It's even possible to encounter a GameBreakingBug during the Boss Rabbit level: if the player walks into a room with a carrot, accidentally walks out, and comes back in, the carrot is [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] and the player has to reset. That's not even going into the infamous localization - because ''Dragon Ball'' was virtually unknown at the time in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, rather than just simply not bring it over, they changed the names of the characters, and in some cases like Goku and Master Roshi, altered their sprites. Goku (who oddly enough kept his original name) was changed to look like a generic martial artist, and Roshi (simply called "[[EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep Hermit]]") was changed to look like a wizard. The final half of the game was removed for no explained reason (the original version adapted both the Pilaf and 21st Tenkaichi Budokai Arcs). There were some really awkward edits, like with Master Roshi's perverted behavior. His advances towards Bulma were changed to him wanting her sandwich, but it's very clear that Roshi was talking about something perverted. You can watch Creator/TeamFourStar play it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVsvl6aetg here]], where they actually resort to using cheat codes because the game's difficulty was so crushing, and yet still had to RageQuit due to the aforementioned GameBreakingBug. In addition, NES Works [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4a91F7ouLo covered it alongside the mediocre Ikari Warriors II]], Joueur Du Grenier [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxbJTW74HbY considered it a disgrace to the Dragon Ball franchise]], and WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j-OYpl7PxI was just dumbfounded.]]

** The UsefulNotes/{{SNES}} version has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading frequent loading screens]] despite being on a 16-bit ''cartridge.'' The graphics are so-so, and the music is terribly bland. Worst of all, this game was made with the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' engine even though it's barely a fighting game, and so the controls are [[SomeDexterityRequired completely counter-intuitive]] [[note]]For instance, using Batman's GrapplingHookPistol requires you to tap Select quickly before pressing Up on the D-Pad, and jumping down between floors entails tapping R just before pressing Down.[[/note]]. ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' reviews it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvtk5toGJg here]], along with other ''Batman'' games both good and bad. WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries also played some of it for their Bad SNES Extravaganza [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F-BlddiSrs marathon]]. If you want to see more of the game, check out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTNuqZKvoFY this playthrough]] by WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny.

* '''''VideoGame/DrJekyllAndMrHyde''''' for the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} has slow, plodding gameplay and controls; EverythingTryingToKillYou to a ludicrous extent; a completely ineffective weapon as Jekyll and useful-if-you-could-hit-anything weapons as Hyde; and a gimmick whereby you can lose within seconds of turning into Hyde without a chance to save yourself[[note]]Hyde dies instantly if he appears in the same tile/area/spot that Jekyll appears in before becoming Hyde -- NeverTheSelvesShallMeet. More or less, Hyde gets killed by a TemporalParadox.[[/note]] -- these all make for a game that no person can play without feeling like less of a person thereafter. WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd considers it probably the worst game he's ever played that can still be considered a game, and the seriousness of his videos on the matter confirms it. WebVideo/BrainScratchCommentaries played this game for their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa91vl2sWdM&spfreload=10 Bad NES Extravaganza]]. Creator/{{Egoraptor}} mentioned this game in his ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}'' series on ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', saying that anyone who wants to get into the game design should play it as an example of what ''not'' to do.

* As the popular conspiracy theory goes, Coleco owned the home console rights to Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s titles and made deliberately inferior ports for non-Coleco consoles to punish them for not being released as Coleco console exclusives while making Coleco console ports as polished as they could get under the limitations of the time. If that theory is to be believed, then even by those low standards Coleco had for porting to rival consoles, '''''VideoGame/DonkeyKong Jr.''''' for the [[UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} Atari VCS]] is horrible beyond belief. Only three stages were ported from the arcade version, the graphics looked bad even by the standards of the VCS (Donkey Kong, in particular, looked more like a chipmunk than a monkey, and the Snapjaws didn't fare any better, resembling staples), the level designs came across as half-assed (even lacking the ability to drop fruits on the Snapjaws in the first stage), and the jumping mechanic was extremely unforgiving. It doesn't even have the saving grace of having an IBM PC version to compare it to, which ''Donkey Kong'' for the VCS at least had. The one thing it's got going for it is its faithful recreation of the music from the original arcade version; however, as Atari HQ [[https://www.atarihq.com/reviews/2600/donkey_kong_jr.html put it]] in its brief review, "you play games to play games, not listen to the music". The review also called it "an arcade port at its very worst" and compared it unfavorably to the VCS version of ''Donkey Kong''. You can also read Website/TheVideogameCritic's review [[https://videogamecritic.com/2600de.htm here]].

* ''Film/TheRocketeer'' received a few video game adaptations, but everyone agrees that '''the SNES version''' is the worst one. Most infamous is the game's opening stage, where the player is tasked with beating two airplane races, but constantly crash into obstacles. The trick to win is focusing on the tiny box in the HUD rather than the main screen, not the other way around. This is followed by generic RailShooter sections, which feature muddy graphics that make it hard to see the enemies, and ShootEmUp stages with poor control, enemies that can attack you from places you can't get them, and the possibility to destroy power-ups. The game concludes with an overly simplistic fight scene and a [[AWinnerIsYou "screen of text" ending]]. Website/ScrewAttack placed the game third on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT3LioXyE2U their list of the worst superhero games]], while WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghAbmH7To-w commented]] that it might be the worst SNES game ever and Website/TheVideoGameCritic gave it [[https://videogamecritic.com/snestt.htm#rev5384 an F- rating]].