Making a video game is hard.
Making a good game is even harder.
Sometimes, despite developers' best efforts, a game just doesn't come together.
But that's okay, because glitches and bad voice acting can provide unintentional comedy.
Other times, the goal is making a game as bad as it can be on purpose — and the results
are monumental successes in the realm of utter failure.
Here's a look at some video games that are so bad they're actually pretty good.
WWE 2K
Every year 2K Sports releases another WWE game.
And every year it's terrible.
But the franchise's habit of including game-breaking bugs has actually become the most popular
part of the franchise.
In WWE 2K14, characters can glitch into the stands, where they'll hover above the audience
as their bodies are twisted beyond recognition.
In WWE 2K15, the furniture got tired of being used as weapons and started fighting back.
WWE 2K16 saw John Cena fall victim to an apparent alien abduction, and WWE 2K17 fused former
NXT champion Samoa Joe with the props, creating a rampaging beast who was half man, half garbage
can.
In short?
This is one case where the bug actually is a feature.
Deadly Premonition
If you're looking for something incredibly ambitious that fails to actually deliver on
any of its ambitions, then Deadly Premonition might be the game for you.
Featuring instantly outdated graphics, terrible voice acting, and a storyline that doesn't
even pretend to make sense, Deadly Premonition takes elements of Resident Evil, Shenmue,
Grand Theft Auto, and Twin Peaks, and mixes them together into a weird mess that falls
short of all of its inspirations.
It also features controls, mechanics, and navigation systems that make completing the
game a total chore.
But despite all that — or perhaps because of it — Deadly Premonition has amassed a
cult following of hardcore fans.
At the very least, Deadly Premonition tries to do something new, and in an industry crowded
with sequels and knock-offs, sometimes that's enough.
Galactic Dance-Off
Kinect Star Wars might have been a bust overall, but the game's Galactic Dance-Off mode is
actually a lot of fun — if you don't die of embarassment first.
In Galactic Dance-Off, players control popular Star Wars characters like Lando Calrissian,
Boba Fett, and more while using the motion-sensing Kinect to dance to pop songs.
But these aren't just any pop songs — they're Star Wars-themed covers of pop songs, which
takes the game to a whole new level of awful.
For example, Instead of Jason DeRulo's "Ridin' Solo," players get "I'm Han Solo" instead.
"I'm Han Solo.
I'm Han Solo.
I'm Han Solo, Solo!"
Earth Defense Force 2017
Terrible graphics?
Check.
Even worse voice acting?
Check.
Alien corpses that disappear mere seconds after dying, a razor-thin plot, poor artificial
intelligence, no online multiplayer, and basic features that are completely missing?
Check.
Welcome to EArth Defense Force.
Oh, and this mess also has one other thing: glowing reviews from critics and fans who
love the game because it sucks so bad, saying things like "what is so incredibly endearing
about this game is that it's so technically abhorrent," and "The physics are ludicrous,
yes.
But ludicrous is a good thing."
So if you like blowing things up without having to worry about literally anything else, Earth
Defense Force 2017 might be for you.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Many video games are power fantasies, but few are as specific as 50 Cent: Blood on the
Sand, which allows you to control the famous rapper as he battles terrorists in the Middle
East in order to retrieve a jewel encrusted skull worth $10 million.
50 Cent might be a once-popular Grammy Award-winning musician, but there's only one person in the
world who wants to see the rapper single-handedly win the War on Terror, and that person's name
is 50 Cent.
Still, the game is actually much more playable than it has any right to be, and the insanely
stupid storyline is worth more than a few laughs along the way.
Waiting in Line 3D
The not-so-classic game Waiting in Line 3D involves standing in place in a line that
never goes anywhere.
While there is a scoreboard, you can't score any points.
The only thing you can do is punch yourself in the face to keep yourself awake.
Fall asleep and you lose.
Punch yourself too many times, you die.
And… that's it.
Developer Rajeev Basu says that his goal while making Waiting in Line 3D was to create "a
game that deliberately undermines the very idea of what a game is meant to be,"meaning
that the game can't be "interesting, exciting or fun."
Good news: he succeeded!
I Am Bread
Bad controls usually spell doom for a game, but Bossa Studios has turned them into something
of an art form.
And their ultimate masterpiece is I Am Bread, where players control… a slice of bread
trying to make it across the room to a toaster.
Fall on the floor and your edibility rating degrades, but thanks to the wobbly physics
of a slice of bread, keeping yourself edible is almost impossible and most players destroy
the entire house in the process of trying it.
It all adds up to a frustratingly addictive experience, but though the controls are terrible,
they are consistent, meaning very patient and dedicated players can eventually master
it.
Desert Bus
Most designers don't set out to make a bad game.
But Penn and Teller did.
Desert Bus, part of the duo's planned Smoke and Mirrors video game compilation, is less
of a game and more of a practical joke: all you do is drive a truck from Tucson to Las
Vegas — in real time.
The truck tops out at 45 miles per hour, so it takes about eight hours to get from one
city to the other, and since the truck pulls slightly to the right, you have to keep your
hands on the virtual wheel at all times.
If you manage to get to your destination, you get….
One point.
Then you can turn around and drive back.
Originally developed for the Sega CD, Smoke and Mirrors was canceled due to a lack of
interest in Sega's Genesis add-on.
That should've been the end of Desert Bus.
But in 2007, some gamers played it during a livestream for charity and ended up raising
over $22,000.
The annual Desert Bus for Hope charity drive was born, and has become wildly popular since:
in 2016, the team played for over six and a half days straight, raising nearly $700,000
in the process.
"This is my 32nd hour of staring at this TV with this road ahead of me and it's just mindnumbingly
boring."
Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
According to review aggregator Metacritic, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing isn't just
a bad game — it's actually the worst-reviewed game of all time.
According to Sergey Titov, the man who programmed the engine that Big Rigs runs on, developer
Stellar Stone released the game well before it was finished, and it shows.
Of the five race courses that players can choose from, only four actually work.
Players can select to race as one of four different trucks, but they're all the same.
Opponents never leave the starting line, obstacles don't stop trucks, bridges don't keep trucks
from falling, and there's no limit to how fast you can reverse, meaning that it's possible
to propel your truck over the speed of light.
Just think how handy that would have been in Desert Bus.
Night Trap
Want to feel dirty?
Then check out Night Trap, a game allegedly so perverse that it prompted Congress to hold
hearings and indirectly resulted in the foundations of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.
The twist is, by today's standards, it's incredibly tame.
It features low production values, shaky acting, and a ridiculous premise about helping Diff'rent
Strokes star Dana Plato stop vampires from devouring attendees of a slumber party.
Okay.
"Party!"
"Night trap!
That boy will find you!"
The game has become such a cult classic that a 25th anniversary edition was released in
2017, so modern gamers can experience all the wonderful badness of Night Trap for themselves.
"Haha!"
"Now!"
"Ahhhhh!"
"Yeah!"
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