10 Incredible Video Games Released On Terrible Consoles

1. The Apprentice (Philips CD-i)

Don't feel bad if you don't remember the Philips CD-i, because while it was ahead of its time as a multi-purpose multimedia CD player, it launched for a ridiculous $1,000 back in 1991 ($1,839 in 2018 money), had a terrible library of games and was widely panned for its limited graphics, horrible controller and generally lackluster functionality.

Bill Gates famously called it "a terrible game machine, and...a terrible PC", and if all this isn't bad enough, Philips reportedly lost around $1 billion due to the CD-i's failure. Oof.

And while the few decent CD-i games were eventually ported to PC - namely the acclaimed cyberpunk romp Burn Cycle - there's one standout title that sadly wasn't so lucky.

The Apprentice is a stylish and at times unexpectedly brutal 2D platformer casting the player as a wizard's horny apprentice (really), and it's one of the few titles on the CD-i that actually feels like a well rounded, fully realised experience.

It doesn't do anything astoundingly inventive with the genre, but it looks and plays great, and offers up a slightly off-kilter tone that helps distinguish it from the hundreds of squeaky-clean retro 2D platformers out there.

It's incredibly unlikely that The Apprentice will ever be rescued from the doldrums of the CD-i, sadly.