10 Worst Video Game Ports Ever
There's so many awful ports, the Switch's Mortal Kombat 1 didn't crack the top ten.
Cuphead, Okami, and the Kingdom Hearts franchise were initially exclusives, only available on a single console. But after bringing in the big bucks, gaming companies bent over backwards to ensure these gems featured on their systems.
Although porting is easy money on a theoretical level, it's an absolute nightmare in practice. If a weaker system isn't tailored for a specific title, it's likely the graphics and the performance will be compromised. If a game requires a specific controller, other platforms will struggle to work around in it.
With these concerns in mind, it's imperative the developers take their time, so the port is as close to the original as possible.
Unfortunately, this can be Herculean task if the higher-ups rush the creators, forcing them to cut corners when they should be triple-checking everything.
If you considered purchasing a video game that kept receiving rave reviews, it'd be sensible to doublecheck if it was rated well on your console. No matter how good an RPG, beat 'em up, or open-world adventure title is supposed to be, there might be one port that screwed it up big time.
10. X-Men Vs Street Fighter (PlayStation)
X-Men vs Street Fighter was a real trailblazer, since it's directly responsible for popularising tag-team mechanics in fighting games.
Rather than throwing in the mechanic as a gimmick, Capcom made sure that swapping characters in and out of battle accentuated the gaming experience. Teammates healed when they weren't being used, so players had to be strategic when to tag them in. Your buddy could be tagged in for a second, which was vital for counters. Also, both combatants could be summoned simultaneously to perform a screen-filling special move, obliterating your opponents in seconds.
Although the arcade title transitioned to the Sega Saturn flawlessly, the PlayStation version was an unmitigated disaster. It suffered from poor animation quality, constant slowdown, exhausting loading screens, and a muddled soundtrack.
Worst of all, the tag mechanic was inexplicably removed from the PSOne version, despite the fact it was X-Men Vs. Street Fighter's biggest selling point. You could still select two combatants, but switching them in mid-battle wasn't an option.
Even though the Saturn is branded as a failure, this is one of the few times where it came out on top over Sony.