14 Video Games You Should Never EVER Play

Not even a little bit. Not even out of curiosity.

legend of Zelda wand of gamelon
Nintendo

When the video game industry was in its infancy in the 1970s, games were riddled with imprecise controls and game-crashing bugs.

Now that technology has come leaps and bounds, you'd assume errors like this are a thing of the past. In days gone by, games were made by a handful of people, whereas now, entire teams of highly skilled creatives spend years making the best games possible. Ironically though, the games of today are littered with just as many bugs -if not more - bugs as they were decades ago.

The majority of bad games suffer the same issues; poor collision detection, uninspired gameplay, generic design, bad graphics, etc. Most games with these problems are forgettable.

But there are some games we can never forget. There are a select few that are so terrible, their memory will be felt through the annals of history.

There are many reasons why a game doesn't turn out well. It might be because the developers lack experience or foresight, overhype, financial troubles, or studio interference. More often than not, understanding why a game turned out so badly is more interesting than the game in question.

How come Duke Nukem Forever turned out so badly despite taking over ten years to make? Why don't the Xenomorphs attack you in Aliens: Colonial Marines? And what the hell happened to Superman 64?

14. Bubsy 3D

legend of Zelda wand of gamelon
Accolade

When the studio, Eidetic, released their 1993 game, Bubsy, the title character was expected to be a rival mascot for Sonic and Mario.

The game was good but not the showstopper that was promised. When Eidetic tried to make the transition to 3D with the PlayStation game, Bubsy 3D, it was a disaster.

The camera in the game shifts every time Bubsy jumps, making it difficult to manoeuvre him. Because the walls of each level look identical (a textureless polygon), it's nearly impossible to tell where to go. The whole time you are trying to play (emphasis on the word "trying"), Bubsy keeps spouting unfunny cat puns.

Although Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a scathing review, the box art for Bubsy 3D paraphrased part of the critique so it sounded like EGM was praising it.

You might think I'm being too harsh. It was a 3D game that came out in 1996. The technology was in its infancy. What did people expect?

Do you know what other 3D games came out that year? Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64. Compared to these classics, Bubsy 3D was a laughing stock.

The reception was so negative, the franchise didn't release a follow-up for 21 years.

Contributor
Contributor

James Egan has written 80 books including 1000 Facts about Superheroes Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about TV Shows Vol. 1-3 Twitter - @jameswzegan85